Episode Summary

“There is a real disconnect between community coworking spaces and the people who will fund these kinds of needs.”

There’s a gap. On one side, people are arriving in Europe with skills, education, and drive. On the other side, coworking spaces are built on community, collaboration, and openness. In the middle, a wall of bureaucracy, funding applications, and municipal departments that nobody knows how to navigate.

Jeannine van der Linden has run a coworking space in Oosterhout, Netherlands, since 2010. She knows exactly what it feels like to walk into her local municipality with a good idea and watch officials stare blankly because nobody knows what to do with her.

That disconnect — between community coworking spaces and the institutions holding funds for community projects — is costing everyone. Migrants can’t access spaces. Spaces can’t access funding. Economic potential sits idle whilst paperwork piles up.

Enter RES-MOVE: 11 partners across 10 countries, funded by the European Commission’s AMIF (asylum, migrants, and integration fund), with one mission — turn coworking spaces into real integration hubs. Not charity. Not handouts. What Jeannine calls “a strategic economic necessity.”

This conversation strips away the polish. Jeannine talks openly about writing grant proposals that bombed because coworking operators think like entrepreneurs (will this turn a profit?) whilst municipalities think like impact assessors (what will this do for our community?).

She explains why the Ukrainian diaspora became the initial focus, and how it evolved as the reality of long-term migration set in. She reveals that NGO partners already possess the municipal contacts that coworking spaces have been seeking for years.

The friction is real. The timeline is slow (EU projects move from first contact to active work over several years). But the pathway is clear: coworking spaces need to stop reinventing the funding wheel and start partnering with organisations that already know how to open those doors.

If you’ve ever felt stuck between having the capacity to serve your community and no clue how to fund it adequately, this episode hands you the map. Jeannine’s not selling inspiration. She’s offering infrastructure.

This is for: Independent coworking operators who know their space could serve their community better, but don’t know how to access funding. Community builders are frustrated by dead-end grant applications. Anyone who’s ever been told “somebody will send you an email” by their local council, only to receive nothing.

You’ll leave with: Practical knowledge about EU funding structures, why NGO partnerships matter, how to reframe your pitch from profit to impact, and exactly where the RES-MOVE project needs help right now.

Timeline Highlights

[00:04] “There’s a gap” — Bernie frames the core problem: skilled migrants, community-ready coworking spaces, and a bureaucratic wall nobody knows how to climb

[01:55] Jeannine calls in from Oosterhout, Netherlands — halfway between Amsterdam and Brussels, running a coworking space since 2010

[02:17] RES-MOVE explained: Resources On the Move — migrants as economic resources to Europe, funded by AMIF

[03:24] “Coworking spaces can act as integration hubs” — the central thesis driving 11 partners across 10 countries

[04:31] The EU timeline reality check — from first contact to funding approval to actually starting work takes years

[06:41] The corporate/community divide exposed — some spaces don’t even call themselves coworking spaces or know they’re part of the movement

[08:37] What a coworking space actually gets from RES-MOVE — events, projects, connections to develop their capacity, not just cash handouts

[09:53] “Strategic economic necessity, not a handout” — Jeannine reframes the entire conversation about migrant support

[12:17] The funding disconnect revealed — coworking spaces can’t even find the right person at the municipality; NGO partners already have those contacts

[13:46] The presentation that failed — when coworking spaces pitch profit whilst municipalities only care about community impact

[20:43] “Sometimes this happens in the middle of a project” — ideas evolve, maps get redesigned, new funding opportunities emerge

[25:01] The Call for Ideas is still open — if you’ve got a project that increases inclusion for migrants in your coworking space, fill out the form

[27:24] Marko Orel’s November seminar announced — focusing on Ukrainian diaspora, long-term integration, and what actually works

[31:07] Marko introduced properly — Head of Centre for Workplace Research at the University of Prague, Department of Entrepreneurship, Academic Director of the extended realities research lab

[32:22] Helga Moreno — works at SpaceBring coworking software, Ukrainian Coworking Association leader, “a big cheese”

The Bureaucratic Wall Between Good Ideas and Funding

Here’s what actually happens when you walk into your local council with a coworking project that could genuinely help your community: absolutely nothing.

Jeannine describes the experience with the specificity that only comes from living it.

* You prepare a presentation.

* You explain your project.

* You centre it around what entrepreneurs care about — costs, profit, sustainability.

* The officials nod politely. Someone says, “somebody will send you an email.”

