Chair: Jonathan Bland, Managing Director, Social Business International Contributors: Jordi Picas i Vilà, Director of Innovation, Suara Co-op (via live video link) Álvaro Porro, Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Consumption, Barcelona City Council Laie Vidiella, Communication Manager, La Pera There are an impressive number of social economy enterprises in Barcelona, with 1,197 employee-owned businesses, 861 co-operatives, 260 community-economic initiatives and 2,400 other third sector organisations. It is estimated that the sector generates around 8% of all employment in Barcelona, with over 53,000 full-time employees, and produces an economic turnover of €3,750 million, over 7% of the city’s GDP. Over the past 4 years the city has invested around €13 million in its efforts to promote and grow the social and solidarity economy. This has been based on a strategy (the Impetus Plan) which aims to consolidate the existing social economy enterprises and promote and support new initiatives. The city council has a department with its own Commissioner for the SSE and has developed a range of measures including raising awareness of SSE models, advisory services for start-ups and existing ventures, financial support in the form of grants and bank guarantees, access to use empty council premises, the use of social clauses in council tenders and the promotion of inter co-operation between SSE organisations. This session will look at the learning from what has been done over the past four years and the plans for the future under the recently elected new administration. Jonathan Bland, the founder of SBI, is an international expert on social enterprise with 30 years experience working in this field. Since 1998 he has been a leader in the UK social enterprise movement bringing together a diverse range of people and organisations under the umbrella of social enterprise. First as Executive Director of Social Enterprise London and then as CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition (now Social Enterprise UK), Jonathan Bland helped the British Government to create a highly innovative policy framework for social enterprise and supported the development of some major programmes in the field of public service innovation, enterprise and employment. He campaigned successfully to win widespread cross-party political support for this type of business. He has also worked promoting social enterprises in Finland and been expert advisor to the European Commission and helped to develop the European Commission’s Social Business Initiative. In the 1990s Jonathan lived in Spain for five years where he developed and managed a series of innovative European projects for the Valencian Co-operative movement. Previously he worked with co-operatives in London and in Wales. Jordi Picas is the Director of Innovation at Suara Co-operative, a social economy company from Catalonia with more than 35 years of experience in the care for people sector. With more than 4,500 professionals, SUARA responds to care, assistance and educational needs of children and young people, families, people who require some kind of support to be more independent, people who want to enter the labour market or whose aim is to improve professionally, and also to people who need support to overcome crisis situations. He is the driver of the Suaralab Laboratory for social innovation, with the goals of transforming ideas into projects and the incorporation of technology in our business, and ensure maximum efficiency are key issues of the future. Álvaro Porro has been the Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Consumption within Barcelona City Council’s Commissioner’s Office since July 2019. This Office is responsible for fostering the emergence and growth of the city’s Social and Solidarity Economy, whether by providing support for all current social and solidarity economy initiatives or by encouraging the creation of new ones. Its scope for action includes the Social and Solidarity Economy, Time and Care Economy policies and the area of Consumption, which involves the plans and strategies for promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy, plus the government measure for democratising care, and encouraging responsible consumption and food policies. It also extends to Local Development, in order to give a new impetus to local economic development policies in the neighbourhoods, linking them to consumption policies, and promoting social and economic projects that help to transform the social and business reality by means of initiatives geared towards creating wealth and jobs. Laie is a partner of the cooperative communication agency “La Pera”, which works mainly for solidarity economy projects from a feminist perspective and incorporating cooperative values in the different phases of the communication process. Among other projects, Laie coordinates the communication of Coòpolis.
Chair: Jonathan Bland, Managing Director, Social Business International Contributors: Jordi Picas i Vilà, Director of Innovation, Suara Co-op (via live video link) Álvaro Porro, Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Consumption, Barcelona City Council Laie Vidiella, Communication Manager, La Pera There are an impressive number of social economy enterprises in Barcelona, with 1,197 employee-owned businesses, 861 co-operatives, 260 community-economic initiatives and 2,400 other third sector organisations. It is estimated that the sector generates around 8% of all employment in Barcelona, with over 53,000 full-time employees, and produces an economic turnover of €3,750 million, over 7% of the city’s GDP. Over the past 4 years the city has invested around €13 million in its efforts to promote and grow the social and solidarity economy. This has been based on a strategy (the Impetus Plan) which aims to consolidate the existing social economy enterprises and promote and support new initiatives. The city council has a department with its own Commissioner for the SSE and has developed a range of measures including raising awareness of SSE models, advisory services for start-ups and existing ventures, financial support in the form of grants and bank guarantees, access to use empty council premises, the use of social clauses in council tenders and the promotion of inter co-operation between SSE organisations. This session will look at the learning from what has been done over the past four years and the plans for the future under the recently elected new administration. Jonathan Bland, the founder of SBI, is an international expert on social enterprise with 30 years experience working in this field. Since 1998 he has been a leader in the UK social enterprise movement bringing together a diverse range of people and organisations under the umbrella of social enterprise. First as Executive Director of Social Enterprise London and then as CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition (now Social Enterprise UK), Jonathan Bland helped the British Government to create a highly innovative policy framework for social enterprise and supported the development of some major programmes in the field of public service innovation, enterprise and employment. He campaigned successfully to win widespread cross-party political support for this type of business. He has also worked promoting social enterprises in Finland and been expert advisor to the European Commission and helped to develop the European Commission’s Social Business Initiative. In the 1990s Jonathan lived in Spain for five years where he developed and managed a series of innovative European projects for the Valencian Co-operative movement. Previously he worked with co-operatives in London and in Wales. Jordi Picas is the Director of Innovation at Suara Co-operative, a social economy company from Catalonia with more than 35 years of experience in the care for people sector. With more than 4,500 professionals, SUARA responds to care, assistance and educational needs of children and young people, families, people who require some kind of support to be more independent, people who want to enter the labour market or whose aim is to improve professionally, and also to people who need support to overcome crisis situations. He is the driver of the Suaralab Laboratory for social innovation, with the goals of transforming ideas into projects and the incorporation of technology in our business, and ensure maximum efficiency are key issues of the future. Álvaro Porro has been the Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Consumption within Barcelona City Council’s Commissioner’s Office since July 2019. This Office is responsible for fostering the emergence and growth of the city’s Social and Solidarity Economy, whether by providing support for all current social and solidarity economy initiatives or by encouraging the creation of new ones. Its scope for action includes the Social and Solidarity Economy, Time and Care Economy policies and the area of Consumption, which involves the plans and strategies for promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy, plus the government measure for democratising care, and encouraging responsible consumption and food policies. It also extends to Local Development, in order to give a new impetus to local economic development policies in the neighbourhoods, linking them to consumption policies, and promoting social and economic projects that help to transform the social and business reality by means of initiatives geared towards creating wealth and jobs. Laie is a partner of the cooperative communication agency “La Pera”, which works mainly for solidarity economy projects from a feminist perspective and incorporating cooperative values in the different phases of the communication process. Among other projects, Laie coordinates the communication of Coòpolis.