The Military Coworking Network (MCN)

The MCN is a not-for-profit tri-service initiative set up to enable military spouses and partners to create independent, professional lives alongside military life. The MCN recognises the challenges they face and seeks to address these via its online community and coworking hub network.

The outcomes of our 2020 research, which surveyed over 2,200 military spouses and partners, identified three core themes, which underpin everything we do: 1. How to Create a Future alongside military life – business and career 2. How to Improve Wellbeing – everything that impacts how you feel, from family matters to financial concerns and life planning, as well as physical and emotional health 3. Overcoming loneliness and isolation by having opportunities to Meet & Connect with new people.

Specifically, we aim to make their lives easier by: • Providing places to work and study via our coworking hubs • Connecting them with like-minded people via social and professional events • Signposting them to organisations that can help with all aspects of their life but also providing meaningful insights to help them navigate their way and make informed choices – so much better than Google! • Offering learning and development opportunities – free, funded, or discounted – to support their upskilling and advance their careers • Sharing inspirational stories to drive positive change in their lives.

OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

Membership of our online community is FREE to all military spouses and partners of serving personnel, veterans, and reservists. And it is free for life* because we recognise that the impact of being a military spouse continues well beyond their partners’ service careers. Our online community is founded on the principles of mutual support, respect, and trust.

In fact, we take the ‘musketeer approach’ of “All for one, one for all.” There is a lot of expertise within the military spouse community, and we actively encourage our members to share their knowledge and experiences for the greater good of all.

Benefits of online membership include: • Full access to our exclusive Members Area • Member discounts on training and events • FREE business listing in our online Business Directory • Latest updates from the network, including our monthly newsletter.

OUR MEMBERS AREA

Our new members area, which launched in January 2022, provides an excellent resource library for military spouses and partners.

Members can search across the three core themes – Create a Future, Improve Wellbeing, and Meet & Connect – as well as sub-themes such as Business and Career, Family Matters, Life Planning, Healthy You, and physical and virtual events. They can also search against resource type, allowing members to identify resources in line with their individual learning preferences.

Resource types include blogs, top tips, case studies, videos, events, and learning and development opportunities. We work hard to always negotiate the best deals for our members. Here are a few examples of topics we have covered:

• Careers that work well alongside military life – insights and top tips, e.g. how to set up your own virtual assistant business, get a job with the Civil

Service, or step into tech. • Learning and development opportunities, such as

Beyond 2030’s Visionary Women Programme, which offers a 50% discount for all MCN members. • Blogs, such as our two-part feature on the menopause, which looks clinically at the menopause, examines the research that sits behind public opinion, and discusses what you can do about the menopause. • Tips on setting up your own business, including funded opportunities and insights into programmes that can help you on your way. • In-depth information on organisations that can help with mental health and wellbeing issues, including how they work, who’s eligible, and what to expect, allowing members to explore in confidence before taking the first step.

And the great thing is, it is a resource that will keep on growing and growing.

OUR COWORKING HUBS

Our coworking hubs are solely for the use of military spouses and partners of serving personnel, although we do accept adult children over the age of 18; however, this is restricted to private study, such as exam preparation or writing a dissertation.

Our hubs address a very specific need by providing our members a place to work or study, recognising that many do not have adequate facilities to do so from home, or find working remotely too isolating, which impacts their mental wellbeing. Being able to ‘go to work’ gives them back a sense of self, provides much-needed separation from work and homelife, and creates a community of like-minded people, which is important in a transient military life.

We currently have coworking hubs at Akrotiri, Blandford, Bovington, Bulford, Chivenor, Clyde, Leuchars, Sandhurst and Valley. We are limited to how many hubs we can open at the moment as we are still at the proof-of-concept stage but, if successful, we aim to open many more across the UK and abroad.

Membership of our coworking hubs is subject to a membership fee, which starts at as little as £20 per year. We offer three levels of membership – Gold, Silver, and Bronze – catering to the different coworking needs of our members. The most expensive membership comes in at just £120 per year. When you consider the average cost of a coworking space is £200+ a month, our coworking hubs really do provide excellent value for money. We are fortunate that the hub facilities, including Wi-Fi, have been provided to us free of charge by the MOD, so our membership fees simply cover the cost of things like printer ink, paper, tea, and coffee. Any remaining funds are reinvested back into our coworking hubs to improve the member experience and support the growth of our hub network.

To find out more, visit our website at www.militarycoworking.uk. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Armed Forces Covenant Trust Fund for funding our work, and the three service Families Federations and the Royal Air Forces Association for their support throughout.

*Subject to continued eligibility

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