Case study: Berkeley Oakland Support Services (BOSS) Berkeley Oakland Support Se
ID: 369235 • Letter: C
Question
Case study: Berkeley Oakland Support Services (BOSS) Berkeley Oakland Support Services (BOSS) was founded in Alameda County, California, in 1971 to provide a continuum of care from emergency shelter to transitional and permanent housing. BOSS recognized that employment was a key factor for successfully obtaining housing. In 1988 BOSS began an employment program that counseled program participants on activities such as goal clarification, resume preparation, job search techniques, confidence-building workshops, and individualized referrals and placements. The program was designed to assist clients in obtaining and keeping jobs and supported BOSS's own practice of hiring qualified program participants as paid staff. This employment support effort was expanded in 1991 to two new programs to employ program participants: one to clean streets and the other to remove graffiti. The programs provided homeless people with six-month paid training positions that would serve as stepping stones to other employment in the open market. Between 1991 and 1995 these programs were well received by both business and the City of Berkeley, which gave BOSS over $500,000 in contracts. To capitalize on this success and move its program to a higher level, BOSS decided to move from employment development into enterprise development. The goal was to establish profitable businesses that would yield earned income for BOsS while also training the homeless. This could facilitate expanding into other geographic areas and markets. In addition, it was consistent with BOSS's strategic plan to increase innovation in programs, upgrade capacity, and enhance sustainability. To develop this the board of directors initiated a focused, step-by-step planning effort by a venture committee. Support was obtained from the San Francisco Foundation to explore the idea of establishing enterprises. This entailed looking into the experiences of other agencies which had started enterprises and reading background material about the subject. This resulted in more organizational commitment to proceed andExplanation / Answer
Berkley Oakland Support Services (BOSS) had an aim to support till people attain their permanent housing and this could continue doing forever. However, they realised that people have t made self reliant and instill confidence to attain that permanent house and this they believed will happen through providing employment. This could have been done by identifying a bunch of people, training them and recruiting them in their own programs but BOSS decided to take the high road and train all the homeless who can be recruited into their own programs or seek employment from other sources with the requisite training in hand.
They went a step further to build enterprises than providing jobs. This is where the social entrepreneurship comes into picture. The value proposition of this model is in generating livelihoods to homeless people. As in other models, giving free food or shelter might help the homeless for only few days but providing a livelihood option will help the homeles survive for his life and that too with dignity. This model runs on the principle of training and supporting the homeless to build profit making enterprises which will aid the BOSS model to run sustainably as it creates a cycle of economic activity. As the homeless are taken and trained and placed in these ventures which are run by them, the social acpect in the value creation comes out immensely. With so many enterprises being created and promoted by BOSS through the property maintenance business, the existing properties could be handled well before they reach their expiry and also increase their lifespan thus leading to sustainable environmental benefits as people don't just demolish existing buildings and build new ones.
To put simple, BOSS saw a social problem of homeless not having permanent housing which it perceived as an opportunity and the homeless as the assets and not liabilities and thus this social entrprenuerial project which not only lead to the development of BOSS but also covers the triple bottom line of social, economical and environmentally sustainable venture through building feasible, sustainable and innovative social entrepreneurship.