Social Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Enterprise in Social Services

Historically, social workers have addressed the needs of vulnerable populations without regard to the sector - public, for-profit, or nonprofit - in which those vulnerabilities occur or in which those vulnerabilities could be best addressed. For example, settlement houses often helped immigrants to begin small businesses; Goodwill and other organizations founded thrift shops to create an independent income stream and to train and employ underemployed individuals; affirmative businesses, such as Minnesota Diversified Industries, were created to employ people who were excluded from traditional employment; and the YMCA, public parks departments, and in NYC the Police Athletic League created free and fee-based recreational programs, the precursors to health clubs. In the 1970s and early 1980s nonprofit social service agencies began to expand on businesses that could create an independent source of funding, train and employ agency clients, and increase the contributions these agencies made to the communities they served. Also in the 1980s, led by Bill Drayton and ASHOKA, these efforts began to be called social enterprises and social entrepreneurship, tying them to more traditional business concepts and theories

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