Community is alive and thriving

One of the biggest surprises I've come across in recent months is the massive growth in local community activity.  We hear so very little about it on mainstream headlines that I've come to see it as almost a secret. 

For starters, I’ve found that I need to revisit my idea of the ‘Co-op’ as limited to my local supermarket and perhaps the idea that I could keep my money in the Co-op Bank and arrange a funeral or holiday through the Co-op. Little did I know that the co-operative movement is growing worldwide.

In the UK the number of co-operative groups is growing fast: Whether it’s a football club, your local co-op pub or group of dairy farmers, co-operatives are successful businesses. There are nearly 7,000 independent co-operatives across the UK with 17.5m members.Together they have more than 200,000 employees.  The point of co-operatives is that the customers and workers are the stakeholders.

In many communities when the local pub or shop is threatened with closure it is taken over and run very successfully by the local community.  
Then there are all those voluntary groups, reading groups, the U3A, community allotments, men's sheds and the rest.
A friend who wanted to volunteer to help the homeless at Christmas was told that they had enough volunteers! 
The Transition Town movement which is based on living co-operatively and without excessive material consumption is a growing fast.  There are something like 1,500 transition towns worldwide in some 30 countries.
So, in the face of global war, conflict and misery, we need to shout loud and clear that Britain is coming together at a grass roots level. Random acts of kindness are spreading and co-operation is taking over from competition.