Tell Co-op how you would bring your local community together - chance to win a £300 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

Making a difference within our local community is something most of us would like do or are already a part of. To coincide with their push for more Member Pioneers Co-op would like to find out what you would do to bring your community together and how the Co-op might help.

Sarah MacKenzie from Co-op says: “At the Co-op, local communities are so important to us. In fact we're currently looking for Co-op Member Pioneers to help bring people together and make a real difference where they live. Member Pioneers are a network of individual members on the ground to make good things happen in communities across the UK. They do this by connecting and mobilising members, colleagues and local causes locally to do what matters most to them - arranging local meetings and events, encouraging volunteering and co-operation in their local community.

If anyone is interested in applying to be a Member Pioneer themselves, they can find out more here. We're always looking for ideas about events and initiatives the Co-op or our Member Pioneers could help with or organise and we'd love to hear what MNers think.”

So if you could do something to help bring your community together, and make it a better place to live and work, what would it be? Would you organise a big event? Set up a weekly coffee morning? Are you a keen fundraiser or a fan of a street party?

Whether you are already involved with your local community or just have some good ideas for things you’d like to do, share your thoughts below and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Standard insight T&Cs apply

i would create lots of local events, fetes, bazaars, fundraising activities. I would make it all inclusive, lots for y9ugn and old to do and enjoy.

I would have said that we had a good community spirit where we are, but I must be wrong because the supermarket, post office, and fruiterers (and all the other shops) have now closed, and have been replaced by flats. Perhaps we needed more of a community feel to use the local shops, but that's all too late now.

We live quite rurally so when school is closed many children are getting bored and usually playing on the road. It would be great to have crafts, games and sport activities easy available for everyone.

I would have fun walks, coffee mornings, and get-togethers.

The most successful community get-together we had was elderly people on their own reading stories at our playgroup - it was amazing fun

Our community has experienced really bad flooding recently and alot of homes and businesses have been destroyed. Our local community all pulled together and helped clean the homes. Local shops gave out coffee and tea and sandwiches to keep the volunteers going. It's the little things that make a big difference and bring pride to a community

It would be nice to make our local shops look nicer and feel a safer place to go so maybe a community clean up and decorate to look attractive and put up safety lights and more open access paths rather than little lanes

I think getting behind a specific cause is a brilliant idea to bring your local community together - everyone feels invested in raising money or awareness, and doing so is inevitably a social activity!

People need ways to get to know each other informally. A weekly drop-in for coffee/tea/juice and biscuits/cake seems to help

A street party would be great to bring the whole community together.

I think the heart of any community is in their children. Getting the children to do things that enhance the neighbours relationship is of primary importance: getting them to do plays, concerts or even murals. Making the neighbourhood present in the area they live.
Sports at a local level to help people to acquire the sense of unity is also another great way. The sense of pride and achievement together.

A street party
They are great fun

Unfortunately we live in an area where the majority of people are really busy but tidy and respectful, and the few households that aren't are responsible for a lot of problems in the locale. We could garden, these families would pull it up, we could litter pick, they'd think it was a service provided for them. We could paint, they'd treat it like a fresh graffiti canvas. So I suppose what I'd love to do is find them alternative accommodation or a better attitiude then we could make a start on what we could find the time to do as a community.

Food always brings people together, before winter comes and the Whitewalkers dispose of us all a communal end of summer BBQ in my area would work wonders so neighbours could actually get to know each other!

The field at the end of our road would make a wonderful wildlife garden for everyone. Brambles, raspberries, the wildflowers that have vanished from local roadsides. A pond and trees and room for growing food on the flatter ground at the bottom.

I'd have a monthly picnic. In nice weather it would be in the local playing fields. Everyone should bring a dish or drinks and we would enjoy each others company. In poor weather we would us the village hall. A friend hosted a pavlova party which would be another option where everyone brings a cake and we do afternoon tea.

I tried so hard to make improvements in the very poor area in which I live. But there is a lot of fatalism and deprivation and little pride . The local council made a lot of promises that if I could get so many people interested I could get a gardening protect grant to improve the local environment but although they talk a good talk there was nothing in the end . I lobbied my local Mps who were only interested while the election campaign was running then didn't want to know after that . While many local people were interested in supporting me to get change there is a great apathy about actually taking personal action.
As for the coop who are they? Certainly not the coop shop as they laughed at me when I ask for their support to get local projects done. And they certainly don't promote community spirit the outsides of their shop is all littered and disgusting. I do not use our local coop as they are rude and dam right un helpful.It is also very expensive in an area of great deprivation how is that caring about the community ?And i know from experience they do not give to local charities or-the food bank. We used to have coop banks near us but they have all gone. The company might like to sell them self as community and ethic focused but they are really are just profit focused and couldn't care less about local people or communities unless they want to prove me wrong?

Whenever anyone retired from work, we would suddenly hear of skills and aptitudes that had never been exposed - all too late. I would like neighbours to meet and tell others of their skills and experiences and maybe offer to help each other in their area of expertise. The first step to communication is often the hardest but every journey starts with a first step.

Our local sports field could do with some better facilities, I think that fundraising events for that cause would also do wonders for community spirit.

We live in a village and we have regular get togethers... All events are posted in the village shop plus there is a monthly booklet that lists all events or suggestions for future events.

I live in an area where there are many faiths, however a local church has had a massive impact on the area, bringing people together by holding open days for Eid, Easter and all bank holidays. They advertise and then bring out their huge barbecues, and cook food for many diets and preferences, others bring food. There are toys for the children, and outdoor furniture for people and neighbours to get to know one another. It has been a huge success, and barriers have been lowered and neighbours have become friends. We love to attend.

i would like everyone to take some time out of their busy lives and visit local elderly people for a cuppa and chat once a week

Somethng similar to the Macmillan coffee mornings would be good. Getting all ages involved and held at the weekend so people across the community could go.

A street party.

I would use our local co-op food store to start a shopping delivery service via volunteers for the local elderly people.
Our co-op is the only supermarket around unless you drive or can get on the bus and I know a lot of elderly people use it daily. I think it would be nice to be able to sign up (maybe via telephone so that if they are sick or unable) to have basic food deliveries such as bread, milk and fruit.

Maybe get some schools involved with the deliveries? I'm sure it would be nice for housebound people to get to see a friendly face and also not worry about food being in the house.

I know there is online shopping from bigger places like Tesco but a lot of older people have no idea how to even go about that.

there is so much grafiti on our local streets. i would use the money to buy art supplies to donate to our very underfunded local community centre, I would set up some local spaces that the kids can use specificaly for painting and artistic expression and encourage them to take more respeect for the local neighbourhood.