Friday, February 24, 2017

Social enterprises in rural Romania

Social enterprises in rural Romania

At a first glance the phrase ‘social economy’ seems a contradiction. The economy, as we know it, is profit and consumption oriented. And the social dimension, if any, is not necessarily obvious.
social-enterprises-in-rural-romania-

Greece: Social Kitchen - the Other Person

Athens, Greece - Konstantinos Polychronopoulos, 51 years old, is the founder of "Social Kitchen - the Other Person", a communal movement with a main goal of providing free food for all in need.
For 25 years, Polychronopoulos worked as a marketing and communications specialist. But in September 2009, he lost his job. Failing to find work for over two years, he was forced to move back into his mother's house. His mother was receiving $660 pension a month, of which she paid $341 towards rent, and the two struggled daily. 
In December 2011, he was shocked by an incident at the local flea market involving two children fighting over discarded, spoiled food and the apathy of the passers-by. 
Konstantinos Polychronopoulos - founder of Social Kitchen - The Other Person - delivered 500 food rations at the temporary refugee camp in the Pedion tou Areos [Dimitris Sideris / Al Jazeera]
The very next day, he prepared sandwiches and handed them out to poor people scavenging for food... [continue to read]

Credits: Dimitris Sideris http://www.aljazeera.com

Promoting cooperatives and the Social Economy in Greece


The report "Promoting cooperatives and the Social Economy in Greece - How to promote the social economy in Greece through social cooperatives, worker cooperatives, and cooperatives of artisans and of SMEs" was undertaken by CICOPA at International Labour Irganisation (ILO) request.
The first part of this report briefly summarize the challenges facing Greece as well as the existing cooperative and social economy context, both in terms of regulatory framework and of the reality on the ground. The second part tries to summarize some CICOPA network’s experience and expertise in different countries across the world, which appears to be particularly relevant to the Greek context today, such as business transfers to the employees of enterprises on the verge of closing down, the integration of vulnerable groups, social services to small children and the elderly, the rural economy, artisans’ groupings, tourism, economic organising among immigrants, multi-stakeholder and mixed forms of cooperatives. The third part describes the international coordinating experience of CICOPA itself, in running complex development projects, stimulating the setting up of national cooperative federations, elaborating world sectoral cooperative standards, as well as analysing and advising on a vast array of cooperative legislation. The fourth part provides a series of recommendations based on CICOPA’s own development experience on how to launch a social economy project grounded in the promotion of cooperatives in Greece in the near future.
You can download the study here.

Credits: Cecop http://www.cecop.coop

GREAT Social Enterprises and Social Investment in the UK

'We are committed to creating the right environment for these innovative and life-changing organisations to grow so they can support communities in the UK and across the globe,' said Francis Maude © 
Courtesy of Cabinet Office
















Credits: https://www.gov.uk

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

You E.S.S.E.N.T.I.A.L Ref: 2016-2- EL02ΚΑ105002588


This blog is an outcome of the training course You E.S.S.E.N.T.I.A.L, which stands for:
Young
Entrepreneurship through
Solidarity and
Social
Economy in
Non- formal
Training with Intercultural
Approaches
Learning.
The training course was organized by Greek Acting Youth an informal group of young people of Githeio - Greece, co-funded by EU Commission under Erasmus+ programme through the Greek Youth and Lifelong Learning Foundation - INEDIVIM, under the action of KA1 learning mobility of youth workers. The training course took place in Githeio from 15-21 December 2016 and gathered 35 people from 7 EU countries: Greece, Turkey, Italy, Estonia, Sweden, Romania and UK.
It aims to map the social entrepreneurship opportunities in the countries part of this project and to continue the cooperation and networking between the participants.  Moreover to assist development of youth workers, young leaders and practitioners on social economy purposes, intercultural dialogue and human rights. It presents contents of outcomes and results tailored and produced by the prticipants on the needs of the local youth of Githeion. This was an exercise in order to learn the participants about social economy, ventures and social entrepreneurship. These outcomes can be selected and adapted by users.