Services
Project incubation
Bloc4BCN – Cooperative Hub provides social and solidarity economy organisations and cooperatives with an environment of work, relations and creation for them to receive the necessary support and training from experts to bolster and grow their projects.
Event, meeting and co-working spaces
We offer the entire SSE the possibility of using individual and collective workspaces.
Training
We respond to different needs of the organisations and people that form the Social and Solidarity Economy. Training programs have different intensities and durations with in-person, virtual or hybrid formats to encourage the participation of local, national and international entities.
All training sessions and workshops are aimed at improving the skills of cooperativists in different aspects of business administration: economic, corporate, labour and occupational, and in the design of business strategies for consolidation. In addition, there are also training programmes intended for the general dissemination of cooperative movement and its practices and values.
Support for cooperatives
Are you interested in creating a collective project based on the cooperative formula and looking for intensive and personalised advice that suits your needs? Bloc4BCN offers you support with the creation, business consolidation and growth and strengthening of your project.
Hand in hand with experts specialised in cooperative projects, the initiative will be able to advance and strengthen its position in all the necessary areas to become a social and solidarity economy project with social impact! We will assist you to incorporate feminist, intersectional and anti-racist perspectives, and provide you with tools to work on eco-social transition.
The programme is also addressed to the entities that are already established and want to convert into a cooperative as the legal form, and at those companies that are in the process of closing down or relieving partners.
Creation
If you want to create a project based on the cooperative formula this programme is for you. We offer support in defining your business, structuring viability and managing different formal actions and procedures. We also design roadmaps for the transformation of associations and companies into cooperatives.
Growth and consolidation
Support for already created cooperatives that need to strengthen some aspects of management and operation that allow the long term viability and sustainability of the project.
Directed to the projects in consolidation stage or to consolidated projects that have the will to start a process of leap in scale or open new lines of business. The main goal is to offer organisations a specific, intensive and precise support linked to a certain objective. In this period of time there will be several lines of action, starting with support in designing a work plan in relation to the proposed goal, analysing the organisation and context, and executing the work plan.
Networking and intercooperation
At some point in the evolution of a cooperative, its members arrive in a position to intercooperate to be able to respond to the challenges that they faced individually on a daily basis. Being able to join forces and resources allows cooperatives to have more strength and be able to respond to social challenges in a cooperative and innovative way.
Through successful experiences in leading and providing support to intercooperation projects, we believe that this core cooperative value should be the engine and the objective of cooperatives.
That’s why, we provide support and advice to cooperatives to carry on projects and services that arise from intercooperation. We also make it easier for the cooperatives that can potentially collaborate to get in touch with each other for networking.
Cooperative hand-over
Cooperatives have proven to be a business form with a high capacity for resilience in times of crisis, regardless of their sector of activity. The possibility of giving continuity to the business through this formula guarantees the continuity of the local commercial fabric.
We offer necessary actions and support to facilitate the process of handing over your business to a cooperative project that guarantees its continuity.
Access to finance
Solving the financial needs of business projects is key to their success. Through analysis and personalised advice, we offer alternatives within the Social and Solidarity Economy to facilitate access to finance for the organisations and cooperatives that want to create, expand or bolster their project.
We put the analysed projects in contact with cooperative and ethical finance entities so that they can offer an appropriate product or service for the financial or investment needs of the project.
There will be periodic funding rounds organised and addressed to cooperatives and other organisations, and sessions for exchanging knowledge in collaboration with FEBEA and Social Economy Europe.
There will also be training sessions related to financing SSE projects and temporary exhibitions to raise awareness, disseminate and promote the cooperative and ethical finance system.
Challenges of Cooperativism
We provide the SSE community with a space for building solutions collaboratively. By means of a particular and systematised methodology for analysing different challenges that we keep facing as a society, with an impact on both the city and the country, we will try to find out how cooperative movement can provide solutions to solve such needs through its expertise and experience.
JovESS
Are you between 16 and 30 years old and interested in cooperativism? With JovESS (Youth and SSE), Bloc4BCN offers young people a meeting point for creating synergies both with our professionals and with other young attendees. If you want a space to share your academic and life concerns and needs, this is your space!
Internationalisation
We connect Catalan cooperatives with the rest of the world in order to expand their activity in other countries through international contacts, by participating in fairs, submitting tenders or applying for grants.
We also aspire to be a centre of attraction for international cooperatives that want to open a branch in Catalonia. We offer necessary guidance and tools to help creating a local network and setting up business.
SSE Diagnosis
By means of research, diagnosis and collaboration with knowledge centres and key players, we want to become the benchmark for productive and reproductive socio-economic transition in Barcelona.
In many neighbourhoods, community economies and cooperativism coexist very closely, offering sustainable and collaborative solutions. Bloc4BCN wishes to be the information and training point for these initiatives, helping them to formalise their economic activity and create solid alliances. In addition, as part of the Urban Communalities programme of the Government of Catalonia, we focus on job creation within the framework of SSE and cooperative movement. Join Bloc4BCN and be part of this socio-economic transformation!
Local intercooperation
If you are a member of a cooperative and want to be part of a large intercooperation group with the aim of opening new lines of economic activity, business or networking between projects that enable greater dimension and socio-economic impact, this service may interest you.
TechBloc4. Digitalisation and technologies
TechBloc4 is a support programme for digital technology-based cooperatives and entrepreneurs, which combines training, personalised mentoring, incorporation to the incubation space, where they can connect with other innovative initiatives, and access to digital and technological resources to apply disruptive technologies.
The programme also offers specialised digital advice for cooperative organisations and companies to detect shared needs and articulate an individual or collective response to the challenges posed.
L’Obrador de Bloc4Bcn
L’Obrador del Bloc4BCN és un espai professional d’elaboració alimentària per a projectes amb valor afegit, impacte social i ambiental. Compta amb maquinària especialitzada, flexibilitat d’ús, suport tècnic i itineraris d’acompanyament i consolidació.
Un obrador compartit on les idees es transformen en producte, la cooperació és un ingredient clau i cada projecte té espai per créixer.