How does a broke local government that is fairly disconnected from the local ethnic population stimulate an economic revitalization strategy that prioritizes social equity objectives and the participation of the local population? 5 municipal authorities joined forces with seed money to develop a nimble community development organization that serves as an economic catalyst for social economy initiatives by pioneering new economy approaches through the mobilization of grassroots participation. Projects created include a Non-profit Pop-up community bike shop experiment in a local transit center that has become an all volunteer-run bike hub and advocacy center providing leadership development opportunities for local “opportunity youth.” (The Reading Bike Hub is transitioning to a member cooperative in 2016) as well as a collaborative social experiment entitled La Uva (Urban Vanguard in Action) following the strategic transition of the TEA Factory from a generic “co-working space” to a local center for Latino creative economy.

Women make up almost 52 % of Malian population, both in urban and rural areas. They are also the ones that are most stricken by poverty on account of unequal access to technical and financial opportunities to develop their economic initiatives, unequal participation in local governance processes and ignorance regarding their specific rights  regarding entrepreneurship. RENAPESS (Mali National Network for the Social and Solidarity Economy), in partnership with the Ministry of Solidarity, works to strengthen their professional and technical skills (targeted modular training), their access to financing (microcredit with education) and their inclusion at the level where their local development challenges are being addressed (participation in local planning processes).

WISES are social enterprises that work with people marginalized from the regular labour market, including people with severe handicaps, with disabilities and those who suffer addiction and homelessness. WISES offer an alternative to regular social programs: they breach social exclusion and stimulate working within a regular business environment. De Omslag has set up the Amsterdam Platform of social firms in order to stimulate and support WISES at the local level by exchanging knowledge, experiences, linking networks, and facilitating B2B among WISES and between SME/larger companies and WISES. De Omslag has also worked with the municipality of Amsterdam to set up a policy that strengthens WISES. This has lead to a working plan adopted early 2015 by the city council, consisting amongst other things of an investment fund for WISES, public procurement for goods and services from WISES and other measures such as working with the social return provisions as well as other forms of non financial support.