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Social enterprises blend economic with social and/or environmental goals in order to correct injustice or other serious errors in our ways of life. In so doing, they find themselves subject to scrutiny from the worlds of business, nonprofit and charitable organizations, as well as government. Social enterprise essentially demands a higher level of achievement than any other type of organization. The following items from The CED Digital Bookshop offer examples of some of the most inspiring social enterprises in North America, what makes them tick, and what is holding them back. Most, implicitly or explicitly, contain advice for managers and policy-makers for improving social enterprise performance. A click on any title will forward you to the Bookshop to place your order. (All are free of charge.) Nothing here that fits the bill? There's plenty more. Drop us a line to let us know just what you're after. TRAINING ENTERPRISES 1. A Day in the Life of le Boulot Vers For nearly a generation now, Montréal's Le Boulot vers ... has been helping young people make the break from poverty, alienation, and dependency, and discover instead a world of opportunity. LBV's vehicle: a carefully-managed training and woodworking business through which interns experience the discipline and the satisfaction of being a craftsperson. (Aussi disponible en français.) Since 2001, a small shop in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has been serving 1000s of meals to some of the city's most sick and isolated residents, while training and employing others in food preparation. Now, after three years, the Potluck Café has "made it" - it's breaking even. Its sales to "market-rate customers," topped up with grants and in-kind donations, are finally covering costs. Manager Liz Lougheed Green knows how much and how long it's taken to reach this goal, and wonders: just what is a realistic financial goal for social enterprise? Youth at risk programming achieves a whole new level at All-A-Board, which uses an upscale restaurant and woodworking shop to train youth in general employability and marketable skills, and to generate 40% of its budget. What comes first, the training or the sales? Both! 4. Saskatoon's Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op CNYC has come of age. Having for the past four years and more managed to balance the necessity of adult supervision with that of teen (and even pre-teen) engagement and decision-making authority, it has at last cadre of determined, reliable young co-op members. In no small measure, its success is accountable to a powerful mixture of environmentalism, co-operation, and business sense.
SECTOR & INTEREST-BASED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 5. Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation Economically prostrate in the mid-1980s, the town of Revelstoke, B.C. has demonstrated how a small community can regain a say in its economic future. Its latest claim to fame: RCFC, a community-owned forest corporation that is managing to strike a balance between profitability, community interests, and provincial forestry standards. Shrewd leadership, solid research and advice, and a determined citizenry are turning back a generation of reliance on urban, corporate, and senior government decision-making. Their great size and market notwithstanding, Cooperative Home Care Associates (New York) and Childspace Day Care Centers (Philadelphia) have plenty to teach Canada's co-operators, CED practitioners, and social enterprise developers. Sherman Kreiner explains how our social entrepreneurs can and must buck CED convention and create businesses that raise the bar in select industrial sectors, to the benefit of both customers and low-income populations. The Co-operative Employment Partnership Program is a singular approach to self-employment that marries the strength of Nova Scotia's co-operatives with the provincial welfare system. Launched five years ago and still going strong, CEPP backs the endeavours of social assistance recipients to form co-operatives with three things: a) vetting of business ideas by the Credit Union Central, b) a provincial equity investment (instead of a wage subsidy) to be repaid from co-op dividends, and c) a mentor co-operative that assists the fledgling under a management contract. This is a very good example of building a web of supports that fosters successful social enterprise. 8. Revolution within a Revolution Québec's decade of experimentation with health care and social service co-operatives has given rise to a reconfiguration of the actors in the health system. No longer do people talk about a system with two actors. Rather than wait for the State or for physician-entrepreneurs to supply needed services, more and more citizens are taking effective action through the structure of the solidarity co-op or that of the non-profit community-based organization. (Aussi disponible en français.) Marie-Annick Taillon and Alain Leclerc tell a story of uncommon success - the rise of funeral co-operatives in Québec and the retreat of their multinational competitors, despite the enormous potential this market holds in the coming 40 years. Key has been the co-operatives' drive to educate and empower a membership, as well as supply cost-effective funeral services. (Aussi disponible en français.) 10. What Value Social Enterprise? Atira Women's Resource Society has found itself well-positioned to make property management serve its greater goals and turn a profit as well. Business has given a creative, independent outlet to much of the time and energy once given over to fund-raising. While recognizing the immense value of this experiment, executive director Janice Abbott explains the limits as well the benefits of flowing from their success. (Aussi disponible en français.) 11. Strategic Management of Women's Social Enterprise A study of women's social purpose businesses in the U.S. reveals that their longevity is due, in part, to three practices: they accommodate the complexity of women's social responsibilities; they enable workers to assume the duties of managers; and they make job quality a matter of paramount importance. (Aussi disponible en français.) 12. Tracking the Social Impact of Solidarity Co-Ops In addition to goods and services, our "post-modern" societies seem able to generate social exclusion at an unprecedented scale. This may place the co-operative, and the solidarity co-operative in particular, at a strategic nexus. An organization that reconciles enterprise with association between diverse local actors, is the solidarity co-operative an effective way to strengthen social cohesion? (Aussi disponible en français.) 13. New Generation Co-operatives Their exclusiveness puts them at odds with some co-operators and CED activists. New Generation Cooperatives are nevertheless an effective instrument of rural revitalization, particularly in the agriculture sector and when housed within a broader CED strategy. 14. A Case Study of the Kitsaki Development Corporation This selection from the book Regional Development from the Bottom Up (CCE, 1993) details the experience of one of Canada's foremost development corporations in the 1980s. Kitsaki's skill in the identification of strategic sectors and leveraging its assets to secure a role and benefits from those sectors has set a standard as yet unsurpassed. (An addendum updates the profile to 1999.) 15. Anatomy of a Joint Venture The common interest of Tr'on dek Hwechin'in and Loki Gold Corporation in the First Nation's traditional lands did not lead to a court battle or blockade. This paper explains in detail the negotiating process through which the two parties clarified the benefits they could bring - and could expect to receive - from the development of the Brewery Creek Gold Mine. 16. Success Without Succession? In a world where 80% of small businesses, never mind social enterprises, fail within five years, Inner City Development Inc. is a great success. It is turning a worthy social "profit" as well as a financial one for its investors. Yet ICD may not be all that long-lived, nor is likely to be replicable. What then do social entrepreneurs have to learn from it?
