Supported Paths to Employment -
Social Entrepreneurship Is a Resource

The goal of the SOSVOIMA development partnership (DP) has been regional (KUUMA municipalities that are situated some 30-50 kilometres north of Helsinki) empowerment of social entrepreneurship. The DP has participated in the efforts to meet the challenges of the EQUAL Programme and produced measures and results that develop the Finnish model of social economy and social enterprises.

The SOSVOIMA DP contained four processes that complemented each other: KNOWLEDGE, STRATEGY, DIALOGUE and LOBBYING. The KNOWLEDGE process produced information on the learning and motivation of counsellor-supported job seekers (job seekers that need special support), and on regional networks of social entrepreneurship. The STRATEGY process created a regional strategy for social provision of employment with proposals for action. The DIALOGUE process organised dialogue forums to roll out the strategy, and the LOBBYING process embedded the results through productisation and mainstreaming.

Social entrepreneurship means socially responsible entrepreneurship that creates jobs for disadvantaged people. By strengthening the operational preconditions of social entrepreneurship through the action models it has developed, the SOSVOIMA Development Partnership has enhanced the possibilities of counsellor-supported job seekers to find rehabilitating work. The goal is that counsellor-supporter job seekers find their niches in the labour market.

The KUUMA municipalities have shown interest in social entrepreneurship

Especially entrepreneurs find social entrepreneurship as a positive phenomenon, but further information and concrete tools are still required to support job creation.

There are about 2000 counsellor-supported job seekers in the KUUMA municipalities. The unemployment rate in the area is less than 5 percent, which means that many industries suffer from labour shortage. It is a challenge for enterprises to employ disabled or long-term unemployed people. There is, however, motivation, to employ disadvantaged job seekers.

The main messages of the SOSVOIMA Development Partnership to the actors that can influence social entrepreneurship are clear. Social entrepreneurship can offer the KUUMA municipalities new ways to promote employment opportunities and social welfare. In practice, this can be done by including social entrepreneurship and job creation in the regional employment and industrial strategies. For third-sector organisations, social entrepreneurship offers an opportunity to be involved in socially and economically rewarding activities. As to business enterprises, the cooperative models show that economic goals and a social value basis can be in balance with each other.
A presentation of the KNOWLEDGE Process can be found in a report Supported Path to Employment - Social Entrepreneurship Is a Resource.

Further information:
Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, Diak South
Harri Kostilainen
Manager, working life services
+358 40 501 9394
harri.kostilainen@diak.fi