The development of cooperative members has always been a priority at Cresol, a credit union system that has more than 871.000 members and has agencies in 19 Brazilian states.

Strongly linked to agribusiness and entrepreneurship, Cresol promotes a series of initiatives to support the development of members, their families and their businesses.

Within this context, one of the most important and challenging themes is the inclusion of new generations in cooperativism and the training of new leaders, as well as family succession.

That’s why Cresol develops “projects and initiatives that seek to raise awareness and train youth, awakening protagonism so that they feel motivated towards family succession, always having Cresol as a trusted Cooperative Financial Institution”, says Helem Baldissera, Relationship Analyst at Cresol.

Connecting generations

In this scenario, the main initiative takes place through the Connected Youth project, which has already accumulated four editions. The project was designed as an alternative to engaging young people in the cooperative and began during the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020.

Connected Youth is aimed at young people from urban and rural areas, aged between 18 and 25 years, who are members of the cooperative or children of members or who have a close relationship with Cresol, who are in the process of family succession of the family’s production unit or linked to entrepreneurial initiatives.

In it, young people from all over Brazil who are members or children of members participate in an online learning journey for 14 weeks. The Connected Youth project aims to foster Cresol’s relationship with young people, instigating personal and professional development through three axes:

• Cooperative Education
• Financial education
• Professional education

The Sustainable Development Goals are covered by the project through the ideathon, a marathon of ideas, based on SDGs 3, 4 and 12 (health and well-being; quality education; and responsible consumption and production, respectively). In the activity, young people choose a problem based on their vision of the local reality; create a proposal to solve the problem and present a possible solution.

“By bringing these themes, we explore several cross-cutting issues, making young people reflect and insert the shared teachings into their daily lives, their moments of life and challenges,” explains Helem.

To date, more than 1,200 young people from 14 states have gone through the Youth Connected program, 56% of whom are women. The cooperative, in turn, assesses that the program is a success and that the results obtained are extremely satisfactory.

“Through the project, young people get to know our work and the cooperative way of being, which identifies with many of their desires and, thus, become new members of the cooperative. This strengthens the family’s connection with the cooperative”, reports Helem Baldissera.

Connected Youth is not the only Cresol project to attract young people. The cooperative is also responsible for the Cooperative Youth initiative, which is carried out in partnership with high schools (city, rural, agricultural schools) working with young people of school age.

Young cooperatives

The cooperative sees the journey that young people build during Juventude Conectada as a way of strengthening the continuity and future of the cooperatives of the Cresol System.

This point of view also takes into account the cooperative experience of young people and their families in other development projects for members and their enterprises, promoted by Cresol.

Furthermore, young people’s involvement with the cooperative increased. Now, young people are more present on boards of directors and fiscal councils, as well as becoming Cresol Ambassadors – a project that seeks to connect cooperative members to communities.

“In a qualitative way, for both young people and their families, we were able to assess that the initiatives promote knowledge and arouse interest in putting the topics covered into practice, through behavioral changes”, concludes Helem Baldissera.