EXPERIENCES
FROM EUROPE AND ITALY
Carla
Cavalini, Local development agent, with broad experience of
European rural policy, and EU project manager at GAL del Ducato
S.Cons.r.l (LEADER, Local Action Group).
Community
based enterprises and/or cooperatives
Definition:
Community
based enterprises and/or cooperatives use business to improve the
life of a local community. They are run by a community as well as for
a community
They
are different from private enterprise because their business activity
is undertaken as a means of achieving community benefit, not private
gain.
Key
characteristics of community enterprises and/or cooperatives are that
they aim to be:
-
community
owned:
assets belong to the community and cannot be sold off for private
financial gain
-
community-led:
people who are local stakeholders in the area of benefit play a
leading role in the enterprise/cooperative
-
community
controlled:
the local community is represented on the Board of Directors and
makes sure that the enterprise/cooperative is accountable to the
community
-
able
to generate profits or a surplus
that can be re-invested or distributed for community benefit
-
socially
and environmentally responsible:
the tackle social and environmental problems in their area
-
financially
self-sustaining:
or on the way to being so
that
are "businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses
are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the
community, rather than being driven by the need to maximize profit
for shareholders and owners".
In
many parts of Europe (and not only) there is a role for community
based social enterprises to help strengthen local economies.
The
UK has a long and proud tradition of community enterprise. The phrase
‘community enterprise’ goes back many decades, pre-dating the
more recent concept of ‘social enterprise’.
Community
enterprise is a significant sub-sector within the wider social
enterprise sector.
It
shares the same definition as social enterprise: an organisation
trading for social purpose with profits reinvested rather than going
to shareholders.
But
a community enterprise is more specific in that it is based in, and
provides benefits to a particular local neighbourhood or community of
identity. A community enterprise is owned and managed by members of
that community. It is an organisation run by a community as well as
for a community.
How
are community based enterprises different from micro-enterprise?
Micro-enterprises
are often small-scale, vulnerable to competition, under-capitalized
and unable to generate many jobs. They are usually owned by one
proprietor or a single family. If they do make more than a basic
living for the owner, the profits are privately accumulated.
Community
based enterprises have the potential to be larger scale, generate
more jobs and return benefit to the community beyond those directly
employed. They can be run as a worker-owned or as a member-based
cooperative.
Social
enterprises
combine societal goals with entrepreneurial spirit. These
organisations focus on achieving wider social, environmental and
community objectives.
A
social enterprise is an operator in the social economy whose main
objective is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for
their owners or shareholders. It operates by providing goods and
services for the market in an entrepreneurial and innovative fashion
and uses its profits primarily to achieve social objectives. It is
managed in an open and responsible manner and, in particular,
involves employees, consumers and stakeholders affected by its
commercial activities. Social enterprise are:
-
Those
for who the social or societal objective of the common good is the
reason for the commercial activity, often in the form of a high
level of social innovation.
-
Those
where profits are mainly reinvested with a view to achieving this
social objective.
-
Those
where the method of organisation or ownership system reflects the
enterprise's mission, using democratic or participatory principles
or focusing on social justice.
There
is no single legal form for social enterprises. GAL
del Ducato would like to focus on the form of (social) cooperatives.
Despite
their diversity, social enterprises mainly operate in four fields:
-
Work
integration
- training and integration of people with disabilities and
unemployed people.
-
Personal
social services
- health, well-being and medical care, professional training,
education, health services, childcare services, services for elderly
people, or aid for disadvantaged people.
-
Local
development of disadvantaged areas
- social
enterprises in remote rural areas,
neighbourhood development/rehabilitation schemes in urban areas,
development aid and development cooperation with third countries.
-
Other
- including recycling, environmental protection, sports, arts,
culture or historical preservation, science, research and
innovation, consumer protection and amateur sports.
A
cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united to meet
common economic, social, and cultural goals. They achieve their
objectives through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled
enterprise (with
each member having one vote).
The
main identified barriers faced by social enterprises, are:
-
poor
visibility and recognition of the sector,
-
the
constraints of current legal and regulatory frameworks,
-
limited
financial resources,
-
difficult
access to markets,
-
and
the lack of business support and development structures, training,
and workforce development.
Ecovillages
are traditional or intentional
communities
whose goal is to become more socially, culturally, economically and
ecologically sustainable.
