REPORT of 34th SFE CEFEC online Conference – 19 March 2020

1 OVERVIEW of Countries and Speakers

SOLIDARITY was the most used word during the 2020 SFE CEFEC CONFERENCE organized by Bucovina Institute in Suceava/Romania. Considering the current global context, on 19th of March 2020, we organized the the 34th Annual Conference of Social Firms Europe (CEFEC) online, on the ZOOM Platform, this year’s theme being INCLUSION BY EMPLOYMENT. Christiane Haerlin, the 2020 SFE CEFEC President, marked the formal opening of the event, together with the General Secretary, Petru Vasile Gafiuc.

The following countries were represented: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, East Jerusalem, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, North Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, with more than 60 people participating online at the conference.

The speakers focused on the following aspects:

Felicitas Kresimon, President of Duemilauno Agenzia Sociale from Italy emphasized the successful factors of the inclusive employment and the opportunities for the migrants, approaching, at the same time, the topical subject of Coronavirus, not only because she lives in the most affected country from Europe, but also because she considers that organizations like CEFEC can make a difference.
Roland Z’Rotz from Switzerland who received the CEFEC Award five years ago (in 2015) presented the Social Firm – Oeko Service Ltd as an example of ”Green & Social Business”, which combines the ecological and social aspects, offering workplaces to the individuals with or without a handicap and apprenticeships/ vocational training for people with a handicap.
Another example of Green and Social Business was presented by Richard Mehmed, the founder and the Managing Director of Community Wood Recycling, a network of Social Enterprises working in the Environmental sector and aiming to build a more sustainable society. They save resources, reusing waste wood and they change the lives of disadvantaged people. They are GREEN and they are SOCIAL!!!
Doctor Bob Grove from Mental Health Europe (UK), the author of the book New Thinking about Mental Health and Employmentand he approached the topic of Mental Health at Work, considering that a mentally healthy workforce is a productive workforce and that a mentally healthy workplace is in close connection with the organizational culture and with the relationships between people working within an organization.
Asta Jaseliuniene from ZISPB Lithuania prepared a presentation on Win-Win potentials for the SEPAL project. Unfortunately, she couldn’t participate at our Online CEFEC Conference and she was represented by our Special SFE CEFEC Technical Secretary, Alina Bîrsan from Romania. She presented the partners (Romania, Spain, Greece, Lithuania and Poland) involved in the Supporting Employment Platform through Apprenticeship Learning – SEPAL, financed through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment, including the main activities developed during the period of the implementation in order to improve the employment situation of the NEETs. COLLABORATION is the key word of our path to success.
Umberto Carrescia is well-known for his projects regarding social inclusion of the migrants within CIRCLE Association and Cita Azzura Social Cooperative Italy. Within our Online CEFEC Conference, he explained the meaning of the development corporations and emphasized the fact that is CEFEC’s duty to support the worldwide development cooperatives. He has been recently to Africa in order to monitor all their projects and they presented another project in Tanzania, Arusha, intending to set up a cooperative for the Masai widows who are thrown out of the community with their children when they lose their husbands. Through the establishment of a cooperative and through training (textile production) they will be able to protect these women. A CEFEC delegation of 5 people will go to Tanzania to monitor the project regarding the Masai widows and evaluate what CEFEC can do for these women.
Patrizia Bussi, the Director of the European Network of Social Integration (ENSIE) and since 2012, member of the European Commission expert group on social business (GECES) has a large experience regarding the social cooperatives. Within the Online CEFEC Conference, she presented ENSIE, which was founded in 2001 and unites 27 national/regional networks of WISEs (Work Integration Social Enterprises) from 21 European countries, supporting the development of national and regional WISEs networks and fostering the exchanges between the national and the EU level to promote recognition of WISEs.
Erdmuthe Klaer-Morselli, Deputy Secretary General of REVES (European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy), with expertise on strong lobby at EU Commissions and EU Integroups, expert and speaker within European Economic and Social Committee. She presented REVES, an international non-profit association, founded in 1966, which aims at promoting the social and solidarity economy, for a fairer, inclusive, participative and responsible society, being based on partnership between local authorities and integrative approach. REVES’ activities include: Exchange of knowledge, experience and know how; Experimentation / Joint Project Development; Dialogue with European and national policy-makers.
A founding member of CEFEC, Athina Fragkouli– Sakellaropoulou, Ph. D. She had organized several times the CEFEC Conferences and she is well-known for being a faithful member of European Disability Forum (EDF). EDF fights for the human rights, implicitly for the rights of the individuals with disabilities, promoting the equal opportunities and defending the interests of approximately 80 million Europeans with disabilities. More than that, EDF constantly and continuously fights against prejudice, discrimination and stigma, closely cooperating with European Parliament (Disability Intergroup), but also working with the European Commission and the Council of Europe. Her final and conclusive message was that we have to WORK TOGETHER FOR INCLUSION!

2 VIDEO of the Conference

The video of the Conference is available HERE!

3 AGENDA OF THE ONLINE CONFERENCE

14.00 – 14.10: Opening by Christiane Haerlin, 2020 SFE CEFEC President, and Petru Vasile Gafiuc, SFE CEFEC General Secretary

14.10 – 14.15: Presentation of the 2020 SFE CEFEC Award winner (Daniel Buechle / AfB Social & Green IT Germany)

14.15 – 14.25: Successful factors of inclusive employment. An opportunity also for Migrants? (Felicitas Kresimon / Duemilauno Agenzia Sociale Italy)

14.25 – 14.35: Green and social business (Roland Z’Rotz / Oeko Service Switzerland)
14.35 – 14.45: Green and social business (Richard Mehmet / Community Wood Recycling UK)

14.45 – 14.55: Success factors – How to support a mentally healthy workplace (Bob Grove / Mental Health Europe UK)

14.55 – 15.05: Win-win potentials – SEPAL project (Asta Jaseliuniene / ZISPB Lithuania)
15.05 – 15.15: Win-win potentials – project opportunities in Africa (Umberto Carrescia / Cooperativa Social Citta Azzura Italy)

