At UnLtd – admittedly perhaps predictably – we've taken the view that social entrepreneurs might have some of the answers. Our programmes Engage (in England) and Ignite (in Northern Ireland) specifically aim to unleash the social entrepreneurial talents of people who could tackle issues of an ageing society, or who were over 50 themselves.
Over the past two years, we have been working with Middlesex University, our partners in a CASE PhD Studentship, to look in depth at social entrepreneurship amongst people aged 50 and over. We've recently published Golden Opportunities, our first findings paper based on this work.
Although over-50s comprise 44% of the UK adult population, they account for only 18% of UnLtd's Award Winners. So our starting point was to find out why people aged 50 and over have been under-represented amongst the social entrepreneurs we support.
It could just be us, but we don't think it is. Analysis of data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2009) seems to suggest that the over-55s are less likely to be involved in social entrepreneurship than most other age groups.
Yet our findings so far make us think that older social entrepreneurs are not just under-represented, but also hidden - at least to support organisations like UnLtd. Voluntary activity is high amongst people aged over 50, and there might be significant numbers of people in this age group who we would call social entrepreneurs, but who wouldn't recognise themselves as such.
The language of social entrepreneurship didn't feel right to many of those we interviewed, who tended to associate the word 'entrepreneur' simply with making money. They felt this didn't reflect their missions or their ventures, many of which were run on a voluntary basis.
Yet we also observed that, as their ventures became more established, some people who'd previously shied away from generating income through trading were starting to explore these types of business models, some even doing so for profit. Business models changed over time and in particular, as they started to see others doing the same thing. And many were creating economic value - a sample of 56 people in this age group who responded to our annual survey created 1.5 jobs each on average during 2009/10.
What does this mean for those of us in the business of supporting start-up social entrepreneurs?
Well, first there's a need to demystify what social entrepreneurship is (and isn't). For support organisations, it might also suggest that it's helpful to recognise that aspirations and ambitions can develop over time. Our work with older people helps show how projects run on a voluntary basis can develop into sustainable social enterprises in the longer term. Showing people what's possible, through case studies, peer to peer support and one-to-one support from our staff, has helped with this.
And can we tackle issues of an ageing society this way? We were expecting innovative responses to ageing issues, and we got several of these - Grannynet, for example, which gives older people a space to network online already attracts some 5,000 unique users a month.
But what we hadn't perhaps anticipated was the potential we saw for social entrepreneurship to play an important role in helping the entrepreneurs themselves to adapt to later life. This took different forms for different people: some were taking the chance to do what they had always wanted; others were easing the transition to retirement through earning extra income. Leading a venture gave a means for personal development and helped sustain (and build) social networks.
Our research found that social entrepreneurship can give people a way to maintain economic and social activity into later life. The activity of being a social entrepreneur in itself has potential to help tackle some of the issues of an ageing society – over and above the social impact created by the work of these ventures.
For support organisations like us, promoting and encouraging social entrepreneurship amongst older people gives a chance to create social impact in more ways than one. A golden opportunity, if you like.
Madeleine Gabriel is the Head of Impact, Research and Evaluation at UnLtd. Read the full Golden Opportunities here.
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