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.
Social Innovation Factory: An early-stage business support structure, Belgium (Flanders)
The Social Innovation Factory is a support structure for early-stage businesses support that also raises awareness about social innovation and social entrepreneurship. The chapter describes the organisation’s objectives, rationale and activities. It presents the challenges faced in implementing its programmes and the impact achieved to date. It concludes with the lessons learnt and the conditions for transferring this practice to another context.