Social cooperatives and for-profit enterprises in Trentino, new areas for collaboration
How can work integration social cooperatives and for-profit enterprises develop a deeper collaboration to further promote the work integration of disadvantaged people? Euricse’s new project focused on production chains and job opportunities will provide cooperatives and local enterprises with guidelines to establish new forms of collaboration. The first fourteen partners took part in the virtual kickoff meeting at the end of October 2020. They included: Progetto 92, Alpi, Vales, Gruppo 78, Lavoro, Oasi Tandem, Consolida consortium, AM service, the Trentino federation of cooperatives, the Agenzia del Lavoro, Confindustria, CIA Italian Farmers and two international social enterprise networks, ENSIE (European Network of Social Integration Enterprises) and La féderation des enterprises d’insertion.
While social cooperatives in Trentino are generally economically solid and work in diversified sectors, they are more likely to produce goods and services on behalf of public institutions. According to ImpACT data, 62% of their income is generated from contracts with public authorities.
In order to further develop and grow – and to provide more jobs to disadvantaged people – social cooperatives in Trentino might find new opportunities seeking increased collaboration with local private enterprises, creating new partnerships and network contracts.
With this new research Euricse will provide a tool box to test new practices and new actions together with for-profit enterprises. Euricse researchers will start from local analysis, then they will move to the Italian and the international context in order to understand in which sectors social enterprises can establish new partnerships, how to build them and what legal frameworks encourage and support them.
