The third and final phase of the BREED project, funded by the SMP - Cosme programme, focused on creation and promoting guidelines for developing local action plans with the goal to foster social economy development. The objective is to ensure that the proposed process is readily understandable and implementable by other small and medium-sized communities across Europe.
The consortium of the project:
- Fondazione Comunitaria di Agrigento e Trapani (coordinator), Italy
- European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE), Belgium
- Mancomunitat de la Ribera Alta, Spain
- Municipality of Katerini, Greece
- Municipality of Paredes, Portugal
- Municipality of Alcamo, Italy
The project consortium with the successful completion of the first and second phase of the project which included the transnational capacity building program and the co-development of social economy action plans (SEAP) worked together to define the guidelines.
A primary element of the process is to understand the definitions of the social economy and how it relates to local development and then to identify the challenges of each region.
The action plan should be defined by some basic principles, such as being community-led, having participatory activities, working in conjunction with other local plans and policies, and focusing on proposing and implementing actions. Its basic structure includes the Reference context analysis, Vision and Mission Statements, Objectives and Goals, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and Priority Areas and Focus Sectors
As suggested the process for developing an action plan defines the phases:
- Building Collaborative Networks
- Identification of stakeholders in local level
- Local Community Stakeholders Engagement
- Creating synergies
- Institutional Framework and Support
- Identification of national laws and restrictions
- Capacity building programmes
- Mapping of local resources
- Definition of inclusive decision-making processes
- Co-designing local SEAP
- Identifying needs at local level
- Defining purpose and strategic objectives
- Implementation of the action plan and monitoring
- Communication and Outreach
- Designing effective communication strategies
- Community involvement
- Use of digital platforms
- Promoting the values of the social economy
You can find the complete documents here: