We are MIDDLETON CO-OPERATING.
We're committed to Middleton and the people who live and work and study here.
We aim to bring people together across our town to improve the affordability and the quality of the things that have the biggest impact on our lives - for example, housing, energy, child care, social care, food, transport.
We believe that by working together - co-operating - we can achieve positive lasting change for Middleton. It will take hard work, time, and patience. But together we can build a stronger local community that has a sense of ownership and responsibility for what happens in our town, and how things are done - supporting each other to improve all our lives.
MIDDLETON COOPERATING has been developed so far by a number of people who live and work locally, but membership is open to everybody. If you support our principles and our vision, we'd love you to join in our work in whatever way suits you.
The current management committee consists of:
Mark Fraser - a Middleton resident who volunteers at the Lighthouse Project, having taken early retirement after working in adult care for Bolton Council.
Kallum Nolan - a Middleton resident, formerly a councillor representing Middleton on Rochdale Council, and the landlord of the Crown Inn on Rochdale Road.
Phill Worthington - Community Investment Manager at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, keen to explore how asset-based approaches can be used to build community wealth and local economic growth.
Kerry Tottingham - until recently responsible for co-ordinating the voluntary/community sector across Middleton and Rochdale. Kerry runs her own social enterprise and is passionate about co-creating communities with charities, social enterprises and local people alongside public sector partners and businesses.
Donna Williams - a Middleton resident who volunteers at the Lighthouse Project. Donna is a carer and a former councillor representing Middleton on Rochdale Council.
Kerry Edwards - a Middleton resident, and the manager of Burnside Community Centre in Middleton.
They are supported by 4 "expert advisers":
Nicola Hine - Corporate Policy Adviser for Rochdale Council, who helps connect Middleton Co-operating with the local Council's staff who can help us progress our work.
Marianne Sensier - an economist at Manchester Business School. Marianne is currently researching regional economic resilience, strategic public procurement and community wealth building.
Cliff Mills - a lawyer at Anthony Collins Solicitors who specialises in co-operative law. Cliff is committed to the promotion of co-operative principles and co-operating for the common good.
Mark Bramah - the Climate Change and Sustainability Manager at Rochdale Council.
We're very grateful to Lankelly Chase who are keen to support our work, and who have recently given us funding that's enabling us to advertise our first paid role of "Development Lead" - closing date for expressions of interest is February 17th 2023.
On our journey so far we've had brilliant support from people across the North West and the UK, who've been happy to share their time and resources and expertise with us, including:
- Equal Care
- Greater Manchester Law Centre
- Unlimited Potential
- Co-operative and Mutual Solutions (CMS)
- Greater Manchester Tenants Union (GMTU)
- Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES)
- Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisations (GMCVO)
- People Support Co-op
- Community Broadband Network (CBN)
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)
- Co-ops UK
- Indycube
- Stitched Up
- Greater Manchester Mutual Bank
- Ex-Cell
