The Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy (MSES) sought to develop and nurture an ecosystem that facilitates the strengthening and growth of social enterprises creating job and training opportunities for individuals facing barriers to employment.
Supported by the work that the MSES has done on sector development so far, more work integration social enterprises are turning interesting, exciting ideas into reality faster and better, thereby making demonstrable progress especially in lower income communities. The activities of the MSES met sector training and development needs leading to a greater impact by social enterprises in Manitoba. Key areas of impact included organizational development, network development, awareness-raising and advocacy, market development and sector readiness for future growth.
Download the MSES Impact Evaluation Report
The MSES provided the opportunity to pilot strategic programming to support work integration social enterprises, and yet there is much more possible if the needs for organizational development, networking and market development are met. Many of the MSES initiatives were of great value. There are initiatives that made a clear impact and show potential for replication, while other initiatives did not address the sector need as well as intended. In these instances, a sector need remains and a better understanding of how to address it has been gained.
Social enterprise isn’t just about poverty reduction or workforce development, it’s also about great business models and ideas that have many positive spin-off effects in our communities, the environment and local economies. We know there are barriers to address as we strive for the next level in Manitoba, but the engine is warmed up and ready to go.
Recommendations
Recommendation #1: Sector Development Requires Investment
Recommendation #2: Co-create with Social Enterprise Manitoba as a Sector Backbone
Recommendation #3: Build a second phase of activities from what we learned
a. Organizational Development
b. Market Development through Social Procurement
c. Networking and Relationship Building
d. Investments in Strategic, Time-Limited Opportunities
Recommendation #4: A second MSES phase should consider unanswered questions around
a. Rural and Northern Manitoba
b. Gender-Based Analysis
c. Indigenization
d. What’s Not Working
e. Idea Generation
f. Capturing Outcomes and Results from Social Enterprise
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
Case Study – Mother Earth Recycling
Our Process to Understand Outcomes & Impact
Summary of Findings
How We Created These Outcomes
Stakeholder Map
Case Study – Strength in Numbers: Developing Sub-Sector Pays Off
Recommendations
Case Study – Social Enterprise & Resiliency
Appendix: Understanding Manitoba Work Integration Social Enterprises
