The role of youth in society has been getting higher on the agenda in the last several years across the globe. As the labour sector gains a growing attention, a rising amount of young people (18-30 years of age) are showing an increased interest in becoming social entrepreneurs, as it is also proved by the training activities and the daily encounters of partner organisations with the target group. Yet in the partner countries except Italy and Greece (Cyprus, Iceland, Lithuania and FYROM) where legal or regulatory framework for social enterprises do not exist or the sector of SE has poor visibility and recognition, there is a need for a support structure which will provide these young, aspiring social entrepreneurs the information and assistance they need to kick-start their social enterprise. The specific objectives of the project are: - to equip and support young people and youth workers with knowledge, key competences and tools related to social entrepreneurship and social innovation that are needed to turn entrepreneurial ideas into social start-ups, with a view to tackling challenges and problems identified within their communities. - to foster cooperation and build new opportunities for further collaboration on social entrepreneurship between organisations active in the field from different EU countries. The target group of the project is: Young people, Youth workers, NGOs volunteers, professionals who are dealing with youth and have an interest in social entrepreneurship & local community development. Main outputs: - Roadmap for creating your social enterprise in 10 steps - Capacity building Course on SE for Sustainable Growth which will facilitate innovative learning practices in social entrepreneurship education by developing curricula and a set of guidelines, ethics and ideas that represent of the most efficient tips of action and successful examples of SE in Europe. - Help Desk on social entrepreneurship, including the above IOs developed during the project as well as with all the registration procedures and will provide information and assistance definition on SE which will be operational in partner languages. The project will bring together 6 partners from different countries wishing to promote SE, self employment through raising awareness on social issues, strengthening young people participation and helping them to become responsible active members of our society by enriching their competences. This project will also include 4 transnational meetings that will contribute to the preparation, implementation and evaluation phase of the project. The project's expected results are the following: o High quality training material on social entrepreneurship in the future; o Fostering the young people professional development resulting to their economic participation in society; o Improved levels of employability skills of young people; Impact on the participants (young people): • Acquisition of new skills and abilities in the field of social entrepreneurship; • Encourage creativity, innovation, participation, diversity and social inclusion of young people. • Development of self-awareness about their natural talents and abilities; • Development of the European social enterprises network (through Help Desk) by being introduced to approaches toward the establishment of social enterprises; Impact on the Community: • Strengthening the role of youth organizations in the personal development of young people in the community life and the economic growth; • The identification of environmental and social problems of the community and finding solutions to these problems; • Improving and facilitating the dialogue between young people and local authorities / entities through non -formal methods; Impact at national level: • Local Authorities will have the opportunity to widen their professional knowledge by adopting new approaches in their practices. • Youth Organizations who are active at regional /national level will have access in Help Desk containing ready-to-use materials which can be successfully integrated in their mentoring programmes or in their extracurricular activities in order to provide young people with the necessary help and support while deciding on their future. At the EU level, the impact of the project will take the form of networking with other regions/countries. - Retraining and improvement of competences of young people in the area of SE - Establishment of an effective training methodology in social entrepreneurship for interested individuals that result to improvement of their transferable skills and competences. - Tackling of young people’s unemployment and reinforcement of social cohesion. The project’s innovation and added value lies in the very fact that it does not merely seek to train and empower young people but also to improve understanding of the social entrepreneurship phenomenon and its potential in the youth field and non-formal education in Europe.
We believe that project outcomes can contribute to social innovation and entrepreneurship training in our regions and countries. Partners have all been active in disseminating and even integrating project results into current education systems and as added value to the ecosystems of social innovation in their countries. The partnership has also promoted project results to stakeholders in other countries within and outside EU and the methodology has already been integrated into social innovation training by CpKp in the Check Republic. Project results have been presented and are partly used by innovation labs, social innovation courses within universities and towards key stakeholders and young entrepreneurs in partner countries.
The partnership applied for the project based upon our experience of working with youth and interest in social innovation and entrepreneurship as motivators for youth engagement with their community focusing on sustainability, empowerment and inclusion of youth, especially disadvantaged youth. We all believe that participation in any innovation process is both engaging and empowering for those involved especially when the topics of this process are close to one's heart and the environment, we live in, which is the case for social innovation as its focus is on social challenges and social value.