Skip to main content

Skip to main navigation

Text size: A A A
Advanced search
Share |

Common Thread Cooperative (Social Enterprise Profile)

Filed as: Stories and Profiles

Common Thread Cooperative

Vancouver – Employment Social Enterprise

 

Stories:

  • "Throughout the past year enp has continued to offer concrete and unstinting support to Common Thread Cooperative. Several examples include ..."
  • "David LePage's introduction of the co-op to Brad Mills [from Mills Basics] resulted in a large contract to produce notebook covers from the City of Vancouver's Olympic banners.
  • We met Susan Braverman [of the Flag Shop] at an enp event and went on to develop a powerful partnership: Common Thread's industrial equipment is now housed at the Flag Shop where our production network works regularly." (Melanie Conn)
  • "It was amazing to see how the skills and confidence of Kettle members involved in sewing tote bags increased with direction and mentorship. Their enthusiasm and pride was contagious and showed how people recovering from a mental illness can play a productive role in society." (Jenette MacArthur, The Kettle Friendship Society).

The social enterprise:

Common Thread is a cooperative of Canadian organizations that have sewing programs and enterprises. The cooperative provides brokering and production coordination for their members and other producers. The coop's members are social enterprises - businesses that have a primary social purpose, such as creating employment for a specific group such as newcomers to Canada or Aboriginal communities. Common Thread members include the following organizations, all of which have at some time also received funding directly from enp (either for their sewing ventures or for other social enterprise planning projects):

  • The Kettle Friendship Society provides a variety of flexible work settings for its members who are recovering from mental illness. http://www.thekettle.ca/
  • Coast Mental Health started Sewing With Heart in 2003 as a way to provide work opportunities and skill development for people recovering from mental illness.
    http://coastmentalhealth.com/sewing.html
  • Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) operates a 12-week sewing program exclusively for women that teaches cutting and tailoring.
    http://www.pics.bc.ca/site/programs/employment_programs.html
  • E.M.B.E.R.S. (Eastside Movement for Business & Economic Renewal Society) is based in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside where it provides programs and services that increase the sustainability of small business in the community. http://www.embersvancouver.com

enp history:

Common Thread Cooperative received $2500 in the spring of 2010 to help them with a market research project conducted in partnership with students from Simon Fraser University.

  • "Enp provided a financial contribution that enabled us to provide guidance to a group of SFU students who were developing a survey tool for us to learn more about the grocery store sector as a potential market for our tote bags. ... Thanks for everything enp!" (Melanie Conn) 

 

Click here for photos and a pdf version of this social enterprise story/snapshot.

 

Social Enterprise Stories, Snapshots and Videos

Enterprising Non-Profits is putting together a collection of videos and stories/snapshots featuring different social enterprises from around BC.  Above is the story/snapshot on the Common Thread Coop.  To see stories/snapshots on other social enterprises in BC, click here.  (And to see our collection of social enterprise videos, click here).  

 enp Funding Partners