Coordination Committee
The Coordinating committee meets 1-2 times a year in face-to-face meetings and works online for the rest of the time. Members who are not part of the Coordination Committee can participate and comment without voting rights.
The Coordination Committee consists of the representatives of the main working Circles (Ecosystems, Foundations, Movement building, Policy) which are the basis for the activities outlined in the Activity Plan of the Network approved by the General Assembly. Every working Circle proposes a coordinator who is a candidate at the Coordination Committee. Thus, the Coordination Committee consists of at least 3 members derived from the functional circles (communication, finance, knowledge) and 4 members representatives of the main working Circles.
The Coordination bureau consists of the Coordinators of the Network, the representatives of the functional circles according to the Statute of the Association (communication, finance) and the General Delegate with executive functions without voting rights.
Coordination Committee Members
Dražen Šimleša
Works as a senior research associate at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in Zagreb. The fields of work are social and solidarity economy, sustainability, permaculture and civic education. He has published eight books and several scientific papers. The last book is Public Policies for Social and Solidarity Economy – Manual for Cities (2021).
He is active in the association Green Network of Activist Groups (ZMAG) as the Coordinator of the Center of knowledge program and as the manager of the Cooperative for a Good Economy. He is the General Co-Coordinator of the Solidarity Economy Network – RIPESS Europe.
Ruby Van Der WEKKEN
Ruby van der Wekken considers herself a member of the Global Justice Movement and is a producing member of Oma Maa Food cooperative in Finland and works as a team member for RIPESS Europe. Ruby has been a founding and driving member of community currency Helsinki Timebank, active at large around the promotion and furthering of solidarity economy building & the commons and has worked previously for the Siemenpuu foundation, an environmental foundation with partners in the global south working in the context of Finnish development cooperation.
Ruby van der Wekken – expert in commons and solidarity economy, agroecological practices, community currencies and lead of the Knowledge Commons expert circle – coordinator of socioeco.org.
Josette Combes
A sociolinguist by training, she has led several programs to create early childhood centers and promote educational success in intercultural settings. An associate lecturer at the University of Toulouse 2, she has taught project methodology. Consultant to public institutions for the development of solidarity economy projects and trainer in intercultural communication. She represents the Movement for the Solidarity Economy (MES) and the Interuniversity Network for the Social and Solidarity Economy (RIUESS).
Georgia Bekridaki
A Social and Solidarity Economy practitioner and a PhD candidate researching SSE and social movements in the Department of Sociology at the University of Crete. She is a founding member of Dock, the SSE support cooperative in Athens (https://dock-sse.org/), which has been a member of Ripess Europe since 2015. Since 2012, she has worked in cooperative development, training, advocacy, and European networking. Her experience includes social consultancy, promotion activities and networking. She holds a Master’s in the Social Psychology of Conflicts and a BA in Sociology. She is currently co-responsible of Ripess Europe SSE Strategy Paper.
Maria Francesca De Tullio
is a post doc researcher in Constitutional Law (Federico II University of Naples). She works on participatory democracy, EU economic governance, commons, and digital rights. She is active in co-research processes with Italian and European commons movements, also in their legal negotiations with administrations.
She is part of the RIES – Rete Italiana Economia Solidale and she’s activist of l’Asilo (www.exasilofilangieri.it), Attac Italy, as well as in Italian and European commons and municipalist movements.
Berenice Dondeyne
Represents MES Occitanie. She is currently Director of NOVETAT, Institute of Development Research in Social and Solidarity Economy in Midi-Pyrénées (founded by social and solidarity enterprises and academics and consultants in the areas of Local Development, Social and Solidarity Economy and planning). Since 2011 Berenice is the president of ADEPES – Agency for Development and Promotion of Solidarity Economy in Midi-Pyrénées (4 employees, a network of 760 actors and social and solidarity enterprises). Professional and activist, she has experience in implementing local development policies and in advancing solidarity economy, especially within organizations registered in the field of vocational training and social inclusion.
Monika Onyszkiewicz
Monika Onyszkiewicz is an educator, trainer, and activist from Poland specializing in food sovereignty and ecofeminism. With over 20 years of experience, she has co-created the Foundation for Sustainable Development, supported CSA movements through URGENCI, and contributed to the European FoodShift2030 project, working to drive sustainable food system transformation.
She is the treasurer of APES – APES Hauts-de-France, a RIPESS Europe member.
She has developed projects in rural areas for many years and have created and led several associations, a cooperative, and a training center. I studied sociology, socio-cultural facilitation, and territorial development, and trained in communication, personal development, and Theatre of the Oppressed.
Today, she supports actors in the social and solidarity economy from the local to the European level, focusing on coaching, training, and collective projects.
Zsófi Perényi
Represents URGENCI
