What is the project about ?
“Social Innovation-Design to Enterprise” (SIDE) is an Erasmus+ KA2 small-scale partnerships in youth project (2022-1-RO01-KA210-YOU-000082491) laying major importance on the development of a better approach to Social Innovation initiatives as well as creation of useful tools and methods for organisations active in the field of Social Innovation. The SIDE aims at realising this aim through offering online and offline training courses in three major spheres, namely Social Innovation, Professional & Personal Development and Project Management and making them accessible for the youth and youth workers, and facilitators; thus, putting a major emphasis on inclusive education.
The term Social Innovation refers to the process of developing and implementing novel, impactful solutions to eradicate or at least alleviate existing social or environmental issues. Social Innovation is believed to be strongly associated with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals since some of the SDGs, namely the SDG 4 (Quality Education); SDG 5 (Gender Equality); SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities); SDG 13 (Climate Action), etc. require direct social interventions and in this respect, the role of Social Innovation is of utmost importance. This is one of the main motivations for the implementation of the project since it is believed to enrich and equip project participants
(those already in Social Innovation and those the project aims at involving in Social Innovation) with essential tools and techniques to succeed in the domain of Social Innovation for sustainable development. Accordingly, the project aspires for the development of more social enterprises and cultivation of entrepreneurship skills and thinking in project target groups.
Project objectives
- Create 3 training courses dedicated to 2 members of staff in each organisation in order to acquire and practice tools in EU Project Design & Management (PM) , Social Innovation (SI), Personal & Professional Development (PPD) in order to train 10-12 TGs in local communities on those topics and to support (coaching/ mentoring) this group of max 12 in each country to implement a project or start a social enterprise.
- Promote the cooperation in SI(& PM and PPD) in order to increase the capacity of partners to run social innovation activities and enable transformation and change in the organisations and the community, during the project lifetime and after.
- Raise awareness of the possibilities that exist around social innovation, tools, funding opportunities at all levels (local, regional, national, European) and expanding the network of the partner organisation at local and European levels.
Target groups of the SIDE project
Embracing inclusiveness as a core value, the project aims at targeting a wide community with a main emphasis on the youth in disadvantaged communities or with disadvantaged backgrounds. In general, target groups of the project are divided in two, namely direct and indirect as the following:
Direct Target Groups:
– Partner organisations;
– Staff in partner organisations;
– Youth with fewer opportunities.
Indirect Target Groups:
– Facilitators, trainers, educators working with youth and youth workers and who want to improve their skills;
– Educators in high schools and VET schools;
– Organisations in the network of the partners who are involved in Social Innovation, youth work, innovation, non-formal education, e-learning who are the recipients of the newsletters and the content created.
– Parents who support their children for taking interest in innovation and social development
Conclusion
To recapitulate, in today’s world where Social Innovation is gaining momentum and is considered to be one of the most effective means to tackle social and environmental challenges, SIDE project is downright relevant as well as crucial, for it will enrich partner organisations and other project participants with up-to-date skills and competences needed to be successful in field of Social Innovation. Availability of project materials to everyone makes it more inclusive, attractive, and promising.