15.15 – 15.25: Together for inclusion – CEFEC and its partners in Europe (Patrizia Bussi, ENSIE/Belgium)

15.25 – 15.35: Together for inclusion – CEFEC and its partners in Europe (Erdmuthe Klaer, REVES/Belgium)

15.35 – 15.45: Together for inclusion – CEFEC and its partners in Europe (Athina Fragkouli, EDF/Greece)

15.45 – 15.55: Questions from participants
15.55 – 16.00: Conclusions (Christiane Haerlin)
16.00 – 16.10: Break
16.10 – 17.00: SFE CEFEC Annual General Assembly meeting

4 OPENING WORDS

Christiane Haerlin, President CEFEC,

Petru Vasile Gafiuc, General Secretary CEFEC,

The 34^th CEFEC Conference in Dortmund had to be cancelled because of corona. The online conference helped to preserve some of the best contributions, encouraged CEFEC and the participants to not give up, but focus on CEFEC trends of the future: workplaces for disabled and disadvantaged, strengthening the European network and supporting green economy.

Opening words of the 34th CEFEC online Conference, 19th March 2020

Christiane Haerlin, President

Dear Friends and participants of the 34th CEFEC Conference.

I welcome you under very different conditions as we had planned.

In my present bewilderment – and I might share this with many of you – the whistle blower Eduard Swnoden , who has been in quarantine in Moscow for the last 6 years, has helped me with this simple sentence:

„Where ever who you are and in which ever place you are physically – this is where the virus can catch you – you are, at the same time, elsewhere – thanks to the internet.“

Physically we are in Romania, Italy, Finland , Greece, Switzerland, Germany…and at the same time we are elsewhere, namely HERE.

I am grateful to Vasile and his team that we get the chance of this online conference to communicate with you in over 15 countries.

Having started this network with others in 1987 and attended ever since, you cannot imagine how I was looking forward to this 34th CEFEC conference in Dortmund, with the specialty of a Fair to see what social firms can produce and cater for. We had this only twice in England and Austria.

I am happy you decided to take part today and we will distract you from corona and lead you to our CEFEC topics of today and tomorrow .

Perhaps we can apply what so many of our disabled and disadvantaged have to do, when they are coping with depression and crisis and indeed two things can helped :

* It is known that in crisis you are creative out of necessity – Have you heard of the Italian citizens who go on their balconies and make music and dance ? I am sure you will create necessary actions for your people in trouble.

* The more long lasting help, is „work“ , even acting as therapy – and indeed preparing for this conference the last fortnight, it was a kind of work therapy to me: you have a visible structure, you have a demand from society and this creates communication instead of anxiety and gives meaning to your doings.

As we all know this has been the motor and overall aim why CEFEC, from the beginning, has been dedicated to create fair and paid work and give the person a realistic role in society.

So lets look into today’s programme with topics which are important for CEFEC, now and in the near future:

to strengthen our European network, especially with NGOs catering for getting into work (win-win and together for inclusion)
to focus on green economy : sustainable products and services in our social firms (Green and social business)
to look at successful factors of inclusive employment and in this way cater more and more for immigrants, often disadvantaged and in poor mental health. (Successful factors of inclusive employment)

At my closing words I shall ask you to please send us feed back which we can include in our conference report. Enjoy your time with us!

5 2020 SFE CEFEC Award Winner

Every year, CEFEC presents the CEFEC Business Award to social firms in Europe that are particularly committed to the inclusion of disabled and disadvantaged people in working life. In two categories, the prize, endowed with 500 euros, is aimed at social start-up companies on the one hand and established social enterprises on the other.

AfB social&green IT wins SFE CEFEC AWARD 2020

By Daniel Büchle

CEO of AfB, social & green IT, Ettlingen Germany and CEFEC AWARD Winner 2020.

The social firm, which employs 213 disabled and disadvantaged persons and 229 non disabled specializes on recycling management (collecting, dissabembling, recycling, data deleting, refurbishing and selling IT hard ware ). It started in 2004 and has been growing ever since , not only in Germany but branches in Austria, France, Switzerland and Slovakia.

The „European Social Firms Prize of the Year 2020“

The external SFE CEFEC Jury is convinced of this inclusive and resource preserving business model of the non profit IT refurbishing Company.

AfB used the European wide call of Social Firms Europe CEFEC and convinced the Jury of its concept of social inclusion, fair payment, ecological sustainability and economical success. The non profit IT service provider holds 440 employees at 19 locations in 5 European countries, 45% of them are disabled persons.

The Laudatio by the CEFEC President, Christiane Haerlin, explained the decision of the Jury: We awarded you, because you have an European wide net already, you have a high rate of disabled employees and you pay a fair wage, you cater for green economy and you have given us facts and figures which convinced us.

AfB CEO Daniel Büchle: We as AfB thank you very much for this valuable prize, which we are proud of. This is first of all an appreciation of the high quality work of our employees. At the moment many borders are being closed in Europe, necessary because of the spreading of the Corona-virus. But even during these difficult times its our aim, to think inclusion European wide and act accordingly.

The Award ceremony should have taken place on 18th March 2020 in the context of the 34th CEFEC Conference and a Fair of inclusive firms, organized by the German umbrella of inclusive firms „BAG IF“ and the authority „Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe“ (LWL) in Dortmund. Corona made this event impossible and therefore CEFEC held the ceremony at a Video Conference on 19th of March. There is a hope that the „in vivo ceremony“ will be held at the planned annual Meeting of the BAG IF.

Information on SFE CEFEC

Social Firms Europe CEFEC is a Confederation of European Social Firms, Employment Initiatives and Social Cooperatives, which European wide supports social enterprises with a substantial part of disabled and disadvantaged persons. The Award appreciates Best Practice as well as promising social Start-Ups.

