Supporting tech-for-good start-ups
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We’re working with The Federation, in Manchester, to provide free co-working desk space to start-ups that use technology to encourage innovation, support communities to co-operate, or boost people’s health, wellbeing or skills.
Thanks to funding from Luminate, part of the Omidyar Group, we’ve brought together some of the most exciting emerging social enterprises in north west England. In addition to desk space, we also offer free meeting rooms and access to a peer support network to help teams reach their sustainability, social impact and digital aims.
Please note, all applications for desk space and support are now closed.
The Federation is Co-op’s community space in Manchester that brings together social enterprises and innovators who care about the world we share. Read about its values or check out its ongoing events series.
Subscribe to our blog for updates on the start-ups we support and our wider work at The Federation.
You can read how we’re also building the capacity of communities through digital through funding for the Charity Digital Code.
current partners
Access Hospitality
Provides adults with disabilities the opportunity to gain meaningful, long-term employment, primarily within the hospitality sector, through a platform that breaks down tasks with iconography.
Amity Community Action
Supports communities to co-create solutions to issues affecting them and enables more people to have a say in local decisions through digital democracy
Bassajamba
Provides science, tech, health and inclusion activities for disadvantaged communities and works with communities to co-produce new solutions and resources.
Bounceback Food
Fights food poverty by teaching people how to cook and donating to foodbanks.
Children’s University Trust
Encourages and celebrates children’s participation in learning beyond the classroom. Its online Passport to Learning platform tracks involvement in activities such as after-school clubs, culture, and employer-led outreach programmes.
Belong – The Cohesion and Integration Network
A national professional network of individuals and organisations that champion integration and cohesion locally, nationally and internationally, especially via a digital platform.
Digital Advantage
Provides industry-led training and work experience to young people in Greater Manchester to support their progress into digital work. Has a dedicated programme for special educational needs and disability schools.
Digital Life Skills Company
Helps children and young people aged eight to 18 become smart and responsible users of digital technology.
Diverse and Equal Ltd
Empowers organisational change through workshops and events to increase the diversity within the tech sector in Manchester
Ethics Kit
Developing a collection of best practice methods and tools that support design teams to make considered, ethical decisions when developing a tech product or service.
Foodinate
Foodinate matches restaurants with a food-giving charity in their area. For every Foodinate item sold in the restaurant, a meal is provided for a local person in need.
Freshrb CIC
A video production social enterprise that offers creative video production solutions to raise health themes, while running video production workshops with young people and individuals with life-limiting or long-term conditions.
Happen CIC
Tackles inequality and detoxifies public and political spaces through coaching, facilitation and digital tools
Hive Learning Network
Runs digital making activities for 13 to 18-year-olds to boost their confidence employability. Focuses on young people in disadvantaged communities to give them improved access to Manchester’s tech sector.
Innovating Education
Creates positive interventions such as events, courses and workshops to inspire women and girls of all ages into tech.
Invisible Manchester
Works with people who have been affected by homelessness and trains them to become walking tour guides.
MIC Media
Provides training to charities on how podcasts can be used as a tool to amplify their voices and raise their profile
Noisy Cricket
Builds people-powered movements to achieve social impact by bringing businesses, charities and the public sector together with impacted people to develop and deliver innovative solutions for equality.
On the Out CIC
Provides support for people transitioning out of the criminal justice system
Open Data Manchester
Provides skills and awareness sessions to individuals and organisations around their use (and reuse) of data.
People’s Powerhouse
Uses an events series and online engagement to connect local people to power and help create inclusive growth across the North.
PIE – Pursuing Individual Excellence
Supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their communication and digital skills through coaching sessions and workshops.
Politics Project CIC
Politics Project supports young people to engage and learn about democracy. This is achieved through technology, such as their ‘Digital Surgeries’ with local MPs and their online ‘Democracy Hubs’
Reply
Uses co-design principles and research techniques to help community organisations make the right digital solutions to human problems.
Social Sense Community
Delivers skills programmes to young people underpinned by data insights.
WeAreASSIF
A digital community of peer-to-peer support for those worried or suffering from mental health illnesses
Your Dsposal
Developing a waste management system using data to improve the efficiency of waste disposal and its environmental impact.
Contact us
Email foundation@coop.co.uk if you have a question or comment for us. Our emails are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
If you have a media enquiry, please email foundation.media@coop.co.uk.
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