The SEntrA project aims to promote social entrepreneurship among young people by offering a set of non-formal learning tools supporting youth workers and organizations to actively enhance youth social entrepreneurship.
Specific objectives:
• Develop research-based knowledge on the social entrepreneurship landscape mainly but not exclusively in the five European countries involved (CY, GR, RO, NO, IE), with a particular focus on youth entrepreneurship and with regard to current policies,key trends,legislation & development issues (based upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals).
• Develop a manual in alignment with the EntrComp Framework of the EC that will describe the framework of the relevant skills & competencies, as well as the methodologies,way of thinking and environment required to support youth acceleration in social entrepreneurship
• Design a training toolkit as an educational tool that can be used by youth workers & youth organizations to prepare young people to develop social enterprises (aiming at reaching concrete Sustainable Development Goals)
• Develop an online learning platform providing free access to young people, youth workers/organizations and decision-makers/stakeholders to learning resources & project outputs
• Offer valuable transnational training to youth workers in an existing accelerator that may be transferred in other EU countries.
• Create a dedicated Vlog that will feature video stories and will promote success stories from the participating countries about social economy, social entrepreneurship and social enterprises to inspire the target audience
• Propose valuable public policy for boosting social entrepreneurship among young people. The specific policy brief will be disseminated and promoted among decision-makers. The project will increase awareness among young people, youth workers and youth organisations on the potential of social entrepreneurship, and will cultivate and nurture the social entrepreneurship concept among all target groups.
The participants that will be directly involved in the project are 145 Youth workers, 100 young people from partner countries and 100 relevant stakeholders such as youth organizations, social entrepreneurship promoters, NGOs, public authorities,social enterprise incubators, universities etc.
The project that lasts 2 years (24 months) involves the following partners from five different European countries:
P1. Letterkenny Institute of Technology-IE
P2. ARIS – A Really Inspiring Space-CY
P3.Fundatia Danis-RO
P4.Norsensus Media Forum-NO
P5.Asset Technology-GR
Outputs:
IO1-Researching the landscape on youth social entrepreneurship
IO2-Framework for youth acceleration in social entrepreneurship
IO3-Training Toolkit to support young people to design social enterprises
IO4-Vlog/Social collaborative and learning platform
IO5-Policy Brief/Youth Accelerator Guide
All partners participate in every output.
Multiplier events:
The first round of events target youth organisations/youth workers/trainers and stakeholders involved in social economy acceleration (enterprise incubators etc.). They will be organised within the first six months of the project in order to engage in the concept,present the research results (I01),achieve their active involvement, and take decisions for the next steps of the project development.
The second group of events will occur towards the end of the project to disseminate the outcomes and promote the results at national level. The events target youth organisations and youth workers/trainers and stakeholders, will act as multipliers and achieve the wide use of the project outputs and results.
Transnational training:
The project includes one training activity, which will take place at the established Accelerator ARIS in Cyprus in (month 19) and will involve 25 youth workers from all five countries. The activity aims to educate and train youth workers/organisations in regards to establishing and running a youth social entrepreneurship accelerator programme. Training the youth workers is especially important, as they are the ones who will share their knowledge and expertise with young people and social enterprise stakeholders in their own country thus multiplying the impact of the project. The project is expected to have a significant and multi-faceted, positive influence on the partner organizations through the exchange of knowledge & experiences, the strengthening of their capacity and enhancement of their offering; on youth workers/organizations by improving their skills and competencies through non-formal learning; on young people & aspiring social entrepreneurs by offering a set of sustainable,useful tools and developing an enabling environment for the creation of new social enterprises; and finally social enterprise stakeholders by obtaining research-based knowledge on the social entrepreneurship landscape in Europe, providing a practical youth accelerator guide and a policy brief addressed to decision-makers.