Innovative Co-ops in the Social Services Sector: A research study to benefit people with developmental disabilities and mental illness

This Canadian Government funded report is on innovative social services delivery around the world (including one example in Australia - Nundah Community Enterprise Cooperative in Q'land) where cooperatives are used with the specific aim of empowering the participants through encouraging "ownership" of the programs directed at them. Participation in ownership and control of such programs seems to be successful in reducing dependency/increasing independence and producing superior outcomes for those involved.

Excerpt from Executive Summary:

This research grew from the desire of the United Community services Co-op of British Columbia to assist three organizations to achieve their goals of improving access to housing and employment for people with developmental disabilities and mental illness. The organizations wished to gain better understanding of the potential of co-op models of enterprise to benefit vulnerable populations, and to explore options for incubating “social co-ops” as a way to assist their clients to live better and more fulfilling lives.

The research focused on finding and documenting the development of social co-ops around the world, developing several case studies, documenting ‘key learnings’, putting forward for discussion a matrix for analysing social co-operatives, and acquiring responses to the research from a focus group in BC.

Social Co-ops have sprung up in many places in the world, though with the exception of Northern Italy, the depth and breadth of experience is still marginal. Quantitative research in this field is rare. The local experiments we found provide a rich source of anecdotal material but outside of Italy there is not yet a dynamic that would characterize a movement on a world-wide, national or regional scale.

The Italian experience is instructive, but of limited immediate applicability to Canada given the unique legal and social support systems in Italy that provide a more receptive context for social co-ops. It will likely be years before the pioneering work on social co-ops in Canada generates momentum for regulatory reform and increased public and institutional support. The Italian experience is important as it clearly indicates the very significant potential of social co-ops to improve the quality of life for vulnerable populations and their communities.

Our research gathered information on over twenty social co-ops and provided detailed case studies of five co-operatives and one non-profit organization that are populated by or provide service to adult individuals with a developmental disability or mental illness. Each one is unique in contextual factors, organizing history, scale, incubation processes, capitalization and financing, and focus of production work.

The learnings gleaned from the research are documented in the first section. These lessons are preliminary and fragile. Translation of unique situations into other situations may not work and a body of professional observations has not yet developed. The learning must be considered as a starting place rather than definitive.

Apart from the concrete learnings discussed in the report, there are several issues to highlight in this summary.

• Social co-ops have a unified bottom-line, achieving social-values and financial-values as one enterprise. The case studies show that there is no consistent understanding of this reality by policy makers and funders, and, as of yet, no patterns of adequate in-kind and financial support. This presents a very difficult challenge. The recent advent of federal government support for the "social economy" may provide some hope that issues of capital investment, sweat equity and contribution and on-going financing can be addressed.
  
• There is a need for people working in and with social co-pops to connect and support one another. Canada is in the pioneering phase of a very promising approach to meeting social goals more effectively and efficiently. Pioneering is hard work, and many very challenging roles are being learned and re-learned. We found no group or web based community of interest to support networking and learning from the experiences of others.
  
• In the long term there is a requirement to build understanding and acceptance of social co-ops as effective organizational structures to address the social and financial goals of groups of vulnerable and disabled people and those working in their support. A high quality definition and branding effort is needed to achieve that goal. Extensive policy research is required along with sectoral development.

These and other issues are addressed in the Conclusions and Recommendation section of this report.

Finally, it is important to acknowledge the incredible effort and heart of the founding individuals (and organizations that supported them) in setting up the social co-ops at which we looked. Against many odds and in unfamiliar, sometimes hostile environments, these people have worked with profound commitment and dedication. We salute them.