The three guest speakers gave very interesting insights into various aspects of Social Enterprises. John Moyna from Sliabh Beagh Hotel spoke about the development of this community social enterprise. It was an inspiring talk of a community working together in a peripheral rural area and succeeding in an uncertain environment. As the hotel is located in the Republic of Ireland but near the border with Northern Ireland, the potential impact of Brexit was also spoken about.

Richard Gavin from the Department of Rural and Community Development outlined the emerging themes and policy outcomes from the recently launched National Social Enterprise Policy. Donal Traynor of Community Finance Ireland spoke on financing social enterprises and gave examples of different types of social enterprises and how they had developed. After the guest speakers, there was a very engaging question and answer time.

To finish the Multiplier Event, Seamus Hoyne summarised the other social enterprise projects that LIT is involved with including SocialB and EMwoSE and also how previous LIT projects SEDETT and SESBA helped to inform the InTSEnSE project.

For example, on a continent where youth unemployment can reach 40%, and where the growing population needs to create 1.2 million new jobs every month, is job creation itself a social impact? And if so, what makes social enterprises different from a private-profit business?

Mark Richardson, from Social Impact Consulting, represented INTSENSE at the Social Enterprise World Forum again this year, speaking to people from all over the world about the potential for internationalising social enterprise.

Mark said, “The biggest potential I see for internationalising social enterprise, is in sharing successful models from one country to another. There are so many brilliant examples of social enterprises tackling social and environmental problems in their own country, while the country next door has exactly the same problem, but no solution.”

One example is Clean Team in Ghana, which provides portable toilets for very low income households in slum areas in Ghana. This not only improves health and hygiene, it also reduces the risk of women and children being attacked in over-used public toilets. Having come across the concept in Ghana, Mark introduced the idea to a group in Sudan who are now working with Clean Team to introduce the model there.

Another example from Ghana is Pride Sanitary Pads. Across Africa, many girls miss school, or even drop out altogether, as a result of their monthly period. One of the major causes of this gender inequality is the availability and affordability of menstrual pads, particularly in rural areas. Many girls resort to using unclean rags or newspaper to manage their flow, leading to infections and other health complications.

Pride Sanitary Pads are locally produced sanitary products made from banana fibre, local cotton and paper pulp, and are fully biodegradable. Pride also provide education about menstrual hygiene and are working to dispel the harmful stigmas surrounding female menstruation.

Mark introduced this concept at a social enterprise conference in Sudan, and a women’s NGO are now working with Pride to develop the same model in their country.

This cross-border learning can occur across many borders, not just internationally but between cities and regions. Mark says, “It’s always worth taking some time to look at what other social enterprises are doing to solve the problems you’re trying to tackle. It may be they have a model that would work where you operate, or you may have learning you could share with them.”

Neil McLean, CEO of the Social Enterprise Academy who was speaking at the Social Enterprise World Forum, said they decided to expand their work from Scotland into other countries because someone once told him “If you’re doing something good, you have a duty to share it.” Neil was joined at the Forum by representatives from their hubs in Australia, South Africa, Kenya, and Rwanda. And this month saw the launch of their newest hub, Social Enterprise Academy Wales.

So if you’re running a social enterprise, maybe you need to ask yourself, “Are you doing something good that you should be sharing?” Or, “Is someone else doing something good that you could be delivering too?”

In the framework of the Global Entrepreneurship week Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia with the support of the British Council in Latvia was promoting the International Social Enterprise Day by organizing a storytelling event “World stories in Latvia” where everyone was able to hear about such topics as what is social entrepreneurship, what are the most successful social businesses in Latvia, Europe, and the world. Social entrepreneurs and field specialists shared their thoughts and experiences with building the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latvia. The event took place in the social enterprise “M Cafe” in Riga on 21 November.

During this storytelling evening founder of the social enterprise “M Cafe” Ulla Milbreta shared her experience with launching the social business after returning home from Singapore. The goal of her enterprise is to remind people about giving things a second chance and re-using them in order to reach more sustainability.

Moreover, Dace Indriksone, ambassador of social entrepreneurship in Latvia, this year was chosen to participate in the “International Visitors leadership program” in the U.S. and gave participants a very valuable insight into how social entrepreneurship is seen across the ocean.

Regita Zeila from the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia shared the best ideas from the Social Innovation Tournament which took place in Dublin – initiatives and social entrepreneurship ideas from such countries as Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal and other European countries serve as a valuable source of inspiration also for the Latvian entrepreneurs.

During the conference, Rasa Žilionė and Milda Koženiauskaitė from the Innovation Office presented InTSEnSE project’s 4 intellectual outputs:

1. A Framework for the Internationalization of Social Enterprise Trading;
2. Support mechanisms for Internationalising the Trading of Social enterprise;
3. Exemplars of social enterprise international trading practices;
4. Educational and training materials for international trading for social enterprise sustainability.

