Central Eastern Europe (CEE) is struggling to foster sustainability and is clearly lagging behind Western Europe (WE) in this area. The disparities have become even more evident with the introduction of Sustainability Development Goals. In order to challenge these issues, good practices developed by the leading countries in sustainability need to be adopted in the CEE region. One of the most successful ways to involve people in addressing sustainability is through entrepreneurship activities. Youth entrepreneurship in particular has proven to be one of the best ways to solve various societal challenges. Young people have the greatest stake in long-term sustainability and the highest capacity to initiate new innovative solutions. Entrepreneurship provides them with a venue to solve real world problems and fulfill their potential.Together with leading environmental and entrepreneurship organizations from Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands we have formed a consortium to fill this gap in the CEE entrepreneurship scene. Futurepreneurs is a project that aims to develop an innovative youth oriented sustainability pre-accelerator. Through the project, lasting 15 months, we will prepare a comprehensive program methodology, including sustainability problem-solution identification concept, and pre-accelerator training materials tailored specifically to the CEE environment. Two cycles of the pre-accelerator will be launched - 2 programs will run in Lithuania and 1 in Poland. At the same time international training courses for youth workers from Lithuania and Poland will be organized, covering themes on entrepreneurship, youth involvement and sustainability. The project will present business solutions to 30 of the most pressing sustainability issues in the region while involving up to a 150 young people in the project, helping them develop essential skills for their future careers, reducing youth unemployment and social exclusion. Moreover, Futurepreneurs will help youth workers develop competences and provide youth and environmental organizations with an easily replicable tool creating real results in sustainability, youth involvement and innovation.
Futurepreneurs has become an international entrepreneurship development programme focusing on business sustainability and raising a new generation of conscious and responsible entrepreneurs. The initiative motivates young people, especially those with fewer opportunities, to engage into generating sustainable and impactful business ideas, teamwork and learning opportunities along with successful business mentors. The programme was developed in cooperation with company Pure Birds (the Netherlands), Baltic Environmental Forum (Lithuania), and Lower Silesian Regional Development Agency (Poland) in the frames of Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for Youth project “Futurepreneurs”. In spring of 2017 the programme was piloted in Lithuania, and in 2018 was held in both Lithuania and Poland. Over 900 young people expressed their desire to become entrepreneurs of the future. Futurepreneurs has also contributed to promoting women's entrepreneurship, with more than half of the young people interested in starting a sustainable business being women. The success of the Futurepreneurs initiative has been driven by intensive work with stakeholders - science and education institutions, businesses, youth organizations, media. Within 3 months, the teams took part in 5 thematic workshops. According to established criteria, the teams were awarded in the categories of clean-tech, fin-tech, ICT, security and defence, best sustainable idea and best prototype. Futurepreneurs attracted European Business Angels and Luxembourg Business Angel networks. Besides the developed methodology, Futurepreneurs also offers a list of sustainability problems and online training materials available on www.futurepreneurs.eu, Facebook and Youtube channels. Futurepreneurs initiated by Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park brought the participants and like-minded people into a community, sharing good practices and continuing teamwork. The participants noted that Futurepreneurs encouraged them to take initiative and allowed to believe that not only the most intelligent or wealthiest can create start-ups - the success comes to those who have a goal and work purposefully. 90% of the respondents would recommend their friends and colleagues to take part in Futurepreneurs. Futurepreneurs started off as Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for Youth project and continues under coordination of Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park.