George Isaias A Journey in Social Entrepreneurship

Milestones October 2006 ACTA VISTA, FRANCE Project “CEPE” 2010 Reorganisation & New Mission 1 st Soc. Ent. Conference HUB NICOSIA 3rd Soc. Ent. Conference 2nd Soc. Ent. Conference Sep Feb “Cultural Heritage for Employment Conference in Nicosia “Social Entrepreneurship: A new paradigm that can help Cyprus address its challenges“ Piloted a Social Enterprise Model “Gardens of the World.” 4th Soc. Ent. Conference Across the divide

2006 A Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE) in Marseille, France Purpose / Beneficiaries / Model

“Cultural Heritage for Employment” Conference in Nicosia 2008 Follow up to set up a similar model in Cyprus

2010 & the power of the name.

2010 “SYNTHESIS” has a new mission ”To inspire, develop, and support social enterpreneurship.”

1 st Social Entrepreneurship Conf November 2010, University of Nicosia partners

2011 The "Ignite Europe" project ( ) aimed to enable the target group (VET teachers, trainers, tutors and VET institution managers) to deliver a programme of support to encourage and develop social entrepreneurship with students facing difficulties in the labour market. The developed training programme was based on the successful IGNITE training developed by the South Sefton Development Trust, UK.

Piloted a Social Enteprise Scheme “Gardens of the World” - Aimed to link employment of vulnerable groups in gardening/reforesting jobs - Self-financed - Failed but with useful lesssons 2012

“Social Entrepreneurship: Innovation for the Future” 13 Feb February 2013, University of Nicosia

Based at the Buffer Zone, in view of spreading the spirit of social entrepreneurship across both communities - Speeches - Seminars - Conferences 2013 – 2015

“Social Entrepreneurship in an Economic Crisis” September 2016, Home for Cooperation

Consulting - “A Map of Social Enterprises and their Ecosystem in Europe” - “Social Entrepreneurship Network” 2013 – 2015

“Hub Nicosia is a multi-space, educational and co-working center, and community of organisations and enterprises with a social mission” 2015

Our mission is that Hub Nicosia becomes the Hub of Social Entrepreneurs and Innovators

“Public Policies that can support the development of Social Enterprises”

"Social Entrepreneurship: A new paradigm that can help Cyprus to address its challenges“ (George Isaias and Ruediger Kaufmann) Dec The paper discussed social and environmental challenges in Cyprus (unemployment and waste of electrical and electronic equipment) Examined how social entrepreneurs address these issues in other countries through the cases of Acta Vista, Job Factory, and Recycla Chile Proposed a model of social entrepreneurship that can be adopted to address those issues locally.

Main Policy Recommendations - Legal / Regulatory Framework - Access to Funding/Financing - Training & Support - Access to Markets Paper (Isaias & Kaufmann)

PROFIT PLANET PEOPLE Social Enterprise Support Private Sector Public Sector Municipalities S.E Social Enterprise Network Development Model for Social Enterprises

Legal / Regulatory Framework - Define what a “Social Enterprise” is - Create a “Registry of Social Enterprises” of entities that fit the definition

Funding / Financing / Taxation Combination of - Start – up Capital (in form of Grants) - Loans with a low interest rate Tax incentives: - e.g. No VAT, other?

Training / Support / Networking - Help the development of social enterprise support structures (business support, mentoring, assistance to access funding / financing, etc) - Network

Access to Markets - Elimination of any market barriers - Public Procurements: take into consideration “Social Value”

Raising Awareness of Social Entrepreneurship Why / Who? How? Media coverage, seminars, conferences, competitions, mainstreaming in education, other? The “Heroes” Project

Other “Policy” Recommendation Formulate a “Policy” on how to deal with hostility of interest groups who do not favour the development of the sector in Cyprus

Contact info: Mob

7 November 2010, University of Nicosia