Coinciding with the Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union, leading European players in the social economy are gathering in Gothenburg for a conference highlighting the role of the social economy in creating a stronger and more resilient Europe.

The conference, “Social Economy 2023 – Building a Stronger and Resilient Europe,” has been planned in close collaboration with European experts and stakeholders and will focus on the Social Economy Action Plan and its implementation. It builds on last year’s Strasbourg conference “Social Economy – Future of Europe,” which was included in the official program of the French presidency, and bridges to the equivalent event to be held under the upcoming Spanish presidency in San Sebastian, November 13-14, 2023.

The conference, organized by Coompanion in collaboration with Social Economy Europe, REVES, and CECOP, with support from the Västra Götaland Region, the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, and Fremia, also aims to highlight the state of the social economy in southern and northern Europe, thus providing a basis for the Council’s further work in this area.

For Torino Social Impact will be an opportunity to share the results of the Respondet project, an international consortium funded by COSME under social economy missions, dedicated to implementing local policies for improving the social economy in connection with the circular economy, with a focus on energy communities.

The Respondet project is led by Generalitat Cataluna and accompanied by REVES, which will also organize its annual meeting on the same days in the Swedish city.

Torino Social Impact participated in the first deadline of the Call for Pledges of the European Commission’s Transition Pathway for the Proximity and Social Economy, contributing several projects on stakeholder engagement, digitization of social economy actors, data for good, social procurement and networking.

The co-implementation phase of the EU Transition Pathway for the Proximity and Social Economy Industrial Ecosystem began on November 14 following a co-creation process. Stakeholders were encouraged to submit concrete commitments in the implementation of the dual green and digital ecosystem transition.

The initial deadline for submitting commitments was February 28, 2023. By that date, the European Commission collects and reviews the submitted commitments, although the call will remain open as the collection is done on a rolling basis.

This initiative is part of the updated EU Industrial Policy and the European Social Economy Action Plan. The purpose of the call was to collect pledges from stakeholders on the concrete actions they will take to help implement the shared action areas identified in the transition pathway.

Indeed, this is an important way to demonstrate stakeholders’ willingness to support the goals of this transition pathway and their commitment to work together to support the dual transition of the ecosystem and strengthen its resilience. Commitments will help fill gaps, pool resources to achieve common goals, and mobilize support at all levels.

The commitments collected will contribute to the co-implementation of the Transition Pathway. The Commission will work with stakeholders to support them in implementing their commitments by facilitating the exchange of knowledge and best practices.

All information on how to proceed is available at the following link.

A major European program for social enterprises engaged in paths of innovation and sustainability starts in Turin. EXTENDED TO 21 APRIL 12:00 (CEST)

Info – session on March 7 10 a.m. at link here

As part of the SocialTech for Europe for Resilient and Responsible Ecosystems (SocialTech4EU) project co-funded by the European Union in the framework of Joint Cluster Initiatives (EUROCLUSTERS) for Europe’s recovery, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini Srl SB and Torino Social Impact, who are coordinating it, are launching a call aimed at social enterprises to undertake training pathways, and a call for stakeholders and suppliers interested in working in the social economy sector.

SocialTech4EU aims to strengthen the resilience, innovation, competitiveness and sustainability of the social economy ecosystem, start-ups and small and medium-sized social economy enterprises. As such, it represents the largest support and training program for social enterprises in Europe. The project is co-funded by the European Union under Joint Cluster Initiatives (EUROCLUSTERS) for Europe’s recovery (for more information click here). Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini srl SB is coordinating the SocialTech4EU project together with Torino Social Impact.

