Plan to Boost the Social and Solidarity Economy (2021-2023)

The Plan to Promote the Social and Solidarity Economy 2021- 2023 (PIESS in Catalan) consolidates the previous plan's approach, and is the result of the combined efforts of different departments within the City Council and Barcelona Activa that are geared towards Barcelona's SSE. Approximately €21.8 million will be allocated to it during the three years it will be in force.

The PIESS 2021-2023 follows and adapts the roadmap set out by the Barcelona 2030 Social and Solidarity Economy Strategy (#ESSBCN2030 Strategy) while identifying, prioritising and applying the actions with the most impact on municipal public policy. The Plan, a working document that facilitates implementation of the Strategy in the municipal sphere, has been adapted through the participatory process involving Barcelona City Council and the SSE sector in the city.

The PIESS 2021-2023 has 12 goals and 65 actions that respond to the six key challenges of the SSE:

  • Objectiu 1

    Goal 1. To promote the growth and business enhancement of SSE organisations, especially in the strategic sectors

    • Social Enterprise Advice Service
    • Intensive medium- and long-term entrepreneurship support programmes
    • Intensive medium- and long-term programmes for the economic strengthening and growth of SSE companies and organisations
    • Programmes for sectors with potential for the SSE
    • Training for SSE entrepreneurship and enterprises
    • Incubation community The InnoBAdora
    • European programmes to promote business enhancement and strategic sectors
    • European sector and business enhancement programmes
    • Financial aid lines for the creation, transformation and consolidation of SSE companies and organisations within the framework of the Enfortim SSE grants call for proposals
    • Financial aid lines for the creation, transformation and consolidation of SSE initiatives, companies and organisations in strategic sectors within the framework of the Impulsem el que Fas call for proposals
    • Supervising and ensuring the city's general economic reactivation measures are adjusted to the needs and characteristics of the SSE.
  • Objectiu 2

    Goal 2. To facilitate access to funding and promote the credit culture in the SSE

    • Funding for the consolidation of SSE initiatives in the context of revitalisation and reinforcement: Enfortim SSE grants
    • Funding for SSE start-up initiatives: Impulsem el que Fas [We promote what you do] grants
    • Credit funds for SSE organisations: agreements with ethical finance entities (Coop57, etc.)
    • Creation of a Public-Cooperative Investment Fund for patient capital and infrastructure funding (in accordance with investment needs in the SSE sphere)
  • PIESS 3

    Goal 3. To promote resources, equipment and instruments strategic for the SSE

    • Management and dynamisation of InnoBA, reference centre for socio-economic innovation and the SSE

      Bloc 4 a Can Batlló. Refurbishment of the building and promotion of a reference centre for cooperatives in the city, including the Ateneu Cooperatiu de Barcelona  
    • Collaboration with the Collaboration with the 
    • Promoting sustainable mobility and the SSE through agreements with strategic projects: BiciHub 
    • Promotion of the Responsible Consumption Space, a city facility that aims to promote a more conscious and committed consumer culture to have a positive impact on people and the environment
    • Participation in promoting the Urban Agroecology and Sustainable Food Hub within the framework of the Vallbona Master Plan
    • Support for this agroecological cooperative space through agreements with strategic projects: Can Calopa
  • PIESS 4

    Goal 4. To promote sectoral, territorial or commercial coordination and inter-cooperation dynamics

    • Support for inter-cooperation and coordination actions or instruments through the calls for Enfortim SSE and Impulsem el que Fasgrants
    • Support for cooperative groups, sectoral hubs or clusters and cooperative ecosystems through the calls for Enfortim SSE and Impulsem el que Fasgrants
    • Promotion of the pro-commons collaborative economy workspace (BarCola) 
    • Actions to boost strategic SSE sectors: Cooperative housing and the leaseholding cooperative housing model in particular
    • Collaboration in actions to boost strategic SSE sectors promoted by other City Council areas (e.g.: Sandbox with the SSE Energy Hub, agreement with SSE entities for use of the Decidim platform to promote participatory democracy and the development of free and open source digital infrastructures...)
    • Promoting this participatory space as a meeting and inter-cooperation point for companies and organisations linked to sustainable food and supporting its development by incorporating SSE criteria
    • Support for territorial strategies in the city’s neighbourhoods and districts within the framework of development plans and the Amunt Persianes strategy
  • PIESS 5

