Nowadays, every society deals with social problems, such as lack of integration, corruption, poverty and others. Although the nature of these issues is very diverse, one way to tackle them is through social entrepreneurship. It not only helps to create a workplace for those in need, but also results in potential benefits for all.Yet, the concept is still unknown to most of the youngsters, as well as youth workers (YWs). That is a missed opportunity. Youth’ ideas could be a key to progress regarding most of the social problems. Having this in mind, goal of the project is to grow future social entrepreneurs that could help their local communities, as well as a wider society.The idea is to: first equip YWs (1st target group (TG)) with means to transfer social entrepreneurship knowledge to youth with fewer opportunities (2nd TG); and then to guide them through starting or joining social entrepreneurship initiatives. It is also desired to have other relevant stakeholders (3rd TG) to join in and spread the project’s message further.This will be done through the following steps: 1) research of the participating countries with regards to needs of TGs; 2) creating a pilot training methodology based on the research; 3) testing & upgrading the created methodology through mobility activities (training courses and job shadowing for YWs and a youth exchange); 4) setting up an online platform for parallel e-learning. 5) Having documented it all, creating a final methodology (for social entrepreneurship training in youth work) and promoting it to the TGs.Moreover, to promote the concept, a social business idea contest for youth will be launched.The main ambition is to transform the outcomes of the project (methodology and platform) into a standard learning tool of social entrepreneurship for YWs. It is also aspired that the contest for youth will be held annually. This will help to keep the project sustainable after the end EU funding.What change will the project make: all the target groups will know more about social entrepreneurship and, moreover, will be able to transfer that knowledge to the young they work with (in case of YWs) or their peers, etc. This is anticipated to result in more social enterprises being created; and, in turn, more problems/issues being addressed by them.Chosen partners: countries for partnership were handpicked, considering the size & relevance of their social problems. Each country represents a different region of the world, allowing to reach project aims at international level & the results to be universally-applicable.At the same time, the project brings together a consortium of multidisciplinary organizations, uniting complementary expertise & know how in: 1) youth work & non-formal education; 2) formal education and youth development; 3) policy making and cooperation.
There are many hurdles that societies face across the world. However, the reality shows that governments and NGOs can’t tackle those issues alone. This is because the nature of these problems is very diverse and solving them requires different solutions & approaches. We believe that regardless of different local settings, social entrepreneurship is the answer to combatting numerous social issues. Entrepreneurship (of any kind) can create workplaces for those in need. Moreover, it can also take on social issues and lead to wider potential benefits for the whole society. Yet, social entrepreneurship is still an unknown concept to most of the youngsters, as well as youth workers. Youth’s (entrepreneurial) ideas could be a key to progress. The main goal of the "Social Entrepreneurship Heroes" project was to grow future social entrepreneurs who could tackle various social problems within their local settings, as well as on a wider scale. This way, the project implemented a positive effect for both the participants & their communities.OBJECTIVES TO REACH THIS AIM- to identify the best ways to teach youth (or youth workers) about social entrepreneurship;- to develop, test & launch a non-formal training programme on social entrepreneurship, targeting youth workers & disadvantaged youth from EU & Partner countries; - foster capacity building and new social initiatives in social entrepreneurship subject;- to increase transnational cooperation & exchange good examples from project partner countries; - spread the project's ideas to a wider audience, to get more attention and to extend the network. TARGET GROUPS- youth workers, younger leaders, - work with local communities and want to make an impact;- face social, economic, geographic or cultural obstacles.INDIRECT TARGET GROUP- a wider audience of youth workers and young people;- young people who want to implement their social business ideas;- independent social business initiatives.ACTIVITIES- research on identifying the best ways to teach youth (or youth workers) about social entrepreneurship;- 3 short-term training courses in Kazakhstan, Uganda, Argentina- job shadowing in Kazakhstan;- E-learning platform to share the ideas of the project with the public across the project countries (news, updates, educational material (videos, quizzes, online orientation game - learning social entrepreneurship through gaming in Lithuania;- series of events - series of (3) workshops & discussions on social entrepreneurship (Lithuania);- individual mentorship programme in India, Uganda, Kazakhstan, Lithuania;- local trainings (1-month intensive programmes) about small-scale businesses in India, Uganda and Kazakhstan;- and others;All of this improves the abilities of youth workers to help for youngsters who want to create social enterprise.