国際セミナー「世界の障害者インクルージョン政策の動向」

講演1　要旨（原文）
Social Firms in the UK and Europe - creating meaningful employment for people with disabilities

Gerold Schwarz

Agenda
1. Three case-studies
2. Definition and values
3. Social Firms in the context of vocational integration
4. Brief historical background and data
5. Characteristics and Impact
6. Lessons learned - success factors
7. Recent developments and outlook

The presentation will start with three case studies of successful social firms in three European countries. The examples are well established social firms and they clearly demonstrate the potential of the model to create real employment on a high level for a large number of people with disabilities. After this introduction, I will introduce the European definition of a social firm and the common values that they share: Employment, Empowerment and Enterprise. In the fourth part of the presentation I will then give some facts about the historical background of the social firm movement which started in the early 1970ies in Italy when the first psychiatric hospitals in the North of Italy opened up and people with mental health problems where integrated back into the communities. The idea then spread throughout Europe and was particularly successful in some countries, such as Germany and the UK. A number of countries have now officially recognised social firms and introduced laws that define them and provide a support framework. To date there are about 10,000 social firms and social co-operatives in Europe and they offer employment for approx. 50,000 people with disabilities.

The next part of the presentation will focus on the significance of social firms in the UK and provide background information on what role social firms play in the wider social enterprise sector and within the UK Government strategy on social enterprises.

In the second half of my presentation I will then focus on how exactly social firms work, what impact they can have on people with disabilities and what are their main differences to other models of vocational integration for people with disabilities. In the last part I will provide a summary of the main lessons learned from over 20 years of social firms in Europe, what can be learned from us and how these lessons may be transferred into other countries. The points presented will draw on over ten years of working within an organisation that supports social firms, on many European programmes that helped establish new social firms and on interviews with employees and managers of social firms.The presentation will conclude with an overview of some of the most interesting recent developments within the social firm sector in Europe and an outlook on the future of the model.