By Cristina Marina
Ada-und-Theodor-Lessing-Volkshochschule Hannover, Germany

On 4 and 5 February 2014 the MESSE study visit to Hannover took place. Overall, 23 participants from 8 different countries met together to have a closer look at German social enterprises and discuss as to what the major elements are that primarily make the specific social enterprises to Good Practice examples.
The first site to visit was Hannoversche Werkstätten gem. GmbH (The Hannover Workshops), a limited company operated as a public utility. Ms Vera Neugebauer, Managing Director, held a company presentation, then taking the audience on a captivating tour through the workshops of Hannoversche Werkstätte together with her colleague, Ms Christine Herbrig, PR Manager.

Covering an extremely broad area of training fields and activities, Hannoversche Werkstätten is not only working cross-sector, but is also continuously boosting the cooperation between for-profit and not-for-profit business. This is being ensured, for example, by a number of employees currently working with corporations like Continental AG, while being paid however by Hannoversche Werkstätten. Moreover, since Hannoversche Werkstätten sells their self-manufactured products on the market, there is not only a steady need for competitiveness, but also for observing high quality requirements. It is for these reasons that Hannoversche Werkstätte's quality management system has been certified according to the DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 standard. Thus, operational procedures within all ranges of work are assured to correspond to internationally recognized standards.
But during lunch at Hannoversche Werkstätte the participants could see all for themselves. Trainees working in the area of gastronomy prepared a three-dish meal for all employees and guests of Hannoversche Werkstätte. While for the personnel making lunch meant nothing more than business as usual, having lunch at the canteen posed a great opportunity for all MESSE participants to get a real insight in the workaday life of Hannoversche Werkstätten.

The study visit continued by returning to the venues of Ada-und-Theodor-Lessing-Volkshochschule Hannover, where Mr Peter Thomsen introduced the Working Partnership (AG) Resohelp.
A well-established contact point for (ex-) prisoners in Hannover, Resohelp has been working for more than 40 years on counselling and supporting delinquents, sentenced prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families to gain social rehabilitation and reintegration. Resohelp’s aim is to offer extensive information and support on managing the various issues encountered by their clients, ranging from prevention of detention, flat-hunting, and allowance of claims all the way through debt counselling and other individual problems.
Furthermore, Resohelp is acting as an interface between the clients and different institutions or persons (e.g. the Public Prosecution Service, the Job Center / Employment Agency, landlords, and many other charities), thus increasing their area of impact. This cross-sectoral work is being supported by Resohelp having the legal status of a Working Partnership (Arbeitsgemeinschaft) founded by 8 charities and institutions: the Diakonisches Werk – Local Committee Hannover e. V.; the Caritas Association of Hannover e. V.; the City of Hannover, Department of Social Affair; the Prisoner Welfare Association of Hannover; the Head of the Correctional Facility of the City of Hannover; the Catholic Church Office of the Correctional Facility of the City of Hannover; the Association of City Churches of Hannover; and the Job Center of Hannover Region.
In Mr Thomsen’ presentation, it became apparent Resohelp’s great contribution toward helping (ex-) prisoners and offenders develop social skills, such as self-esteem, self-responsability and self-care, and at the same time take on social responsibility. By helping delinquents and former prisoners reintegrate within their social communities and gain social rehabilitation, Resohelp is bringing benefits to the communities themselves.
After the presentation, Italian participants expressed the wish to establish contact to Resohelp, paving the ground for future exchange.
At last, it was time to go visit another, rather unique, social enterprise, placed at the heart of Hannover’s City: FairKauf e.G.

During the five and a half years since their foundation, FairKauf’s number of employees increased steadily, as well as their number of vocational trainees and apprentices, almost all of them belonging to disadvantaged groups. On the economic side, FairKauf’s success meant being able to survive and continuously grow during a time when many other department stores were closing their doors. Remarkable as this might be, even more striking appears the fact that FairKauf has been managing to do so without having the support of public funding. Following their motto Earn money to do good (not the other way around), FairKauf serves as a good example for a new, successful social business, which shows that a true commitment to social principles paired with business competence and business skills prevail over a difficult financial environment.
Following a presentation by Mr Detlef Klein, honorary project manager, and Mr Jörg Matthaei, steering board member, the MESSE participants were given a guided tour through the five floors of the department store, then taking the opportunity to look for special, fair-trade, souvenirs. ‘I have found a little saving box for my son, just like the one he loved but broke last year’, one of the participants, a mother, happily reported, proving FairKauf’s economic concept right once more.
The MESSE study visit in Hannover ended for the participants by enjoying the view from FairKauf’s small terrace in the fifth floor over the City at sunset.

