In line with the priorities identified by the Erasmus+ Program to support youth employability, the project aims at promoting innovative practices to support vulnerable young people entrepreneurship, by promoting a multi-sectorial partnership among public and private actors in Milan, Madrid and Lisbon.The partnership is composed by:- In Milan:ICEI – Istituto Cooperazione Economica InternazionaleMunicipality of MilanFondazione BrodoliniImpactHub Milano(Fondazione Brodolini and ImpactHub Milano manage together the business incubator FabriQ).- In Madrid:Action contra el hambre (who started the testing of training and support services to businesses)Municipality of Madrid – Agency for the Employment - In Lisbon:Lusofonia Cultura e Cidadania Association (ALCC)Municipality of Lisbon (including the incubator ISL - Incubadora Social de Lisboa)Through a process of development of tools, methodologies and sharing good practices, the initiative will achieve the three following specific objectives:1. Capacity building of stakeholders and development of tools for information, training and technical assistance, targeted specifically to the needs of the target group.2. Networking of actors with complementary skills (local authorities, entrepreneurship services, third sector associations) involved in business support and socio-economic integration of young people, encouraging the coordination of the different entities and their different approaches.3. Experimentation of entrepreneurial start-up processes, promoting tools based on high quality and replicability, focused on social entrepreneurship and new technologies, and with the inclusion of a transversal tutoring service.Acting on behalf of young people with fewer opportunities and at risk of marginalization, the initiative will enable beneficiaries to take advantage of the support in the phases of training, business development, start-up of entrepreneurial activities, taking into account their different social, linguistic and cultural characteristics.The planned activities can be summarized in 3 Work packages (with specific sub-activities):WP1) Capacity development of third sector associations and networking with other local actors, in order to enable them to orientate and support young entrepreneurs :- Development of an operational handbook for the support of entrepreneurship of young people in situation of social exclusion (O1)- 3 training visits in European cities (C1, C2, C3)- Participation in moments of exchange with entities giving assistance to entrepreneurship, to strengthen skills in business development (Local seminars - E1, E2, E3)- Collaboration agreements and networking with other local actorsWP2) Elaboration of specific tools for contact, start- up and accompaniment of young entrepreneurs:- Production of tools to support business development, designed to meet the needs of the target group (O2)- Design of a Capacity Development program tailored on the specificities of the target group (O3)- Implementation of the program for 80 young people, on issues such as: the phases of business development, risks and opportunities, business planning, innovation, social entrepreneurship. Among the 60 young aspiring entrepreneurs, 15 young people will be selected and benefit from an incubation phase of their business idea.- Design and development of communication products (video, social networks campaigns, etc.) for the identified targetWP3) Sharing of experiences and dissemination of results- 3 local seminars (one in each city), with the involvement of government agencies, service providers (Chambers of Commerce, incubators, etc), third sector associations, youth groups.- 3 international meetings (one in each city), with the aim of exchanging best practices and lessons learnt, sharing information and encouraging the adoption of innovative measures and disseminating the project's products (E4, E5, E6)- Implementation of a dissemination plan at local and European level for the dissemination of project results and outputs.The planned activities will facilitate the creation of an enabling environment, favoring young people entrepreneurship (particularly for young people with fewer opportunities). This impact will have medium/long term benefits due to the embedding of the measures within the work done by each partner organization, among which it is important to emphasize the political and operational role of the municipalities involved in the project.
YEP “Young Enterprise Program” is the short name for the project “Multi-sectoral partnership for capacity development to enhance entrepreneurship opportunities for vulnerable youth in Milan, Lisbon and Madrid”, funded by the Programme Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnerships in the field of Youth. The project run from November 2016 to October 2018 in three European cities: Milan, Madrid and Lisbon. YEP was promoted by ICEI Institute for International Economic Cooperation (Milan, Italy) in partnership with public and private organisations coming from the three cities: • Action against Hunger and the Employment Agency of the city of Madrid (Madrid, Spain) • Association of Lusophone Culture and Citizenship and the Municipality of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal) • The Municipality of Milan – Training and Labour Area, Labour Market Unit, Impact Hub and Foundation Giacomo Brodolini (Milan, Italy). The project promoted new practices and approaches at European level to support entrepreneurship of young people with fewer opportunities - such as NEETs, migrants, youth with a low educational background, social or geographical obstacles, etc.. These youngsters struggle more than their peers in entering the labour market and participate into society: starting their own business, by turning their ideas, passions and talents into action, can represent a way to overcome these obstacles. YEP final aim was to strengthen the employability and the social inclusion of vulnerable youth. Specifically, the project carried out in each of the 3 partner cities: • An information and communication campaign on entrepreneurship, targeted to young people (especially those with fewer opportunities) and private and public stakeholders; • An entrepreneurship training programme for a total of about 80 vulnerable youngsters (40 in Milan, 20 in Madrid and 20 in Lisbon) • An incubation programme for the best 15 business ideas (5 in each city) and a total of 17 young people with fewer opportunities. Moreover, YEP carried out the following activities at European level: a) Three transnational staff training events among partner organisations, to exchange and transfer experiences, practices, approaches, etc. in socio-economic inclusion of vulnerable youth and support to youth entrepreneurship of young people with fewer opportunities; b) Three “Intellectual Outputs” which summarizes the new and innovative methods and tools formulated, tested and validated in the project: - Handbook “Not-for-profit organisations and youth entrepreneurship: how to support young people with fewer opportunities”; - Training toolkit “Empowering young people through entrepreneurship: a trainer’s toolkit”; - Methodological Document “Starting up: how to incubate businesses from young people with fewer opportunities” c) A series of dissemination actions and events, including national and transnational Multiplier events, a project blog and newsletter, and a video presenting YEP results. Finally, YEP: • Fostered local multi-actor stakeholder partnerships in each city, by engaging a wide range of public and private organisations in the project, such as not-for-profit organisations and NGOs, public authorities at local, regional and national level, entrepreneurship and business support organisations, Universities, etc., with the aim to work together to contribute to create a favourable environment for young entrepreneurs; • Strengthened partners’ skills and competencies in promoting and implementing youth entrepreneurship programmes and initiatives and to support young people with fewer opportunities; • Improved the knowledge and the technical and transversal competences of the vulnerable youth directly participating in the project, so as to contribute to strengthen their employability and social inclusion.