Good Practice
Coworking «La Ciba»
A shared workspace and economic initiative incubation service located within La CIBA, a public resource centre for women, innovation, and feminist economics. Its mission is to boost the economic empowerment and autonomy of women in the municipality and surrounding areas by improving their professional competencies and fostering their leadership in economic and/or business initiatives.
POLICY OBJECTIVE
- To enhance the personal autonomy of the city’s women and develop real and effective equality.
- To combat gender inequalities, including male violence, by creating genuine employment opportunities.
- To provide tools for establishing the green economy, fostering a space for sharing, innovating, and creating a site of empowerment and social transformation.
- To improve the professional competencies and employability of women in a context of real and effective equality.
- To attract women-led projects and contribute to eliminating the gender gap by promoting female talent and leadership.
CONTEXT
La CIBA opened in 2020 as a comprehensive and holistic resource centre for women, innovation, and feminist economics, quickly becoming a reference on the topic. Initially, it focused on resources for women’s personal autonomy across the life cycle.
The Coworking space is part of the second phase, expanding the centre’s 8,000 m² focus to include boosting economic empowerment and autonomy, and recognising the importance of business leadership in achieving real equality. The project directly addresses the local strategic plan for economic promotion, which aims to encourage entrepreneurial vocations and promote the social and solidarity economy.
POLICY DESCRIPTION
The Coworking space was created within La CIBA as a shared workspace whose mission is to drive the economic empowerment and autonomy of women from the municipality and surrounding areas by improving their professional skills and through the leadership of economic and/or business initiatives. This economic initiative incubation service is positioned between municipal gender equality policies (La CIBA) and economic promotion policies (Grameimpuls), making the cross-cutting nature of these two services a new, more innovative and synergistic public co-management model.
The Coworking accommodates all individuals or legal entities with a business, entrepreneurial project, or other initiatives that promote employment and add value to the municipality. Unlike other workspaces, the Coworking incorporates a feminist and equitable approach, making it highly important that prospective entrepreneurial projects have a gender perspective and align with the values promoted by La CIBA. La CIBA strives to ensure the Coworking is an inclusive, safe, and accessible physical space for all individuals.
Taking into account the care burdens that women typically bear, other support services are offered, such as the Menuda Ciba service, a free childcare service, workshops, talks, and training on topics such as female leadership, feminist economics, care, prevention of male violence, and networks for entrepreneurial women.
KEY ASPECTS
- Transversal Governance: An innovative co-management model between Equality (La CIBA) and Economic Promotion (Grameimpuls) that embeds gender equality into local economic development.
- Care-Supportive Infrastructure: Provides the free «Menuda Ciba» care service to directly address and alleviate care responsibilities that impede women’s professional development.
- Feminist Selection Criterion: Emphasis is placed on projects demonstrating a gender perspective to ensure alignment with the Coworking’s core mission and values.
- Community Building: Fosters a supportive environment to combat the isolation of professionals and build a collaborative network among members.
- Focus on Key Sectors: Intensive work is carried out in priority local sectors, including health, food/catering, and creative industries.
RESULTS
The Coworking space is set to become:
- A reference point in feminist economics and a leader in the gender-focused entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- A node for hosting and providing technical assistance for women’s economic projects and projects focused on gender equality or social innovation.
- An effective means to facilitate the creation, start-up, consolidation, and growth of new women-led businesses, favouring job creation and diversifying the local economyconomy.
