IesMed gets involved in spreading social innovation

IesMed (Innovation and Social Economics in the Mediterranean) is a structure dedicated to social and united economics, and a member of the Office for Economic Cooperation in the Mediterranean and the Middle East (OCEMO). Created 5 years ago in Barcelona, this Cooperative European Company (CEC) is pushing to build a “social and united Mediterranean” and actively collaborates with OCEMO, especially in Spain and Tunisia, on the topics of youth, employment and education. Creating the Spanish network of second chance schools is one of the fruits of a partnership formed in 2014.

This Autumn, IesMed launches a new regional project, ESSaiMed, to accelerate the sharing and ‘import/export’ of social innovations which perform best in terms of impact and sustainability. A first North-North trial, funded by the Barcelona Town Hall and private partners, comes
to life in the Catalonian capital with the A-porta programme, a copy of VoisinMalin (clever neighbour) launched in the Parisian region in 2010. The founder of VoisinMalin, social entrepreneur Anne Charpy, enthusiastically contributed to this ‘premier’ VM-iesMed-CONFAVC (associations from around Catalonia) aiming to tackle isolation in the least privileged neighbourhoods thanks to charismatic locals getting stuck in together (clever French neighbours), genuine mediators of daily life.

The A-porta experience aims to spread to other large Mediterranean cities. IesMed’s objective is to refine the way it spreads rigorous methodologies and an economic model which guarantees the long term quality and viability of selected replications. Major approaches other than city politics are initially prioritised, especially helping and supporting entrepreneurs and renewable energy for communities.