What is a
Social Enterprise
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A social enterprise is a business that works primarily to improve the lives of people. The business of social enterprise is social good.
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Social enterprises operate to meet a social need.
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Social enterprises generate profits that are reinvested, rather than distributed among shareholders, as in the case of most businesses.
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Social enterprises operate in all areas of Ireland’s social and economic life, trading in goods and services, and re-investing any profit into delivering their mission in communities.
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Social enterprises use a ‘business-plus’ model, which emphasises social need and the re-investment of profit into their core mission.
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Awareness Raising Initiative for
Social Enterprise (ARISE)
In 2021 the funding was made available to raise awareness of Social Enterprises and their positive impact in our communities. The Awareness Raising Initiative for Social Enterprise (ARISE) Scheme 2021 was set up to provide grants to Social Enterprises to help them promote the positive impact they have on their local communities.
Partas were successful in our application to promote awareness around, not only our own businesses and their social impact, but also the impact made by other social enterprises. In total we aimed to highlight the presence and work of 30 social enterprises within this project.
To achieve this, we designed and produced attractive and permanent wall plaques for 30 social enterprises. The plaques are designed to be affixed to the wall outside the premises where passers-by, customers and neighbours can see/access them. Each plaque contains the simple Social Enterprise Declaration: ‘This Business is a Social Enterprise’ and a large individual QR code, which will direct users to a landing page.
The landing page concisely explains:
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What that particular social enterprise’s mission is
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What impact that social enterprise has on the local community.
The landing page also contains a link to the homepage of the company’s website which gives the reader the opportunity to find out more about the Social Enterprise. The project is designed to appeal to the public curiosity and to draw them in to whatever level of information they are comfortable to access.