The project has published:

1. A call for social enterprises* that provides funds to undertake training in enterprise, digitization and technological and innovative management – deadline: extended to 21 April 12:00 (CEST). For information: click here. Organizations selected in this call will have the opportunity to compete for additional funds in 2023/2024 for:
   • Innovation: up to €20,000 per selected company (up to 20).
   • Acceleration: up to €35,000 for each selected enterprise (up to 10).
2.  An invitation, always open for stakeholders and suppliers interested in working in/for the social economy sector: training and/or research institutions, universities and other institutions of higher education, technology providers, incubators, and accelerators are invited to become part of a stakeholder and supplier register, which selected companies in the project will consult to establish collaborations to support their green and digital transition. For information: click here

 

*Social enterprises as defined by the European Commission, but also start-ups with a social mission/impact-for details on eligible enterprises, see the Guidelines for Proposers.

 

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SocialTech4EU

21.11.22 / SocialTech4EU: a survey to support European social enterprises kicks off

On the 27th of January, project “Fit4benefit” kicked off. The training and networking path, designed for the Benefit Corporations inside Torino Social Impact, will include 4 meetings dedicated to core issues about sustainability and impact. Amapola hosted the first workshop, regarding Stakeholder Engagement: a primary topic for those who want to create a positive impact on the inner and outer world.

Who are External Stakeholders? Which strategies should we adopt in order to engage them? And how can we involve Internal Stakeholders too? How to strenghten Participation? Which tools can we use? These the main issues discussed during the meeting.

During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to experiment some Facilitating Tools and Tecniques, a Method that helps groups to work together and achieve common targets by activating the Collective Intelligence and turning Conflicts into Enrichment.

Here the video story of the day:

15 ETSs will be able to experience the service provided by the partners of the I3S project with the activation of temporary innovation managers, learning by doing, and mentoring

The new service of accompaniment to the digital transformation and technological innovation of the I3S Project is about to start: on 6 February, the pilot project will begin, allowing the first 15 Third Sector organisations in our territory to bring out new ideas and possibilities for development, digital transformation and social innovation enabled by ICT technologies, starting from their real operational needs.

The ETSs that will participate in this experimentation have been identified among those belonging to the three partner representative bodies of the I3S Project: Confcooperative Piemonte Nord, Legacoop Piemonte and VOL.TO Volontariato Torino.

The offer of services is broad and distributed among the actors in the territory, aggregating the already available services provided by the representative bodies and the extended network of the project partners, in particular Piemonte Innova, Confcooperative Piemonte Nord, Links Foundation and Legacoop Piemonte.

Advice can be obtained on the organisation of services and the optimisation of processes, systems and people, through to service design and the optimisation of currently active services. Basic literacy workshops and introductions to Office Automation and Microsoft technologies – both more commonly used, such as Office 365, and more sophisticated uses such as Microsoft Power Apps, Power BI, Power Platforms and Azure – are also available. ETSs will be able to make use of mentors on ICT topics and to identify funded opportunities for digital innovation, as well as to carry out assessments on cybersecurity and GDPR. In addition, important support will be provided for recruiting and bringing in young professionals from the digital world or working with thesis and PhD students, who can be useful to the organisation and help it grow in the long term.

This pilot is designed to bring value to the Torino Social Impact network, as it will test a new approach to the digitalisation of the Third Sector. In particular, from the questionnaires collected after the co-design phase, the potential of the project emerges in terms of the framing of the needs and skills required for the start-up of digitalisation paths by the organisations involved, the recognition by the organisations of the internal factors enabling digitalisation, the emergence of specific needs and peculiarities of the sector in terms of technological innovation (e.g. the need for implementation models applicable to the sector, sharing of experiences, tutoring and consultancy, etc.).

The validity of this approach will emerge in the medium term, thanks to an evaluation process from which results and limitations will emerge, providing the ecosystem with an effective digitalisation model.

The I3S project is supported by the Turin Chamber of Commerce and is part of the Tech4Good programme of the Turin Social Impact strategic plan, which also acts as a director. It is led by Piemonte Innova, which also coordinates and enables the network of enterprises and experts. It is conceived and realised in collaboration with the representative bodies that adhere to the Social Entrepreneurship Committee: Confcooperative Piemonte Nord, Legacoop Piemonte and VOL.TO Volontariato Torino.