SENIOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURINGBuilding capacity among seniors to serve as social change brokers in communitiesSocial innovations do not happen by themselves. Throughout their life cycle, they need to be supported and nurtured if they are to make an impact on society and the economy. Empowering people, driving change – social innovation in the European Union, European Commission, 2011CHALLENGEThe context for the project and at the same time the key messages from Commission policy can be split into two sets of emergence:EMERGING SOCIAL NEEDSThese include such needs generated by globalised economy, the restraint of public spending and services and the well-known demographic changes in the European population. Such needs are:- the need to re-engage seniors of all ages and backgrounds in the production of economic and social value- the need to find new solutions to existing and emerging social challenges not addressed by the open market and not sufficiently addressable by public services- the need to engage users, clients and citizens in creating such solutions- the need to create dynamic social change mechanisms to respond flexibly to the fast changing global and local economies, social infrastructures and labour marketsEMERGING CHANGE OPPORTUNITIESThese include such opportunities generated by increasing consensus among policy-makers, researchers and professionals on what kind of innovation is needed, possible and attractive, and what innovation means – including recent re-thinking of the terms innovation, social innovation and social economy.These opportunities for change recognise :- recognising that social innovation is a driver of and contributor to economic growth- recognising that social entrepreneurship goes far beyond establishing a private company and embraces all sorts of initiative-taking, whether for profit or not- recognising that authentic social innovation cannot happen to but with people, and that social innovation needs top-down as well as bottom-up initiative-taking to be successful- recognising that social innovation includes a wide range of societal challengesPROJECT MISSIONThe project objective is to mobilise teams of seniors in participating project communities and beyond to build capacity among them to serve as SOCIAL CHANGE BROKERS in these communities, spotting social change needs, bringing together relevant stakeholders and citizens and facilitate or drive the social change process, and to exploit the social change processes to sustain their activity through creating appropriate organisational frameworks, be it as volunteers, association members, employees, consultants or social service providers.The project brings together 3 top priorities in Europe 2020 policy:1. The need to retain or re-engage the increasing number of European seniors as active social and economic contributors2. The need to bring about social innovation as an alternative to traditional public services3. The need to promote entrepreneurial mind-sets and initiative-taking in the communitiesThe project brings together those policy needs in a strong, systematic and sustainable, yet practical and realistic way: - it will mobilise groups of seniors in EU communities to build capacity to act as SOCIAL CHANGE BROKERS in the communities, identifying social change needs and facilitating the change process by bringing together relevant stakeholders across relevant sectors, including activating citizens as co-drivers of social change.A senior social entrepreneur can be a CATALYST of social change.PARTNERSHIPThe consortium brings together 8 partners from 6 EU countries: practice partners, knowledge partner and an experienced quality partner.The Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark, coordinates the project.OUTCOMESThe project will along its 24 months duration produce the following key outcomes:SENIOR SOCIAL RESOURCE CENTER SUPPORTI AM A SOCIAL CHANGE BROKER – WHAT R U?PORTFOLIOS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURINGPOLICY PAPER – LESSONS LEARNED FROM SENIOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURINGPOLICY PAPER/GUIDANCE – EUROPEAN FUNDING AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURINGResulting from the continuous transnational networking of seniors through the project and serving as platform for further European initiatives a network will be established by the seniors engaged in the various phases of the project, including:- senior social change brokers from the first group, serving as mentors for new seniors along the project- second group senior social change brokers mobilised and capacity built through the project- seniors engaged through the collaboration with what is called neighbouring communities and communities in other countriesNew initiatives can build on the lessons learned from the project and similar and might address a variety of EU funding measures.In particular, the project aims to create a qualified EaSI initiative to be submitted in 2017 or 2018, taking the Senior Social Entrepreneuring and similars.
The context The Senior Social Entrepreneuring project works one of the most important social and educational challenges in 21st century Europe – re-activating the overwhelming social and educational potential of the increasing number of experienced seniors in society to help them build capacity to serve as SOCIAL CHANGE BROKERS in these communities. There is a growing population of healthy older people with the skills, financial resources and time available to contribute to economic activity through extending their working lives, including through entrepreneurship and volunteer work, which is proven to give a positive impact on a person’s mental health. Therefore, we wanted to use the project as a platform to encourage older people to be active citizens and create social innovation as an alternative to traditional public service and furthermore becoming mentors for other potential entrepreneurs, both youth and seniors. The project objectives were to mobilize teams of seniors in participating active in the communities and beyond to build capacity among them to serve as SOCIAL CHANGE BROKERS in these communities. The project succeeded with bringing the policy needs in a strong, systematic and sustainable, yet practical and realistic way. We mobilized groups of seniors and build-up their capacity to act as ´Social Change Brokers´ in EU communities. They identified social needs and facilitated the change process towards a concrete social solution to the problem/need identified. In the capacity building process, they learned how to be a catalyst of social change by bringing in relevant stakeholders across sectors, implementing their initiative and to make their initiative sustainable. Number and profile of participating organizations The consortium brought together 8 partners from 6 EU countries: ´practice partners´, ´knowledge partner´ and an experienced ´quality assurance partner´. The coordinating partner was the department of Health Care in Aarhus Municipality (Denmark), while the primary target group in this department is citizens older above 65 years. The knowledge partner was INRCA, a public national organization in Ancona with the main aim of contributing to a holistic understanding of the ageing process from a demographic, social, economic and political perspective. The quality assurance partner was Working with Europe (non-governmental), who has a lot of experience regarding EU projects by helping partner organizations create innovative ideas and support the quality of the work processes and outcomes. The rest of the partners acted as practice partners; 3 non-governmental organizations, one university in England and one public corporation in Barcelona dealing with general interests of commerce, industry and services. Description of undertaken main activities The activities such as project meetings and outputs have contributed to let the partners and participants be aware of what is happening around the six local communities in the project. At the capacity-building seminars a network of European seniors were established. They have learned to act as senior social change brokers and to bring social innovation in the local community. In the end, each local community group arranged a multiplier event, where they promoted their initiatives and told the citizens in their local community about the role as a senior entrepreneur and the impact of the project. Results and impact attained The Erasmus+ project SSE has been an important stepping stone towards understanding the importance of seniors’ active role in the local community. The impact of the project has been very positive as the seniors took the stage and they were the main stakeholders of this project and drove the activities. In our opinion the project has been a success, which is visible by the ongoing activities and the sustainability in most of the 16 initiatives. The project creates or promotes social change in different scales and with different stakes, which helps not only the senior to feel useful, but also to be useful to others, whether it is by playing music for the local communities’ elderly or by supporting and mentoring asylum seekers to include them in the community. The plan is not only to make the 16 initiatives sustainable, but also to implement the meaning of a senior social entrepreneur into the local communities, thereby securing the meaning of a senior social change broker and how to act upon this. Our participating seniors expressed their interest in a future European project, where their new senior-driven social innovation practice can be put into further use by focusing on isolation and loneliness in both rural and urban areas. It’s worth mentioning that our French partner Pistes Solidaires applied for a KA2 Adult Education project, ARTEM, this spring at the French agency and the project was granted. Their initiative began in the Senior Social Entrepreneuring programme and now it is made sustainable by their new project.