Information on AfB gGmbH

AfB is the largest European non profit business in the IT sector. It provides „Refurbishing & Remarketing“ of IT hardware to create jobs for disabled and disadvantaged persons and at the same time contributes to gentle use of environment resources.

At 19 locations in Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and Slovakia, AfB employs 440 employees of which 45% are disabled. The business collects IT hardware, deletes the dates, refurbishes the material and installs new software. The refurbished devices are sold on the open market with at least 12 months guarantee. In 2019 this was achieved by maintaining about 700 partnerships with various business branches. Therefore 475.000 used devices were taken in and worked on, 65% of which were remarked. This adds to saving 22.900 tons of metals and minerals, 17.000 tons of carbon dioxide and 2.300 MWh of energy.

For this Green-IT – Concept, AfB won the German Sustainability Award in 2012, the Innovation Award of the German Economy in 2014, and the Medal of Merit of the BRD in 2017 for AfB CEO Paul Cvilak. In 2020 AfB is nominated for the „CSR Award of the German Government“.

This press release and more material will be found at www.afb-goup.de/service/presse.

The Presentation available HERE.

6 SUCCESSFUL FACTORS OF INCLUSIVE EMPLOYMENT

The success of inclusive employment depends on the right framework conditions. National and international entrepreneurs and representatives of associations discuss what politics and administration must and can do to ensure that an inclusive labour market in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities becomes a realistic perspective.

The number of people affected by mental health problems or psychological impairments is constantly increasing. In addition to permanent compensation and accompanying support, the right steps must be taken inside the companies to ensure their participation in the labour market. The adaptation of business processes, personnel strategies and working time models can be decisive for employment success. Also basic factors such as the culture or physical business area must be taken into account.

6.1 Successful factors of inclusive employment. An opportunity also for Migrants? by Felicitas Kresimon

So first of all, hello to everyone and I’m really happy to “see” you all and to have the opportunity, in this way, to save a little bit from the big work BAG if, Christiane, Klaus, Claudia, with the support of the CEFEC Secretary, have done.

My intervention, can’t be the same I would have done 1 month ago.

In Italy many people are reflecting about what will happen after this period of sanitary emergency, included the consequences on social life and on the economy of our society. A lot of voices which say: “we don’t want to go back to the same lifestyle we had before, let’s use this moment for create another future”.

I’m convinced that organizations as Social Firms Europe CEFEC (and other European networks, which are also participating in our today conference as REVES or ENSIE) for the activities we carry out, already indicate a way forward. In some way we anticipate the future, and we have been doing this just for a lot of time.

Maybe it seems normal to us: think about how to create social inclusion, deal with vulnerable people, create concrete tools for the training and construction of professional contexts that respect the ethical principles of humanity, justice, right of access to resources for all.

But this is not at least obvious in most of the world, the predominant system of capitalism, pursues other logic. Perhaps ours, the way of social economy, may seem like an utopic approach. But I am convinced it is not an Utopia, but a choice!

The data about social Cooperatives of the financial crises from 2008 show, that the approach of social economy, social enterprises, such as cooperatives here in Italy, is characterized by high economic and social sustainability, even in the long term.

Last night, at home in quarantine, I watched the film SNOWDEN, a clear example of how it is up to us to choose where we want to be: if we use our tools to dominate, control and accumulate richness in a few hands, or if we want to collaborate on a “way to do” that creates cohesion, justice and freedom for all beings regardless of their diversity.

The social enterprise model, however, has expanded in recent years. You can find a good overview in the report about Social Enterprise and their Ecosystem in Europe, published by the European Commission in January 2020.

So what are some of their successful factors?

Social enterprises/cooperatives are characterized, and this is their strengths, by:

a system of democratic and inclusive governance, which promotes forms of critical thinking and the ability to analyze and respond to needs, which can be extended from the individual to the collective sphere
they invest their profit in common objectives: the economic profit is second to the social function and profit. The single person is always at the center of the attention and forms of solidarity are activated in spontaneous way.
the connection between the territory and community of belonging and the social cooperative as an organizational form of mutuality and social cohesion

We have been living here in Italy write now for 4 weeks with day by day more restrictions. But it is also a moment of reflection, a moment in which new forms of solidarity appear in our small surroundings.

So I really believe that organizations like SFE CEFEC can and must be subjects, able to multiply and give strength and a collective form to another form of economy, justice and solidarity, not only on the individual level. Otherwise we risk to go simply back to our “normal” life, sooner or later.

One example is the work regarding the topic of inclusion of migrants.

Since almost three years, SFE CEFEC has started to work on it:

Promoting activities of awareness arising between it’s members
participating in specific projects on European level AMIF, European for Citizens chart of human rights, SMILES project
opening it’s activities and promoting the creation of social enterprise beyond the boarders of Europe, as for example in SENEGAL or in Tanzania
applying two times for the participation on the EU Migration Forum in order to strengthen synergies and cooperation with other realities working on this topic

This special moment gives us an important prospective and we must be aware of it and continue to translate our intention and mission it into concrete opportunities.

6.2 Success factors – How to support a mentally healthy workplace, by Bob Grove from Mental Health Europe UK

The author of the book New Thinking about Mental Health and Employment and he approached the topic of Mental Health at Work, considering that a mentally healthy workforce is a productive workforce and that a mentally healthy workplace is in close connection with the organizational culture and with the relationships between people working within an organization.

The presentation is available HERE.

7 Promising business ideas in the field of „Green & Social Business“

In times of climate change, social firms not only pursue social goals, but increasingly also ecological ones. How ecological sustainability can be combined with the creation of jobs for people with disabilities and other disadvantages in an economically meaningful way will be presented using various approaches from Germany, England and Switzerland.

7.1. Roland Z‘Rotz

CEO of Öko-Reinigungsservice GmbH , Zürich, Switzerland

Member of the CEFEC executive committee, representing Switzerland, is an expert in vocational Rehabitation of clients with mental health problems. He founded and ran a municipal Centre in Zürich before he started to implement the present Social Firm over ten years ago.The business has been extending its service to a cycling repare shop and is currently implementing a gardening branch.

