October 25-27, 2019 Efektas Group together with other partners from Italy, UK, Bulgaria, Germany and Spain had first Erasmus+ programme kick-off meeting in London in order to discuss project “Fostering Youth Initiatives Through Social Enterprise Education” upcoming activities, shared responsibilities and agreed on further deadlines. The need for such was clearly dictated by the key challenges that Europe currently faces:
- Fighting high levels of unemployment – particularly among young people;
- EU businesses need to become more competitive through talent and innovation;
- There is a need for more initiatives aimed at addressing problems in everyday society through sustainable entrepreneurial activities to the benefit of individuals as well as of the communities where they live.
Consortium of partners noticed, that people need to be aware that they live in a world with limited resources and these resources will be depleted if we continue along this path. Growth can be achieved not only by always looking for new resources, but also by using those we have already available. In addition, problems such as pollution, waste management, recycling, overuse of single-use plastic products, etc. need to be addressed with innovative seeking to counteract the effects of our such mismanagement of resources.
Investment in knowledge, skills and competences will benefit individuals, institutions, public and private organisations and society as a whole by contributing for growth and ensuring equity, prosperity, social change and social inclusion in Europe and beyond.
Objectives of the project:
The main objective of the project is to equip youth workers from the participating organisations with the tools and knowledge to be able to support young people in the development of their social entrepreneurial activities.
- International training of youth workers form the participating organisations;
- Exchange of good practices;
- Meetings with successful entrepreneurs;
- Local activities with youth workers who will learn about how to teach social entrepreneurship to young people;
- Continuous mentoring and support given to young people through their endevours;
- Collection of best practices and training materials in a toolkit that will be a point of reference for the participating organisations as well as the wider community that will be informed about the project through targeted dissemination;
- Adaptation of the toolkit into an e-course, which will be published online via a Moodle platform;
- Exchange of practices at European level as well as in the development of a toolkit including all the materials from the training courses conducted by members of consortium organizations.
The direct target group of the project will be:
Youth workers, who are staff members of the participating organisations. They will benefit from the exchange of good practices and the acquisition of new skills and competencies during international training events. They need to be better prepared in supporting young people wishing to start their own social entrepreneurial activities. As we noticed in similar projects young people have ideas and are willing to learn, but if they are not guided through the process by experts, the idea is soon abandoned.
As for the indirect target group:
Youths workers from local organisation who wish to learn about how to raise awareness on young people about social entrepreneurship and are willing to establish a conversation on the issues affecting everyday society and try to work together to find sustainable solutions through social entrepreneurial initiatives. Members of the wider community including training organisations, councils, community centres, etc. who are interested in learning about the project and its outcomes.
Last, but not the least, impact of this 24-month initiative is engagement of young people willing to start social initiatives and/or projects, to enhance development of entrepreneurial skills and foster employability in the socially responsible businesses field, education on the opportunities offered by social entrepreneurship and improvement of communication and cooperation between the institutions involved.
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