OUR VISION
Aynah envisions a world in which cooperative tools and opportunities are accessible to all people.
OUR MISSION
By providing students with greater access to experiential and inclusive cooperative education, Aynah will empower generations of students to work collaboratively to transform their communities and build a more just and sustainable world.
WHAT WE DO
Aynah designs and delivers cooperative education to students through on campus trainings and experiential learning trips in the US and abroad. Aynah uses education models that highlight the power of collective organizing to solve social, economic, and environmental challenges.
CORE VALUES
Cooperation
We see that there are many challenges facing the world today. We believe in the power of people coming together in democratic and non-hierarchical ways to create exponentially more capacity to solve those challenges.
Education
Learning is about engaging the head, hands, and heart. We seek to be more inclusive in our educational programming by relying on experiential education practices that are inspired by popular education, place-based education, and other alternative education practices.
Empowerment
Power is the ability to change the future. Our programming gives participants the confidence to control the course of their lives through the showcasing of alternative economic models, development of both soft and hard skills, and leadership training. We empower students to change the world for the better.
Justice
Justice is the foundation of our work. Many of the challenges facing the world are rooted in injustice. We seek to engage with these injustices in all of our programming and strive to make our programs and organizational structure accessible to all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, class, or religion.
Students & Youth
Students are our most important constituent. We seek to empower youth in all facets of what we do, from our programming to our organizational structure. We recognize that not all people get to be students beyond primary or secondary education, so we recognize the value of all young people – both within and outside the educational system.
Cross-Cultural Exchange
One of the best ways to learn about new models for developing your own community is to see what other communities have done to develop themselves. Cooperatives and other community-owned ventures all over the country and the world have exciting lessons to teach. We seek to engage communities in cross-cultural exchange in order to best learn the lessons of cooperation.
Aynah 