The project focused on the training of IEKEP's staff and close collaborators who already had shown interest in taking part in the creation of a social enterprise by and for socially vulnerable groups and in matters of Social Entrepreneurship as a means of combating Unemployment, with a focus on the field of hospitality. With this project, IEKEP aimed to the investigation of good practices in the social economy, in discussions and consulting and training in tools in the field social economy. Furthermore, we wanted to gain knowledge and build our capacity in the field social economy and enterprise in cooperatives focusing on hospitality from organizations and countries that have traditionally developed social economy. Our aim was to learn new techniques of employability, orientation and empowerment of socially vulnerable groups and unemployed people focusing on social inclusion.
This mobility was designed to enhance the capacity of IEKEP's staff and close collaborators in the sector of social economy. In the early 2000s IEKEP opened the first Multicultural Cooperative in Greece, an ethnic restaurant in Athens, where its members (from vulnerable social groups and the unemployed) had the opportunity to be employed in real working conditions. The restaurant worked with great success as a Social Enterprise for 3 years, closing because there was no legal framework at that time for the specific cooperative forms. Since then many things have changed and many innovations have been developed in the field of the Social Economy and IEKEP would like to re-organize a similar action. Having an extensive network of peer organizations in the EU who already have the know how, we decided to gain from their experiences and knowledge to get to know good practices and great examples.