We invite you to consider the breadth of activities that are being undertaken in your territory in order to raise awareness and promote social entrepreneurship, such as contests or promotion campaigns for social entrepreneurs and social enterprises, through various channels of communication.
Why is it important?
Awareness-raising activities are key when it comes to promoting social entrepreneurship. Even if the social economy is rather well-known and established in the European socio-economic context, local communities can still have limited knowledge about social entrepreneurship, sometimes confusing it with other kinds of entrepreneurial approaches, like for example corporate social responsibility.
An effective way for local communities to become more familiar with social entrepreneurship and social enterprises is to have easy access to relevant, tailor-made information. This information can come from existing formal channels, such as specific sections within chambers of commerce or public bodies dealing with entrepreneurship or employment, thus targeting job-seekers and/or enterprises already established with a different legal form (e.g. for-profit, cooperative, etc.).
Awareness-raising can also be achieved through featured success stories of social entrepreneurs through traditional and online media channels (e.g. websites, social media, local press, radio, TV channels, etc.). This can inspire citizens and spur an interest among individuals or groups of citizens to form social enterprises, and then to discuss the path they followed, including challenges encountered and how they were overcome. Stories from the media can also simply inspire citizens to buy products and services from social enterprises.
“Entrepreneur-of-the-Year”-like contests can also give visibility to success stories and encourage people to follow inspiring model, including “Social-Entrepreneur-of-the-Year” and local contests that can provide a tailor-made, closer-to-the-target approach. Finally, events like conferences and forums provide chances for social entrepreneurs to meet and connect with each other and other relevant actors (see the good practice example below).
In order to score high, in your context:
- Social entrepreneurs are showcased as role models.
- Contests for social entrepreneurs are organised.
- Social enterprises are promoted through various communication channels (e.g. online, press, radio, local community media).
Good practice examples
Impact Summit (Germany)
The Impact Summit is one of the biggest social entrepreneurship conferences in Germany. The summit brings social entrepreneurs from all over Germany together and gives them a chance to connect with each other and with other stakeholders such as cooperation partners and investors. During the two-day summit everything is centred around social innovation, social entrepreneurship and social impact. More than 40 speakers of different backgrounds are actively involved, giving presentations, holding interactive discussions and organising workshops.