Three counties show best how to support social enterprises

It’snot usual for businesses in Mayo to call businesses in Tipperary or Limerick for advice, and vice-versa, but in the world of social enterprise surprising things are possible.

Over the past two years, three local development companies –there are 49 across the country – linked up 30 social enterprises in these counties for training and development. It culminated in a day of questioning in Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, on Thursday, October 20th.

The questions asked covered the future of social enterprise in Ireland and how national programmes such as LEADER and the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) can be better attuned to support them. Who better to ask than staff and volunteers involved in heritage projects, community cafés, arts centres, carers’ groups and local tourism outfits?

They included, to name but three, people from Roots Community Café in Co. Limerick, the Michael Davitt Museum in Co. Mayo and Burncourt Community Council in Co. Tipperary. (The full list of social enterprises is listed below).

They came together due to work in support of their semicommercial ventures led by three LDCs – West Limerick Resources, South Tipperary Development and South West Mayo Development. The LDCs couldn’t have done it on their own, but knew where to go for funding and support.

Overall, the ‘Co-operating to Succeed’ (C2S) initiative covered 11 areas through 22 workshops over the two years. Yvonne Corcoran Loftus, a museum curator from Mayo, said it helped her staff to upskill in areas such as marketing.

“The training has had a direct influence on the things we achieved,” she said.

So what sets a social enterprise apart from a regular business? Social enterprises work primarily to improve the lives of people, with profits from their business activities reinvested in pursuit of social objectives. They are more often than not unable to operate fully commercially, but have a key business element to their operation. (An official definition is provided on the following page).

Training was one part of the C2S initiative. What made it different was that bespoke training was also provided on-site to each of the 30 social enterprises. The aim was to make them highly effective operators and for them to connect with and learn from each other.

Caoimhe Lalor, a community development student on placement with ‘Changing Ireland’ attended the final day in Newcastle West and spoke to organisers and social enterprise leaders. She wanted to know what made it work.

BY CAOIMHE LALOR

Katie Murray, rural development officer with West Limerick Resources, said, “Over two years ago, we sought to work with partners in the same position. That is how we have South Tipperary Development and South West Mayo Development working with us.

“We were all similar but different. The social enterprises in West Limerick generally would be new and wouldn’t have [thought of] calling themselves social enterprises. We also had longer established ones. They needed supports that were different to what we normally roll out.

“We wanted a bespoke programme tailored for each of the social enterprises, which was similar to what Mayo and Tipperary wanted as well.

“We came together and submitted a form for LEADER funding, which was successful. Caroline Egan of Cramden Tech secured the contract and we worked with Caroline to develop a programme of supports.

“This was planned just as Covid was kicking off and we had to take into consideration the restrictions. We would have liked more frequent physical meetings, but we had to hold meetings online. The programme still met the objectives that it was supposed to meet and the three development companies worked very well.

“We have made connections between three counties. We have supported 30 social enterprises - ten in each county and they've all made connections among themselves.

“We as development agents also learnt from each other," she said.