The Forum for Social Entrepreneurship

The background of Syfo Ltd comes from the Forum for Social Entrepreneurship.

Forum in Brief 

Forum was built up in 2004 to promote the growth of social enterprises and their success in Finland. Forum consisted of experts from business and industry, NGOs, third sector, research and social policy who joined forces to support social entrepreneurship in Finland.

Forum aimed to improve working life and to build a bridge between social and economic life.

Forum was launched by The Finnish Federation of Settlements. Forum's activities was financed by the European Social Fund, STAKES (The National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health) and SITRA (The Finnish National Fund for Research and Development).   

Syfo Ltd carries on with Forum's goals

• as many disabled and long-term unemployed people as possible will find jobs and integrate into working life
• all companies will be better able to employ disabled and long-term unemployed people
• the size of the workforce in the labour market will grow – a social enterprise is one means
• Finland will have more social enterprises – a social enterprise is a feasible option for an increasing the number of entrepreneurs or for those planning to become entrepreneurs
• when choosing between two equally good products or services, an increasing number of customers will opt for the one produced by a social enterprise

Syfo Ltd became responsible for coordination of Forum after the HOT project (31 March 2008-). The Forum is continued in Yhteinen yritys -project at the moment (www.yhteinenyritys.fi).