How Social Enterprises can Combine Social and Economic Goals

A quarter century of experience with local community-based participatory approach in Quebec province (Canada).  This initiative started about 25 years ago. In small towns, with 500 to 1000 population, there is no grocery store, no gas pump, no post office, etc. A solidarity coop, which is a multistakeholder coop, can operate a multipurpose coop, that can provide some basic services. Since coops have an open membership, about 80-90% of the population become members and voluntarily invest a couple of hundred dollars as startup capital. This creates 2-3 jobs and avoids travelling 20 or so km to the larger town. There are also solidarity coops in larger cities, often with a different mission.  After 25 years at least 250 such coops are still operating successfully.

This initiative is described in the following article, published in 2007.

Solidarity Co-operatives (Quebec, Canada): How Social Enterprises can Combine Social and Economic Goals

Jean-Pierre Girard, University of Sherbrook, Canada, in co-operation with Geneviève Langlois,

The link to the article is HERE.

Abstract:

In many European countries, multi-stakeholder co-operatives provide a
positive contribution to the renewal of the co-operative model by offering
relevant answers to new needs that combine social and economic
dimensions. However, in North America, this model has a very limited
impact, except in the Canadian province of Quebec where solidarity cooperatives
can be found. In the ten-year period from 1997 to 2007, 479
solidarity co-operatives were created. The solidarity co-operative was
developed to attract new key players of the civil society. Indeed, solidarity
co-operatives can be set up in many original ways in various branches of
industry, including new ones for co-operatives such as environment, leisure,
fair trade and health care.

After an overview of the development of multi-stakeholder co-operatives
from a global perspective, this chapter explains the genesis of the idea
behind solidarity co-operatives in Quebec and present the legal provisions
which define the concept and which prescribe its policies. This is followed
by a brief portrait of the development of the formula following the legal act
which led to its existence in 1997, and by data that relates to the current
number of co-operatives and participant members, branches of the industry
and their regional distribution. The last section offers an overview of the key
findings of a research project dedicated to the impact of solidarity cooperatives
on social cohesion and will focus on solidarity co-operatives
evolving in the health care sector. A set of recommendations concludes the
chapter.

Yvon Poirier