Miller Center launched the Catholic Action for Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) initiative to create strategic partnerships with Catholic institutions. The goals of CASE are to:

1. 1. Transform Catholic social ministries into social enterprises using Miller Center’s methodology, especially ministries that create women’s economic empowerment.
   2. Enable religious order members to become apostles—leaders and influencers—for social entrepreneurship by providing experiential, hands-on training.
   3. Engage youth by providing opportunities for vocations in social entrepreneurship.

 

Two Catholic religious order networks in Africa are partnering with Miller Center to transform their social ministries and build entrepreneurial capacity:

• • Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) represents 30,000 Catholic Sisters in 300 congregations across 10 countries.

• • Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA) serves as the hub for 21 Jesuit social ministry centers including three continent-wide ministries to children, refugees, and the sick-poor.

 

These networks present tremendous potential for leveraging their influence for social  impact.

Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) requested Miller Center accompany East African congregations as they transform their ministries into more sustainable social enterprises, leverage underutilized congregation assets (such as land), and catalyze the formation of new social enterprises that create dignified livelihoods for youth and women. As a result, ACWECA and Miller Center have developed the Sisters Blended Value Program to “catalyze sustainable and scalable solutions that alleviate poverty across the ACWECA region.”  The project will help the Sisters launch social enterprises serving local communities, and significantly expand the capacity of the Sisters to positively impact many more lives in the region.

JENA is a network of 21 Jesuit social ministry centers in 15 Sub-Saharan countries that seeks to create an innovative development model to effectively address youth unemployment, provide dignified livelihoods, and accompany vulnerable communities in becoming environmentally sustainable.

JENA’s strategic objectives for their partnership with Miller Center are to positively impact 6,000 young people by providing access to jobs; assisting youth in defining their own development; promoting economic empowerment for young people to find solutions to their own problems, creating a knowledge economy; and promoting climate resilience.