young people
The Co-operative is inspiring young people to make life good for everyone.
At the Co-operative, we are committed to supporting the positive contribution that children and young people can make to their local communities. That’s why this year we’re involving more than 100,000 of them with our community programmes.
These include 
The Co-operative StreetGames Young Volunteers - a unique sports coaching programme for young people from disadvantaged communities. These young volunteers gain valuable experience, skills and confidence, while providing a vital service to their community. Through our work with the British Youth Film Academy, we're also enabling more than 3,000 young people to gain the skills they need to get a foot in the door of the film industry.
We work with schools to offer a suite of programmes that enable children to reduce their carbon footprint and lead healthier lifestyles. Find out more about going to school the green way!
We’re active in schools in other ways too. For example, The Co-operative Insurance provides sports kits and coaching to junior football teams as part of our grassroots sports programme. We’re also one of the founding partners of Young Co-operatives (link opens in new window), which sees young people between the ages of 13 and 18 helped to set up and run their own co-operative business selling fairly traded products.
And our work doesn't end there; through our new Truth about Youth grants scheme, we're helping to support other organisations around the UK who are focused on enabling young people to make a positive contribution.
In February 2010, we joined the Votes at 16 Coalition and campaign for the voting age to be lowered to help boost democratic and parliamentary renewal in the UK and energise young people to better engage in society.