Solidarity entrepreneurship and employment launchers. Case Peridis and the birth of the lees
Part: A

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IE code
GE1-139-A-I
Language
English
also available in Spanish
Format
PDF
Nr. Of Pages
11
Academic Area
Type of publication
Case Study

Instructor support

A Teaching Note is available for this material.

Description

Case A describes the origins and functioning of LEES in 2013. This is a program launched by José María Pérez González, a Spanish social entrepreneur, in order to address the problem of unemployment in Spain. Mirroring his former social enterprise (Fundación Santamaria La Real), for which he had been nominated Ashoka fellow in 2008, the LEES are a series of accelerators aimed at the unemployed. Designed to make up for the shortcoming of governmental employment policies, where unemployed are passive and isolated, the LEES program follows a holistic approach that fosters the proactiveness of individuals, leverages their skills and increases their visibility. It adopts a collaborative, supportive model, based on people and their capacity for teamwork. Participants in the accelerators organize their activities for an average of 6 months and are led by a coach. The program also strives to involve most actors of the society (municipalities and governmental institutions, private local firms, NGOs, individual volunteers, local training centers, co-working or entrepreneurship centers, universities, etc.) into shaping a global solution to unemployment. Although they are overseen by the LEES central office, accelerators function as quasi-autonomous entities and take up the roles of project management, maintenance, student selection and appointment of functional committees.