Boosting Social Enterprise Development
Good Practice Compendium
Social enterprises are long-standing agents of inclusive growth and democratisation of the economic and social spheres, and they have proved resilient to economic adversity all the while addressing socio-economic challenges in innovative ways, re-integrating people back to the labour market, and contributing to overall social cohesion. This compendium derives policy lessons for boosting social enterprises from the analysis of 20 initiatives in several EU member-countries, covering a range of policy areas from legal frameworks, finance, market access, and support structures, to education and skills.
El Hueco: A local incubator, Spain
El Hueco is a co-working space and social-enterprise incubator. It aims to create a favourable environment for the creation and development of social enterprises, particularly in sparsely populated areas (SPAs) such as the Soria province of Spain. This chapter describes the organisation’s objectives, rationale and activities. It presents the challenges faced in implementing the structure and the impact achieved. It concludes with the lessons learnt and conditions for transferring this practice to other contexts.