Practical examples - Entrepreneurship

Quasar - Quality for the Network Systems of Social Enterprises

Highlights

QUASAR offers a particularly interesting example of network construction. In Italy, this takes the form of the already well-structured social enterprise sector building bridges with the conventional business community. Italy's 6,500 social co-operatives are grouped into around 100 consortia, which provide support at the local or provincial level. The social co-operatives also have seven national consortia. The QUASAR DP is buttressing this structure, and tapping into the compulsory subscriptions that all businesses make to chambers of commerce, by setting up "Observatories of the civil economy" in partnership with Chambers of Commerce, Industry Handicraft and Agriculture (CCIAA) in eight provinces. Six are already active, and are serving the needs of 240 social enterprises. Meanwhile a further five provinces are developing self-financed observatories. The observatories have the job of doing research and providing information to the chambers of commerce; representing the third sector; advising existing and new social enterprises. They are managed by committees comprising the chamber, university, co-operatives, associations and voluntary service. They thus create local hubs where information and know-how can be exchanged.

The problem: The project has addressed the mutual lack of understanding that has tended to exist between the two worlds of social enterprises and chambers of commerce. Historically the chambers of commerce have tended to write off the non-profit-distributing sector as an uninteresting niche, and ignore its proven capacity to create jobs and income, especially for disadvantaged people. Whilst social enterprises have been legally obliged to pay subscriptions to chambers of commerce, the CCIAAs do not provide specific services to them. QUASAR aimed to build a bridge from both ends, by making the culture of social enterprise managers more businesslike, and at the same time the chamber of commerce culture more sensitive to the benefits of social enterprise.

The tool was to create Observatories of the Civil Economy in each of the eight participating provinces: Milan, Treviso, Forlì, Florence, Cagliari, Potenza, Bari and Palermo. Their tasks are:

to carry out research and supply information in support of the chambers' policies
to represent the third sector
to offer social enterprises tools, information, and skilled technical assistance to support their consolidation and development; these are delivered jointly by the Special Agency of the Chambers of Commerce and local third sector organisations
to assist social enterprise start-ups, by giving them the possibility to become part of a system which has high quality standards and shares best practice.

The local dimension has been crucial: the observatories have got off the ground by local Quasar Committees made up of representatives of the chambers of commerce and the local third sector organisations. The committees have planned which services are to be delivered by the chambers of commerce (e.g. enterprise health checks) and which by the third sector organisations.

The Civil Economy Observatories are formally constituted as organs of the Chambers of Commerce, which guarantees the revenue needed to survive. They are led by a president, who is a member of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce, and who is supported by a co-ordinator and a secretariat. They are overseen by a committee bringing on board the combined strengths of the chamber of commerce, university, voluntary service, social associations and social co-operatives.

Expert working groups at national level have produced guidelines on finance, social services reform (law 328/00), organisation and training, social quality, and further materials are to be produced as necessary.

A training course for third sector managers and Chamber of Commerce officials has been delivered in every province, covering the themes of the social enterprise promotion, local development, governance, specialised financial tools for third sector organisations, and social quality. In total 180 persons have taken part in the training courses.

The project has piloted the services to be delivered by the Special Agencies of the CCIAA and by the local third sector oganisations. The local Quasar Committees are deciding who will deliver each service, but the normal pattern is as follows:

social quality for the third sector - TSO
involvement in local social services planning (social services reform, law 328/00) - TSO
specialised financial tools for social enterprises - TSO & CCIAA
training for social enterprises managers - TSO & CCIAA
training for chamber of commerce officials - CCIAA & TSO
tools to consolidate and develop social enterprises (check up) - CCIAA

QUASAR has raised capacity at the local level by organising training courses for over 200 social enterprise managers and chambers of commerce, and has sponsored over 200 enterprise check-ups. It has influenced national policy through a hearing on social enterprises held by the Italian Parliament. It has improved the capacity, flexibility and connectedness of the business support systems in eight provinces, and brought fresh resources into support for social enterprise.

Fast facts

DP name: QUASAR - Qualità per i sistemi a rete di imprese sociali

DP ID: IT-IT-S-MDL-053

National partners: Asseforcamere, ASTER-X Agenzia di Servizi del Terzo Settore, CENSIS - Fondazione Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali, Fondazione Istituto GuglielmoTagliacarne

Transnational partnerships: TCA 1258 SITED (Social inclusion through enterprises development) - partners DE-EA-93973 innova Entwicklungspartnerschaft für Selbsthilfegenossenschaften, AT-3-01/128: Empowerment kleiner und mittlerer sozialer Organisationen, FR-NAT-2001-10817: EETIC - entreprendre ensemble sur un territoire pour l'inclusion par la coopération

Contact: Francesco De Rosa - Aster-x coordinator

Address: ATS Progetto Quasar, intenational contact c/o Aster-x Via Montebello, 8 - 00185 Roma - Italy

Telephone: +39 06 47825107

Fax: +39 06 47882345

E-mail: progetto.quasar@aster-x.it ; f.derosa@aster-x.it

Website: www.progettoquasar.it

Main outputs: new support networks, new networking practice between specialist and mainstream business support services

Keywords: business start-up, social co-operative, chamber of commerce

Policy brief: Management skills for social enterprises

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