SOCIAL ENTERPRISES:

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SOCIAL ENTERPRISES an Eastern Europe Experience
Jo Lucas Arman Vardanyan Social Policy and
Development Center
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DEFINITIONS OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

• A successful/sustainable business that challenges
  social exclusions or social stereotypes
• A social enterprise may have social
  goals-challenging stigma for example, or simply
  by socially owned by the community
• Social enterprises are designed to respond to a
  social need or create a positive social change.
  Their focus is not the generation of private
  profit but making changes, offering alternatives
  through using good business practice, employing
  people who would not otherwise be employed and so
  on
• Social enterprises offer a hand up not a hand out
  (a fishing rod not a fish)
• Always include specialists, people who know
  about the activity or service

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CONTEXT

• Impact of international donors on the field
• Corruption
• Poverty
• Suspicion of enterprise/business

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DISABILITY AND WORK
Economically active
Economically not active
Source Labour Force Survey, Spring 1998. United
Kingdom Educational and Employment Committee,
Opportunities for Disabled People
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SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

• NGO
• SE
• Small business established to create both a
  social good and a profit
• NGO
• SE
• Developing a sustainable income stream for NGOs
  through SE

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KEY ISSUES IN DEVELOPING A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

• Business idea
• The purpose of social enterprise
• Finding champions
• Social entrepreneurs
• The need for donor support initially (3-5 years)

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FACTORS FAVORING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

• The funding environment in the west
• Need for exit strategies for international
  interventions
• Lack of private sector investment and
  niche-filling at SME level
• Ability to leap-frog development stages
• Sustainability and diversity of income base

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SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

• A social entrepreneur is a practical visionary,
  open to opportunities, willing to break the
  mould, seeking to empower others not promote
  themselves
• They hold a balance of social, technical,
  economic and political understanding
• The backdrop of a high minded belief in the worth
  (value) of the actively frees the social
  entrepreneur to be as hard headed as necessary
• They take the role catalysts
• Entrepreneurs in any walk of life are the people
  who cause change they know a good idea when
  they see one and bring together the people and
  the resources to make it happen

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SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SOME BASIC QUESTIONS

• The market pull and push Do you understand how
  the market works or have you access to people who
  do?
• Willingness to plan Are you willing and bale to
  think ahead a plan and act on those plans?
• Behaving as a business Can you think and behave
  as a business rather than a project or an NGO?
• Separating business from core activities Can
  you keep the business and activities distinct
  from the core activities of your organization?
• Non-profit is a legal status not a management
  style Can you focus on making a profit?
• Flexibility Are you willing to continue to look
  for new roads to old destinations?
• The Noah principle Always remember there is no
  price for predicting rain, only for building the
  ark.

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SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN
EUROPE AND NIS COUNTRIES

• Alternativa NGO (Albania)
• Friends Union Social Development Support Agency
  
• (Ukraine)
• Mental Health Foundation (Armenia)

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We must be the change we want to see in the
world. Ghandi This time, like all times, is
a very good one. If we but know what to do with
it. Ralph Waldo Emerson