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Agency for the sustainability of social enterprises

A - DESCRIPTION OF THE GOOD PRACTICE

A1 - Title in original language
Agenzia per la sostenibilità dell'impresa sociale

A2 - Title in English
Agency for the Sustainability of Social Enterprises

A3 - Location of GP (national)
Italy

A4 - Location of GP (regional)
Veneto

A5 - Economic field of activity
S Other service activities

A6 - Ultimate purpose of GP
To improve social cohesion/inclusion
To enable cross sectoral working
To create or conserve employment

A7 - Spatial scale
Regional (large scale)

A8a - Start date
March 07

A8b - Anticipated end date (if applicable)
01/03/2009 (End of the funding, but the GP has continued)

A9 - Short description of the GP
L'Agenzia per la Sostenibilità dell'Impresa Sociale was launched as part of the Equal Project - Phase II "Osmosis - New Opportunities for Social Enterprises". Its purpose is to promote, facilitate and strengthen the synergies between for-profit enterprises, social enterprises and public entities by promoting and conducting research and marketing, raising awareness, and providing consultancy and support. Its activities aim to foster the development of local social enterprises and broaden the employment opportunities for disadvantaged people within them. The Agency provides services directly by using its own professional competences and indirectly by setting up networks and projects with entities, organisations and professionals. The Agency works with social enterprises, for-profit enterprises and public companies in the following areas:

  1. Social research and planning.
  2. Law and legislation.
  3. Marketing and promotion.
  4. Support for social and work integration.

A10 - Key words relating to the GP
Cross-sector synergy
Social Enterprise Development
Work integration
Networks
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A11 - Objectives of the GP

  1. Promote new opportunities for disadvantaged people by strengthening synergies between social enterprises, for-profit enterprises and public administrations.
  2. Develop the innovation and competitiveness of social enterprises with consultancy, information and support.
  3. Guide and support the emergence of a new culture within social enterprises that will combine social aims with economic efficiency and effectiveness, which include providing real services to business.

A12 - Activities that have taken place
The Agency has introduced the following to achieve the aforementioned objectives:

  1. An information helpdesk, open every day, for social enterprises, public administrations and for-profit enterprises that are interested in finding out what a social enterprise is all about, e.g. Corporate Social Responsibility, legal and regulatory frameworks, social planning in Europe and Italy, and human resources.
  2. Informative and follow-up seminars geared towards local social enterprises and public entities.
  3. Information and promotion with a newsletter announcing tenders and covering issues of interest to social enterprises.
  4. Marketing and awareness-raising through meetings with public administrations, social enterprises and for-profit enterprises to promote synergies between stakeholders and to discover new jobs/services that can be entrusted to social enterprises.
  5. Consultancy for social enterprises to promote development and organisational innovation.

A13 - Achievements of the GP
During Equal's Osmosis Project, the Agency achieved the following results towards social enterprise sustainability; it opened a helpdesk for 400 hours; created a team of 35 expert consultants; organised 33 refresher and follow-up seminars; provided social enterprises regionwide with almost 500 hours of specialist consultancy; signed 5 concession agreements between social enterprises and public administrations (concessions included social clauses and required synergies between social enterprises and for-profit enterprises so that the social enterprises could take part); signed 2 agreements between for-profit and social enterprises to provide work integration for disadvantaged people (see Article 14 of Italian Legislative Decree DL 276/2003); published 10 articles in sector magazines and a monthly newsletter; and promoted an IT consortium comprising Type B social cooperatives and for-profit enterprises.

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