The MESSE Video

Get to know the MESSE project, the partners behind the project and their work by watching the MESSE video.

The main objective...

... of the MESSE project is reinforcing and improving the effectiveness of regional policies in supporting and promoting socially responsible economic development, through identification, analysis, benchmarking and dissemination of best practices in legal, tax and operational instruments adopted by public authorities for enhancing the Social Economy. Within the newly proposed Europe 2020, the European Parliament has identified a need to promote the development of this sector, via the strengthening of the cooperation between public institutions, social enterprises and for profit companies.

 

HomeNews-TopSOCIAL ENTERPRISE AND LOCAL COMMUNITY: A COMPARISON BETWEEN ITALY AND UNITED KINGDOM
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SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AND LOCAL COMMUNITY: A COMPARISON BETWEEN ITALY AND UNITED KINGDOM

On last 10th and 11th July Community Action Hampshire organized a very interesting study visit which took place across several cities in Hampshire (UK).

The study visit allowed the partnership to compare the UK social enterprises' progress and networking' strategies with what is actually happening in each partner region.
The Lead Partner participated with representatives of Unioncamere Veneto and two members of the Venetian cooperative system.
Getting to know several organizations working in many different fields such as education, social, health and wellness, management of community centers, sports, music production, and online services for business, the 25 participants were able to see the strong vitality of UK's social enterprises and the wide variety of legal, organizational forms and areas of intervention.
The UK's common law system facilitates the develop of many social enterprises, facilitating the start-up phase and supporting the companies in their growth independently from the public administration' financial supports.
All the visited social enterprises started their experiences from the solo action of the founder / leader which have been immediately followed by the local community, working together for the social enterprise' growth.
Far from an helpful and charitable perspective, Hampshire's social enterprises runs and are particularly active on the market because they find the resources for its own development. They work on the elaboration of projects, integrate and vary their human capital (staff, experts, consultants, volunteers), establishing networks and increasing strong relationships with the territory, which is their most winning attitude.

 

 

Closely watching these kind of enterprises, it's also common to find women in a responsibility positions: on the one hand, it stresses a heightened sensibility in caring people (especially of disadvantaged one) and an vivid awareness of social issues of the community, on the other, suggests how the increased flexibility of social organization would make it more easier to reconcile work and family needs.
In almost all studied cases, the use of web technologies is not decisive for the genesis of the company, and remains confined to instrumental functions. The emphasis is rather on organizational innovation: even the smallest and "youngest" social enterprises chose for structured internal dialogue strategies, for a systematic contacts with stakeholders, for a qualitative / quantitative assessment of performance.
MESSE study visits and common work is allowing the partnership highlighting those methodological aspects which as a consequence help each partner understanding its own local reality, starting from the needs of operators and going through stable working relationships.
Indeed, the purpose of the Project is not merely cognitive.
In fact, the development of tools to support the growth of the social enterprise, the dissemination of new methodologies implemented by excellent experiences across Europe named good practices, the development of a system for mentoring in support of social entrepreneurship, the consolidation of transnational networks with the involvement of public and private actors at different levels, are equally important and form the core activities of the project.
Next study visits will be organize in Spain (Andalusia, September 17 to 18) and Greece (Attica, 12-13 November).