Ecovillages are consciously designed through locally owned,
participatory processes to regenerate and restore their social and
natural environments. Most range from a population of 50 to 150
individuals, although some are smaller, and traditional ecovillages
are often much larger. Larger ecovillages often exist as networks of
smaller subcommunities. Certain ecovillages have grown by the
addition of individuals, families, or other small groups who are not
necessarily members settling on the periphery of the ecovillage and
effectively participating in the ecovillage community.
Ecovillagers
are united by shared ecological,
social-economic
and cultural-spiritual
values. Concretely, ecovillagers seek alternatives to ecologically
destructive electrical, water, transportation, and waste-treatment
systems, as well as the larger social systems that mirror and support
them. Many see the breakdown of traditional forms of community,
wasteful consumerist
lifestyles, the destruction of natural habitat, urban
sprawl,
factory
farming,
and over-reliance on fossil fuels as trends that must be changed to
avert ecological disaster and create richer and more fulfilling ways
of life.
In
1991, Robert
Gilman
set out a definition of an ecovillage that became standard for many
years. Gilman defined an ecovillage as a:
"human-scale
full-featured settlement in which human activities are harmlessly
integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of
healthy human development, and can be successfully continued into the
indefinite future."
This
is clearly a tall order. In fact, using a strict interpretation of
this definition, especially with regards to “harmlessly
integrated”, one could argue that that there are no ecovillages on
the planet today. Ecovillages are therefore better thought of as
communities striving towards these ideals rather than actualised
utopias.
Kosha
Joubert, Executive Director of the Global Ecovillage Network, more
recently defined an ecovillage as an:
"intentional,
traditional; rural or urban community that is consciously designed
through locally owned, participatory processes in all four dimensions
of sustainability (social, culture, ecology and economy) to
regenerate their social and natural environments."
In
this view, ecovillages are seen as an ongoing process, rather than a
particular outcome. They often start off with a focus on one of the
four dimensions of sustainability, e.g. ecology, but evolve into
holistic models for restoration. In this view, aiming for
sustainability is not enough; it is vital to restore and regenerate
the fabric of life and across all four dimensions of sustainability:
social, environmental, economic and cultural.
EU
policy of reference / legal basis / state of the art:
The
Social Business Initiative
(SBI), launched in 2011, introduces
a short-term
action plan
to support the development of social enterprises, key stakeholders in
the social economy and social innovation and prompts a debate on the
avenues to be explored in the medium/long
term.
Communication
from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the
European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
Regions Social Business Initiative “Creating a favourable climate
for social enterprises, key stakeholders in the social economy and
innovation”
- COM/2011/0682 final
In
EU, only seven countries (Bulgaria, France, Italy, Luxembourg,
Slovenia, Sweden, and United Kingdom) have a policy framework in
place to encourage and support the development of social enterprises.
A growing
convergence
towards the definition
of social enterprise
as "an autonomous organization that combines a social purpose
with entrepreneurial activity" highlights that support
structures
are under-developed and fragmented,
with the exception of Italy, France, and the UK. However, social
enterprise policy is currently under development in seven countries
(Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, and Romania).
(Source:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=2149&furtherNews=yes).
A Compendium
of good practices
is forthcoming
in early 2017.
Furthermore,
the European Certificate in Community Enterprise (ECCE) is a new
European-level vocational qualification developed by partners from
UK, France, Spain, Sweden and Romania. During the life of the project
they combined their knowledge and experience to create a relevant,
flexible and needs-driven qualification to specifically support
growth across Europe’s Social Economy.
Methodologies:
The
SOAR
methodology
stands for: getting STARTED, getting ORGANISED, ACHIEVING, becoming
RESILIENT.
It’s
the method used to provide expert support, guidance and practical
advice throughout the process of setting up and running a successful
community enterprise.
Getting
started
You’re
thinking about starting an enterprise, but not sure where to begin.
You might be starting from scratch, or you might be part of an
existing organisation wanting to change direction. You need to plan
your business and guidance on how to get started.
Getting
organised
You
have established your enterprise, but you’re still at an early
stage. You need to review your business model and finances to ensure
you’ve established strong foundations for success.
The Fit
for Purpose toolkit
can be used together with the support of experts, to help you ensure
your organisation is in good shape.
Achieving
Your
enterprise is well-established and is developing a good track record.
However, you need to stay on an upward curve and find new
opportunities for growth. You need to review your services, plan your
strategy and training on leadership and bidding for contracts.
