Article by DEVISUS Brussels
The partners of the DEVISUS project met for the last mobility in Brussels on 13 and 14 June 2023. This mobility was mainly organised around the project’s closing conference.
The morning of June 13 was devoted to finalizing the preparation of the event but also to a time on the evaluation of previous mobilities (Lille, Rome, Namur).
In the afternoon, the meeting entitled “Impact and social utility of the social and solidarity economy (SSE): common challenges and benchmarks at the heart of the evaluation” took place.
It brought together some forty participants from the social and solidarity economy ecosystem (entrepreneurship, federations, administrations, researchers, public authorities, etc.).
After a word of welcome and a brief presentation of the DEVISUS project, three quality speakers took the floor on the theme of Social Impact Assessment (SI) and Social Utility Assessment (US).
Ann Paquet, Director of ALEAP, first testified about her field experience on the added value of an approach and support for the evaluation of the SI. She shared the reflections and lessons of the VISES projects (Valuing the Social Impact of Social Enterprises).
DENIS (Let’s develop and evaluate our Social Impact) and VALORISES which propose an evaluation approach based on co-construction and participatory approach, taking into account the specificity of SSE.
Sylvain Celle, PhD in Economics – SSE Lyon 2 Chair, then gave a broader perspective on the evaluation of social impact and social utility in SSE, highlighting the evolution of concepts but also the emergence of an ecosystem in support and training in this context.
Finally, Patrick Klein, DG GROW – European Commission presented the European Union’s initiatives to support social entrepreneurship and the assessment of social impact and social utility, including some measures stemming from the European Action Plan for the Social Economy.
After a relevant question-and-answer session between speakers and participants, the day continued with the organization of brainstorming workshops. These made it possible to present the results of the work carried out by the partners of the DEVISUS project on several themes (building a shared vision, identifying skills for support, developing a training framework) in order to enrich them and feed reflections.
This day rich in exchanges and contributions ended with the presentation of perspectives and the possible continuation of the DEVISUS project, followed by a moment of conviviality and networking.
The next day, June 14, the partners took the time to discuss the fruitful and interesting meeting of the previous day. Then, a working time was devoted to the capitalization of the reflections, the deliverables of the project as well as the dissemination and communication. The afternoon allowed an exchange by videoconference with DOCK (Greek member of RIPESS Europe). This organization presented a specific tool called “Social Value” that makes it possible to assess the social value of SSE activities. This was followed by an exchange with the partners with a view to submitting a future project. A working time finally focused on the overall evaluation of the project.
Note:
See our previous article: The DEVISUS project, social utility assessment
You will find below the video capsule: DEVISUS, the Development of an Ecosystem for Valorization of Social Impact and Social Utility (in French)