* Nobody ever does. You’re unsure who to follow up with. The project dies.

The problem isn’t your idea. The problem is you’re speaking a different language. As Jeannine puts it, municipalities “literally never had that thought” about whether something would cover its costs and turn a profit.

What they want to know is: what’s the impact on our community? How does this affect the municipality?

This gap has kept coworking spaces away from significant funding for years. Not because the money doesn’t exist — there are substantial funds at the municipal, regional, and EU levels specifically for community projects.

But because nobody taught coworking operators how to frame their work in impact terms, and nobody taught municipal funding officers what coworking spaces actually are.

The Netherlands has made progress — all grants are now consolidated on a single website.

But as Jeannine points out, even when it’s well organised, you as a solo coworking operator probably don’t have time to read that website, decode the requirements, and craft a proposal that speaks their language. That’s not a personal failing. That’s a structural gap that needs bridging.

Why NGOs Already Have the Access You’ve Been Hunting For

One of the quietly revolutionary aspects of RES-MOVE is who’s actually in the room. Out of 11 partner organisations, there are two academic partners, the European Coworking Assembly, and eight NGOs that work with migrants on a regular basis.

They’re not coworking people. They’re migration specialists. And they already know exactly who to call at the municipality.

Jeannine describes walking into the first meeting in Athens and saying, “I have a coworking space, but I don’t, to my knowledge, have any migrants.”

That’s when it became clear: there’s a serious disconnect between community coworking spaces and the people who will fund these kinds of needs.

Then comes the surprise. There are two partners in the Netherlands on this project: Jeannine’s space and an NGO called NetworkPro that works primarily with women.

NetworkPro already knew people in Oosterhout. Jeannine’s town. Officials she’d been trying to reach. They just... knew them.

This is the unlock. NGOs have spent time building relationships with the exact funding bodies that coworking spaces need to access.

They understand the application processes, impact measurement frameworks, and the specific language required for proposal approval. They’ve already navigated the maze.

The RES-MOVE model isn’t asking coworking spaces to become funding experts overnight. It’s creating partnerships where NGOs bring municipal access and migration expertise, whilst coworking spaces bring physical infrastructure and community integration capacity. Each partner contributes what they actually know how to do.

For independent coworking operators reading this: you don’t need to learn everything about EU funding structures tomorrow.

You need to find the local NGO that’s already doing community work and start a conversation about collaboration. They’re looking for physical spaces and community networks. You have both.

Migrants as Economic Resources, Not Problems to Solve

The entire framing of RES-MOVE hinges on a single, crucial reposition. As Jeannine explains: “The inflexion point of this project is that the migrants entering Europe are resources to Europe that are not, for various reasons, getting brought to their full development when they get to Europe.”

This isn’t soft language or charitable thinking. This is an economic reality. Jeannine emphasises that, particularly with Ukrainians, “they are, in general, highly educated people.

Ukraine was a tech centre, an ag centre.” These aren’t people who need basic skills training. They’re individuals who require access to networks, workspace, and the social infrastructure that facilitates integration into a new economy.

She’s clear about the gap between public messaging and reality: “There’s a lot of public messaging, much of which is misinformation about refugees and who they are. Refugees are not dirty, poor, and uneducated, and certainly the Ukrainians are not.”

The traditional refugee support model focuses on immediate needs — housing, food, safety. Essential, yes.

But it often stops there, creating dependency rather than a pathway to economic participation. Coworking spaces are positioned differently. They’re designed around collaboration, openness, and economic opportunity.

When Jeannine talks about RES-MOVE’s goal — “to support migrants in their ability to either get a job, start a business, and in so doing, integrate in their local communities” — she’s describing what coworking spaces already do for everyone else. The only difference is intentionality.

This framing also protects against the charity trap. When you position community support as an investment rather than a handout, you change the entire conversation. Municipalities understand investment. They understand economic development. They understand community resilience.

The Ukrainian Diaspora and Long-Term Integration Reality

RES-MOVE initially focused specifically on Ukrainians. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the immediate response was emergency support — get people to safety, provide temporary housing, and assume they’d return home once the war ended.

But time changes assumptions. As Jeannine explains: “When we wrote it, the project was focused very much on the Ukrainian diaspora.”

But not every country in Europe has a significant Ukrainian diaspora, so “the migrants that are being helped, that were helped, approached during this project are not so much entirely Ukrainians.”

