Minister Heather Humphreys launches the Social Enterprise Policy Bank alongside Louth Local Development

Monaghan Integrated Development (MID), with Louth Local Development (LLD) and Cavan County Local Development (CCLD), launched their newly developed Social Enterprise Policy Bank www.sepolicybank.ie (SE Policy Bank) on Monday at the Íontas Centre, Castleblayney.

The SE Policy Bank supports social enterprises in Ireland by offering a bank of resources to help them achieve good governance and work in line with relevant legal and statutory requirements.

The project was developed by the Social Enterprise Development Officers working on the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) within the three Local Development Companies.

Minister Heather Humphreys launched the website "which is a welcomed and worthy resource that will prove invaluable for the social enterprise sector in Ireland."

Following the official launch, Emma Murtagh of The Wheel and Access Europe discussed European Funding Opportunities including ERASMUS+, Interreg and EASI (Employment and Social Innovation) and how these could help grow and diversify social enterprise operations. Attendees also had the opportunity to hear and gain inspiration from some existing Social Enterprises including Cloughjordan Community Farm, The Leitrim Design House and Mullingar Employment Action Group (MEAG).

Dr. Oliver Moore, Chairperson of Cloughjordan Community Farm, presented the business model of their community farm which runs on a social enterprise model; ‘our members’ subscriptions pay for the running costs of the farm.

"A huge range of social good can happen with a socially-orientated farm, generating and circulating income locally, €205,000 turnover has an impact in a village of 800 people.

"We bring young European volunteers over to work on the farm through the EU funded European Solidarity Corps. We could survive without the volunteers as the 1.5 full time farmers that we employ could get the work done, but the volunteers add a lot to the farm.

"They also generate local employment as we receive funding to pay for a part-time supervisor for every 4-5 volunteers that we take. Volunteers stay up to 12 months and we accommodate up to 15 volunteers per year. We have been taking volunteers for over 8 years now and would highly recommend social enterprises to contact www.leargas.ie to find out more about setting up a volunteer project and attracting volunteers as an additional resource to help with their social enterprises operations’"

The SE Policy Bank contains tailored resources under the six categories of; Governance, Human Resources, Health and Safety, GDPR and Data Protection, Funding and Grant Writing, and Financial Management. This bank of material meets the unique and specific needs of the social enterprise sector in Ireland.

The website aims to make it easier for volunteer board members to improve their organisational governance and operations through the provision of a dedicated resource where they can download sample policies and procedures and readily tailor these to their specific organisation.

Julie Clarke, Community Economic Development Officer at MID along with colleagues, across the different organisations involved: "are delighted with the outcome of this project, to now have a FREE practical resource that eases the administrative burden on volunteer directors and committee members is fantastic.

"It will enable social enterprises to develop and adopt policies and procedures that will ultimately improve their governance structures and improve compliance. The three Local Development Companies Monaghan, Cavan and Louth are delighted to offer mentoring support, through the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), to assist social enterprises with developing and adopting their policies and procedures. We encourage groups to reach out to us for assistance."

The project was developed with support from Quality Matters, a research charity who help charities, non-profits & statutory agencies across Ireland to work more effectively for marginalised communities.

It was funded by the Government of Ireland’s Department of Rural and Community Development and with support from the Dormant Account Fund, with special thanks to the Irish Local Development Network and Community Services Programme Network (CSP Net).

This project was led by the SICAP team at MID in partnership with CCLD, LLD and CSP NET.