The Promise of Social Co-ops

1. The Promise of Social Co-ops Democratizing Community Services Rob Howarth TNC Members’ Meeting March 13, 2018

2. The Context of NFP-Delivered Community Services • Pressures towards service consolidation • Inadequate public investment to meet rising and complex needs, and core costs • Competition from private-sector delivery models • Public dissatisfaction with one-size-fits-all social services, and bureaucratic barriers • Calls for greater client/community empowerment and control

3. A Social Co-op Alternative? • Provides a membership structure for multi-stakeholder co-design, direction and decision-making • Can draw together paid staff and volunteer energies in an integrated system • Human-scale and consortia as an antidote to service consolidation • Can be structured to diversify income sources (grants added to fees added to other earned income) • Seems to be well-suited to social care and environmental care efforts

4. Organizational Structure

5. Italian Social Co-op Guiding Principles

6. An Enabling Context Via Mutuality NETWORKS: semi-autonomous units form networks in the interest of a greater shared narrative rooted in mutual values and principles (e.g. TNC model) – federation, not top-down amalgamation CONSORTIA: unite co-ops across specific sectors and provides legal advice, training, back office, tendering and negotiating power to secure larger contracts CO-OPERATIVE FINANCE and mutual insurance: pool finance risk and enable lower-cost capital to be secured from credit unions and social investors

7. Italy’s Enabling Policy Framework

8. 7 For the Public Benefit • As described in Italian Law 381, social co-ops have as their purpose “to pursue the general community interest in promoting human concerns and the integration of citizens”.In this sense, social co-operatives are recognized as having goals that promote benefits to the community and its citizens, rather than maximizing benefits solely to co-op members (contrast to producer or consumer co-ops).Italian legislation also acknowledges the affinity between local governments and social co-ops in the promotion of public welfare, and emphasizes the possibility of collaboration between them.

9. Growth in Social Coop Movement

10. Application & Benefits 1 • An alternative to LHINs vision of service consolidation: Could explore with home help, childcare, seniors respite care, others? • Community Access to New $: Federated and networked models could enable small agencies and groups to access shared bidding on larger contracts (e.g. huge $ being organized around anchor institution, social procurement and community benefit infrastructure projects) • Consistent with new City/Sector Policy Objectives regarding effective partnerships for Public Benefit, and timely re: poverty reduction, resiliency, etc.

11. 10 Application & Benefits 2 • Union-friendly (many social co-ops are unionized) and the effort to expand this space can be made consistent with calls for adequate public investment, and good jobs • Expanded community democracy and decision-making power. Moves beyond “services to” towards real co-creating and delivery, and more direct community control over local programs and assets. Desperately needed at this time to counter disaffection and associated political expressions fuelled by frustration instead of constructive alternatives

12. Next? • further research • feasibility study with interested agencies/services • integrate with our Metcalf Project on TNC Community Investment Fund ideas • Anyone interested in a workgroup to move this along?