The study visit in Greece took place on 12-13th of November 2013 in the organisation of Attica Region. The first day was spent in the central building of the hosting partner where 4 Good Practices were introduced for the partnership.

The "MESO" Social Economy Practice
It was presented by Mr. Marios Chatzidamianos, Social Cooperative Entrepreneurs Trainer and Counsellor for the Implementation of EU funded Action Plans for Human Resources. Main purpose of the MESO is to provide educational opportunities, improve participation in local decision making and enable cross sectoral working. In 13 years of existence, European Music Day became a tool for the local and regional authorities to implement strategies on the development of social entrepreneurship, and for people and organizations involved in the project to understand and develop strategies dealing with new data in professional and social reality.

"Green Bridge" Social Economy project
The Green Bridge project was introduced by the project expert, Annika Drandaki who highlighted that the overall objective of the project is to activate local stakeholders of the Municipalities of Peristeri, Dionysos and Kifissia, in order to ensure the creation of new jobs for unemployed people from vulnerable groups in the fields of production, processing and promotion of agricultural and floricultural products through the creation of private and social enterprises.

Presentation of the "EKATI" Social Partnership
Mr. Stefanos Tsolakides presented the social partnership which is activating in the Municipality of Athens and more widely in the Region of Attica Athens. According to European Legislation, Municipalities are obliged by 2014 to take measures for the care of stray animals in their area. Based on the current situation arising from the legislation and the poor operational resources of the Municipalities, EKATI submitted a proposal to the Municipality of Athens. The proposal has been accepted in terms of concept and main activity and EKATI already operates a facility providing care to stray animals in the town of Megara.

"Social Economy Network"
The good practice was presented by Matina Kanaki, Mentor of Social Enterprises within the EKATI Social Partnership. The initiative is an informal network, which was created by Social Cooperative Enterprises (Koin.S.Ep.), organized by the initiative of the online information portal koinsep.org and the "EKATI Social Partnership". It is intending to promote constructive dialogue on issues affecting sectors of Social Economy.

The second day of the Study Visit was the on-site visit of the MESSE Delegation to 3 Social Economy related organizations:

"Theotokos" Foundation
Theotokos Foundation is a welfare, non-profit, non-governmental organization, established in 1954 and supervised by the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity. The Foundation offers services to children and young people with intellectual disability and other developmental disorders and to their families. The mission of the Foundation is the education and training of children and young people aged 2½ -32, with the aim of facilitating their full participation in society.

"Organization Earth"
"Organization Earth" is a Greek not-for-profit NGO set up to provide answers to modern social concerns about society and the environment. The organization's first seed was 'planted' at the end of 2008. The strategic aim was to develop new environmental infrastructure in Attica, which has been in use since the autumn of 2011. The aim is to disseminate Environmental Social Intelligence (ESI), in other words to inform, educate and raise awareness in society about modern problems facing the environment and the ways that people can contribute to safeguarding the environment.

"KLIMAX plus" Social Cooperative
The Social Cooperative "KLIMAX plus" is a private entity that works under the supervision of the Directorate of Mental Health, Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity. "KLIMAX plus" has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity. The purpose of the Association is to develop business in the field of social economy, with the aim of improving the quality of life and socio-economic rehabilitation of persons with mental health problems, who are experiencing work exclusion.

Read more here.

The study trip promised to be especially exciting because the thought and the practice of socially responsible investment (SRI) and corporate social responsibility (CSR), Public-Private Partnership, and the thought and the practice of cooperation between the public and the private sphere have all started here. We hoped that we would find several good examples that can perhaps also be used in the Hungarian practice.

The organisers arranged a very exciting and dense programme: we have visited 8 social enterprises within 2 days, where there is a cooperation between the public sphere and the private sector, and we have also seen an example of how social enterprises facilitating social integration are established.

First of all, we visited the SCA Group in Southampton http://www.scagroup.co.uk  . The SCA Group is a social enterprise providing health and social care services in the United Kingdom. The group – among the members of which we can find a private social enterprise and a public service provider health care – offers both services that can be taken at the home of the service taker and support service, health care, among others extra 24 hours nursing service, porter service, dentist service as well as training and advisory service for the groups that had been crowded out of the labour market. The cooperation of group members is organised on the basis of mutual advantages, its winners are the service takers, for whom they offer complex provisions. The group manages itself from its income – you have to pay for everything except for state dentist care - and they maintain themselves from building hire the fee paid by the Public Health Service and from the service support paid by the local government.

