Emma McEvoy led a 'Social Enterprise Opportunities for Growth' workshop on Wednesday 28th November in the Rediscovery Center in Ballymun. The workshop offered practical advice for social enterprises bidding for public contracts. The event was held as part of the European Commission's 'European Social Economy Regions 2018 Pilot Project.' Dublin is one of 30 regions participating in the project. Estelle Baccconnier from the European Commission (DG Grow) provided an overview of developments in the European social economy and Duncan Walker from the Irish Social Enterprise Network summarised developments in the social enterprise sector. Emma presented her Ph.D. thesis findings, her research was kindly funded by the Irish Research Council.
See below for futher information on the project:
The objective of the project is to build networks of stakeholders and to raise awareness about the Social Economy at regional and local level. Social Enterprises play an increasingly important role in economic and community development as they lead to job creation, social inclusion, cost savings and sustainable service delivery. The project thus brings together regional and local stakeholders, social enterprises, innovators and policy-makers in order to promote the benefits and contribution of the Social Economy and social enterprises. Further info on the project can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/european-social-economy-regions-2018-pilot_en