The project

Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept and an effective approach to solving social problems with business solutions. At the same time, young people are sensitive to social issues, and the experience of project partners shows that huge entrepreneurs aged 18 to 29 are heading towards the social entrepreneurship, although they cannot accurately define their activities in this area.

What do we want to achieve by implementing the project?

• To study and analyze the current state of skills, emphasize the opportunities for realization of social innovations and social business ideas.
• To create knowledge and skills for developing new entrepreneurial models, based on social innovations, the principles of sustainable development, in 60 youths.
• To support the digitization of the learning process of young people from vulnerable groups.
• To unite 12 trainers and consultants to support and encourage young people in social entrepreneurship

What activities are we going to implement?

1. Research and analysis of the current situation of the opportunities for implementation of social business ideas and social innovations
2. Development of a training program for social entrepreneurship
3. Virtual transnational trainings
4. Project management and transnational meetings
5. Dissemination of project results

Results and products:

• Capacity building of 60 young people for social entrepreneurship.
• Creating opportunities for the generation of social innovations by young people.

Products:

Product 1. Study and analysis of the current situation

Product 2. Training program for social entrepreneurship and innovation

The partners

Kauzi Foundation was registered on 26th of October 2009 in Sofia and determined as its mission "to work to create a harmonious, sustainable and interoperable business and civil society, which is run by active, competitive, responsible and decent people - citizens of Bulgaria, Europe and the World”.

In its 12 years of activity the team of "Kauzi" foundation works for motivation, career and personal development of young people and young people with disabilities. The Foundation has organized 8 national Youth Entrepreneurial marketplaces and two international with participants from Serbia. In this period over 700 young people benefited from information services, 300 received advice on entrepreneurship, education, career development, social integration and over 300 participated in trainings organized by the foundation.

The main objectives of the Foundation are:

• Creating conditions and programs for children and youth with disabilities integration;
• Create opportunities for children and young people for complete development and to gain social, creative and professional skills;
• Acquisition of knowledge, skills and experience among young entrepreneurs and SMEs to build entrepreneurial skills and active participation in the processes of the market economy.

Liofyllo is an idiom to say olive leaf at Greek language. The Social Cooperative Enterprise, in harmony with the principles of the circular economy & with deep technology, creates a novel eco-friendly material (National Patent, Evaluation WIPO) from the untapped olive leaves and bio-adhesives. Its Innovation lies to the way of processing and eco-management policies of the biomass of the olive leaves that is discarded, during the production process of olive oil. This unique material has application in a diverse range of sectors, from interior furniture and deco, to the refined creation of Luxury gifts and souvenirs.

One of the main pillars of Liofyllo is the awakening of the eco-consciousness of the society and the acquaintance with the concepts of recycling, circular economy and sustainable green solutions in order to adopt them and apply them in everyday life. Liofyllo gives priority to actions aimed at capacity building in various areas related to environmental sustainability, including those that are part of the contribution of education and culture.

Liofyllo supports active citizenship and ethics in lifelong learning. It is not only the legal form of the company (Social Cooperative Enterprise) but also its own organizational culture, which provides (based on the articles of association) the possibility for each member to have equal rights in the decision-making of the company. The volunteers of Liofyllo are able to freely express their opinions and to participate in policymaking.

The civil society organization Proaktiv was registered in February 2010. Ten experienced CSO activists with over 65 years of experience in the CSO sector, especially in the youth program, decided to establish Proactive.

The PROACTIVE team was founded because it believes in the future of a professionalized CSO sector that is part of the citizens, coexisted with the real problems and needs of people in local communities and ready to approach solving these problems professionally and responsibly.

PROAKTIV's mission is to create a stimulating, proactive environment through civic actions in southeastern Serbia and local communities in the Balkans.

Our vision is a Serbia of proactive citizens.

The goals of the PROAKTIV association are:

• Decentralization as a basis for further political and economic development of Serbia;
• Development of the society's capacity for Serbia's integration into the European Union;
• Economic development of Serbia with special attention to the south of Serbia;
• Strengthening the capacity of young people to take active roles in society;
• Respect for the citizens of Serbia as active participants in decision-making processes.

Braga Mobility Open, or Braga mob acronym, is a SME with 16-20 employees based in Braga and is an experienced company of mobility that received a significant number of participants under Erasmus Plus.

The company's mission is to create and foster educational, cultural, social, recreational and entertainment directing the benefits of multiculturalism to a growing number of people with a maximum service of excellence. Braga mob wants to develop business relationships and professional relationships with all types of businesses, schools, NGO’s, local and national governmental also organizations across Europe.

Braga mob also provides services tailored to the specific needs of executives and technical experts, especially those involved in the areas of this project. With a wide network of local offices and a team of professionals, the company has partnered with several entities in the city of Braga, operating in various professional fields, corresponding to the  scope of Erasmus+ programmes.

The program

Erasmus Plus is the European Union programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport 2014-2020.

