CONTEXT The project aims to contribute to exchange of practices and the creation of a favourable environment to encourage and enable youth workers to pursue social entrepreneurship in their local and global communities. In a period when Europe and its neighbours face an economic crisis that has increased levels of youth unemployment and reduced youth participation in the labour market, the projects aims at promoting social entrepreneurship as a sustainable way in addressing these challenges. Indeed entrepreneurship and self-employment could help young people to develop key competences, to respond to emerging social needs and fully participate in society and economy development. GENERALE OBJECTIVE - To engage youth workers and young people in social entrepreneurshipto in order to play a key and active role in their local communities as ambassadors of sustainable development and growth. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES - To equip and support youth workers and young people with knowledge, key competences and tools related to social entrepreneurship and social innovation that are needed to turn entrepreneurial ideas into social start-ups, with a view to tackling challenges and problems identified within their communities. - To exchange experiences and practices related to social entrepreneurship and social innovation among organizations active in the youth field from different social and cultural contexts in Europe - To develop a better understanding of this emerging field and new non-formal education approaches on social entrepreneurship through the development of a transnational training programme. - To foster cooperation and build new opportunities for further collaboration on social entrepreneurship between organisations active in the youth field from different EU countries. MAIN RESULTS ARE: - Development, testing, and development of innovative non-formal training modules on social entrepreneurship addressed to young people - N.196 youth workers from different local communities in Europe, equipped with knowledge, tools and key competences related to Social Entrepreneurship. - Improved understanding of the social entrepreneurship phenomenon and its potential in the youth field. - Increased cooperation, networking and professional exchange in the field of youth and social entrepreneurship between local authorities, universities and not-for profit organizations in EU Main outputs include: - N. 7 Itinerant Training Courses on social entrepreneurship involving N. 196 disadvantaged youth workers in all participating countries (IT, ES, PT, NL, LT, RO) - Training programme on social entrepreneurship in form of booklet (Languages: EN, IT, ES, PT, LT, RO). - Open learning portal about social entrepreneurship, including the learning modules developed and tested during the project (Languages: EN). - N. 1 Multiply international seminar (ES) + N. 5 Multiply local seminars (IT, PT, RO, LT, NL), reaching a wider audience of young people, education leaders, policy makers and stakeholders. TARGET GROUPS The project is intended to youth workers who have an interest in social entrepreneurship & local community development. Participant profile: - youth workers aged between 18 and 35 years old, providing services and opportunities to support young people in developing a sense of a competences, belonging and empowerment in community-based activities; - have an idea for a project or business with a social or environmental benefit; - have experience with youth work and young people facing social, economic, cultural, geographic and humanitarian obstacles FINAL BENEFICIARIES A wider audience of new young entrepreneurs will be reached through the dissemination and exploitation of the project results and outcomes by optimizing and strengthening their impact and integration in different communities and contexts. PROJECT WORKING PACKAGES (WP) - WP1_PROJECT MANAGEMENT - WP2_DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRAINING PROGRAMME - WP3_PILOT TEST: ITINERANT TRAINING COURSES IN ALL PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES - WP4_LEARNING PORTAL ON SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP - WP5_COMMUNICATION, DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION OF THE PROJECT” - WP6_ EVALUATION, LESSONS LEARNED AND QUALITY ASSURANCE LONG TERM IMPACT The impact of the project at regional and EU level: 1) SOCIO-PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH WORKERS - Participants trained on social entrepreneurship, including access to a set of resources designed to support social entrepreneurship. 2) CAPACITY BUILDING - Shared experiences, learning methods and best practices on social entrepreneurship and youth work from different nation/local context in Europe. 3) NETWORK - Development of an international network and increased cooperation at EU level between partner organizations and young people involved 4) SOCIAL INNOVATION - Innovation in the social economy and improved competitiveness of the social field: experimental learning products, processes and services for social and community development. 5) MULTIPLICATION
The project offered an intercultural space that on the one hand encouraged a critical reflection on the concept of social enterprise and the different regulations and characteristics in the participating European countries; joint experimentation of non-formal education practices with reference to social enterprise. I'm n.84 youth workers were involved in the following training courses coordinated by the organizations partners in Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal: The participants were involved The training experiences and activities proposed during the training courses were collected and presented in the following common outputs: IO1: "Analysis on social entrepreneurship": an analysis of the concept of social enterprise and the different ones regulations, characteristics and good practices in the participating countries. IO2: The "Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation" booklet: containing the educational program, the modules and the non-formal education activities experienced during the training courses, IO3: Open Learning portal "Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation": a learning platform on social enterprise and on non-formal education aimed at young people offering the possibility of accessing interactive way to the educational program, the modules and the activities of non formal education. The outputs produced are a learning resource on the theme of non-formal education to the social enterprise available to a wider audience of youth workers, educators, trainers, facilitators, social workers, intercultural mediators in their daily work with young people, in particular in disadvantaged socio-cultural contexts. They have been developed on the basis of both a process common experimentation involving youth workers, experts and coordinators from the various countries participants, both on the basis of pilot practices of non-formal education to the social enterprise developed a starting from the experiences 7 organizations involved and active in the youth field.