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The EU budget, including the European Social Fund
Eurodiaconia works with partners to ensure a strong social agenda and therefore a strong budget for social issues. In this work Eurodiaconia is specifically working to facilitate access of not-for-profit social service providers to the European Social Fund and to broaden the Fund's scope to address social exclusion and poverty, by proposing changes to the programme.
Measuring growth and well-being
Eurodiaconia has produced a briefing on the discussions about how to move "beyond GDP" indicators to measure societal progress. Eurodiaconia is in contact with ecumenical partners to examine how to promote indicators that take into account more than just economic output.
Measuring Social Value
Eurodiaconia has published a briefing for members on tools to measure the added social value and economic impact of an organisation’s activities. Knowing the social value an organisation creates through its services can help justify funding as well as support advocacy for investing in social services.
Community Engagement and Development
Eurodiaconia co-organised a project, managed by interdiac, on examining methods and theories of community development, engagement and orgainising in diaconia. More information about the on-going work can be found in the articles below.
Social Economy
Eurodiaconia wrote a briefing looking at how the social economy is defined by different actors, and looks at different types of social economy activities. It includes a section on Work Integrating Social Enterprises. Eurodiaconia held a workshop at its 2011 AGM and conducted research among its members to understand how the social economy is seen in diaconia and how it can be supported as the European Commission discusses promoting the social economy, particularly in the light of the Social Business Initiative. This led to a discussion document for members which invited feedback and will link to Eurodiaconia's meeting on the Social Economy in June 2012.
Social Innovation
Innovation is currently one of the EU's buzz words. Within this the European Commission is promoting social innovation, in terms of supporting and facilitating the mainstreaming of innovative ways of meeting social needs. Eurodiaconia is taking part in the discussions at EU level with partner organanisations to ensure that actions publicised are carefully evaluated and really are examples of social innovation, as well as that tools for evaluation and scaling up of innovations are promoted.
NEWS
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Positions and recommendations on the Social Investment Package now online |
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16 May 2013
Eurodiaconia contributed to the responses to the Social Investment Package, (Eurodiaconia briefings here), from the Social Platform and Social Services Europe both of which are now online. Both documents welcome the general approach of the package of documents and propose recommendations on its implementation, including offering civil society organisations as partners.
The Social Platform position outlines the network’s understanding of social investment, the positive elements of the package and points of concern. The Social Services Europe response presents recommendations including in the areas of EU Funds, the European Semester process, employment in the social service sector and social innovation.
However, some concerns are raised by the networks and Heather Roy, as President of the Social Platform, mentioned some at the EU conference on the SIP in her speech. There should have been more focus on social rights, conditionality of benefits risks discrimination and should be addressed very carefully, it must be made clear that employment is not the only way to participate in society and when talking of public expenditure it should be about better not less spending.
Irish minister Joan Burton called for full employment to be the goal of economic policy and that the SIP provided the method and the motive for a shift in thinking in policy. Lázló Andor, Commissioner for social affairs, employment and inclusion stressed the importance of the social investment approach for reducing disparities, stating that “a house divided against itself cannot stand”, and that “Investing in people is the best investment we can make”. Many participants stressed the importance of building coalitions to ensure the approach was understood by national governments and used by those fighting to uphold their welfare states. |
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European Commission publishes social investment brochure |
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The European Commission, specifically DG Employment, have published a brochure explaining the social investment approach to recovery during this time of economic and financial crisis. The brochure explains the Commission's guidance to Member States to modernise their welfare systems, as well as outlining the integrated approach found in the Social Investment Package (published in February). The document also shows where the money would come from at the EU level. In a forward written by the Commissioner for Employment, Inclusion, and Social Affairs László Andor, he states that "[the EU] can restore and maintain prosperity in Europe if we invest in our human capital, from cradle to old age."
To download a copy of the brochure in English or to request a printed copy in English, French, or German, please click here. |
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People in Diaconia meeting report |
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2 May 2013
The full report from the annual People in Diaconia network meeting which took place on 9-10 April in Brussels is now available to download.
Please click here to read the report |
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Seminar discusses how to support social innovation in the social economy |
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12 April 2013
The Skåne Region in Sweden hosted a seminar this week presenting its cooperation agreement to support the third sector in the region. The agreement is designed to promote the third sector as an actor in welfare provision and its role as advocate; to support the added value of non-profit distributing activities and encourage ventures to improve participation in society and combat isolation.
The agreement explicitly states that the region is not trying to cut costs through the initiative, nor should voluntary work be a way to cut back on public welfare commitment. A network representing the third sector, including not-for profits, communities and foundations, was developed to facilitate the agreement, and will continue to work with the regional authority on topics such as volunteering and social entrepreneurship and innovation.
Nesta, a UK charity supporting education, research and innovation, presented their work to support social innovation, highlighting their innovation lab, which supports to develop “radical new responses to the most pressing social and economic challenges”. The speaker noted actions that can help to promote the third sector: educate public authorities about the work and potential of the sector, have a clear business model, show impact and outcomes and how activities could be scaled up.
A German not-for-profit consultancy iq consult spoke of their incubator for social enterprises and their “social impact lab”, a co-working space for social entrepreneurs. They assist people and organisations to become financially independent. He noted the challenge of scaling social enterprises’ work, and that the German government scheme to support social enterprises was too large scale; small enterprises often do not have the capacity to use such grants. However, crowd-funding was used successfully by one of their clients to create a social cooperative.
The French region of Languedoc-Roussillon presented their social economy and social innovation development strategy, which includes a business incubator, a shared working space, a school for social enterprise management, social cooperatives and a social business fair. Investment came from the region as well as from the EU European Regional Development Fund. |
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People in Diaconia discuss values-based training in diaconia |
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12 April 2013
This week the People in Diaconia network meeting took place in Brussels. Members shared their internal policies and training programmes for values-based training of staff. It was stressed the importance of starting by “looking in the mirror” with leaders of the organisation and then providing training to all staff across levels as a team building exercise. The group was also able to discuss their current challenges in recruiting and the retention of staff in the care sector. In particular members working in rural areas are experiencing a real shortage of qualified staff as many are working in the cities where the salaries are higher. In Finland studies show that by 2025 there will be a serious shortage of personnel (25,000), because people are living longer, therefore they will need a lot of migrant works. The group also looked at diversity management and the link to diaconal identity. It was discussed whether our values could be our unique selling point as an employer. A full report from this meeting will be available soon. |
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
