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Across the world, millions of people are creating better ways to tackle some of the most challenging social problems of our times. “This is European Social Innovation – A call for inspiring stories” proves that Europe is no exception.
From over one hundred inspiring social innovation stories, spanning twenty-three countries, the jury chose 10 projects which illustrate some of the most promising innovations happening at the moment in different fields and countries across Europe.
The current financial and economic crisis makes social innovation more important than ever - both as a component of economic strategies to build Europe’s relative position in growing fields such as healthcare and environmental services, and as a vital contribution to achieving greater value for money in public services. We must look to social innovation to stimulate a more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable social market economy.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of social innovations in Europe. Many are very well established - from the Mondragon group of Cooperatives in the Basque Country in Spain, to France’s Emmaus communities which are now established all over Europe and Italy’s San Patrignano which is now the largest drug rehabilitation community in the world. Some are less well established, as individuals, communities, organisations and companies begin searching for new ways, and adapting old ones, to address the modern societal challenges.
Despite this activity, the field of social innovation has yet to mature enough to tackle the multitude of challenges society presents it with. Many innovative projects and programmes remain small, under-funded, and are not sustainable, therefore having restricted impact. Funding specifi cally intended for growing social innovations is limited, and often provided by philanthropists. In order to move from its current state of fragmented good ideas, to a place where social innovations are making a more consistent, more efficient impact across all areas of need, successful social innovations in Europe must be more visible.
So together, Euclid and SIX networks, with the support of the Social Innovation Park in Bilbao, Spain, and the European Commission launched “This is European Social Innovation – a call for inspiring stories”. The aim was to identify and highlight some of the most promising innovative initiatives, thereby raising the profile of social innovation across Europe, and creating an impact beyond the established social innovation community. The 10 selected projects were identified because of their potential for impact, and relevance to the issues facing Europe.
After this iniative SIX was appointed by the European Commission to set up the Social Innovation Europe (SIE), an initiative to build and streamline the social innovation field in Europe. To find out more information have a look at the SIE website.