Project Employ Yourself - Employment opportunities for youth in social economy aims at empowering youth organizations and young people from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia in promoting social and work inclusion of young people through informing, educating and providing them support about the opportunities and developing perspectives offered by social economy.The project strategies to offer young people from 8 different countries the opportunity to learn different models of social entrepreneurship, receive technical information from experts and share best practices on transnational level. Transnational and exchange activities planned within the project will provide participants opportunity to gain a broader awareness of different systems of social economy and share innovative models of social inclusion for those with fewer opportunities. The project also aims at empowering youth local entities from 8 countries in order to become key players in the promotion of social entrepreneurship according to the main principles of the EU policy agenda: inclusive & sustainable growth, social inclusion.Throughout the project, a number of activities are planned to support the above mentioned, such as: exchanges of information, knowledge and practices about opportunities and perspectives offered by social economy in form of capacity building activities, trainings, workshops, study visits, youth exchanges and awareness raising events.The project targets young people and youth workers of Consortium's partner youth organizations, and intends to reach other interested youth local organizations and local representatives of public institutions working with/for young people and in youth filed, as well as general public.
The overall aim of the Action was to empower the young people and local youth entities from 8 countries in promoting social and work inclusion through social economy. To achieve this aim, the Action take care of strengthening the capacities of youth organizations in developing social economy perspectives (by providing knowledge, skills and exchange of best practices - specific objective 1) and of raising awareness and increase knowledge of young people about opportunities offered by social econo
The Action “Employ Yourself” (EYS) was based on the sharing of practices among several local youth entities in 8 countries involved. EYS targeted the field of youth and social economy, by investing in capacities and empowerment of the participants. The leading Consortium aimed to be a “roof” for a much larger number of local youth entities to be involved: youth CSOs, youth social enterprises, non-formal groups and incubators. All the activities were created to empower these local youth entities.
<< Background >> The Action “Employ Yourself” (EYS) was based on the sharing of practices among several local youth entities in 8 countries involved. EYS targeted the field of youth and social economy, by investing in capacities and empowerment of the participants. The leading Consortium aimed to be a “roof” for a much larger number of local youth entities to be involved: youth CSOs, youth social enterprises, non-formal groups and incubators. All the activities were created to empower these local youth entities. << Objectives >> The overall aim of the Action was to empower the young people and local youth entities from 8 countries in promoting social and work inclusion through social economy. To achieve this aim, the Action take care of strengthening the capacities of youth organizations in developing social economy perspectives (by providing knowledge, skills and exchange of best practices - specific objective 1) and of raising awareness and increase knowledge of young people about opportunities offered by social econo << Implementation >> The implementation of the Action respected the initial plans and achieve the defined indicators. Anyway, the Action (started in November 2019) has been deeply hindered by the Covid-19 pandemic (outbreak in March 2020): the gathering of people and the transnational meetings were not possible for a long period of time. The pandemic provoked delays and forced the Consortium to ask for no-cost extensions: anyway it was possible to complete all the activities and to achieve all the results. << Results >> The Action was targeting the specific needs of youth in the region, in particular: 1) the lack of skills of youngsters for the job market; 2) the weak knowledge of social economy. The Action improved the situation in both areas, by providing the exchange of good practices among youth and young CSOs. The main result was the development of a stronger culture of social economy in each community, this offering new solutions for youth unemployment and limiting their social exclusion.