Social Purchasing Portal (SPP)
By David LePage, Executive Director, Fast Track to Employment

Every business and organization purchases office supplies, catering, printing, and courier services. The Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) helps direct their existing purchasing to suppliers who provide the product and services they need and at the same time create a community economic development value as well, much like the job for Joe Ricci.

What does a prestigious law firm located in the heart of Vancouver's business and financial district have to do with finding jobs for the hard-to-employ? Well, one thing lawyers need lots of paper, paper that Edwards, Kenny & Bray now buys from Mills Basics, an SPP supplier. The lawyers at EKB may never meet the employees at Mills Basics, but by buying their office supplies from Mills, they are helping to create new employment opportunities for persons previously considered hard-to-employ. Photo: Mills Basics, an SPP supplier, new employees and their supervisor

“A few years ago, if you told me I’d be going back to school and then working full-time, I would have said you were nuts,” says Joseph Ricci, a former drug user who has quickly become one of the top employees at Mills Basics, a supplier of office supplies on the SPP. The job opportunity for Joe became available as the Mills Basics business grew as a result of their participation in the SPP.

The SPP focuses on generating more business for supplier companies who have committed to considering applicants who have graduated from community-based employment readiness programs. The portal is a web-based procurement tool that allows socially responsible companies to channel their purchasing dollars to buy products and services from participating suppliers that add social value to their already competitive offering. Using the portal to find everything from paper clips, to customized corporate identity products, is a simple and effective way to walk the talk of corporate social responsibility and contribute to community revitalization.

What's more, the concept of teaching a man to fish and then building a market for his catch has caught the imagination of businesses and CED leaders in other Canadian cities. Representatives from 11 municipalities across Canada have contacted Fast Track to Employment for more information on the Social Purchasing Portal model. Sites in Toronto and Winnipeg are now live and building in their communities.

Thanks to CEDTAP we have been able to work with other communities to build their local SPP site to meet local economic and employment challenges.

Cook Studio Café Catering Employees -- business growth through the Social Purchasing Portal has created six new jobs.

This simple and innovative idea builds partnerships and relationships between business and community, to use existing purchasing to create local CED value.

For more information; please contact David Lepage at dlepage@sppvancouver.org or visit the Social Purchasing Portal at www.sppcanada.org

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