When the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association (ACCA) launched its news program in April 2012, the organization had the dream of eventually seeing a cross-Canada online news network where other co-operatives and co-operative associations could share their news.
The dream came one step closer to reality last week when the British Columbia Co-operative Association (BCCA) signed on with Axiom News, the same media agency ACCA uses to share its stories and successes.
BCCA will be publishing news stories on its website once a week.
“ACCA has found the stories provided by Axiom News are really helping to strengthen and connect the Alberta co-op community, and we’re really excited to see another provincial co-operative association start to use the same service,” says Sarah Arthurs, ACCA’s stakeholder relations officer.
“Because we’ve been so thrilled with what we have received from Axiom News, we really hope that other co-ops will consider using (the company’s) generative approach to journalism for supporting the development of their co-ops.”
BCCA’s mandate is to build and strengthen B.C.’s co-operative economy. BCCA’s mission is to make co-ops the preferred business model for people, whether they’re grocery shopping or trying to start their own business.
Through its news program, BCCA’s goal is to publish news articles highlighting successes and profiling leaders in the co-operative movement. Key themes the news program is to focus on include social issues, community issues, social finance, social enterprise and community economic development.
Carol Murray, BCCA’s director of co-op development, says she hopes the news program will support its drive to bring attention to the great work co-ops are doing and share that information with a broad spectrum of people.
“The co-op sector is very much about connection and co-operation among co-operatives, so (we want to do) anything we can to foster that and create awareness,” Carol says, adding Axiom News’ work with ACCA inspired BCCA to start its own news program.
BCCA was impressed with the way the news stories helped the Alberta association connect with its members to share success stories, she says.
Axiom News journalist Camille Jensen has written many of ACCA’s stories since the news program’s launch. Through her reporting, Camille says she has seen first-hand the benefits co-ops garner by sharing their stories.
“Alberta’s co-op sector is doing incredible work from creating local capital funds for rural development to partnering to host community events. The news is not only a catalyst for this conversation but a reflection and reminder of the co-operative difference,” says Camille.
“I’ve just started interviews for BCCA’s news program and I sense a similar values connect. I’m excited to learn how B.C. co-ops members are creating solutions for people and the planet, from affordable housing to car co-ops.”
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A version of this article was originally written for the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association (ACCA) news service. This repost, for which we received permission, follows the style guidelines of the original post. To learn more about generative newsroom options for your organization or community, please contact peter(at)axiomnews.ca.
