Tools open for youth

Project description: The topic about social entrepreneurship started to be very often in front of us, more and more we read about it or hear about it. Over recent years some social enterprises have grown and developed – but many are still waiting to take the first step. Nowadays, in a period of economic recession, social economy is internationally one of the main issues in the European public policy. The reason for this is that social economy fights social exclusion and unemployment. People who do not have the necessary qualifications and work experience gain the opportunity to return to work or to find work. Moreover, de-industrialization in many European countries has limited the permanent, full time and formal work. Under these circumstances, the social economy appeared to be the best option as an additional source of employment, since it generates jobs and entrepreneurship by meeting social needs and very often by deploying the socially excluded.

NGOs have major part in raising the awareness about social entrepreneurship. Many of the members of the organizations partners in this project have been part of different workshops or training courses about social entrepreneurship, but we have concluded that much has to be done. So we wanted to gather people (youth workers, your leaders, youngsters with entrepreneurial spirit) to start to work on this topic. We want to match people with same interest and work together on something concrete – international platform where in future will be provided information about the social entrepreneurship. With this training course we want the participants, when they will be back in their countries, to continue to work together on the ideas for the social ventures though this platform (blog). European countries, as well as the participants, may have different approaches to the problems, and event the problems they have are different, but united, we can share the experiences and together to find solutions.

This training course through Erasmus + program, will increase the mobility of the youth workers, youth leaders and potential entrepreneurs to share experiences, knowledge, skills on this topic.

The aim of the project is: to ensure an entrepreneurial approach to solving social and environmental problems in the countries part of the project and to encourage and support the development of a new generation of social entrepreneurs.

The learning objectives of this project are:
– To become inspired social entrepreneur or change-maker;
– To understand better the term “social entrepreneurship” and to raise knowledge and gain new experiences about it toward working with youth people;
– To start the process of creating social venture through gaining skills and knowledge for writing projects ideas and business plan;
– To gain skills and knowledge that will help to the participants to get access to labor market;
– To discover or understand better the social and environmental problems in their countries and to get to know the situation in other countries;
– To be inspired and motivated to bring changes at home and start to work for improvement.
-To offer the opportunity of meeting possible partner groups among EU and EECA countries.

These objectives are linked to Erasmus+programme objectives, especially the overall objectives of the renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field (2010-2018) and indirectly to the promotion of European values in accordance with Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union. The learning objectives are also supporting the outcomes of this Key Action.

The trainers for this project are certificated youth workers, as well as they have certificate for entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, business and communication skills.

Approaches
– Participants will be challenged in order to reach a high learning impact, they won’t be let in the dullness of their comfort zone. At the same time, this will of course be done on a voluntary basis and in a safe and supportive environment.
– We’ll implement it as voluntarily, learner-centered and participatory TC, which means that nobody will be forced to participate in the activities, the group processes will be based on consensus and motivation of each participant in order to reach learning points.
– We’ll implement a holistic approach which means that all areas of existence and being of the participants will be touched, in order to take account of the different learning styles, and the holistic nature of the human being.
– This of course demands a high variation and expertise in the use of a wide range of methods.
– Similar to the holistic approach outlined above, we’ll also take care of personal and professional development, which means that the development of the participants at this TC is not only limited to their professional world, but also reaches out to their personal life and possibly even to their personality, behavior, attitudes and values.