The speciality of the firm is to be carbon neutral and the certificate from Swiss Climate AG was given to them in 2015. The firm was given the CEFEC AWARD in 2015 . It has a running documentation of factsheet Carbon Management, which allows for analysing the carbon footprint. Roland is the leader of the CEFEC working group for these matters .

The presentation is available HERE.

7.2. Richard Mehmet from Community Wood Recycling UK

The founder and the Managing Director of Community Wood Recycling, a network of Social Enterprises working in the Environmental sector and aiming to build a more sustainable society. They save resources, reusing waste wood and they change the lives of disadvantaged people. They are GREEN and they are SOCIAL!!!

The presentation is available HERE.

8 Win-Win-Potentials: How CEFEC and its members can cooperate

For more than 30 years, CEFEC has represented the interests of social firms in Europe and connects the most diverse actors from business, politics and associations. We would like to use concrete examples to demonstrate the benefits of new cooperation for CEFEC’s members.

8.1. SEPAL Project, by Asta Jaseliuniene from ZISPB Lithuania

She prepared a presentation on Win-Win potentials for the SEPAL project. Unfortunately, she couldn’t participate at our Online CEFEC Conference and she was represented by our Special SFE CEFEC Technical Secretary, Alina Bîrsan from Romania. She presented the partners (Romania, Spain, Greece, Lithuania and Poland) involved in the Supporting Employment Platform through Apprenticeship Learning – SEPAL, financed through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment, including the main activities developed during the period of the implementation in order to improve the employment situation of the NEETs. COLLABORATION is the key word of our path to success.

The presentation is available HERE.

If you need more information about the SEPAL project, access the website and the Facebook page.

8.2. Win-win potentials–project opportunities in Africa, by Umberto Carrescia/ Cooperativa Sociale Citta Azzura Italy

I wanted to start very shortly by specifying what development cooperation is.

Development cooperation mainly means to realize structural projects, to realize buildings, micro-credit programs, agricultural researches, and so on, in what in the 60’s ,70’s and 80’s were called Third World countries.

Cooperation in those years also meant sending volunteers to the most remote areas of the planet to work as engineers, doctors, agronomists, etc..

Today and with the development of many of those countries that were called Third World countries, but also thanks to the development of information and communication systems, these countries have become closer and closer and we have got to know them better.

Thanks to this closeness they too have begun to understand our world and we have begun to understand theirs better and we have begun to work in another way.

That is, we began to collaborate and to change the paradigm that saw a donor and a beneficiary in favor of an equal relationship.

Without valid partners, projects do not start, do not work and are not able to sustain themselves over time.

So, we come to the importance of exchanging best practices and involving more and more countries around the world in those winning and successful processes.

We all agree that cooperatives and the cooperative system works and in many cases is very successful.

CEFEC is the movement, the most important organization in Europe representing cooperatives and we have been rewarding excellence in Europe for years. See today AfB social and green IT Germany for example.

It is therefore our duty and CEFEC’s duty to support the worldwide development of cooperatives, because cooperatives protect more than anything else the weaker groups, people in difficulty, the disabled. I have just returned from a long trip to Africa to monitor all our projects and I can swear to you that disability, the weakest are the weakest in all the world.

So at the end of January we presented a project in Tanzania in Arusha to set up a cooperative for Masai widows who, when they lose their husbands, are thrown out of the community with all their children.

A drama…

only through training and the establishment of a cooperative will we be able to protect these women who will dedicate themselves to the textile production of clothes and other things.

A CEFEC delegation of 5 people will go to Tanzania in 2021 to monitor the project and to evaluate what CEFEC can do for this and other projects.

So please apply yourself to this trip also because we are able to pay 400 pro person to the members who will come with us in Tanzania.

In Senegal, Felicitas started last year a project for the development of an it laboratory for young Senegalese people with the aim of creating work, creating a cooperative and preventing the people of West Africa from emigrating and risking their lives on a journey to Europe that is dramatic for so many of them.

I do not know where we are with the changes to the CEFEC statute, but I hope it is clear how important it can be for CEFEC to start in this sector, because it is not only in Europe that we have to develop and support cooperatives, but worldwide.

9 Together for inclusion – CEFEC and its partners in Europe

One of the most important contributions to inclusion is the accessibility to employment for people with disabilities and disadvantages. How can European employment networks gain more influence in Europe by lobbying and enthusiasm? Which cooperation and strategies for more inclusion in Europe are the most promising?

Inclusive and social firms in Europe have set themselves the task of realizing the inclusion of people with disabilities and disadvantages in the European labour market. What role do these companies play in the European strategy? And what are the European Union’s instruments and activities, today and in the future, to support them?

9.1. Patrizia Bussi, from ENSIE/Belgium

The Director of the European Network of Social Integration (ENSIE) and since 2012, member of the European Commission expert group on social business (GECES) has a large experience regarding the social cooperatives. Within the Online CEFEC Conference, she presented ENSIE, which was founded in 2001 and unites 27 national/regional networks of WISEs (Work Integration Social Enterprises) from 21 European countries, supporting the development of national and regional WISEs networks and fostering the exchanges between the national and the EU level to promote recognition of WISEs.

The presentation is available HERE.

9.2. Erdmuthe Klaer, from REVES/Belgium

Deputy Secretary General of REVES (European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy), with expertise on strong lobby at EU Commissions and EU Integroups, expert and speaker within European Economic and Social Committee. She presented REVES, an international non-profit association, founded in 1966, which aims at promoting the social and solidarity economy, for a fairer, inclusive, participative and responsible society, being based on partnership between local authorities and integrative approach. REVES’ activities include: Exchange of knowledge, experience and know how; Experimentation / Joint Project Development; Dialogue with European and national policy-makers.

The presentation is available HERE.

