REDF, an America Forward Coalition member, requests legal support in legally defining the term: employment social enterprise.

Given the current disruption of commerce employment social enterprises, like other small businesses, will not be able to survive the impact of COVID-19 without government assistance. We want to be sure the businesses survive this crisis intact so that they can immediately employ people who will be even more in need once they are able to go to work again. Because employment social enterprises are often hybrid organizations (business and social service organizations), and incorporated as nonprofits and as for profits, it can be challenging for government programs to include or underwrite them unless they are explicitly named as beneficiaries.

With any programs Congress and State legislatures contemplates to assist small businesses and nonprofits, we are advocating for the programs to explicitly include employment social enterprises. Our legal aid request is if We The Action can help us refine our employment social enterprise language that we have come up with:

EMPLOYMENT SOCIAL ENTERPRISE. – The term “employment social enterprise” means an entity that meets all the following:
(A) Is organized as a social purpose corporation, a benefit corporation, a nonprofit corporation or the entity is an organization incorporated with in a larger organization.
(B) Demonstrates evidence in its articles of incorporation, bylaws, or both, of the employment social enterprise’s mission to provide employment and social support with on-the-job and life skills training to a direct labor force who are individuals with a barrier to employment (as defined in section 3(24) of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act).
(C) Evidence-based organization that has production or assembly of goods or the provision of services, or a combination of both.