Social economy in Romania

The social economy specialists took part in the courses on social economy organized between 21st – 25th of September 2012 in Deva, Romania. The event was part of the project “Creating and promoting social economy instruments for the inclusion of marginalized groups on the labour market” conducted by Romanian organization “AUR” A.N.S.R.U and its partners, including KARAT.

KARAT contributed to the courses by conducting a workshop “Social Economy in Europe” as an introduction to the e-course being developed within the project. The e-course will focus on the experiences in social economy from different European countries. It will provide information and examples of good practices in the areas of organizing social economy, cooperation between social economy enterprises, local communities and commercial business actors, and development of social economy enterprises in different sectors (i.e. production, services etc). The e-course will be a part of wider online education program on different aspects of social economy developed within the project for Romanian beneficiaries. KARAT’s workshop in Deva was an opportunity to present the key ideas for the e-course to its future participants and gather their feedback on the proposed structure as well as suggestions for its improvement.

September 2012

Social economy of mothers – good practice from Poland

Social economy can be an answer to the problems of different groups of women who find themselves outside the labour market. One of such groups are young mothers, who face difficulties in finding employment after having a child and related to it break in their professional career.

Moms Cooperative – a social economy enterprise founded last year in Warsaw, Poland is a good example of an initiative which provides young mothers with a chance for decent work. The cooperative is producing handcraft inspired by folk art and the members’ experience as mothers, which adds value to the goods.

Moms Cooperative like other social economy enterprises, combines economic and social goals. While the economic success is important for all members of the cooperative, at the same time they aim at activation of women at risk of marginalization both in society and in the labour market. They focus on single, underage, permanently unemployed mothers and support cooperation between them. The profits that the Moms Cooperative brings will be allocated to the improvement of qualifications of its members as well as ensuring sustainability of the enterprise. When they will have larger surpluses at their disposal, Moms plan to allocate them to support other women who are interested in developing their own social economy initiatives.

The Cooperative is developing, it has recently opened an internet store. The Moms present their products and idea of social enterprise at various events related to the socially responsible business initiatives. They become more and more recognizable and count on a success of their initiative.

July 2012