The project “Keep Your EYES Open” (EYES+) is a cross-continent project about entrepreneurship and social business. It has been designed as the continuation of the project “EYES” that Eurasianet and a previous consortium conducted in 2015, which aimed at promoting good practices in the field of social business for youth workers, youth and young entrepreneurs interested in social economy through the creation of communication tools (guide and website), and helped 60 young people develop social business projects. This new project will capitalize on the results achieved through EYES and move forward in the promotion of social business, for both youth workers and the youth. EYES+ is made of two main components and targets: its frame will intertwine a youth workers’ capacity building project made of one training, one job shadowing and a final seminar, with a 10 months civic service volunteering program allowing 8 young French people to volunteer in the consortium partners’ organizations. Youth workers from 5 organizations worldwide will meet on different occasions to share their knowledge, know-how, experience and skills in the fields of entrepreneurship, social business and private fund sourcing, and together with 8 French volunteers they will work on identifying, designing, testing and implementing socially and economically sustainable solutions to auto-finance their organization. Its relevance as an Erasmus + project lies in the fact that it addresses to two major issues: exclusion of youth with less opportunity and the need for a diversification of NGOs financial resources. The expected results of this projects are the following: - To develop and improve youth workers’ competencies and capacities in the field of social business, and therefore their ability to train and mentor the youth- To Develop the auto-financing and private funding activities of their organizations through a transfer of knowledge/know-how/skills among youth workers at a global scale - To promote social economy among young people by disseminating and deepening the work that has been done during the project EYES- To Inspire and develop volunteers’ entrepreneurship skills - To provide a frame to youth entrepreneurs on how to launch their projectTo achieve these objectives, Eurasianet gathered a consortium made of five partners with relevant experience or needs in the field of social business, entrepreneurship or private fundraising within their NGOs in order to optimize the transfer of knowledge and skills from partners to partners and from the partners to the mentored volunteers. Selection criteria for the volunteers will be based on their motivation and a real interest in entrepreneurship and will mix young people from all backgrounds, with a special interest for young with less opportunity (NEETs). This project will not only reach the participants: the dissemination strategy will be multi-dimensioned, in order to maximize the reach and impact of the project.
“Keep your EYES open, Youth entrepreneurship is spreading worldwide” is a Capacity building in the field of YOUTH coordinated by Eurasia net France in cooperation with Open M Vietnam, Virlanie Philippines, EHSB Croatia, and D'avent Romania, with the contribution of volunteers 12 volunteers involved in 7 organisations worldwild (Open M Vietnam, Virlanie Philippines, EHSB Croatia, Mitraniketan India, The European social entrepreneurship and innovative studies institute (ESI) in Lithuania, Friends International Cambodia, COB Greece).Keep your Eyes Open project reached various goals : -to strengthen a transnational and multidimensional network across Europe and Asia-to transfer innovative practices in the social business field link with youth and NGO sector-to foster youth social entrepreneurship and to increase awareness over the topic,The project integrated: -the communication tools created during the former EYES project, -a non-formal education approach and -the youth mobility by itself as a key to self-development and formal access to the social business sector. The project objectives were:- To boost cross-continental cooperation between 5 youth organizations and their local/ national network in Europe and Asia. - To promote an innovative exchanging of experiences and social business models between Vietnam, Romania, Philippines, Croatia and France. - To engage volunteers to send in mission with the international partners, offer a mentoring and a support for their social business projects. - To Increase the local impact of the project in each country involved, through the development of local partnerships and the local events connected to social business. - To enhance the outreach of the online communication tools launched as a result of the project EYES.- To create awareness about entrepreneurship and social businesses opportunities and initiatives among a high number of youth through local events. The project integrated 3 main phases for the youth workers:-7 days: training in France:Workshops on social business ideas and identification of successful and transferable practices in each partner country; Define the missions given to the volunteers; Meet the volunteers; Local visits to get inspiration in social business practices- 10 days: job shadowing:Transfer of good practices and innovative interaction between partners; Support the volunteer and mid-term evaluation of the project. -7 days :The closing seminar in Philippines:Final report of the work done by volunteers and youth workers; Make the video “How to launch my project”; Update the guide of good practices on social entrepreneurship and prepare a final event to spread the good practices and communication material identified/created during the project. And 3 main phases for the volunteers involved:-2 months of preparation in Marseille-6 to 10 months of international volunteering mission-1 month in Marseille: dissemination and skill/ knowledge gained by volunteersTrough theses phases, the consortium managed to take decisions on the expected results of the project, shared many good practices in the field of youth and social entrepreneurship and updated EYES platform with several new elements:- 6 new partners to EYES platform to support and enrich the network- 3 videos of 1 min presenting the project and EYES platform- 5 vidéos of 1 min presenting social entrepreneurship in Vietnam, Cambodia, Lithuania, India, Croatia- 1 Video of 5 min detailing the main steps to launch a social business