cura workshop june 7, 2010

CURA Workshop June 7, 2010

Jack Quarter Social Economy Centre,

OISE, University of Toronto

Social Economy Centre SOCIALECONOMY.UTORONTO.CA

SOCIALECONOMY.UTORONTO.CA

Objectives

• to understand the impact of social businesses in addressing the needs, both social and economic, of marginalized persons in the GTA;


Objectives

• to work with social businesses through a community-based participatory research strategy applied to 14 case studies to help the organizations develop strategies in building capacity around such needs as leadership, management, governance, marketing, and external supports such as access to capital and appropriate government policies, and to put in place a process for researching the effectiveness of these strategies;

Objectives

• to synthesize knowledge from these case studies plus a broader scan to assist the development of social businesses more generally.

• to add to existing knowledge on leadership, management, governance, marketing and finance of social business. This step will include the development of education and policies that relate to the capacity issues addressed in the research.


Social Business

• Social business, the central concept, is an unusual category of organizations that functions in the market but is created to fulfill a social need

• Three traditions: co-operatives, micro creditsocial enterprises


Context

• Groups on the social margins in the GTA, a wealthy region with growing pockets of poverty

• Groups with disabilities, recent immigrants, youth, homeless


General Approach

• community-engaged scholarship: Stanton (2007) as “the application of institutional resources to address and solve challenges facing communities through collaboration with these communities” (p. 5)

• recognizing the differing strengths of the partners to the research process and making the arrangement mutually beneficial


Four Stages

• The Formation stage, about six months: 1) undertake an environmental scan both of social businesses in the GTA and of new and emerging research in this field;

• 2) develop in greater detail the parameters for the case studies

• 3) engage in team building among the research participants


Four Stages

• Stage 2, The Case Study stage, about two years: consists of 14 case studies in the GTA

• Objectives are: to understand the impact of the participating

organization on its primary stakeholders to understand the capacity issues it faces to help the organization create strategies to

address those capacity issues


Case Study Stage

• All-Aboard Youth Ventures – River Restaurant. • Alterna Credit Union – the Community Micro Loan program • Atkinson Housing Co-operative .• A-Way Express Courier –• Common Ground Co-operative –• Eva’s Phoenix – Eva’s Print Shop • FoodShare – the Good Food Market• Furniture Bank/Furniture Link – • Sistering –Inspirations Studios. • Learning Enrichment Foundation – 18 childcare centres• Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment and Training – micro credit• Northwood Translation Bureau – • Libra Knowledge and Information Services Co-op Inc –Toronto

the Better• Working Skills Centre (WSC) –Academy of Computer &

Employment Skills


Stage 3: Survey Stage

• Understandings gained from the case studies will be tested more generally

• Broaden the sample to Ontario

• Assess generalizability to smaller communities

• Determine whether social businesses that are nonprofit differ from profit oriented in the social/economic balance


Stage 4: Knowledge Mobilization

• Final year: knowledge from the case studies and survey will be synthesized so as to create greater understanding of the issues related to social businesses:

theory building for social business management, leadership and governance organizational development and change attracting, motivating, retaining human resources challenges in financing and capital formation necessary external supports such as appropriate

government policies accounting protocols


Ongoing Knowledge Mobilization

• Book on social business• Conference presentations• Fact sheets and backgrounders, about two pages• Workshop Series and Certificate • Speakers Series • Annual Symposium • Higher Education Curricula: case studies• Secondary School Curricula: case studies • Policy Outputs:. For appropriate policymaking bodies • Network Communication: gateway thru Social

Economy Centre website: http://sec.oise.utoronto.ca/ monthly newsletter, ezine, collaborative communication


Conclusion

• Today’s meeting for stage 2 projects

• Objectives:

• Research teams start functioning

• Develop methodology, proposal and ethics

• Begin discussion of a vehicle for ongoing communication


• That’s it!!!!

cura workshop june 7, 2010

Documents