This group wants to give Philly’s social enterprise ecosystem the boost it needs

A few months ago, a study backed by Case Foundation and other bigwigs announced the top social enterprise ecosystems in the United States. Philly’s was not one of them.

Part of that can be explained by a community disconnect — local social entrepreneurs have no hub, no central meeting place to share ideas about bettering their own businesses and the sector overall.

A handful of mission-minded Philadelphians want to change that.

Aspiring social entrepreneurs and students Jeremy Boco and Brandon Stokes, alongside reps from the Social Innovations Journal and the Free Library, recently revived the lapsed monthly Socent Philly Meetup group with a mission to “expose more people to the field of social entrepreneurship, while furthering Social Entrepreneurship’s influence and impact in the region,” Boco wrote in an email.

The first meeting is tonight at 6 p.m. at the library’s main branch.

Socent Philly operates separately from the budding Philadelphia chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance, which Stokes said is “still building but hasn’t been formalized.”

Also coming up is the Social Innovations and Enterprise Leadership workshop from Oct. 25 through 27. Here’s hoping these groups and events coalesce into more visibility and collaboration within Philly’s social enterprise community.