WELCOME!

Membership of the EMPOWERus forum is free!

NOTE: To see the full range of options including free support for social enterprises, volunteer exchange, c2c (co-operation between cooperatives, community organisations and charities), projects, videos and photos, and to be able to post your adverts & general notices, join groups, access support and much more you need to be signed in.

What do we mean by

 Mutual-Self-Help?

Download a pdf document:

Mutual-self-help

PLEASE JOIN IN-

Your thoughts are important to others. This forum relies upon mutual-self-help.

NOT SURE WHERE TO POST YOUR COMMENTS?

Please go straight to 'adverts & gen notices' >>> and post your contribution there.

(You will need to sign in first).

 A moderator will copy it to any other appropriate sections of the forum.

DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT TO SHARE?

Please go to "projects" via the main menu and choose either "U.K.", "U.S.A." or "International" (other options will be added) as appropriate, and add the information. A moderator will create a new page that you will be able to edit.

DO YOU WANT TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES?

To promote your products or services to other Co-ops, charities or community organisations, use the C2C option on the menu bar.

To promote your products or services in general, use the Products & Services option.

To advertise to the general public or post notices, use the adverts & general notices option.

GETTING INVOLVED IN GROUPS:

We have setup a few groups that we felt might interest some of our Members/visitors. Most of these are created with just the one (founder) member. The idea is that you join these and encourage others to do the same in order to get useful exchanges underway. However if you have additional ideas for new groups then please feel free to create them. Organisations can create 'groups' for their own members or supporters. You can choose whether that area of the forum is open for public viewing or only available for your members. This forum is for mutual-self-help purposes.

ADDING YOUR WEBSITE OR OTHER DETAILS (including photos, videos etc) FOR YOUR ORGANISATION.

You should see 'My Page' as an option on the menu bar (above).

Go to your (or your organisation's) 'My Page' and click to enter a blog or a discussion. When the box opens for you to start typing you will also see icons which enable you to insert web links, photos, videos, etc.

In case of difficulty please email forum@empower.coop

You can also add your website link direct into either the Co-op Websites or Community Websites pages (as applicable). The hope is that eventually this area will develop into a portal for most of the interesting and useful co-operative or community websites throughout the world! So, feel free to add descriptive text as well as the link to your website.

This is an interactive dynamic website!

Rather than passively reading what editors have chosen to provide to you, go ahead and add your own content to share with others.

Enter your news, comments, blogs, events, into the "Latest Activity" box.

Did you know that you also have your own "My Page" and that you can redesign it to your own taste?

GLOBAL NEWS HUB.

You can also add news about your Co-operative to the Co-operative News Global News Hub...

Add your Co-operative News.

There is a  version of EMPOWERus available for users of mobile devices.

You will find this at:

www.empowerus.co/m

Users of iphone can add a shortcut to the mobile site by using Safari to navigate to www.empowerus.co/m then tapping the arrow symbol (as if to make a bookmark), then choose add to homescreen, name the link as EMPOWERus and tap "Add".

Users of other mobile devices should refer to their user manuals.

The above creates a display optimised for mobile devices but you can still obtain a full page view by choice from the menu at the foot of the page.

Community Empowerment Ltd is a democratic charitable society for the benefit of the community.

Membership costs just £5 per year.

Building a sustainable community of members is very important to us.

Please join today.

Further information is available at:

Membership Page.

The Community Empowerment Group are organising pilot New Enterprise Clubs with the co-operation of Job Centre Plus and Portsmouth City Council.

The clubs operate on a mutual self help basis with participants sharing ideas and supporting each other. The clubs also benefit from visiting 'experts' from HMRC, the Library Service, Co-operative Education Solutions, etc.

In addition to the pilot Enterprise Clubs mentioned above, We currently offer social enterprise support at our Registered Office and training centre in Southsea and at our Regional centres: Portsmouth - South East Region, Bournemouth - South West Region, and London - London Region. We would also like to hear from other local authorities and agencies that would be interested in developing Enterprise Clubs or similar projects with us.

The Enterprise Sustainability Club is a 'virtual' club supported by The Community Empowerment Group.

Membership is free to organisations that are being supported by Co-operative Admin Solutions CIC.

The aim is reduce the number of enterprises that fail during the first few years of trading. This fits our charitable aims of creating and sustaining employment.

Co-operative Admin Solutions CIC offers club members a range of cost effective back office support services, whilst Co-operative Service Solutions CIC can offer incubation. The collective support from The Community Empowerment Group can include the secondment of volunteers and personnel during the important period where the enterprise is moving towards creating new employment.

These solutions are less risk and less costly than taking on staffing commitments before you are certain that you can sustain them.

When you are ready, we can help you with an Apprentice.

This free project is for young people who are prepared to take action towards creating better futures for themselves and others.

With a focus on using social media (EMPOWER) and the power of mutual-self-help, we support participants towards the creation of new enterprises that meet social needs as well as create employment.