We also had a look at the Trojan mailing programme in Southampton http://www.trojanmailing.org.uk  . This is an enterprise that didn't ask and didn't receive any financial support, they produce the conditions of operation and development themselves, and their only source of income derives from the counter value of the service. The programme provides a special digital printing and postal service that is able to compete on the market. Among its customers, we can find both public service providers and forprofit companies. Also voluntary (or voluntarily undertaken) corporate social responsibility is important for the company. They offer a job to people suffering from a mental illness.

The Parklife is a community space in the St. James' Park, in Southampton Shirley http://www.park-life.org.uk/index.html . The park and the programmes are operated by a group consisting of parents, who have united to renovate the disused and very neglected park. The programme was implemented in the framework of a social enterprise, for which the financial support was provided by Heritage Lottery Fund and the city council of Southampton. The renovation took hardly a year. Nowadays the park has already become a well-functioning enterprise providing programmes for all age groups. There is also a café in the area of the park that passed the operation to the social enterprise in the framework of a long-term lease contract. The services of the Parklife can be taken against payment, but the operators pay attention for keeping their services purchasable for people with a low income as well.

The Women's Wisdom programme is another location of social enterprises in Southampton. The programme supports women, who got stuck in a certain life situation or live among difficult conditions, and who need several different types of services. Among others, they provide coaching for start-up and pre-start-up enterprises. By doing so, their aim is to help unemployed and economically inactive people, who would like to overcome their barriers by becoming self-employed. By the empowering (enabling) workshops, they motivate people to find employment opportunities and to be able to operate adequately there, to be able to overcome their fears and handle the changes. By the empower (enabling) workshops, they motivate people to find employment opportunities, and act adequately there, so that they can overcome their fears and handle the changes. In the framework of the Administration Resource Centre (ARC) (business outsourcing service), they are doing the rehabilitation of women released from the prison, in order to enable them to return to their workplaces. The increasing of the employability takes place in the ARC workshops, where women can work, take part in different courses, get qualifications and develop their basic skills.

The last programme of the day was the visiting of the SoCo Music Project http://www.socomusicproject.org.uk  .The project was established to provide creative opportunities in all age groups, and to develop the people. However, they do not only deal with developing creative potential, but they also provide an opportunity for those, who would like to entertain. Their activity is supported by a Youth Music, Arts Council, Big Lottery and many more. They have received support from the Winnal Rock School, the Town Council of Winchester, the Youth Music and the EU. Today the programme already has a serious professional fame both on a local and on a regional level.

On the second day of the study trip we visited North Hampshire. Here we have watched the Inclusion Hampshire programme http://www.tcdevtest.co.uk . The Inclusion Hampshire works on programmes assisting the inclusion of disadvantaged young people. They provide services for young people who are hindered in studying and at work and are seriously endangered. They organise alternative education, motivational and professional clubs, and in order to bridge the gap, they also cooperate with the family. These programmes targeting young people support their reintegration into the scholar system, and help their integration into the labour market. Today their biggest challenge is given by the bridging the gaps of the children of wandering gipsy families. They are staying in a close relationship with the local governments, child care organs and educational institutions operating in Hampshire County who are buyers (customers) of their services.

The Community Matters is a programme that motivates local enterprises – as responsible enterprises – to fulfil their community participations. The CMP membership involves regular meetings with companies, enterprises, organisations, the local government, college trainers and trainees and community groups, and they take part in planning and implementing community programmes. In 2013-15, the main emphasis was put on diminishing juvenile unemployment by their programmes in the future. In the years before the community supported the programme targeting the residence of homeless people. Belonging to a community offers several advantages to the enterprises and to its members. Among others, they organise further education programmes, they provide opportunities for taking part at development sessions and they also offer new relationships and business opportunities.

The Seen2Help/See, so that you can help - www.seen2help.co.uk   – is to offer a sustainable job for the demobilizing soldiers and their wives independently of the fact where the family member is commanded, or where the deserter lives. The location of work might change, but the employment is continued. The enterprise builds on the abilities, the talent and the ambitions of the employees. The Seen2Help is a non-profit outsourcing organisation undertaking and fulfilling certain activities of enterprises against fee. It manages all this through the internet, so a virtual office serves the clients. The enterprise is maintained entirely from the incomes. The activities performed:

• virtual receptionist activity
• virtual call handling
• virtual administrator services
• internet marketing
• copywriting (creative text writing)