The longer-term reality is complex. Jeannine describes the shift: “We were not thinking of long-term integration into European countries of the Ukrainian diaspora. Because I think in an overwhelming majority, they said they wanted to go home after they kicked the Russians out.”

But things have evolved. “For some, that has changed over time because, well, there are a lot of reasons. The Ukrainians should give their reasons, but Ukraine's recovery period will likely be extended.

There’s been a lot of destruction, and everything damaged has to be fixed. Then people start thinking about, well, my kids have started school in the Netherlands or in the UK and whatever.”

She continues: “Let’s say we kick out the Russians by December. Do I want to take them back to Ukraine now, given the current situation? I think for some people, that answer is not necessarily yes.”

This shift from temporary support to long-term integration changes everything. It means people need real economic pathways, not just emergency assistance. It means children need an education that will serve them wherever they end up. It means communities need to think about permanent integration, not just temporary accommodation.

The November seminar with Marko Orel will address this specifically — how support for Ukrainians began right after the invasion, how it’s developed over time, and what best practices have emerged around long-term migration versus temporary support.

Helga Moreno will discuss the initiatives Ukrainian coworking spaces have undertaken since the war began.

The Community Coworking vs Corporate Coworking Chasm

There’s a line in this conversation that’s easy to miss but essential. Jeannine says:

“The gap between community coworking spaces and corporate coworking spaces is vast because quite a lot of the spaces that have been actively engaged in this project and in other projects around this don’t call themselves coworking spaces, don’t know that we call them coworking spaces.”

Some think of themselves as co-living spaces with a workplace, rather than coworking spaces with a place to sleep. Others, as Jeannine puts it bluntly, aren’t interested “in the community except as a marketing technique.”

This split has consequences. When EU-funded projects like RES-MOVE go looking for coworking partners, they often find spaces that are structurally coworking but culturally disconnected from the values-driven coworking movement.

These spaces might have the physical infrastructure, but not the community intention that makes integration actually work.

Bernie references this from his OuiShare days, when he talked to freelancers in coworking spaces. It turned out that in mainland Europe, people considered themselves “consultants who worked in collaborative workspaces.”

Every time he sent an email saying, “If you’re a freelancer who works in a coworking space, this is for you,” it didn’t land.

As he puts it: “It’s like sending me an email for brain surgeons that work in chip shops.”

The language matters. The values matter more. Jeannine references the “distinction between the coworking movement and the coworking sector”.

Some spaces are part of a movement built on community values, others are just part of the property sector.

For independent coworking operators, this clarifies your positioning. If you’re values-driven, community-focused, and genuinely care about inclusion — that’s your advantage.

Corporate coworking chains can’t do what you do because they’re not structured for it. EU funding projects like RES-MOVE require spaces like yours because they already possess the community infrastructure that facilitates integration.

The Call for Ideas and What It Actually Means

The RES-MOVE Call for Ideas is still open. There’s a form on the website at RES-MOVE. But what does that actually mean for you?

It doesn’t mean: “Tell us you need two more employees and we’ll hand you a sack of cash.”

As Jeannine clarifies: “We really can’t structure it as, You, the coworking space, tell me that what you need to become more inclusive for migrants is two more employees, and then I hand you a sack of cash, because that’s not the objective.

The objective is to develop the coworking space itself to receive and to bring in these particular people.”

If you have a specific project idea in these 10 participating countries that would make your coworking space more inclusive for migrants and aligns with RES-MOVE’s goal, please share it with them.

When Bernie jokingly asks if the idea could be “I’d like to make a water slide in my garden for migrants,”

Jeannine’s response is perfect: “I mean, you could do that... We want to hear all the ideas. If somebody’s got a good argument for the way that helps us to achieve the objectives of the project, then I’d like to hear about your water slide.”

She explains that some ideas are community integration projects: “The idea is that we, as the local community and the migrants, will get together about some other subject.

We’ll take a walking tour together. We’ll have a reading club together.” These aren’t corporate programmes. They’re human-scale activities that create connections between local communities and new arrivals.

The RES-MOVE website also features local reports from every participating country, covering migrants, coworking spaces, and the relationships between them — including what they like, dislike, and would like to see.

If you’re genuinely interested in serving migrant communities better, those reports are practical research you don’t have to commission yourself.

The broader invitation: RES-MOVE is one project, but the need is permanent. Even after this three-year funding cycle ends, coworking spaces will still need to understand how to access municipal, regional, and EU funding for community projects.