PUTTING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN THE LARGER CONTEXT 17. Revelstoke, B.C. The experience of Revelstoke, B.C., demonstrates the components, principles, and impact of a CED strategy on a rural community endangered by the decay of its traditional economic base. This is an article that complements the case study on the forest corporation cited earlier, placing it in the broader context and the longer term community economic development process undertaken by this "Mountain Town With A Vision" over the last 20 years. 18. Common Ground What does community economic development have to do with the Social Economy? What does the Social Economy have to do with CED? Much, argues Mike Lewis. To stem the flight of wealth, people, and power from marginalized towns and neighbourhoods, CED strategies embrace an array of initiatives that touch on the lives of residents both socially and economically. Social Economy engages and empowers people by fostering enterprises rooted in principles of democracy, solidarity, and citizenship. These are two distinct, yet complementary approaches to revitalization, and their practitioners would do well to combine forces - now - to create a policy and institutional environment friendly to both. (Aussi disponible en français.) 19. CED & Social Economy in Canada: A People's History Much of the Canadian experience is about the loss or outright destruction of community. Here Mark Cabaj describes the other side of the ledger: the many and varied strategies, institutions, and tools that people in Canada have created over the years to preserve community against an array of forces. The principles and insights that underlie modern-day CED and social economy enterprises are part of a tradition that stretches back beyond the Great Depression, beyond the Industrial Revolution, to Canada's original inhabitants. (Aussi disponible en français.) 20. Transformed By Community Economic Development It's taken well on 20 years, but the decline of Montreal's old southwest quarter has been halted. A community-driven strategy, unprecedented in Canada for its scale and comprehensiveness, has turned six rundown neighbourhoods into a hotbed of socio-economic creativity and a political force to be reckoned with. The Executive Director of RESO, the local community development corporation, explains how this transformation has come about and what challenges the Southwest has yet to face - now that it has a future. Please note, this CED organization has created hundreds of jobs through social enterprise since 1998. (Aussi disponible en français.) 21. New Synergies How do co-operatives do it? Once a means by which factory workers defended themselves against the abuses of early industrialization, the co-operative remains an instrument of choice today, eminently adaptable to both social economy and community economic development. What sets it apart is the capacity of the model to reshape itself to the twists and turns of multiple human needs, at the macro as well as the micro level. This article profiles four co-ops to demonstrate how people today are applying this tool to purposes too complex and in settings too demanding for the private or public sector alone. (Aussi disponible en français.) 22. Credit Unions & Development Finance There are ways (short of infiltrating the board) to get your local credit union out of the bleachers and into the streets. Here's how some credit unions in Nova Scotia are getting a handle on community development, putting the social back into the credit union movement. 23. Team Players What would it be like if government officials responded to CED initiatives not with detachment or disdain (or alarm) but eagerly, as committed partners? It's been happening in Nova Scotia. The whole experience has hinged on a few personalities who are determined to make public resources part of the local solution. 24. A Nation's Economic Catalyst Here's that same love of place, but now from an Aboriginal standpoint, and with a keen strategic edge. Hupacasath, a small First Nation with a small city on Vancouver Island, is figuring out how to mine skills, resources, and connections from each business or project, and invest them in the next. 25. Venture Capital for Social Enterprise Like any venture capital organization, Social Capital Partners of Toronto has to separate "exciting ideas" from "worthwhile investments." But that's where the similarity ends. SCP is looking for partners with the will and the way to achieve real social returns as well as financial ones - to meaningfully employ the hard-to-employ as well as compete on the open market. Sean Van Doorselaer explains this selection process and the strategic lessons that it has for the CED sector as a whole.
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