Coop Café: Fostering Entrepreneurial Potential
The Coop Café project aims to provide youth aged 14 to 17 with a cooperative experience by involving them in the management of a café throughout the school year.
What Is a Coop Café?
A coop café is a student café located in a high school and run by a cooperative of 15 students aged 14 to 17 and supervised by a YMCA staff member.
The café is governed by a board of directors made up of student cooperative members, ensuring the café is run democratically and decisions are made collectively, by and for the students.
The coop’s members are thus responsible, among others, for running and promoting the café, managing orders and work schedules, and doing the accounting. This experience promotes the development of cooperative skills, personal growth, entrepreneurship, and employability.
A Friendly and Safe Environment
At coop cafés, students can buy snacks, do their homework, chat, and play board games in a friendly environment that is run by people just like them.
Local organizations also host workshops at the café, promote their activities, and provide resources, contributing to improving students’ living conditions and perpetuating the values of community living.
Safe and open to all, a coop café is an inspiring and dynamic space where students can gather to develop key skills that help them fulfill their potential and promote their academic success.
Where Can You Find a Coop Café?
This project is carried out in collaboration with the Centre de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île (CSSPI).
Coop cafés have been set up at the Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry high school in the Saint-Léonard Borough and at the Anjou high school.