Becoming
resilient
At
this stage your enterprise is successful, with an excellent
reputation. But this doesn’t mean you can take your foot off the
gas. More than ever you need to plan, review and benchmark yourself
against the best. We can help your organisation to plan for the
long-term and become resilient.
The
Community
Enterprise Checker
is an essential tool if you’re running, or planning to set up, a
community enterprise.
The Community
Enterprise Checker is
an online tool that enables you to assess your community enterprise,
or community organisation and find out if it’s investment ready.
The
Community Enterprise Checker asks you a series of questions about
your business, including your systems, people and financial
information. When you’ve completed all the questions, the Community
Enterprise Checker will produce a summary report for you, with key
recommendations.
The
aim is to help you get your business to the point where it’s ready
to receive investment.
The
checker reviews your situation against the ‘five pillars’ of
investment readiness:
People
will gravitate to the ideas they are most interested in. They may
need encouragement to think that they can organize a feasibility
study.
A
feasibility study involves talking to people, asking hard questions,
searching for assistance, applying rational thinking and not losing
sight of the vision that communities can become entrepreneurs. It is
best if the feasibility study is undertaken by those who are
interested in particiapting in the community enterprise. Doing the
feasibility study together gives people the opportunity to see how
they can work alongside each other.
Elements
of a feasibility study:
-
Visits
to similar enterprises in the wider region to "see how they do
it"
-
Interviews
with local suppliers of raw materials to investigate volume of
supply, seasonaility, prices and price fluctuations, quality issues
-
Research
into potential markets, eg interviewing stall holders in the local
market, interviewing other businesses who might buy the product,
interviewing consumers directly
-
Research
the technical production and packaging requirements
-
Find
out about government health regulations
-
Look
into different organizational structures for the enterprise and
their legal requirements
-
Discuss
possible ownership and governance structures
-
Discuss
different options for raising inital capital to get started
All
this information can then be compiled into a Business Plan.
As
the enterprise starts to take shape there will be many areas of
expertise that can be drawn on for support. These may include:
Some
of this expertise might be available locally, in the local government
offices, in NGOs, in community organizations, in family support
networks. There are also the resources of the province or region to
be drawn upon. International support can also be accessed via the
internet and aid organizations.
A
community enterprise is an ambitious undertaking. It tries to:
Examples:
Social
Farming has come to the attention of an increasing range of rural
stakeholders in recent years and numerous examples of social farming
activities can be found around the EU-27 Member States. This interest
is the result of a growing understanding of the potential role of
agricultural and rural resources for enhancing the social, physical
and mental well-being of people.
At
the same time, social farming also represents a new opportunity for
farmers to deliver alternative services to broaden and diversify the
scope of their activities and multi-functional role in society. This
integration between agricultural and social activities can also
provide farmers with new sources of income and enhance the image of
agriculture in the ‘public eye’.
Some
14 % of the population in the EU’s predominantly rural regions
suffers from employment rates of less than half the EU average, and
there are areas of low per-capita GDP. As such, EU rural development
policy provides essential tools for helping Member States to
encourage rural employment, tackle rural poverty, address social
exclusion and improve the quality of life in rural areas. These
objectives reflect the EU’s Europe
2020
growth strategy.
The
EU 2020 Strategy highlights the importance of supporting schemes
which help eliminate labour market and social inclusion barriers, in
particular for the most vulnerable groups of women, young people,
older workers, groups of minority ethnic origin and the disabled.
These schemes include among other things support for education and
lifelong learning opportunities, modern transport and ICT
infrastructure, plus improved access to essential services.
Rural
Development Programmes play an important role in promoting a more
inclusive society and making rural areas a better place to live.
Research
projects financed by the European Commission
-
BENISI –
Building a European Network of Incubators for Social Innovation
-
CRESSI -
CReating Economic Space for Social Innovation
-
EFESEIIS –
Enabeling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship
for Innovative and Inclusive Societies
-
ITSSOIN –
Impact of the Third Sector as SOcial INnovation
-
SEFORIS –
Social Enterprise as Force for More Inclusive and Innovative
Societies
-
SI-DRIVE –
Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change
-
SIMPACT –
Boosting the Impact of Social Innovation in Europe through Economic
Underpinnings
-
Third
Sector Impact –
The Contribution of the Third Sector to Europe's Socio-economic
Development
-
TRANSITION –
Transnational Network for Social Innovation Incubation
