What can social economy do for social and labour inclusion?
The second seminar of the MoreThanAJob project focused on the role of Social and Solidarity Economy in creating quality jobs that promote access to employment for disadvantaged people. Social enterprise, by its very nature, plays an important role in job creation and assures the access of vulnerable groups to the labour market. Thanks to a strong community connection, it can actively contribute to sustainable economic development and more inclusive societies.
The meeting was an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs to share their successful grassroots experiences contributing to employment and social inclusion in the city of Palermo. One of which is Cuoche combattenti, a social entrepreneurship project that provides on-the-job training to women victims of violence. Its founder, Nicoletta Cosentino, who received a knighthood in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for her work, recounted her personal rebound story and how an internship in the food industry helped her to rediscover her true self and her passion for cooking. This led her to create a food company that offers economic emancipation to women who have suffered violence, allowing them to acquire new professional skills, self-reliance and self-esteem.
Employability is the combination of human (education, cognitive abilities and skills), social capital (formal and informal networks) and psychological capital (self-efficacy and self-esteem). All these elements are part of the In Gioco project, funded by Fondazione con il Sud and coordinated by SEND. To strengthen the employability of the migrant population, the project created an itinerant help-desk managed by a group of young migrants, who offer peer-to-peer- counselling and guidance. The project also supported the creation of Giocherenda, a social enterprise founded in Palermo by a group of young people with a migrant background.The word Giocherenda comes from the African language of Pulaar and means ‘strength through sharing’ and ‘joy of doing things together’. The word also sounds like the Italian verb giocare (to play), which inspired this group of young people to create artisanal, handcrafted toys. Thanks to the involvement of several organisations and experts, the group of young creatives has been supported through a training path and in the incubation and start-up process.
Self-entrepreneurship education is also at the core of Talenti in comune, coordinated by SEND in partnership with CESIE and the COT of the University of Palermo. The project aims to increase the employability of 52 students and graduates of the University of Palermo through career guidance and training in the field of social and cultural entrepreneurship. They will then be able to develop their own innovative ideas and present them to local social enterprises. This will lead to either a traineeship match with these organisations or to the provision of financial incentives to start up social businesses.
These examples clearly show how social enterprises can empower and support disadvantaged groups through employment programmes and job placements.
Finally, the call for sub-grants in Italy of the MoreThanAJob project was presented. The call aims at financing public-private projects that implement initiatives aimed at increasing the employment opportunities of vulnerable people. Project proposals must focus on one of the following areas: family and income support; health and counselling services; education and training; career guidance and employment support; culture and participation.
About the project
MoreThanAJob – Reinforcing social and solidarity economy for the unemployed, uneducated and refugees is a project funded by the European Union under ENI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. The project aims at enhancing the development of cooperation mechanisms between the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) actors and the public administration to improve the social services for vulnerable groups in order to increase their opportunities of social and labour inclusion.
Partners
- An-Najah National University – ANNU (Palestine, coordinator)
- Nablus Chamber of Commerce and Industry – NCCI (Palestine)
- Mutah University – MUTAH (Jordan)
- Business Consultancy and Training Services – BCTS (Lebanon)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Eurotraining Educational Organization SA – EUROTRAINING (Greece)
For futher information
See the project website and read more about MoreThanAJob.
Contact Giulia Tarantino: giulia.tarantino@cesie.org.