The presented social enterprises have been established partly as a result of the cooperation between the public and the private sphere, on the other hand they are responsible enterprises offering regular income for a disadvantaged social group. The long-term aim of PPP (cooperation of the public and the private sphere) and the social investment (corporate social responsibility) is to reduce harmful social and economic impacts, and instead of that to increase social benefit and to strengthen social integration. In order to achieve this aim, the public sphere gives a task to the private sphere, and the profit-oriented private enterprises – according to their corporate social responsibility and because it is worth for them – they buy services offered by social enterprises. This might be surprising at first sight, but these service providers operate partly or entirely without state resources in most cases, and they provide their incomes from the market. They can do this, because, on the one hand, the cooperation between the public and the private sphere is very much stressed, as a result of which we can count on the establishment of fix markets, while on the other hand, social investment is not only present on the level of verbality, as responsible business planning, but in order to reach social benefit in the future. Therefore both, the state and its institutions as well as the enterprises are willing to sacrifice. It is also an important lesson that the state is not willing to provide every service itself. The role of big provision systems was taken by person-centred, problem-centred, social enterprises that are reacting quickly to change and needs. Of course English social enterprises had to learn over the years that only marketable, quality products and services can be sold, and the only way of their survival is the market, and they do not look for solutions that are out of the market and they do not depend on the resources of the government. It was surprising how conscious management enterprises have, and how convincing they can communicate their achievements, so they do not withhold their limitations and the dangers. The enterprises operate under continuous and maximal social controls. The fulfilment of changing customer needs require continuous renewal and planning from them, their risks are significant, but if they have found their markets, the established jobs are sustainable that provides continuity and security for the people, who work in it. And what they get in exchange? Great independence of the politics and of the prevailing power. On the basis of what we have seen, we can say that it is worth it!

Read more here.

In mid-September the MESSE delegation travelled to Andalusia in order to gather experiences from the real life practice of 6 good practices. The first day began with the pickup of the MESSE partners and its displacement by bus from Seville city to Osuna city, in the province of Seville on the first day. In Osuna is situated the Andalusian School of Social Economy. In this place, the Steering Committee Meeting of the MESSE Project as well as the first working day of the Study Visit in Andalusia was developed.

3rd Social Economy Agreement
The Good Practice was presented by Mr. José de Casas, General Coordinator of CEPES Andalusia and Mrs. Patricia Aragón, Head of the Service of Public Investments of the General Direction of Social Economy (Regional Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment. The Social Economy Agreements in Andalusia are a demonstration of social dialogue and capacity of organization of the Andalusian social structures. They have provided a higher visibility of the social economy and a better attention to the promotional policies, and they are also the reference framework of the social economy in the Andalusia region.

Andalusian School of Social Economy
Mrs. Rosario Rodríguez, Coordinator of the Andalusian School of Social Economy introduced the main aspects of the good practice. In the year 2002, the Confederation of Entities of Social Economy in Andalusia (CEPES-A), and the Andalusian Federation of Cooperatives of Associated Work (FAECTA) signed the constitution of the Andalusian School of Social Economy Foundation as an institution that would invigorate the training, research and development areas, previously boosted by these entities in the Andalusian Social Economy scope. Its fundamental action areas are: research, training, entrepreneurial development, innovation, iternationalisation.

Aquasport
Aquasport presented its experience as a cooperative that manages the sport facilities in the city of Gerena, in the province of Seville. The speaker, Mr. Marín, started his exposition making some reflexions from his own professional experience as an aeronautical engineer: job insecurity and unemployment in its environment, what inspired him to design an exploitation proposal of the sport facilities of Gerena municipality, which were nearly abandoned. At that moment a public tender was published and he won the trust of the City Council.

Alliance between Supla and Suara
Suplá was born in March in the year 2000, as an initiative of the Educational Association "Encuentro en la Calle" ("Meeting at the street"), through the European project SURGE. Among its objectives, the following ones can be highlighted: local development, equal opportunities, social cohesion and the generation of employment.
The catalan cooperative Suara is the biggest in Catalonia in the sector of people care and it is present in 16 catalan districts. Suara offers residential equipments daytime and night, orientation services, preventive and supporting services, home support services, etc.
The alliance was signed in September 2012 to share processes, join experiences, opening for both enterprises new opportunities able to generate employment.

The overall second working day of the Study Visit in Andalusia was developed in Alozaina, in the province of Malaga.

