Coordinating the social innovation ecosystem
The Emergence & Acceleration Community
The Emergence & Acceleration Community, which Avise has managed since 2015, brings together support providers that offer accessible and inclusive programmes to encourage the creation of social and solidarity economy and social innovation projects across France.
The Emergence & Acceleration Community includes:
- 129 SSE and social innovation incubators and accelerators offering more than 200 support schemes;
- more than 450 professional SSE enterprise creation experts;
- 1 annual gathering featuring 8 experience-sharing workshops and 5 other professional development events (cooperation, co-housing project support, encouraging local resident involvement, etc.);
- the local entrepreneurship tour: 6 events organised across France to showcase the role played by SSE and social innovation incubators and accelerators in local development;
- the creation of the first directory of SSE and social innovation incubators and accelerators in France and updates to existing maps (by type of programme and by region).
The « Fabriques à Initiatives »
The “Fabrique à Initiatives” (FAI), founded by Avise in 2010, is a programme led on the regional level by some thirty organisations that support the emergence of social innovations. The goal is to bring together local stakeholders to identify inadequately met social needs, conceive of a social innovation project to meet those needs, and then find project owners and future executives. FAIs, which are innovations in their own right, are a sort of “reverse incubator.”$
This network, whose supporters include the regional development bank Banque des Territoires and the ANCT, France’s national social cohesion agency, offers a forum to share expertise in innovative project development methods and the creation of national action programmes on cross-cutting issues.
The FAI represents :
- a 30-member network;
- more than 600 project ideas developed since the creation of the programme;
- more than 130 business and activities of social utility founded since its creation;
- 1 joint working session with the social economy units of all the regions of Quebec;
- the creation of a portfolio of ecological transition projects.
Créa’rural, the collective of organisations that support the rural social and solidarity economy
Initiated by Avise in 2020, Créa’rural is a collective of 198 organisations that support the rural SSE, including local development organisations, SSE stakeholders and networks, incubators, local government technicians, and more. Its aim is to support and initiate cooperation in support of rural social innovation, boost the visibility of existing support schemes, and provide project support resources.
Contribution to the drive to re-energise regional economic cooperation hubs (PTCEs, Pôles Territoriaux de Coopération Economique) in France
PTCEs, recognised by article 9 of the SSE Act of 2014, are groups of SSE enterprises and stakeholders from other economic sectors within a predefined geographical scope that aim to foster cooperation to advance innovative local solidarity projects (Légifrance, 2014). The PTCE structure provides a legal and financial framework for these cooperative efforts.
Avise is running several initiatives as part of a bundle of national services coordinated by the State to support the development of emerging and existing PTCEs and thus develop local collaborations:
- deployment of Transfert de savoir-faire (TSF), a peer-to-peer professional development programme that gives employees of PTCE leaders and members the opportunity to benefit from experience sharing and a formal skills transfer from another PTCE;
- increasing local SSE guidance and support scheme (DLA, Dispositif local d’accompagnement de l’ESS) policy officers’ ability to support PTCEs;
- supporting access to public funding (webinars on European funding and the financing offers available);
- support and professional development for PTCEs that are developing their own local support offers.
Supporting the development of socially innovative social and solidarity economy enterprises
The "Dispositif local d'accompagnement" (DLA)
Over two decades, the “Dispositif local d’accompagnement de l’ESS” (DLA) has come to set the standard for SSE support and social innovation consolidation schemes. This free access programme, which was created in 2002 and included in the SSE Act of 2014, now helps more than 5,000 SSE and social innovation enterprises with their consolidation and development strategies every year. All SSE enterprises can access its services through a reception centre in each department and region. The DLA performs an assessment with the director and then offers its expertise and advice through an ongoing support scheme.
It is one of the keys to economic development and high-quality job creation. Since its inception, it has been supported by several contributors to ensure that it can operate across France: the French State, the European Social Fund, the regional development bank Banque des Territoires, local governments, the non-profit umbrella organisation Mouvement Associatif, and ESS France.
As the national DLA operator, Avise helps the national leadership define their strategies and facilitates and provides professional development services for the network of operators.
Two decades of the DLA in figures:
- 62,000 organisations supported (more than 5,000 annually);
- 860,000 jobs impacted;
- More than 1,500 expert consultants involved for socially innovative projects.
Developing social impact assessments
Because meeting a social need is the defining characteristic of social innovation, impact assessment is a key issue. Impact assessment makes it possible to analyse forms of value creation that go beyond simple financial value, particularly contributions to the ecological and social transition. Developing social impact assessment contributes to demonstrating the specific benefits of social innovations and their role in transforming society. That also makes it possible to improve their social performance and encourage innovation and dialogue among all stakeholders.
Avise is working on several initiatives to ensure that all social innovations can assess their social impact and develop and share a common social impact culture. These initiatives include:
- Running the national resource centre for social impact assessment (as part of its strategic focus Providing tools for social innovators”) ;
- managing the Social Value France network (presented below) ;
- developing the Cap Impact programme (as part of its strategic focus “Supporting social innovation”).
Social Value France
Social Value France, which is coordinated by Avise and brings together practitioners and organisations working on the question of assessment, is the first French network for debate and dialogue about the latest news and practices in social impact assessment.
The Social Value France network represents:
- over 180 members from more than 115 organisations;
- 5 themed plenary sessions (encouraging onboarding of assessment approaches, listening to vulnerable groups, etc.);
- 2 working group publications (comparing social impact assessment and public policy assessment; social impact assessment in particular neighbourhoods).