Social entrepreneurship and the social economy can be particularly attractive to young people, people with disabilities or chronic illnesses and their careers, people with an immigrant or refugee background, women and other under-represented entrepreneurs.
Through social entrepreneurship, informal forms of work can be transformed into social services, such as caring for people with chronic health problems, which are now undertaken by either family members – usually women, young people, and even children – or people with immigration and refugee status background. Such a transformation is to the benefit of both those with chronic problems and those who provide informally important social services.
The presence of women entrepreneurs is higher in social entrepreneurship (OECD, Women’s Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Huysentruyt M., Paris, 2014), than in conventional entrepreneurship where the female presence corresponds to only 30%.
Awareness of these alternative business models of the social economy could improve the attractiveness of entrepreneurship in general and contribute to labor market integration.
The younger generations show great interest in sustainability, climate protection, biodiversity, the cooperative and green economy as well as energy democracy and, therefore, the social economy may be of interest to them as a model of economic activity that combines environmental interest, innovation, participatory governance and the common good. In recent years, entrepreneurship education has become somewhat more widespread in education systems, in some countries. Of course, much needs to be done in all Member States. In any case, business models of the social economy, including cooperative forms, are still far from being an integral part of all entrepreneurship education and business administration courses at universities or other institutions, and much more to be seen on an equal footing with other models. Entrepreneurship and business administration.
Read below some good examples of social innovation and social entrepreneurship in health and social care services:
Hireup:
Hireup is a network of people with disability, their families and home care and support workers. Hireup is Australia’s largest NDIS registered online platform. It provides the tools for people with disability to find, hire and manage their own support workers.
Consorzio SGS:
Promoting social enterprise is an essential mission of Consorzio SGS. Since the beginning of its activity, to achieve this important goal, Consorzio SGS activated elaborated an important activity named “Tutoring”. Tutoring is an innovative activity.
Family Careers Ireland:
It is estimated that there are more than 100 million careers in Europe today. Family Careers Ireland is a national charity supporter, which helps family careers across the country. They care «for loved ones such as children or adults with physical or intellectual disabilities, frail older people, those with palliative care needs or those living with chronic illnesses, mental ill-health or addiction. Their aim is to make life easier for careers in their daily lives. Feeling listened to and understood is of primary importance. Also, to help careers to find good logistics for their routine in order to optimize their time and to relieve them. They want family careers to be fully recognized, supported and empowered.