In addition, three local speakers were invited to share their experience and knowledge regarding the social enterprise establishment and internationalization. The following topics were covered by conference speakers:

1. “Starting a Social Business” by Tim Van Wijk, founder of the restaurant “First pancake”
2. “Social Business by Ethiopian Refugee Entrepreneur” by Eskedar Maštavičienė, who founded her own business “Eskedar Coffee”
3. „Social Entrepreneurship in Lithuania – where we are right now“ by Aušra Pulauskaitė from “Enterprising Lithuania”

Finally, each speaker and participant of the event received an InTSEnSE conference certificate. By the end of the conference participants were invited to participate in an unofficial contact-making part.

The event was organized while implementing Erasmus+ project “Internationalising Trading for Social Enterprise Sustainability and Education”.

The free conference will be looking at how social enterprises can access the growing opportunities both in the UK and internationally.

Social enterprises can operate as commercial enterprises – but they focus on trying to bring positive change to the world, by improving social, environmental or economic well-being, with profits being re-invested in the company or distributed for the benefit of the community.

Key players include Glyndwr academic Dr Sarah Evans, an expert in the field of social enterprises, will be speaking at the conference.

Dr Evans has travelled across Europe as part of InTSEnSE – Internationalising Trading for Social Enterprise Sustainability and Education – a major project looking into how organisations can grow and develop the work they do across borders – both in Europe and beyond.

She said: “I don’t think that anyone – particularly in Europe – has done such a huge project as this.

“We have had 54 social enterprises across the continent involved and have linked up with them all to see how we can break down those international barriers social enterprises face.

“There are lots of opportunities through which people can grow their business internationally – it doesn’t have to be as complicated and difficult as people think.

“The information produced by the project will also help social enterprises to think about growth nearer to home.”

That approach has been put at the heart of the conference, where attendees will also hear directly from social enterprises about how they have developed – as well as from the Welsh Government about the work they are doing to boost the sector and from a leading social enterprise consultant who will also work with participants in a dedicated workshop.

Dr Evans added: “During the event, we have got a lot of different sessions including the session with Mark Richardson from the Social Enterprise Academy Wales – he is looking at some of the support that people can access if they want to grow their businesses and measure their organisational impact.

“Mark has recently attended the World Social Enterprise Forum in Ethiopia and his session is not to be missed.

“There’s also a longer-term plan behind the conference – we want to see a Wrexham Social Enterprise Network developing, building on some of the excellent work which people are doing and helping people across the region work together.”

The event has been organised with Wrexham Glyndwr University’s Enhancing Entrepreneurship team.

Business development manager Laura Gough added: “We have a wealth of talent among North Wales’ social enterprises – it makes sense to bring everyone in the sector together to take things to the next level.

“We want to take the work that Sarah and other experts have been doing out into our communities, enhance the great work our social enterprises are doing, and help them help even more people.”

To book your place at the free conference, to be held at the Catrin Finch Centre at Wrexham Glyndwr University on Friday, November 15, search for the event on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/social-enterprise-expanding-beyond-borders-tickets-72214382161

Written by Steve Craddock

The Social Innovation Lab will be represented by Corinna Kämpfe. The idea behind the Social Innovation Lab was born in and around Grünhof.

Grünhof is an incubator and home for the start-up, sustainability and creative scene of the Freiburg region. Grünhof’s mission: to shape tomorrow’s society in a creative and entrepreneurial way. Above all, the Grünhof is a huge network of doers who support each other and network with each other.

The goal of the Social Innovation Lab is to bring social innovators together and support them. Concretely, they offer space to work in the form of free co-working spaces, workshops, targeted coaching and access to a large network. They regularly organize events, where there is direct contact among social innovators and expertise exchange. In addition, the Sozionauten (Socionaut) programme is the incubator for ideas from the social sector. Here, social start-ups and teams from charities work together to turn their ideas into a functioning, system-modifying and effective innovations. The Socionaut support programme was initiated jointly by Grünhof, Diakonie Baden and Diakonie Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in 2016. They were the first in Germany to dare to bring together the world of welfare with the world of start-ups.

Three foundations fund the Social Innovation Lab: the Heidehof Stiftung, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Renate und Waltraut Sick Stiftung, as well as by the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie. They all have in common the belief that social challenges can be solved no matter how hard it may be and how long it may take.

To find out more about the Social Innovation Lab please follow the link: https://social-innovation-lab.org/

To find more about Grünhof please follow the link: https://gruenhof.org/

We are very satisfied that ANKASA endorsed the European Program InTSEnSE and acknowledged its value as an educational tool for the internationalization of local SEs. Once the InTSEnSE educational platform is completed, ANKASA promised to disseminate the material to the 14 SEs in Central Greece.

Firstly, it was important to explain the concept of social business and to understand how social business differs from social responsibility, non-governmental organizations, and social enterprises. This is particularly important in Lithuania as a social business and social enterprise are often confused. Indeed, a social enterprise in Lithuania is the status of a company, the main purpose of the social enterprise remains profit, while the main objective of social business is to seek a positive impact on society and to solve problems such as poverty, unemployment, climate change, and others.