Sierra de las Nieves
First of all, a brief explanation about the role of the CADE "Centro de Apoyo y Desarrollo de Emprendedores" - Centre for Support and Development of Entrepreneurs – of the Foundation "Andalucía Emprende" (Andalusia undertakes). The Foundation has been working in rural areas in the last decade promoting the entrepreneurship. It has helped to create 30 Small and Medium Enterprises, SME, and also gives support to other 270 SME of the zone.
It is a region rich in citrus crops, fruit and vegetable products, but the experience is focused more concretely in the exploitation of the mountain olive, which is complex because of the orography of the territory (production between 3 and 5 millions of kg of olives annually).
The fact that there was a high number of cooperatives cut the market into segments and weakened the position of the producers. To mend this situation, five of them decided to organise themselves under the umbrella of a cooperative of second level. Each of them is specialized in one concrete part of the production, while the cooperative of second level "Sierra de las Nieves" coordinates all of them with the following aims:

• To achieve internationalisation and also certificates of quality.
• To strengthen the ecologic character.
• To take advantage of the biomass.
• To optimize the transformation process.
• Research&Development&Innovation.
• To create an unique corporative image "Sierra de las Nieves. Grupo Aloreña".

MESSE Delegation visited on the spot in Alozaina the premises of "Purísima Santiago SCA" one of the cooperatives of first level of which cooperative of second level Sierra de las Nieves is made up. At that place, they could see first-hand the production, classification, and selection processes of the olives.

Arte de Mis Manos/Crowdfunding project
The Shelter "Arte de mis manos – AL- ANDALUS" ("Art from my hands"- Andalusia) was born by the initiative of a benefactor, Mr. Pepe Bravo, who opened a sewing workshop to create employment in a disadvantage zone.
"Arte de mis Manos" is an enterprise with social character whose main difference from others is based in the attempt to recover ancient crafts (copper, pottery and carpentry, etc.), in a world where the new technologies emerge with an overwhelming force, letting the traditional handicraft in oblivion. Another important aspect which makes them differ from others is the rehabilitation work carried out with the workers themselves, in order to achieve the socio-labour integration of people socially excluded. Nowadays the project has been enriched by the creation of a dehydration machine of fruits and vegetables financed through a crowdfunding campaign. The above mentioned awareness-raising campaign made possible that in 80 days 106 financial backers were involved with a contribution of 5.500 EUR through the web platform and more than 10.000 EUR in kind, getting also an enormous impact in the media. It brought a new activity in the shelter: opening of a restaurant to taste the dehydrated products.

Read more here.

The 1st study visit was organised by the Lead Partner – Veneto Region on the occasion of Kick-off Meeting on 11-12th of April 2012. On the first day the partners get acquainted the Italian social economic system in the frame of 2 presentations. Mrs Franca Barison introduced the social cooperative system in Veneto, which explains the Veneto legal framework with regard with particular reference to the Law 381/91 which regulates the "Type A" and "Type B" cooperatives. As 2nd presentation the "Project CSR Veneto, working together for the Corporate Social Responsibility" was introduced by the Director of Unioncamere Veneto Gianangelo Bellati.

As afternoon session of the Steering Committee meeting, the 3rd study visit was organised by the Romanian Ministry of Labor and Social Protection in Bucharest, Romania. 2 Romanian Good Practices were visited by the partnership: Nazarcea Group and Touched Romania.

The Nazarcea Group was established in 2011 by reorganizing Multifunction Center Nazarcea as active as protection, integration and social inclusion of persons with disabilities as provided for in the National Strategy on special protection and social integration of disabled people in Romania. Its beneficiaries are adults with disabilities due to physical, sensory and intellectual (certificate of admission to type and degree of disability) or due to health conditions (mental illness and neuropsychological - proven by medical document proving) and seeking a job. The participants of the study visits could see the bakery, sewing workshop, laundry shop, car wash, candle and pottery workshop.
Touched Romania is a non-governmental organization established in 2005, working to prevent child abandonment and offering emotional, material and educational support to at risk mothers and their children.
Touched Romania consists of three main social projects:

• Hagar Home maternal center home—a residential shelter for mothers and their children, with a social reintegration program
• Volunteer program—community outreach with at risk children (ill and/or abandoned) in several hospitals and institutions in Bucharest, as well as, at the maternal centre home.
• Foster care program—offering emotional, financial and educational support for abandoned children in loving and responsible foster care families.

The partnership had the opportunity to admire the products of the "Touched Collection Jewellery" Program. The project believes in that jewellery making is a way to increase the self-esteem and a means to empower marginalized women and through offering them new skills and ways to earn income to help support themselves and their families. Their goal is to increase the involvement of the local community in helping to support mothers succeed in reintegrating back into society.

Read more here.