Retrenchment of the welfare state followed, characterized by decentralization, privatization, and a reduction in services. As a result of this and growing unemployment a number of social service needs arose for which there were no adequate public policy schemes. New social enterprises, mainly in the third sector, began responding to emerging needs including solutions for housing problems experienced by increasingly marginalized groups, childcare services to meet new needs resulting from socio-economic changes, new services for the elderly given the rapid aging of the population and changes in family structures, urban re generation initiatives, employment programs for the long-termed unemployed, and so on. Most of these pioneering social enterprises in Europe were founded in the 1980s by civil