RaiSE

What is RaiSE? 

 RaiSE brings together six pro-active regions and one advisory partner to address the common challenge of enhancing competitiveness of social enterprises. According to the Social Business Initiative of the European Commission, social enterprises:

• focus on social impact rather than generating profit 
• use their benefits to achieve social goals
• are managed by social entrepreneurs in an accountable, transparent and innovative way. 

Social enterprises are drivers of social change The potential of social enterprises to generate inclusive growth and promote more and better jobs is widely recognised and RaiSE project partners will learn from each other to improve their regions business support policies. 

Active interregional exchange of expertise

Seven partners, with varied policy contexts, unite efforts to improve together the support that each region gives to social enterprises. The following activities will be undertaken during the first part of the project (2'5 years):  

• 6 project meetings and study visits to share knowledge. 
• 3 interregional thematic workshops on - 1) skills enhancement for market access, 2) access to public procurement markets, 3) new business models and strategies for social enterprises growth.
• 6 regional study reports and 1 interregional analysis (developed by the advisory partner) to map the social enterprises ecosystem in each region. 
• Regional Stakeholders Group meetings to involve relevant actors in the learning process. 
• Good Practice Guide to collect the best regional examples. 

Action Plans

Thanks to this learning process, every region will develop an Action Plan at the end of phase 1, that should:

• conduce improvements in the policy instruments selected.
• deliver new and enhanced services, such as better training or new funding policies.
• lead to better governance, engaging multiple stakeholders in policy development and implementation. 

During the second part of the project (2 years) Action Plans will be implemented and monitored.