9.3. Athina Fragkouli, EDF/Greece

She is the head of the national umbrella of Social Firms in Greece, called Koispe, which incudes social firms in every reagion of the country. Athena is founding member of CEFEC and since has represented Greece on the executive committee board. She has organized the annual CEFEC conferences in 1992 in Delphi, 1998 and 2003 in Athens, and 2013 in Corfu and as such is not only our „Champion“ in organizing CEFEC Conferences but was also in charge of the General Secretariat for many years.

For a long time she has been involved in European networking and is representative of CEFEC in the NGO EDF.

The presentation is available HERE.

10 CLOSING WORDS, by Christiane Haerlin

Even in times of crisis CEFEC kept its traditions by having a yearly conference. Organizing the online conference on the same day opened hearts and reinforced the will to see what can be learned from the extraordinary situation: Keep contact and be inspired by best practice of social firms, enterprises and projects in more than 15 member countries.

What impetus can CEFEC gain from the event to further develop its mission and meet the important challenges for an inclusive European labour market?

I was impressed to see and hear that our core topics attracted many participants and this helps to get away from the present crisis days and look into the future:

– Roland z‘Rotz , CEO of Öko-Reinigungsservice GmbH , Zürich, Switzerland showed us that ecology, economy and social aspects can be combined in social firms if balanced in a sophisticated way. To symbolize this the business has the elephant balancing on the world‘s globe to demonstrate this. Roland challenges all of us to look more carefully into the carbon footprint of social firms.

– Richard Mehmet, CEO of Community Wood Recycling, Brighton England showed us that, all over England and indeed Europe there is enough Waste Wood which can be used in an intelligent sustainable way, from producing firewood to elegantly designed furniture .This branch is labour intensive and provides many workplaces on different levels.

– Daniel Büchle,CEO of AfB ( Arbeit für Behinderte) in Ettlingen, Germany , our CEFEC Award Winning Social Firm showed us that IT hard ware around the world makes for many workplaces – certifying data deleting, refurbishing the material to sell second hand PCs and other IT hard ware in their German branches and also in a number of other branches European countries.

Arnd Schwendy, former CEO of BAG IF Germany and one of the founders of CEFEC hopes that, if we are lucky and able to master the corona, we might have a boom of new start up Social Firms. We can use our longlasting experience to lead the way for disabled and disadvantaged to sustainable jobs and branches.

We have seen and heard from Prof. Bob Grove, England, Representative of MHE, that management in all areas is crucial for every firm and especially for vulnerable groups. Managers, trained to focus on business as well as social aspects will be more successful in both areas. CEFEC might consider to offer seminars for new social firms start ups, whether now in times of crisis or afterwards .

CEFEC has a sound tradition and history and will always remember why and how it started. Besides the great social psychiatrist Douglas Bennett from England , who helped us to start CEFEC, Franco Basaglia, the great Italian reformer, will never be forgotten as the the Spiritus Rector for a European wide movement to get patients out of institutions and give them a worthwhile role in society.

We are happy to have one of his followers on the CEFEC executive board,

Lorenzo Toresini and this is what he tells us :

„Paying a normal salary is the most effective tool regaining a social role in the world. Social Firms are therefore considered in the society of reason as tools to overcome the scapegoat logic which so often dominated in society towards psychiatric patients.“

Feliciates Kresimon, CEO of legacoopsociali, Trieste, Italy and Umberto Carrescia are experienced in European networking and are even looking beyond Europe. Their projects in Senegal and Tansania are a sign of hope to offer alternatives in rural areas, and not to leave the country by implementing fair work in their own homelands. Its amazing how creative they are and maybe Social Firms in Europe can learn from them.

We have heard and learned a lot from other partners in Europe. Our CEFEC founding member Athina Fragkouli, Athens, Greece has represented the aspects of work in the world wide Organisation of EFD and has been networked for many years . There are other NGOs , such as MHE, REVES, ENSIE.

Crisis helps to focus and be creative : Now we can see which models, such as work cooperatives, which tools, such as management seminars and which resources, such as ecological matters are standing up and leading into the future.

CEFEC will go on with its tradition of organizing an annual conference in one of its member states.

Hopefully we will soon be able, with the help of our network partners in REVES, ENSIE, EDF, MHE , to announce the Annual CEFEC Conference 2021 in Brussels.

11 AGENDA OF THE CANCELLED DORTMUND CONFERENCE

12 OTHER PRESENTATIONS (not presented)

Other presentations and abstracts that were supposed to be presented during the 2020 SFE CEFEC Conference from Dortmund/Germany.

12.1. WIN WIN – EUROPEAN ISSUES ; MIGRATION AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISE EU STRATEGY 2021 – 2017

ABSTRACT Felicitas Kresimon

SFE CEFEC at Brussels and the link with European issues as migration and social enterprise on the EU strategy 2021 – 2027

Social Firms Europe CEFEC, during the nearby 35 years of activities, has been able to construct a broad partnership which includes more than 20 countries, most on European level and more than 50 partners. Specially during the last 10 years the SFE Secretary has supported and promoted an increasingly broader project activity, involving members and partners and expanding the network of relationships, also in terms of collaborations with other European networks.

Since 2018, with the organization of the seminar “Social Solutions for Inclusion of Migrants” at the European Economic and Social Committee, CEFEC started to be more active, both, on the topic of migration, as well as on enhancing a stronger presence at Brussels in order to become an active part of policy making on European level and promote the proper mission by:

Cultivate and raise awareness on European level to the inclusion of vulnerable groups (disability, mental health, migration) in a holistic approach, specially in relation to the need of work-inclusion
Be a voice for, and contribute in an active way to the promotion of the idea and practice of social economy and social enterprise for a more cohesive and inclusive European society.
Create and reinforce the connection to and partnerships with other European Networks with the aim to develop common topics, interests and projects related to the mission of Social Firms Europe CEFEC, integrating the different skills gained over the years.
Promote, furthermore, the connecting with the parts of the world beyond European borders. Specially related to the migrant topic, but not only, SFE CEFEC might be a context for the co-developing of projects and strategies in this field, stimulating as well an ethical, social and human approach available to dilute an Eurocentric view and approach.

