The cases of innovations presented here cover three areas of policy: income support and professional reintegration; early child care and education; and housing. A few elements emerge as relevant in all cases considered. A first major issue at stake appears to be the amount of available resources as opposed to increasing and changing needs, a…
39.1. Short description In the summer of 2011, several so-called “work corporations” (werkcorporaties) started operating in the municipality of Nijmegen. These work corporations aim at re-employing social assistance (Wet Werk en Bijstand, or WWB) receivers with a considerable distance from the labour market by offering them a place where they can combine work and education.…
40.1. Short description Housing corporation Portaal, together with the municipality of Nijmegen, started the project “A Future for Everybody” in 2009 because the province (Gelderland) reserved money for the development of “innovative living arrangements” within a larger programme. It was not stated clearly what was meant by “innovative living arrangements”, but the focus had to…
41.1. Short description In 2009, three Moroccan fathers in Nijmegen saw that successful “neighbourhood father” projects were running in other cities in the Netherlands. Together with a local welfare worker from Tandem Welfare they visited such a project in The Hague to see how it was organised. The fathers thought that such an initiative could…
Sustainability Although all innovations were, at least at the start, dependent on public funding, an explicit wish exists among members of all three projects to continue even if financial resources dry up. However, this urge to be self-sufficient was driven by different logic. Work corporations would prefer to earn revenues of their own because the…
Local background of the social innovations Milan is the capital city of the Lombardy region. The economic and financial capital of Italy, it is a rich and economically dynamic context (see Costa and Sabatinelli 2012). One of the vertexes of the former industrial triangle with Gène and Turin in the Fordist era, it was one…
61.1. Short description We visited Holma-Kroksbäck, in the district of Hyllie, where the Head of the Department of Integration and Sustainable Development, is responsible for the programme, together with the programme coordinator. They are, together with a secretary and a business consultant, employed to work on Områdesprogrammet. Områdesprogrammet in Holma-Kroksbäck is not directed at the…
62.1. Short description Coompanion is an organisation providing advice and education to people in the process of starting their own business. Coompanion is a national organisation. However, the national office is more of a service office for the relatively independent regional organisations (interview 3). Before the Incubator initiative the Coompanion Skåne (Skåne being a county…
63.1. Short description Yalla Trappan is a labour-integrated social enterprise. The general aim of Yalla Trappan is to provide work for women who would otherwise have severe difficulties entering the labour market. Yalla Trappan is organised by integrating permanently employed workers with workers who are there on an internship, through the social services administration. Yalla…
Deregulation within the field of social welfare, a political interest in alternative providers, and a high degree of self-governance in the Swedish welfare system would open opportunities for social innovation. The case study of the local policy context in Malmö indicates a favourable local context in relation to social innovation. It was stated in the…