The project "Active and connected for new jobs and inclusive society - SocioLab" is developing and establishing a comprehensive ecosystem to strengthen the potential of individuals, initiatives and communities in order to expand the social economy (social enterprises and cooperatives) and related creation and maintenance of quality and sustainable jobs in the social economy sector and expanding the offer of accessible socially innovative products (services and products) that will ensure greater social inclusion of vulnerable groups, contribute to poverty reduction and increase the quality of life and economic and social development in the Podravje region (Slovenia).

Based on the experience gained in the project, past experience and synergies from other projects, we have come to the following conclusion: The supporting environment for the social economy, comprehensive support ecosystem, must not be fragmented, so we will formalise it in the form of a network of support partners, SocioLab partners and other key stakeholders. The network has been developing since the beginning of the project (2018) and is in its final phase. This network will operate in the Podravje region for now. 

SocioLab can share with Derry (Northern Ireland) and Seinäjoki (Finland) our path to building a comprehensive support ecosystem. Additionally, we can share the concept of our support scheme for social enterprises and cooperatives. From the first step (analysis of the local environment), through activation phase, idea generation and at the end developing, testing, and scaling up phase (Social Innovation Accelerator). Because 40 initiatives/social enterprises/cooperatives went through our mentoring support we could present good practice examples of successful mentees, which developed their socially innovative ideas into their own businesses. Finally, we can organise a tour of social enterprises and cooperatives in the region, where social entrepreneurs and social innovators present themselves. 

Our vision is to extend the comprehensive support ecosystem to the Eastern cohesion region and after that to whole Slovenia. Because we are going to establish a model that is transferable to other regions in Slovenia. 

The Committee on Social Economy and Social Innovation at the Podravje Regional Development Council is one of the important advocacy achievements of the SocioLab project, since in this way we have achieved integration into the regional development of Podravje in the future. Within the framework of the regional development programme, we have also proposed a new project, Podravje center of social innovation and social economy, where we want to build on the results, synergies with other projects in the region, whose primary occupation is Social Economy and Social Innovation and experience so far and, through a formal network, further develop Social Economy and Social Innovation in the region. The project focuses on Social Economy and Social Innovation for schooling youth and the establishment of online tools for the operation of social innovation interfaces in local environments, i.e. in all municipalities of Podravje, because we also want stronger cooperation and possibly additional funding from local communities. 

We have registered the new draft project to continue our work and develop a (financially) sustainable model after SocioLab will end (April 2022) and to continue to produce top results and support the sectors of social economy and social innovation. Moreover, the vision of the formal SocioLab network is that operationality is financed not only from public funds, but also from sponsorships and donations from socially responsible companies and others. The final step is to be autonomous and finance the network through our own services, which includes mentoring, consulting, workshops, organisation of fairs and conferences, socially innovative team buildings, generation of socially innovative ideas etc..