Related to the topic of Migration and compared to point 4, SFE CEFEC has: applied to be an active part of the European Migration Forum. Furthermore, during the last two years CEFEC and/or its members, have been partner in the application of different European project funds, as for example Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), European for Citizens, Erasmus+ projects, linked to the topic of migrants inclusion.

Moreover, in order to construct concrete and horizontal partnerships with countries of emigration, SFE CEFEC has started to promote and support projects – close to it’s mission – beyond the boarders of Europe. Both, the project in Senegal as well as the one presented for Tanzania, are promoting the construction and culture of Social Enterprise and Integration as an important tool for a more inclusive and solidary society in a globalized world.

In terms of point 3, CEFEC is strengthening it’s relationships with different European actors and networks (EDF, REVES, ENSIE, SEE, ARFIE, MHE….) who belong to the field of social economy and inclusion. The conference at Mannheim from 25-27 November 2020 “European capital of social economy Mannheim”, will be one more moment for deepen these relationships, as well as the CEFEC Conference 2021, planned at Brussels, but also the project of building up with a broad partnership a European Academy of social innovation and enterprise.

“Work in progress” European Cohesion Policy and social economy Intergroup

On European level, during this period, the commission is working to define and approve the priorities and the multiannual financial plan 2021-2027.

For the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, the Commission proposes to modernise Cohesion Policy, the EU’s main investment policy and one of its most concrete expressions of solidarity, focusing on five investment priorities:

Smarter Europe, through innovation, digitisation, economic transformation and support to small and medium-sized businesses;
a Greener, carbon free Europe, implementing the Paris Agreement and investing in energy transition, renewables and the fight against climate change;
a more Connected Europe, with strategic transport and digital networks;
a more Social Europe, delivering on the European Pillar of Social Rights and supporting quality employment, education, skills, social inclusion and equal access to healthcare;
a Europe closer to citizens, by supporting locally-led development strategies and sustainable urban development across the EU.

In the meanwhile, some important steps have been compiled. The Social Economy Intergroup (SEIG) at the European Parliament has been renewed and held its first bureau meeting and the fist meeting took place on January 2020. CEFEC participated in the campaign of renewal.

Five Members of the European Parliament were appointed as Co-Chairs of the SEIG, among whom, Patrizia Toia (S&D, IT), Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, DE), Leopoldo López (EPP, ES), Monica Semedo (Renew, LU) and Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL, FR). Furthermore, the Intergroup appointed MEPs Leszek Miller (S&D, PL) and Jordi Cañas (Renew, ES) as vice-Chairs.

The Intergroup agreed on a strategy for the next five years and the cooperation with the European Commission related to the launch of an European Action Plan for the Social Economy in 2021 and the aim to design an effective policy in building an economy that works for people and the planet. More specifically SIEG will play the own part, co-designing the Action Plan and working together to mainstream the social economy in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, with special attention to InvestEU and the ESF+. They will contribute to other key initiatives such as the Green Deal, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Industrial and SMEs strategies.

In January 2020 has been published the comparative Synthesis report “Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe”, at the right time to highlight the important role of the actors of the social economy in our community. The study provides an overview of the social enterprise landscape in Europe and is an outcome of an assignment financed bye the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” (2014-2020). It covers the historical background, the evolution, characteristics, networks, research and resources available to social enterprises, trying to identify transnational trends, knowledge and possible common agendas.

12.2 Success factors of inclusive employment, by Lorenzo Toresini

Inclusive employment actually originates from occupational therapy or rather, it was the result of the de-hospitalization of psychiatric institutions and was replaced by the broader term “inclusive employment“ since the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Until recently, Total Institutions had organized before forced labor for psychiatric patients on the assumption that “Work makes you free”. On the one hand, the formula had actually worked.

The first and higher director of the psychiatric hospital, who systematically introduced work as a therapy into the psychiatric clinic, was Hermann Simon; who was director of the provincial medical and nursing home of Gütersloh from 1914 to 1919.

Hermann Simon (1867 – 1947) was considered the father of occupational therapy (work therapy). After the First World war, he was medical director, especially in the State Psychiatric Clinic Gütersloh (Westphalia).

After a medical phase in which “bed rest” was also set up for the mentally ill persons, Simon’s proposal for “more active treatment” (1929) promoted new impulses. The prerequisite was (and still is) the assertion: “Life is to be active”.

In the Gütersloh psychiatric institution, he set up an extremely differentiated and graded work for all patients.

From the 1970’s, however, it was understood that H.Simon’s thinking and working was simply related and functional with psychiatric thinking, based on the assumption that the mentally ill patients were humans, but they were hierarchically inferior to the so-called “normal ones”.

At that time, but not only then, this view was largely derived and shared scientific thinking of a positivist origin. Darwinism served as the “scientific” basis.

The latter had masterfully demonstrated and taught all of humanity how there is an evolutionary and complex hierarchy of living beings in Nature. For this reason, it was all too easy to make a hypothesis and then assert with absolute certainty that the same hierarchy that exists in Nature also exists within the human being.

This gave rise to the racist view, which has not yet been completely overcome and has led to well-known positivist doctors and psychiatrists, including the famous Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso (1835 Verona – 1909 Turin). He stated that mental illness is due to an idea that we could call racist.

Unfortunately, this psychiatric thinking increasingly entered the Nazi ideology, which started from the assumption that the mentally ill were human, but were hierarchically inferior to the so-called “normal”. The mentally ill therefore lived according to this view “life unworthy to be lived” and consequently tens of thousands of mentally ill people were gassed in the well-known Hitler’s T4 program.

In those years, the great Sicilian writer Luigi Pirandello described the role play of human life and showed how also mental illness is influenced by this role play.

Rehabilitation and work means acquiring a social role that makes the person, who was previously considered unlikely and unproductive, acceptable, and if possible productive.

