By Kenzie Love
Ablaze Services began in 2019 in New Westminster, BC, the brainchild of two women who’d initially come together through the Feminist Campaign School, an organization designed to support candidates for municipal office. The founders subsequently began to take on more project-based work, and with the addition of a third member to their team in 2024, began to look at their structure and decided to incorporate as a worker co-op.
“We felt that the structure of a worker co-op was more aligned with how the three of us wanted to work together and build our business community together,” says Ablaze’s Mary Trentadue. “We wanted to work in a place and with people that we felt really values aligned, and we were working for the common good, and trying to build community. The co-op model felt like that was going to be a way where we could bring our strengths and our weaknesses together, and help and support each other in the work that we wanted to do. And also to take that kind of thinking out to our clients as well.”
The Co-op’s philosophy is captured in its name, which reflects its emphasis on creating change in the organizations with which it works, coming in and approaching things in a very different way. Indeed, Trentadue has found the opportunities with Ablaze in this respect the most rewarding aspect of her work within it.
“I think the rewarding thing has been being able to kind of work outside of the box, and not be limited in the rules of corporate governance or corporate partnerships,” she says. “It feels to us like there’s more flexibility to do the things that make sense to us in working together, rather than being bound by corporate rules or restrictions.”
Freed from such restrictions, Ablaze is able instead to take a values-driven approach to its work and help its clients uncover their own values as well through the strategic planning, leadership coaching, and workshops it offers. Trentadue says this has been a learning experience for the Co-op’s members, but one they’re glad they’ve embarked on.
“The thing that I’ve learned is that you can create something different,” she says. “You don’t have to do things the same old way, and if you try to open your mind to working differently, you will find that way to work differently. And I think the Co-op has really allowed us to sort of build that strength among each other, and to be able to trust that this structure works for us.”
Along those lines, Trentadue says the Co-op hopes to continue growing and developing over the coming years by adding to its membership and by sharing the value of its model with others.
“We are also excited about sharing this model that we’ve chosen to work under with others, so that we can help other people understand how this model works, and why we chose it, and how we think it can benefit others that are looking at building a community or building a business,” she says.