Chief's "cut and paste" report on Korea trip

PURPOSE OF DISCUSSION PAPER

To provide a report on the attendance of Cr Mahood and the Chief Executive Officer at the Social Enterprise World Forum conference in Korea held in October 2014.

BACKGROUND

Wodonga’s future requires new approaches to doing business, and social enterprise presents a vehicle for achieving this. Social enterprises:

- operate for more than profit alone;

- foster social and environmental innovation; and

- are accountable to their employees, consumers and communities. 

Taken from: wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise

Social enterprise is, and will be, critical to the economy of Wodonga and the social enterprise business model could be an active choice for many of our city’s most innovative groups and entrepreneurs.

Taken from http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/our-priorities/strengthening-communities-and-fragile-areas/social-enterprise.html

The common thread of a social enterprise approach is to move beyond a ‘business as usual’‟ approach to tackling economic and social challenges. 

There are many opportunities in the Wodonga economy where social enterprise can have a significant beneficial impact. 

These include the creation of jobs for people excluded from work, local communities designing innovative solutions to challenges they face, and community investment in the green economy. 

Taken from socialenterprise.org.au/

Key themes during the conference included social enterprise as an employability solution, social care and health innovations in social enterprise, as well as workshops dealing with social investment, social innovation, education, and creating supportive social enterprise ecosystems.

Taken from www.socialenterprise.org.uk/

What is a Social Enterprise?

Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. They use the methods and disciplines of business and the power of the marketplace to advance their social, environmental and human justice agendas.

Three characteristics distinguish a social enterprise from other types of businesses, not-for-profits and government agencies:

- It directly addresses an intractable social need and serves the common good, either through its products and services or through the number of disadvantaged people it employs.

­ Its commercial activity is a strong revenue driver, whether a significant earned income stream within a not-for-profit’s mixed revenue portfolio, or a for- profit enterprise.

— The common good is its primary purpose, literally “baked into” the organisation’s DNA, and trumping all others.

In its early days, the social enterprise movement was identified mainly with not-for-profits that used business models and earned income strategies to pursue their mission. Today, it also encompasses for-profits whose driving purpose is social.

Taken from www.se-alliance.org/what-is-social-enterprise

Social Enterprise Leverage

Social enterprises produce higher social returns on investment than other models.

On one hand, they produce direct, measurable public benefits. A classic employment-focused social enterprise, for example, might serve at least four public aims:

- Fiscal responsibility — It reduces the myriad costs of public supports for people facing barriers, by providing a pathway to economic self-sufficiency for those it employs.

- Public safety — It makes the community in which it operates safer by disrupting cycles of poverty, crime, incarceration, chemical dependency and homelessness.

- Economic opportunity — It improves the pool of human capital and creates jobs in communities in need of economic renewal.

- Social justice — It gives a chance to those most in need.

Social enterprises produce these benefits while reducing the draw on public and philanthropic funds.

Their earned income streams can supplement or replace grants and donations to produce a higher return on investment. 

For example, a not-for-profit that earns 50% of its budget through its social enterprise is effectively matching every dollar of “public income” with a dollar of “marketplace income”, doubling the social return on investment of those public dollars.

Taken from www.se-alliance.org/what-is-social-enterprise

Social entrepreneurship is the product of individuals, organisations, and networks that challenge conventional structures by addressing failures, and identifying new opportunities, in the institutional arrangements that currently cause the inadequate provision or unequal distribution of social and environmental goods. 

Social enterprise is a business model which contributes to a more sustainable society by offering the prospect of greater equity in economic participation.

Taken from Australian stories of Social Enterprise, by Cheryl Kernot and Joanne McNeill, University of NSW, 2011

Social enterprise offers a business model where people can be given a direct voice in running their organisation, and where people can positively change their lives and the lives of those around them.

The value of social enterprise can be seen beyond its economic contribution. It embraces the principles of mutualism, participation and community ownership, while being driven by 

competitiveness, productivity and sustainability. 

Social enterprise is an approach that brings together the best of business and community development.

http://socialenterprise.org.au/

As Wodonga grows and experiences increasing demand for services it will be important to work with the community to ensure that those people and groups that struggle to gain employment are actively engaged in activities that impact productively on their every-day lives, and have meaningful links to the community.

Wodonga already has many community managed organisations that are social enterprises or have similar characteristics (e.g. Westmont and Uniting Care), however the opportunity to grow this sector utilising the learning from the conference are significant.

Since attending the conference in Seoul council is defining the opportunity to conduct a community forum that showcases existing social enterprises in Wodonga. New and emerging opportunities for the private sector to be involved in supporting these ventures are being organised. This may involve some of the key participants who were in attendance at the special enterprise forum in Seoul.

Not lifted, words by Patience Harrington

Wodonga’s approach will be threefold:

1. Continue to invest in building the capacity, confidence and business skills of those individuals and groups 

who are most vulnerable and often marginalised from employment opportunities;

2. Empower communities to acquire, manage and exploit community assets for community benefit; and,

3. Enable sustainable growth in the social economy through strong social enterprises.

Taken from scotland.gov.uk/topics/government/state-aid

Chief Executive Officer - Patience Harrington 

In providing this advice as the report author, I have no interests to disclose in this report.

Recommendation

That the report on the Social Enterprise World Forum Seoul South Korea be received and noted.