So when the community and society decide and behave in such a way that the weak subject goes mad, he unintentionally embodies and repeats the role that is required by him.

In English it says: “To drive one crazy”. To lead one to do so that it ultimately looks and becomes crazy.

Life, on the other hand, is simply an entire theater. Just think of the politics and power games that are practiced in macro and micro environments. The condominium, the school, the workplace, the family and so on. This is the daily theater of life.

Rehabilitation means acquiring a role that makes the person who was previously considered unlikely and unproductive acceptable, if possible productive. Likewise more if this role acquisition is shared, internalized, and updated by the person himself.

Paying a “normal” salary is the most effective tool for regaining a social role in the world. Social enterprises are therefore considered, in the society of reason and the production community, means and tools to overcome the scapegoat logic.

Ultimately, success factors for inclusive employment are:

1) Admission to an employment company that no longer marginalizes the worker, who is socially weak and diagnosed with a mental illness – and pays him as a worker in every respect.

2) The company that brings the vulnerable, fragile, and crazy person to work usually has to accept “business risks”.

The social enterprise that inserts the subject with vulnerability has a double focus: on the quality of work and the well-being of its employees, with the focus on the person, and on the other hand working on the economic sustainability of the company.

This also implies the need for an organization that guarantees a comprehensive awareness of the company’s operations, goals and strategies, including the employee / weak subject, who must also be aware of the business risks that he himself embodies in his own work every day.

3) The social inclusion cooperatives in Italy comprises at least 30% of people at risk of social exclusion and guarantee activities alongside rehabilitation and professional growth pathways in an environment that respects diversity. For this purpose, the company can claim tax relief and public contributions.

4) The company’s economic gain must be reinvested in social welfare projects, an aspect that helps to maintain the important link to the area to which it belongs, and another typical aspect of the social cooperation system.

Last but not last: even migrants or refugees who have come to Europe in recent years can be viewed as vulnerable people and at risk of social exclusion. So they could / should be taken up by the social companies.

CEFEC has been pursuing this goal for two years and is promoting that the “social firms” / inclusion companies accept this group of people.

Social Firms Europe CEFEC has activated several initiatives to support these paths in the past two years: through moments of awareness for social companies, participation in special European calls and the organization of discussion moments in Brussels.

It also has some specific experience aimed at breaking down the barriers between Europe and other continents, such as Africa, promoting cooperation also in order to disseminate the inclusive model of social enterprise.

Erfolgsfaktoren inklusiver Beschäftigung

by Lorenzo Toresini

Inklusive Beschäftigung stammt eigentlich von der Arbeitstherapie oder besser gesagt, sie war die Folge von der Enthospitalisierung der psychiatrischen Anstalten und wurde ab den siebziger und achtziger Jahren durch den umfassenderen Begriff Arbeitseingliederung ersetzt.

Bis vor kurzem organisierten die Totale Institutionen Zwangsarbeit für psychiatrische Patienten in der Annahme, dass “Arbeit macht frei”. Die Formel hatte zum einen auch tatsächlich funktioniert. Der erste und größte Irrenhausdirektor, der die Arbeit als Therapie in die psychiatrische Klinik systematisch einführte, war Hermann Simon; der von 1914 bis 1919 Direktor von der provinzialen Heil- und Pflegeanstalt von Gütersloh war.

Hermann Simon (1867 – 1947) galt als Vater der Arbeitstherapie (Ergotherapie). Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg war er Ärztlicher Direktor, in der Landespsychiatrischen Klinik Gütersloh (Westfalen). Nach einer medizinischen Phase, in der auch für psychisch Kranke “Bettruhe” eingerichtet wurde, förderte Simons Vorschlag für eine “aktivere Behandlung” (1929) neue Impulse. Voraussetzung war (und immer noch ist) die Behauptung: “Leben ist Tätig sein”.

Er baute in der psychiatrischen Anstalt Gütersloh eine äusserst differenzierte und gestufte Arbeit für alle Patienten auf.

Ab den siebziger Jahren wurde jedoch verstanden, dass das Denken und Wirken von H.Simon einfach mit dem psychiatrischen Denken in Beziehung und funktionell war,

das von der Annahme ausging, dass die Geisteskranken ja Menschen waren, aber den sogenannten “normalen” hierarchisch unterlegen.

Diese Sichtweise war damals, aber im Grunde genommen nicht nur damals, weitgehend abgeleitet und teilte das wissenschaftliche Denken positivistischer Herkunft. Als “wissenschaftliche” Grundlage diente der Darwinismus. Letzterer, der die ganze Menschheit meisterhaft demonstriert und gelehrt hatte, wie es in der Natur eine evolutionäre und komplexe Hierarchie von Lebenswesen gibt. Aus diesem Grund war es allzu einfach, eine Hypothese aufzustellen und anschließend mit absoluter Sicherheit zu behaupten, dass dieselbe Hierarchie, die in der Natur existiert, auch innerhalb des Menschlichen Wesens existiere. Daraus entstand die rassistische Auffassung, die noch nicht vollständig überwunden wurde und zu angesehenen positivistischen Ärzten und Psychiatern führte. Darunter der berühmte italienische Psychiater Cesare Lombroso (1835 Verona – 1909 Turin), der die psychisch Kranke aufgrund einer Vorstellung betrachtete und bezeichnete, die wir als rassistisch bezeichnen könnten.

Dieses psychiatrisce Denken ging leider immer mehr in die Nazi Ideologie ein, die von der Annahme ausging, dass die Geisteskranken ja Menschen waren, aber den sogenannten “normalen” hierarchisch unterlegen. Die Geisteskranken lebten daher nach dieser Auffassung “Lebensunwerte Leben” und demzufolge wurden zehntausende psychisch Kranke in dem bekannten (gab es das) T4-Programm von Hitler vergast.

