The Ministry of Welfare starts a large cycle of social entrepreneurship activities
The Ministry of Welfare starts a large cycle of social entrepreneurship activities “developing social entrepreneurship together!” funded by the European Social Fund. The diverse activities planned to strengthen and develop the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latvia will take place by November 2023. They will be implemented in collaboration with industry organisations – Latvian Social Entrepreneurship Association, “New doors”, “Reach for Change Latvia” and “all opportunities”.
The cycle activities are aimed at various audiences, existing and emerging social entrepreneurs, industry stakeholders, municipalities, investors and policy makers, young people, business incubators and organisations with opportunities and resources to create a social entrepreneurship-friendly environment.
For existing social enterpriseswho want to increase their social impact and strengthen their business model will be able to participate in an eight-month social entrepreneurship incubation programme. The application will begin in the first week of January. The additional incubation programme for social enterprises will have the opportunity to receive individual support for measuring and managing social impact, while networking will be carried out in summer – for the exchange of experience and information. Similarly, existing and future social entrepreneurs will be able to receive advisory support for investment attraction and various other topics, focusing on strengthening capacity in areas such as business model and business plan development, financial and social impact modelling, presentation skills.
Natural and legal persons who have the idea of social entrepreneurship, or who are currently implementing a social project and would like to turn it into a sustainable, floating business, will be able to participate in a social entrepreneurship acceleration programme. Its aim is to provide knowledge and personalised expert support to emerging social entrepreneurs in the way of ideas to a sustainable business plan while promoting the personal growth and awareness of the participants. This programme will also start in the first week of January 2023.
In autumn 2023, an intensive seminar course will be offered for successful start of social entrepreneurship “social entrepreneurship school”. These lessons are intended for social entrepreneurship stakeholders, idea authors and beginners in social business fields from across Latvia.
Intensive and targeted work with local governments will take place in the activity cycle “developing social entrepreneurship together!” – as early as 2022, informative seminars have been launched for their employees on the development of social entrepreneurship and the attraction of social enterprises for the performance of local government functions. Seminars will be held in all 43 municipalities. In order to promote co-operation between social enterprises, different organisations, planning regions, state and local government institutions, regional domains will be organised, where the parties involved will develop action plans for further development of the sector. In turn, organisations and groups of different interests that could potentially develop as social enterprises will be invited to participate in workshops on social business modelling. Broader information seminars with the participation of social entrepreneurship ambassadors and social entrepreneurs will also be held.
Activity cycle it is also intended to provide proposals integration of social entrepreneurship and social economy aspects into other field planning documents and activities, as well as will be performed in Latvia social enterprise survey on measuring social impact.
More information and participation in all activities of the activity cycle will be available on the website of the Ministry of Welfare www.lm.gov.lv in the “News” section, as well as on the Facebook account and website of the Latvian Social Business Association www.sua.lv.
