By Christine Roger
The Centretown Laundry Co-operative has expanded its services to include a commercial towel service and landed $25,000 to hire a co-ordinator for the community project.
The Community Foundation of Ottawa gave the co-op $5,000 while the Community Economic Development Technical Assistance program at Carleton University contributed $20,000.
Located in the Bronson Centre, the laundry co-op, a community project of First United and McLeod-Stewarton United churches and the Centretown Community Health Centre, offers an affordable place for low-income people to do their laundry.
The towel project gives some members an opportunity to learn new skills and earn an income.
Co-op member Sean Donovan, 44, is one of the three members who earns money from washing, drying and folding towels. The project provides “a better way of establishing confidence and self-dignity,” says Donovan.
“We like to support innovative approaches to issues like homelessness and isolation,” says Barbara McInnes, president of the Community Foundation of Ottawa.
The community economic development project is about “working with members to build on their own personal strengths,” says co-op co-ordinator Eliisa Bruder. She says the co-op helps people “take ownership of their lives.”
“I think we all benefit when people in our community are learning new skills and having job opportunities,” says Somerset Ward Coun. Elisabeth Arnold.
The co-op bought towels that it supplies on contract to two gyms, Santé Maximum in Hull and Studio Elite in Ottawa.
Neither makes a profit on the towels they rent to their members. It’s a service both provide to the community.
The rental fee for large towels is $1.25 and 75 cents for small towels. The co-op uses 40 per cent of the income the contracts generate to pay for towel-related expenses. The members who wash, dry and fold the towels receive 60 per cent.
The goal of the project is to be self-sustaining, says Bruder, 23. And the co-op is one step closer to achieving its goal.
More contracts, such as the gym contracts, will give more members an opportunity to earn money and to gain autonomy.
With the money the towel service will generate in the coming years, the co-op plans to open more co-ops in Ottawa, says Bruder.
Since the co-op opened its doors two years ago, it has been providing a valuable service to an expanding membership. Members who use the co-op come from as far as Aylmer. Anyone can become a member by paying an annual $1 fee. The cost for washing or drying is 50 cents a load.
“We have many members who take a bus in from Sandy Hill or drive in from Aylmer because we’re affordable. We also have a large number of students that use the co-op,” says Bruder.
The co-op is having an open house to which the public is invited on Nov. 19 to celebrate its second anniversary.