In jenen Jahren beschrieb der große sizilianische Schriftsteller Luigi Pirandello das Rollenspiel des menschlichen Lebens, und zeigte, wie sich psychische Erkrankungen auch auf dieses Rollenspiel auswirken. Rehabilitation und Arbeit bedeuten den Erwerb einer sozialen Rolle, die die Person, die zuvor als unwahrscheinlich und unproduktiv angesehen wurde, akzeptabel, wenn möglich sogar produktiv macht.

Wenn also die Gemeinschaft und die Gesellschaft entscheiden, und sich so verhalten, dass das schwache Subjekt verrückt wird, verkörpert und wiederholt er unabsichtlich die Rolle, die von ihm verlangt wird. Auf Englisch heißt es: “To drive one crazy“ (“Um einen verrückt zu machen”). Einen so führen, um das zu tun, dass er verrückt letztendlich aussieht und wird.

Das Leben dagegen ist einfach ein ganzes Theater. Man denke nur an die Politik und Machtspiele, die in Makro- und Mikroumgebungen praktiziert werden. Die Eigentumswohnung, die Schule, der Arbeitsplatz, die Familie und so weiter. So ist das tägliche Theater des Lebens.

Ebenso mehr, wenn diese Rollenerwerbung von der Person selbst geteilt, internaliziert, und aktualiziert wird.

Die Zahlung eines “normalen” Gehalts ist das wirksamste Instrument zur Wiedererlangung einer sozialen Rolle in der Welt. Sozialunternehmen gelten deshalb als (Unternehmen-) Mittel und Werkzeuge zur Überwindung der Sündenbocklogik, in der Gesellschaft der Vernunft und der Produktionsgemeinschaft.

Erfolgsfaktoren für inklusive Beschäftigung sind letztendlich:

1) Die Aufnahme in ein Arbeitsunternehmen, das den Arbeitnehmer -der nicht mehr marginaliziert, sozial schwach und mit einer Geisteskrankheit diagnostiziert ist- bezahlt, wie in jeder Hinsicht ein Arbeiter.

2) Die Firma, die die vulnerable, zerbrechliche und verrückte Person zur Arbeit bringt, muss normalerweise “Geschäftsrisiken” in Kauf nehmen.

Das soziale Unternehmen, das das Subjekt mit Verwundbarkeit einfügt, hat einen doppelten Fokus: auf die Qualität der Arbeit und das Wohlergehen seiner Arbeitnehmer, wobei die Person im Mittelpunkt steht und andererseits die Arbeit an der wirtschaftlichen Nachhaltigkeit des Unternehmens.

Dies impliziert auch die Notwendigkeit einer Organisation, die ein umfassendes Bewusstsein für den Betrieb, die Ziele und Strategien des Unternehmens garantiert, einschließlich des Arbeitnehmer/schwachen Subjekt, der sich ebenfalls der Geschäftsrisiken bewusst sein muss, die er selbst mit seiner eigenen Arbeitstätigkeit jeden Tag verkörpert.

Die Genossenschaft für die Eingliederung in die Sozialarbeit umfasst in Italien mindestens 30% der Menschen, die von sozialer Ausgrenzung bedroht sind, und garantiert Aktivitäten neben Rehabilitations- und beruflichen Wachstumspfaden in einem Umfeld, das die Vielfalt respektiert. Zu diesem Zweck kann das Unternehmen Steuererleichterungen und öffentliche Beiträge in Anspruch nehmen.

4) Der wirtschaftliche Gewinn des Unternehmens muss in soziale Versorgungsprojekte reinvestiert werden, ein Aspekt, der dazu beiträgt, die wichtige Verbindung zu dem Gebiet aufrechtzuerhalten, zu dem es gehört, ein weiterer typischer Aspekt für das System der sozialen Zusammenarbeit.

Last but not last: auch Migranten oder Flüchtlinge, die in den letzten Jahren nach Europa gekommen sind, können als vulnerable Personen und von sozialer Ausgrenzung bedroht angesehen werden. Also, sie könnten/sollten von den Sozialen Firmen aufgenommen werden.

CEFEC hat sich seit zwei Jahren dieses Ziel vorgenommen und wirbt dafür, dass die „social firms“ /Inklusionsbetriebe diesen Personenkreis aufnehmen.

Social Firms Europe CEFEC hat in den letzten zwei Jahren einige Initiativen zur Unterstützung dieser Wege aktiviert: durch Momente des Bewusstseins für soziale Unternehmen, die Teilnahme an speziellen europäischen Aufrufen und die Organisation von Diskussionsmomenten auch in Brüssel.

Er hat auch einige spezifische Erfahrungen gesammelt, die darauf abzielen, die Barrieren zwischen Europa und anderen Kontinenten abzubauen, wie z.B. Afrika, Förderung der Zusammenarbeit auch zur Verbreitung des integrativen Modells des Sozialunternehmens.

12.3. Promising business ideas in the field of Green & Social business, by Sina Laubscher from gpe gGmbH Germany

The presentation is available HERE.

12.4. Promising business ideas in the field of Green & Social business, by Norbert Bogner from miteinander leben service Germany

The presentation is available HERE.

12.5. Inclusive leadership – Dealing with differences in teams, by Ingrid Stumpf from FAF gGmbH Germany

12.6. Vocational training in social firms pays of, by Roxana Mărginean from Bucovina Institute Romania

Contents:

1 OVERVIEW of Countries and Speakers

2 VIDEO of the Conference

3 AGENDA OF THE ONLINE CONFERENCE

4 OPENING WORDS

5 2020 SFE CEFEC Award Winner

6 SUCCESSFUL FACTORS OF INCLUSIVE EMPLOYMENT

7 Promising business ideas in the field of „Green & Social Business“

8 Win-Win-Potentials: How CEFEC and its members can cooperate

9 Together for inclusion – CEFEC and its partners in Europe

10 CLOSING WORDS, by Christiane Haerlin

11 AGENDA OF THE CANCELLED DORTMUND CONFERENCE

12 OTHER PRESENTATIONS (not presented)

ABSTRACT Felicitas Kresimon