Cork City Council is organising a “Learning and Sharing Laboratory” for social enterprises.
Social enterprises are businesses that trade to provide essential services in their communities; to tackle particular challenges in society or to address environmental issues. Examples in Cork include Cork Deaf Enterprises which has seen members of the deaf community provide upholstering and French polishing services in the city for 28 years, STEAM Education which promotes science, technology, engineering, arts and maths education to primary school children and Churchfield Community Trust which provides adult education and training via its preschool furniture enterprise, garden products range and at the Garden Cafe in Blackpool.
The “Learning and Sharing laboratory” is aimed at providing support and networking opportunities to the enterprises, creating a digital map of the enterprises and gathering details about their aims, strengths and what they offer to communities. The event will be held in Cork on May 22 in the Republic of Work.
The event will bring together representatives from support organisations such as Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, Social Innovation Fund Ireland, Clann Credo and The Irish Social Enterprises Network. Participants will be given the opportunity to meet with these organisations and learn about the supports that are available whilst also being able to speak about the issues they are facing and the help they need.
This event is being organised as part of the Atlantic Social Lab project. The Atlantic Social Lab project is a 30 month EU funded project under the Interreg Atlantic Area programme and comprises 9 partners from Spain, Portugal, France, the UK and Ireland. Cork City Council is the Irish partner in the project.
The project aims to develop and promote social innovation as a way of addressing social challenges and Cork City Council is focusing on two key thematic areas in the project namely Social Enterprise and Civic Engagement. The “Learning & Sharing Laboratory” takes place as a result of consultations with social enterprises through this project.
The programme for this event will be available shortly. Participants must register for this event and places are limited. To register and for further information please contact Juliette_Crowley@corkcity.ie