M. Koženiauskaitė has also presented 4 interviews with social business entrepreneurs, which were made during the InTSEnSE project. Presented social businesses: Mindūnų bendruomenės centras (eng. Centre of Community Mindūnai), Pilnų namų bendruomenė (eng. Full House Community), Sūrūs Vėjai (eng. Salty Winds) and Pagirk / Basos Rasos (eng. Praise). Participants of the forum were informed about the possibility to  to check out the rest of the InTSEnSE videos on the project’s YouTube channel.

In addition, all the participants of the event were invited to the upcoming InTSEnSE multiplier event in Vilnius.

During the events, participants had the chance to learn what social entrepreneurship is and what it is not, what is the up-to-date situation and statistics in the social entrepreneurship field in Latvia, what benefits are provided with the implementation of the relatively new Social Entrepreneurship law. Moreover, specialists and field practitioners informed how to obtain the status of a social enterprise, and what are the most popular mistakes that entrepreneurs commit in their attempts to qualify for such status.

What is more, representative of the Development finance institution Altum informed about the conditions that have to be met in order to qualify for the grant, shared tips on how to successfully create grant applications as well as what are the most common mistakes when writing the grant applications.

In each discussion event, there was also a field practitioner – a successful social entrepreneur who shared the every-day specifics of the business told about the most notable challenges that they face as well as opportunities that social entrepreneurship provides. Discussions were moderated by the director of the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia Liene Reine-Miteva, and participants not only had a chance to listen to experienced entrepreneurs and specialists but also were engaged in a practical-creative workshop.

“Today in the world of the Third Sector”, explains Musella, “the terms through which to build alliances and collaborations between the various subjects are also changing. The different worlds must confront each other in an open and serene way to find a common ground of action, to recognize themselves and legitimize themselves in the differences. We organized this parallel session to focus on the potential of collaborative relationships between the world of volunteering and social enterprises, also in light of the new role and the new structure of service centers for volunteering “.

Professor, what are the potentials of collaboration between the two worlds?
If these two worlds speak to each other they can realize together really effective projects linked to the need of the territories and to the local human development. On the one hand the social enterprise must listen to the world of volunteering, which has more grip on the territory, on the other hand volunteering must be helped. The third sector is beautiful because it is articulated, but if everyone starts doing the same thing, the risk they run is to compete.

How do we relate them to each other?
I do not know this yet, but I urge you to make a reflection. Most of the social workers of today, most of the cooperatives, are born of those who come from the world of voluntary work or associations. Worlds always characterized by attention to the last. Here these individual experiences should become the starting point on which to start working. The social enterprises that completely lose the concept of the gift, somehow distort themselves. And in the same way, volunteering must ask how to create a new economy.
He said that the key word is innovation …
Yes. A new way of tackling problems, old and new, still unresolved. The common goal must be to renew synergies and design new tools that can favor those people and, above all, those social institutions that want to take care of women, men and territories to accompany and promote development with the human face of the community.

On the second day of the workshop “Identity and value: beyond the impact”, organized by Iris Network, particular attention is dedicated to corporate welfare that must be able to get out of companies and generate positive impact on the territory

Corporate welfare is a rapidly expanding phenomenon. “According to data from Confindustria in 2018, approximately 58% of the associates guaranteed at least one welfare service to their employees,” says Federico Razetti, researcher of second welfare programs, which runs the plenary session “From corporate welfare to the territory: what role for the social enterprise “of the workshop” identity and value: beyond the impact “, organized by Iris Network.
“There are”, he continues, “other data that confirm this trend, such as those of CGIL which record the growth in the share of contracts concerning the” supplementary welfare “issue. In fact, they have gone from 22.8% in 2015 to 27.2% in 2017 ». But only positive numbers are not enough. The real challenge of corporate welfare lies in the answer to this question: “But is corporate welfare today able to exit from the perimeters of companies and generate positive impacts (even) at the territorial level?”.
And how does corporate welfare open up to the territory? “You have to,” says Razetti, “first and foremost include more businesses. Then it is necessary to include not only the employees of the company and their families, but also the employees of the neighboring companies and the individual citizens who inhabit that territory within the group of beneficiaries of corporate welfare policies. And last but not least, being able to create a dialogue and a confrontation with a plurality of local and strategic partners: other companies, the non-profit world and, above all, the public administration “.
The third sector players in particular possess some intrinsic qualities that could be decisive in this market: «first», explains Razetti, «thanks to the experience gained in the sector in which they operate, the cooperatives can guarantee greater competence than a company profit in the creation and management of welfare services. The value sphere inscribed in the genetic heritage of cooperation, in fact, ensuring particular attention to personal care, could translate into a greater capacity for response. Then the presence of a logic of sharing and a very marked mutualistic approach could facilitate the implementation of shared subjects “.
It is by following this path that corporate welfare can transform itself from a simple instrument of competitiveness and development for the company, to provide answers to the needs of workers and families, to the point of development for the territorial social system that touches needs of the most vulnerable.