Social Enterprise
The idea behind Social Enterprises is simple. Whereas for some businesses, owner profits and shareholder value are top priorities, for social enterprises, long-term benefits to employees, consumers and the local community are the major consideration.
As well as their social aims, they are distinguished by their participatory ownership and management structure, and by the way they reinvest profits in the business or the community.
Social enterprises come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from innovative business support services in former coal mining communities, to the internet service provider that first put Tony Blair online…from credit unions and community nurseries to high-tech print shops.
They include community enterprises, social firms, mutual organisations (such as co-operatives) and large scale organisations.
In our region of the East Midlands, they can:
- Provide a means for individuals and communities to improve their local neighbourhoods;
- Develop the skills and talents of local people;
- Bring excluded groups into the labour market;
- Create wealth and jobs;
- Deliver value-for-money services in wide range of sectors;
- Promote active citizenship;
- Catalyse innovative solutions to local needs.
Essentially, they use business solutions to achieve public goods.
In an age of diminishing grant availability and a changing public sector, they have an increasingly significant role to play in the communities they serve.
Social enterprises has a key role to play in improving services, creating jobs, enriching local economies, and unleashing entrepreneurial talents across the East Midlands.
MEEM is working with:
