Abstract

The paper presents the context in which social economy appeared as a topic of interest and a priority on the public agenda in different countries around the world and the incipient stages in which it exists in Romania, especially with respect to development and legislation in the field. Despite the fact that social economy in Romania is not a priority for the development, several private initiatives have begun to take shape and to create patterns for compensating the need for financing of the social sector and especially for creating workplaces for deprived categories. We hope that these patterns, constituted and financed especially through the European Social Fund, will constitute the practical and professional experience necessary for creating a correct and “friendly” legislative frame for the sector. Considering the economical, social and political crisis that Romania is going through, we need more than ever that social economy becomes a topic for discussion on the public agenda. There is urgent need for a national strategy in the field, a coherent legislative framework allowing sustained and durable development through fiscal benefits; social economy needs to be financed / subsidized by local authorities, it needs to allow access to public agreements and to be the object of the public – private partnership. There are samples of best practices, but they need to be supported and replicated in order to create as many chances as possible in the process of insertion, especially for creating workplaces for deprived categories of people. The “Alături de Voi” Romania Foundation developed such a pattern in its centers in Iasi, Constanta and Tg. Mureş. The foundation’s activity in the field of social economy can be viewed on the online store www.utildeco.ro.