The Ecocenter Homeservice: An evaluation of a social - ecological project

The Ecocenter Homeservice company has three main objects:1. To do cleaning and gardening in an environmentally friendly way and thereby spread ecological ideas and practices into people’s homes.2. To create socially good jobs in the homeservice branch, which is normally characterised by lonely jobs without social and professional development. 3. To create real jobs for a group of primarily older unemployed, whose changes of re-enter the labour market is low. The Ecological Garden is trying to realise a socio-ecological company on ordinary market based terms, with the government financially supporting in order to meet the needs of busy families or old people and to move these activities away from the ‘black economy’. The Ecological Homeservice introduced ecology to a broad group of people. The everyday life and the homes are important arenas for development of perceptions and practices.The social experiences are mixed. By establishing the homeservice company in connection with the jobtraining in the Ecocenter, a long and continuously development process can be offered to a group of unemployed, making them able to get a foothold in the labour market. But even though the homeservice meets a demand, there is reason to question the working environment of this branch. The overall conclusion of the evaluation is that the Ecological Homeservice offers a very interesting approach to a socio-ecological company which can and should inspire others - and which should have room for development.