WELLINGTON – April 24, 2015 – The Youth Services Co-operative has just received a much-appreciated donation of $1,778.12 from The Co-operators to help with its development and to ensure that its young members can get real experience in co-op training and administration, in addition to providing various odd jobs to the community.

Angèle Arsenault, president of the Conseil de développement coopératif, was overjoyed to hear about the surprise donation. “We were looking for ways to bring the co-op back to its roots this year – to once again start providing our youth with solid training on the importance and the operation of the co-op movement to ensure that we will have future co-operators to continue the movement. And then this beautiful donation just falls in our lap, meaning we will be able to do exactly what we were dreaming of doing.”

In addition, she adds, the co-op will now have operational funding to manage the co-op for at least a couple of years.

TWO BRANCHES

The Youth Services Co-op will have branches in the Evangeline and Charlottetown regions this summer, under the supervision of RDÉE Prince Edward Island and the Conseil de développement coopératif. The project coordinators, who will soon be hired, will first recruit young participants and then will ensure they receive co-op training, possibly in collaboration with a Quebec organization that manages a network of young worker co-ops.

So where does this donation come from? Mike Bradley from Mike Bradley Insurance Services Ltd., an Island agent with The Co-operators, explains that advisors, associates and partners of the firm in Atlantic Canada always organize a silent auction at their annual convention. The donations are then donated to charitable organizations chosen by the Atlantic Field Advisory Committee. This year, the committee decided to divide the record total of $14,000 between deserving co-ops in all four Atlantic Canadian provinces. The PEI portion was divided into two halves, with the second half going to the Island Media Arts Co-operative.

Arsenault however notes that Bradley is the one who took the initiative of submitting the Youth Services Co-op’s candidacy to the committee members and who made them understand the importance of this project. She therefore sincerely thanked Bradley for his efforts on behalf of the partners and of the youth who will benefit from the contribution’s spinoffs.

-30-

 

CUTLINE: From left, Mike Bradley, Island agent with The Co-operators, presents a large $1,778.12 cheque to Patrick Bernard, a 2014 member of the Youth Services Co-op; Stéphane Blanchard, RDÉE PEI’s youth development officer who supervises the operations of the youth co-op, and Angèle Arsenault, president of the Conseil de développement coopératif, which oversees the youth co-op.

 

For more information:

Stéphane Blanchard
Youth development officer
RDÉE Prince Edward Island
(902) 370-7333, Ext. 402
stephane@rdeeipe.org

Mike Bradley
Insurance agent
Mike Bradley Insurance Services Ltd./The Co-operators
(902) 436-9291
mike_bradley@cooperators.ca