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Y-EU-oth for social entrepreneurship

2020-1-CY02-KA105-0017842020Youth mobilityfinalizedGood practice
Countries: CY|EL|CZ|IT|ES|BG · Grant: €26,112.4
Social entrepreneurship / social innovationYouth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)Entrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship education

Objectives

Innovation and entrepreneurship is one of the main actors in economic development activities and innovation is the dynamism of entrepreneurship. In this way, actions are taken to create employment by developing new products, services or markets. However, enterprises that do not have an entrepreneurial mindset in general or that are not adequately supported in terms of capital and knowledge, as well as a good business idea, often fail. The situation is almost the same for social entrepreneurship that want to act to address social problems and that is a less known area in Europe. In this context, this youth exchange attempted to social enterprises or individuals who want the convenience of information they need to develop the idea they have about social innovation; the network aims to provide capital support and work in a network. For this purpose, we thought to benefit from the project, which has different examples of social entrepreneuship in Europe. With the youth exchange "Y-EU-oth for social entrepreneurship" established in Agros in Cyprus between 20-28/5/2022, we reached the individuals who wanted to engage in social enterprise activities. Primarily youth, women and immigrants, and enterprises that are currently trying to carry out social entrepreneurship activities had to be provided with the necessary support. This framework made to interact with relevant stakeholders or peers in civil society and the private sector. The main function we wanted to realize in the initial stage is to reach them to ensure that the social entrepreneurship phenomenon develops in individuals and small enterprises. The overall aim of the project was to empower young people to be part of the integration processes of excluded youth, migrants and refugees in their countries and introduced them to social entrepreneurship as a tool for that. The main objectives of the project proposal were: – To raise awareness among young people about refugee situation in Europe –challenges and perspectives – Promoting positive attitudes, solidarity and understanding for refugees and migrants – Introduce young people to the concept and practice of social entrepreneurship and encourage them to become change makers – Stimulate the civic participation of young people by encouraging them to be active in corresponding to social issues in Europe trough social entrepreneurship – Promote tolerance, mutual understanding and dialogue between young people of different nationalities. In order to realize the aims of European Policy Agendas, in particular the Europe 2020 Strategy, of the Strategic framework for EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation Programme (2014 - 2020) (EaSI) and of the European Youth Strategy, namely increasing youth employment, social inclusion, innovation, productivity, competitive and sustainable economic growth, we need to implement activities in support for funding mechanisms for social innovation and social entrepreneurship. We contributed to these goals primarily through exchanges of experience and good practice and peer reviews. During our activities promoting the importance, social and economic possibilities & advantages of social entrepreneurship, we cooperated effectively with private sector organisations and companies as well as with public authorities. We aimed to strengthen and deepen networks supporting the areas of funding to social entrepreneurs. The project was great opportunity to discover, connect to successful initiatives, and learn more about social entrepreneurship in Europe, as well as about how ERASMUS+ and European Solidarity Corps can support social entrepreneurship among young people. As Planned we implemented quality activities to meet the objectives and fulfill the main aim of youth exchange. Firstly, we created a space for sharing, improving and for gaining new knowledge and skills with regards to SE, business planning, social inclusion, overcoming social problems, current tendencies of youth unemployment and possible solutions for existing challenges and etc..\ in order to raise participants’ awareness on the benefits of social entrepreneurship, we underwent through social problems, which young people face back in their local communities, with the special focus on youth unemployment. Participants also learnt how social inclusion & exclusion is related to the youth unemployment and to the other social problems highlighted by them during presentations. Afterwards, they explored how the social problems can be solved/reduced through establishing social enterprises, strengthened by concrete successful examples of SE around the world. Later on, participants learnt SE topic in deep, including theoretical and practical experiences on how SE works, what makes SE different from business or charity, what are the steps and risks to establish SE, best practices from around the world and so on

Project partners (6)