Translations Best practice in French version Best practice in English version

Paying in a fair and inclusive manner in SOLS

7. Community involvement

Community development

Context

The aim of the SOL association is to promote public education through complementary currencies, but also to boost trade within a territory and organizations sharing the values of social and solidarity economy. The Macif, the Crédit Coopératif (Cooperative Credit) and the Groupe Chèque Déjeuner (Lunch Check Group) support this approach and the SOL Association. Sol is located in 5 regions: in Brittany, in Ile de France, in Nord Pas de Calais, in Rhône Alpes and in Alsace.

Objectives

-Reconciling economics with humans, with ethics and with politics; promote cohesion between economic, ecological, social and human stakes;
- Make the whole made-up of structures relating to Social and Solidarity Economy more visible and readable; and promote the development of concerned structures;
- Strengthening social cohesion, fight against exclusion and facilitate trade;
- Foster cooperation and sharing among different stakeholders of the trade system;
- Shift the meaning of economy to the rank of end, and not mean.

APPROACH

The system is designed around 3 main axes.

-        Sol cooperation: payment system for commodity exchanges.
It comes in the form of an electronic card, containing, through a loyalty system, a certain number of sols of a value of 0.10 EUR each. Sols can be used for payment or exchange and not as a speculation tool. The card is accepted in a network of members consisting of companies that are socially responsible and focused on sustainable development and fair trade, of local authorities, of works committees...

-        Sol commitment: payment system for non-commercial exchanges (knowledge, time). Always with the card as a payment mean, it is in this case the valuing of time spent on the approximate basis of "One Sol for 1 minute" notably within associations.

-        Allocated Sol
Communities can distribute SOL cards credited with a certain number of SOL points to audiences selected according to policies implemented. Recipients then receive a SOL card credited with a certain number of SOL points to be used for well defined services.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

- Development of socially responsible companies and affiliated associations through networking and collective visibility

Benefits

- Encouraging responsible use and development of solidarity behaviors

Mise à jour le 25/05/2016

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