– a work integrating social enterprise

Everyone has a POWER – this insight as well as our strong confidence in each individual and their ability forms the foundation of all our business.

 

Urkraft today

Urkraft is one of Northern Sweden’s most successful companies when it comes to guiding people to new jobs and opportunities.

Urkraft started operations in 1988 and currently has 15 employees, all stationed on the Campus area in Skellefteå.

Urkraft is a social enterprise and the overall goal is to integrate people who have great difficulties finding and / or retaining a job, into working life and society.

We combine theory with practice to find concrete job or educational opportunities. This is done through short decision paths, local support and good contacts with other community actors. Everything based on our faith in man’s will and own power!

As a social enterprise, we have chosen a corporate structure where the foundation is the Urkraft Association and its statues. The association owns the limited liability company Urkraft Service AB. As an employee of Urkraft, you are also a member of the Urkraft association and thus have the right to vote and participate in all decisions taken. There are no owners of Urkraft and all profits are reinvested in the business.

We follow the government’s definition of a labor-integrating social enterprise. You can also read more about social enterprises at Sofisam.se.

Areas of operation

Urkraft’s three different business areas are – projects – services to the municipality and authorities – services to other companies and private individuals. Our goal is for the assignments to be equally distributed on all three legs – but at present the greatest importance is on the two former ones.

Projects

We collaborate with Försäkringskassan and Skellefteå municipality in the ProAktiv and PRIORI projects, where the focus is on pre-rehabilitation efforts. Other projects that we also run are EmployAble, SPINAR and the Växthuset.

At the end of 2017, the learning project Meeting Place TExAS expired – but when we saw what an important role the meeting place played in society and at the individual level, we chose to implement the project in ordinary operations and finance in-house. Since 2019 it has been referred to as the Meeting Place Urkraft.

Services to the municipality and authorities

Right now, we are working on an assignment through the Employment Service called Support and matching, where we support individuals closer to work or studies. Another assignment is to provide extra student support to Skellefteå municipality’s school operations and its students – this service is called TExAS Study Center. It is a study center for students and students from universities, colleges, folk high schools, VUX and upper secondary school, even for those who study remotely. TExAS is mainly for those in need of study structure, individual planning and adapted study environment.

Business services & services for individuals

For over 25 years we have had people grow, with these experiences in the baggage we also want to help companies grow.

For a long time we have organized conferences, training and IT support. We are now making a major investment in business services where our knowledge of group processes, education, IT, rehab and conversion means that we can offer a variety of services to small and medium-sized companies. You can find out more about these services here…

Our origin

In the autumn of 1988, four social secretaries stepped down from their jobs to start a project for unemployed youth. The idea was to build a bakery, a restaurant, a cafe, a sports hall in three months and then use these places as a starting point.

There was a burning desire for the project to go so well that it would be relevant with support for a continuation. The Employment Service was willing to place fifteen unemployed young people on the project and the time schedule was, to put it mildly, pressed. Six months was the period of time to show a good result. The project was a great success and thus the foundation for Urkraft was laid.

The idea of always starting from real tasks where participants have really felt that they are needed has been one of the cornerstones of Urkraft. A needed person, who has context in their life is growing. As well as a human being without it, in many cases is increasingly losing value.

Urkraft is growing more and more and in 1992 Urkraft became labor market education in a more formal sense. Another milestone in Urkraft’s history is 1994, when we start the Skellefteå festival – Skellefteå’s biggest event. During the midsummer weekend, among other, The Cardigans, 4 Non Blondes and The Wannadies stand on the stage and a tradition is born. Read more about all the festival years and other events here…

The needs of the labor market over the years have been one of the more important components when shaping our education. Our ability to adapt, and thus channeling our participants into employment has obviously been interesting from several aspects.

You can read more about our history here or by purchasing and reading the book Urkraft – a book about the inherent strength of young people.

Urkraft’s keywords are Development, Vision and Engagement.

We want every individual to develop empowerment, feel important and take a place in a context.

Our vision is to be at the forefront when it comes to creating new projects and development opportunities.

We are convinced that a wholehearted commitment is required to succeed.