The social economy and the social business, established by the municipalities, are becoming more and more popular tool for the local and regional development and support of people with low qualification. Based on the experience, both from Slovakia and from abroad, the municipality social business is often the only tool for the local development support, in the environment of small municipalities. The main motivation of the municipalities at establishment of the municipality social business is increasing employment of local people. However, the practice shows that the functional municipality social business implement a lot of activities focused on education of own employees, on support of their skills and on support of the community development and the overall municipality development. In spite of the big interest of the municipalities in Slovakia, currently there exists no supporting structure, where the municipalities could gain training, education or skills, necessary to establish / or to successfully manage the municipality social business. The similar situation exists in the Czech republic. In spite of the great interest and the efforts from municipalities, the practice show that one of the biggest problems of municipalities, in relation to the municipality social business, is the inability to identify the real business opportunity and afterwards to elaborate the sustainable business plan, which would meet both the standards of the business environment, as well as the criteria of the social business. The principles, used in relation to the identification of the business opportunity, creation of the business plan or sales of the products/services, are the same at standard business and at municipality social business. The only difference between the standard business and the municipality social business is in division of profit: the profit, generated by the municipality social business, is not divided among the shareholders or business founders, however, the profit is used in favour of the solution of the particular social problem. The municipalities have to understand that the municipality social business is not the institution, whose establishment and functioning is fully financed from the public sources. Within our activities we cooperate with the municipalities, which are willing to perceive the municipality social business as the standard business subject, which is based and operated with the aim of local development and incorporation of people with low level of qualification. Thus, it mostly supports business skills and thinking of the inhabitants in the municipalities. The project objective is: - create accredited educational program in the area of social business, designed for the municipalities; and through transformation of the educational program into the e-version, published on internet, create the database of the freely disseminated information about the municipality social business - verify the capacities of the municipality social business in relation to the support of capacities of people with low level of education and qualification; - verify the capacities of the municipality social business in the tourism, in relation to the support of the capacities of people with low level of education and qualification (mainly people from Roma communities); - define the recommendations for the relevant institutions, in relation to the municipality social business, as the tool to support the capacities of people with low level of education and qualification directly in the municipalities. The main aim of the project is: - increase the qualification level at minimum 20% of the project participants out of the total number of 100 (people with low level of education and qualification) - strengthen the entrepreneur skills and thinking (of the social business, so the business with the positive social impact) in minimum 70 municipalities - initiate the debate among the stakeholders about the legislative and financial framework for the support of the municipality social business, focused on support of the capacities of people with low level of education and qualification. The project activities will be primarily used in Slovakia, however, when they are created and used, the experience with the support of the social business from Slovenia, Czech Republic and Poland will be used. During the project implementation, the special attention will be given to the tourism as the main, however still not used area of the municipality social business.
Establishing of municipal social enterprises has become a popular tool of support for people with low qualification or education as well as tool of the local or regional development. Experiences from abroad show that the municipal enterprises are often the only relevant source for the local development. Social enterprises include more benefits for the engaged actors: education of employees, support for their skills development, support for the community development and overall development of the locality. Despite the high level of interest from the side of Slovak municipalities, there did not exist structure for providing education and skills needed for managing social enterprises. The situation was alike in the Czech Republic. From the above-mentioned situation raised the need to create a more systematic training program. The main output of the project activities was development of the training program which was offered to municipalities, as well as to wider range of stakeholders in the area of social economy. The aim of the training program was to strengthen the entrepreneurial thinking in the municipalities leading to sustainability and independence on public resources. The content of the project: - to develop accredited training program of municipal social entrepreneurship - to create a freely accessible database of information about the municipal social entrepreneurship as a mean of strengthening of the capacities for people with low education or qualification background - to empower entrepreneurial skills and way of thinking in 70 municipalities The curricula of the training program had been co-created by all the partner organizations and applied on 12 seminars (in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland). Overall 245 participants enrolled the program, which exceeded the original expectations of the project more than three times. The freely accessible online training program is the first platform in Slovakia providing all the information needed for the successful establishment of the municipal social enterprise. The most important impact of the project is development and practical use of this tool contributing to employment and employability of the disadvantaged people. In addition to this, we have been successful to spread the impact of the project into the legislative environment as well. Three of the lectors of the training seminars in Slovakia were simultaneously part of the expert team for drafting Law on Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship at Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic. Thanks to training seminars organized in different regions, we could identify barriers obstructing successful establishing of social enterprises. The findings were transferred to the proposed Law on Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship. Transnational aspect of the project enabled to share the good practice examples from various contexts and countries. The project activities were realized in consortia of five partnering countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia and Scotland. All the engaged organizations are active in the area of the social economy.