    Goal 5. To contribute towards the SSE’s digitalisation and platformisation

    • Giving a boost to SSE platformisation and digitalisation by creating the Programme MatchImpulsa, in collaboration with the DIMMONS/UOC Research Group
    • Training/outreach programmes to create a collaborative culture and knowledge of the commons framework through theInnoBa training catalogue
    • Specific type of funding for processes and actions to digitalise the calls for Enfortim ESSgrants
  • PIESS 6

    Objectiu 6. Fomentar iniciatives socioeconòmiques d’ESS de col·lectius en situació de vulnerabilitat

    • Support for raising the profile of the city's community economies
    • Support for SSE entrepreneurship projects through the calls for Impulsem el que Fas  grants
    • Programmes supporting collective entrepreneurship for target groups in situations of vulnerability or risk
    • Promoting REC as a Citizen Currency and innovative instrument for socio-economic development
    • Supporting municipal actions for the socio-economic integration of groups in an irregular administrative situation through SSE instruments
       
  • PIESS 7

    Goal 7. To make the SSE attractive as a work and economic option, especially among young people

    • Catalogue of outreach and awareness activities developed by enterprises and entrepreneurs
    • Awareness activities targeted at the general public to stimulate interest in and foster dissemination of SSE principles and values, incorporating specific actions for young people
    • Communication of public policies to promote the SSE developed by Barcelona City Council: raising the profile of the SSE in the city (speaker directed inwards and outwards) CoAgenda ESS 
    • TransformESS Programme: activities for young people so they get to know SSE values and principles during the different stages of education, highlighting student cooperatives and youth cooperatives
    • Promote tax relief for SSE companies and organisations and in particular to promote the leasehold cooperative housing system.
  • PIESS 8

    Goal 8. To promote conscious consumption and the consolidation of the social market by facilitating access to SSE goods, products, services and activities

    • Support for raising the profile of the SSE through the Catalonia Solidarity Economy Fair and the Social Balance tool (by means of an agreement with the XES) 
    • Promotion of commercial spaces for visibility and access to SSE products and services in the city
    • Responsible Consumption and Social and Solidarity Economy Fair
    • Responsible Consumption Space: advice and awareness activities and, at some point in the year, a series of own activities (Responsible Consumption Week)
    • Promoting the reuse of municipal corporation computer equipment in collaboration with the network eReuse
    • Financial aid lines for promoting responsible consumption as part of the call for Impulsem el que Fas grants
  • PIESS 9

    Goal 9. To ensure the presence of public policy to promote the SSE in multilevel governance in order to respond to social and economic challenges

    • Participating in and actively leading (chairing and coordinating) the Network of Municipalities for the Social and Solidarity Economy (XMESS), participating in the working groups when necessary
    • Effectively develop political advocacy and inter-administrative coordination (Catalan Government, Spanish Government, European Union, City Councils, AMB and Barcelona Provincial Council)

       
  • PIESS 10

    Goal 10. To contribute towards increasing the weight of responsible contracting and public procurement in the SSE

    • Support and training spaces with social economy enterprises to promote and facilitate access to public contracts
    • Advice, training and development of support instruments for improving and monitoring reserved contracts and the SSE subcontracting clause
    • Generation of practical tools to facilitate Responsible Public Procurement implementation, such as the directory of social economy enterprises
    • Dialogue with municipal areas to promote responsible procurement and the role of the SSE
  • PIESS 11

    Goal 11. To establish spaces for dialogue, collaboration and knowledge exchange within the SSE and with the rest of the city's economy

    • Creation of spaces for promoting and boosting the City Agreement on the 2030 Social and Solidarity Economy Strategy
    • InnoBA socio-economic innovation reference centre: space for exchange and collaboration between the SSE and the conventional economy
    • Participation in international social economy forums (FSMET, GSEF, EU, etc.)
    • Facilitate the SSE’s presence in spaces for public policy coordination: CESB, procurement board, employment board, among others

       
  • PIESS 12

    Goal 12. To generate knowledge, data and impact of the SSE in the city

    • Support for generating SSE data through accountability systems that apply social, environmental and good governance criteria
    • Dynamisation (internally) and support (externally) of initiatives for data generation and evaluation: city SSE data system
    • Impact assessment and continuous improvement of public policies to promote the SSE in the city
    • Exploration of new actions or new methodologies in line with results, assessment and new emerging needs

       

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