This project seeks to address the following problems today's society is facing: - Unemployment among young people - The need for EU businesses to become more competitive through talent and innovation - The need to address problems in society such as as pollution, waste management, recycling, overuse of single-use plastic products, etc. through sustainable entrepreneurial activities to the benefit of individuals as well as of the communities where they live. The main objective of the project is to equip youth workers from the participating organisations with the tools and knowledge to be able to train other youth workers and support young people in the development of new and innovative social entrepreneurial activities. This will be achieved through the following means: - International Training of youth workers form the participating organisations - Exchange of Good practices - Meetings with successful entrepreneurs - Local activities with youth workers who will learn about how to teach social entrepreneurship to young people. - Continuous mentoring and support given to young people through their endeavours. - Collection of best practices and training materials in a toolkit that will be a point of reference for the participating organisations as well as the wider community that will be informed about the project through targeted dissemination - Adaptation of the toolkit into an e-course which will be put online via a Moodle platform The target group of the project will be: Direct target groups: Youth workers who are staff members of the participating organisations. They will benefit from the exchange of good practices and the acquisition of new skills and competencies during international training events. They need to be better prepared in supporting young people wishing to start their own social entrepreneurial activities. As we noticed in similar projects (Sharing Ideas for Social Innovation, of which Kairos Europe was a partner), young people have ideas and are willing to learn, but if they are not guided through the process by experts, the idea is soon abandoned. Indirect target group: Youths workers from local organisation who wish to learn about how to raise awareness on young people about social entrepreneurship and are willing to establish a conversation on the issues affecting everyday society and try to work together to find sustainable solutions through social entrepreneurial initiatives. Members of the wider community including training organisations, councils, community centres, etc. who are interested in learning about the project and its outcomes.
The main objectives of the project were the following: - learning best practices of social entrepreneurship across Europe - Providing youth workers with knowledge about social entrepreneurship and how this can be taught to young people - equipping youth workers from the participating organisations with the tools and knowledge to be able to support young people in the development of their social entrepreneurial activities. - actively engaging youths across Europe in workshops and discussions about social entrepreneurship. Teaching them what social entrepreneurship is and how it can benefit them by providing work opportunities as well as improvements to the society as a whole. - Supporting young people in developing creative ideas and turning them into concrete long term projects that coud create employability as well as bring about social change. - Develop online tools that can serve as a point of reference for anyone interested in learning about social entrepreneurship and a place where learners can engage with each other in meaningful discussions.
The project was born in light of current challenges facing Europe such as: - high levels of unemployment, particularly among youths -need of EU businesses to become more competitive through talent and innovation. - a need for more initiatives aimed at addressing problems in everyday society through sustainable entrepreneurial activities to the benefit of individuals and communities. This is based on the premise that we live in a world with limited resources and these resources will be depleted if we continue along this path of sustained consummerins. Growth can be achieved not only by always looking for new resources, but also by using those we have already available. In addition, problems such as pollution, waste management, recycling, overuse of single-use plastic products, etc. need to be addressed with innovative ideas seeking to counteract the effects of such mismanagement of resources. These are the main reasons why we applied for the project. We believed that investing in knowledge, skills and competences would benefit individuals, institutions, organisations and society as a whole by contributing to growth and ensuring equity, prosperity, social change and social inclusion in Europe and beyond.