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.
JEREMIE Sicily ESF Social Finance: A microfinance scheme, Italy
JEREMIE European Social Fund Social Finance is a financial instrument designed to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises and social enterprises in Sicily through a microfinance scheme. It aims to support the creation and development of organisations that promote the economic empowerment of vulnerable workers by facilitating access to the labour market. This chapter presents JEREMIE’s objectives, rationale and key activities, together with the challenges faced in implementing the scheme and the impact achieved. It also features the lessons learnt and the conditions for transferring this practice to another context.