What the European Coworking Assembly Actually Needs From You

Jeannine’s most straightforward call to action isn’t about RES-MOVE specifically.

It’s about the European Coworking Assembly itself: “What I’d like for people to hear from this podcast is that the European Coworking Assembly can use you.”

The gap isn’t just between coworking spaces and municipalities. It’s also between coworking spaces and each other. Every country has different funding structures — local, regional, national, EU regional, and focused impact funding.

As Jeannine says, “No one is going to become an expert in all of these things. Again, it is actually a perfect subject for collective action through the ECA, I think.”

Her specific vision: “What would be ideal for the ECA would be to have people who really know how to do local funding, regional funding, national funding, EU regional funding, focus impact funding, have those be different people.”

This is textbook collective action. Someone in your network already knows how to navigate your local council’s grant process.

Someone else has cracked regional EU funding. Someone’s written successful impact measurement frameworks. Someone understands exactly what language gets AMIF proposals approved.

The problem is that these people are scattered. They’re solving the same issues in isolation.

They lack a structure that connects their expertise and makes it accessible to others.

Jeannine’s practical suggestion: “One of the things that we definitely need to do is find someone and get them to just regularly visit these websites because all of the grants are published.

You can either submit your own proposal to be funded or you can use their online portal. You can send messages to people on the portal, saying, "Hey, I think I could contribute to your project, which you have described on this website," and then make a pitch. A more proactive stance on our part would be fabulous.”

For the coworking operators reading this who’ve successfully secured any grant funding: you’re sitting on knowledge other spaces desperately need. The question is whether you’ll share it.

The November Seminar: Ukrainian Diaspora and Long-Term Support

Marko Orel is running an online seminar in November specifically about the Ukrainian diaspora and how support structures have evolved since the Russian invasion.

Bernie describes Marko as: “A professor at the Department of Entrepreneurship, the Head of the Centre for Workplace Research and the Academic Director of the extended realities research lab in Prague at the University of Prague.”

Jeannine adds that Marko “has been researching and publishing on coworking, the role of coworking, the interaction of coworking with, please fill in the blank, for more than seven years, and is most emphatically an expert in this area.”

The seminar will focus on “how the support for the Ukrainian diaspora began right after the Russian invasion, and then it has developed over time, looking particularly into what happens in terms of long-term migration versus temporary support, for example, and what best practices have developed in this area.”

Helga Moreno will also speak. She works at SpaceBring, a coworking software company, and is involved with the Ukrainian Coworking Association.

Bernie calls her “a communication machine” and says he’s “really enjoyed getting to know her over the last few years.”

The seminar’s specific focus: “How do we, as people who are already in Europe, approach the Ukrainian diaspora so as to support them?

If you work in a coworking space anywhere in Europe, this seminar will help you understand the role you can play in community integration.

Not theoretical. Not aspirational. Practical, grounded, already-tested approaches from people doing this work right now.

Links & Resources

RES-MOVE Project

* RES-MOVE Website

* RES MOVE LinkedIn

* Download the RES MOVE call for ideas, October 2025

* 🎙️Forget CVs—Ask About Spare Time: A New Way to Welcome Refugees with Mikael Johansson

Jeannine van der Linden’s Work

* De Kamer Coworking Netherlands (established 2010)

* Jeannine on LinkedIn

European Coworking Partners

* European Coworking Day May 2026

* London Coworking Assembly

* European Coworking Assembly

Upcoming Events

* Marko Orel Seminar: November 2025 (Ukrainian diaspora and long-term support)

* Workspace Design Show London 2026

* Unreasonable Connection Monthly online gatherings for Coworking Community Builders.

Featured Speakers

* Marko Orel: Head of Centre for Workplace Research, Department of Entrepreneurship, University of Prague

* Helga Moreno: Senior Marketer, SpaceBring, Ukrainian Coworking Association

Bernie’s Projects

* London Coworking Assembly 5-Day AI Crash Course for Coworking Spaces

* Free email course: 5 Biggest Mistakes Coworking Community Builders Make (And How to Avoid Them)

* Urban MBA

* Connect with Bernie on LinkedIn

One More Thing

Coworking brings communities together, helping people find and share their voices.

Each episode of the Coworking Values Podcast explores Accessibility, Community, Openness, Collaboration, and Sustainability—values that shape the spaces where we gather, work, and grow.

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