The Erasmus+ programme aims to contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy for growth, jobs, social equity and integration, as well as to the targets of ET2020, the EU Strategic Framework for Education and Training.

Small-scale Partnerships are designed to widen access to the programme to small-scale actors and individuals who are hard to reach in the fields of school education, adult education, vocational education and training, youth and sport.

Small-scale Partnerships can also contribute to the creation and development of transnational networks and to fostering synergies with, and between, local, regional, national and international policies.

In addition, the main objectives of Cooperation Partnerships also apply to Small-sсale Partnerships, proportionally to the scope and volume of each project:

• Increasing quality in the work and practices of the organisations and institutions involved, opening up to new actors not naturally included within one sector;
• Building capacity of organisations to work transnationally and across sectors;
• Addressing common needs and priorities in the fields of education, training, youth and sport;
• Enabling transformation and change (at individual, organisational or sectoral level), leading to improvements, in proportion to the context of each organization

THE PROGRAM

Erasmus Plus is the European Union programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport 2014-2020.

The Erasmus+ programme aims to contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy for growth, jobs, social equity and integration, as well as to the targets of ET2020, the EU Strategic Framework for Education and Training.

The programme also aims to promote the sustainable development of its partners in the field of higher education and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy.

Among the specific themes addressed by the program:

• reducing unemployment, especially among young people
• promoting adult education, in particular with regard to new skills and competences required by the labour market
• encouraging young people to participate in democratic life in Europe
• supporting innovation, collaboration and reforms
• reduce early school leaving
• promoting collaboration and mobility with EU partner countries

The VET Strategic Partnerships of Key Action Two, Cooperation for Innovation and exchange of good practices, aim to support the improvement of the quality of vocational education and training provision by promoting cooperation between VET bodies. This is achieved by developing, implementing and transferring innovative practices in organisations at local, regional, national and European level.

THE PROJECT

The project arises from the observation of the exponential increase economic and social vulnerability needs and situations, generated by economic crises, identifying that one of the possible solutions to this emergency is the creation of innovative business models.

It becomes essential for enlightened entrepreneurs, especially in countries that have a fragile socio-economic fabric, such as Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia, Italy and Spain, to identify the value, in terms of the social impact of their business or the social effect that each intervention generates on the community or on specific categories of beneficiaries.

In this context of uncertainty, there is a new way of doing business: a model is introduced that sets aside forever the outdated yardstick of profit as the only objective and parameter to assess the health of an entrepreneurial activity, choosing transparency, 360 ° sustainability (economic, social and environmental) and responsibility towards all stakeholders, including the environment and future generations as the guiding values.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. Develop a shared blended training offer (IO1 – TRAINING PROGRAM FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND CORPORATE SOCIAL INNOVATION) - To develop for 60 SME workers in Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Greece and Bulgaria, skills in social sustainability in terms of strategic paths, business models, organizational processes, measurement tools with the development and systematic adoption of a shared blended training offer
2. Promote digital integration in learning activities with the co-design and development of (IO2 - INTERACTIVE AND GAMIFIED OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES)

- Open Educational Resources, in the form of interactive, video pills for the corporate population of SMEs, in the EU partner reference territorial contexts, to increase a skills set in terms of social sustainability useful for their orientation towards social innovation and immediate application in the business and work environment

- SIM-Game (Social Impact Measurement Game) which, exploiting gaming and gamification logics, will be an interactive recreational-educational container structured in episodes, each of which relates to skills and relative open educational resources, capable of marking the evaluation process concurrently with learning, generating engagement, motivation and self-awareness

3. Align 24 trainers and consultants of the partnership, involved in two transnational mobility to:

- acquire the methodological references of INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN to elaborate the contents of the OER to be realized by producing interactive, training video pills and GAME-BASED LEARNING to incorporate and functionalize the dynamics and game based mechanics to be applied to learning processes exploiting game logics to create a selective and detailed evaluation process on specific areas of competence and determining behaviours of corporate social sustainability

- implement the functional plan to guide the target SMEs to measure social impact and guide learners in its application in target companies during company check-ups.

4. Co-elaborate and standardize methods and tools for the measurement and management of social impact in target SMEs (IO3 - SOCIAL IMPACT MEASUREMENT PLAN)

- to allow workers to conduct corporate check-ups to photograph the actual with respect to the planned social innovation objectives and trace an action plan to guide companies in redesigning the business model by orienting their objectives and methods to B-Corp and benefit Company logics.

The mission of I.S.R.E. is to promote study, research and documentation, orientation and experimentation of educational and training interventions, to contribute to the cultural growth of the territory and to the support of social solidarity according to christian values.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona is a Spanish non-profit association of industrial and commercial enterprises, professionals and traders who wish to work actively to develop economic relations in Europe, especially between Italy and Spain.
The Chamber promotes and supports the different phases of the internationalization process, providing commercial assistance to Spanish, European and Italian companies through its large international networks. The aim is to develop initiatives in order to implement a different type of project that aims to share experiences and good practices between Italian and European companies, local and public authorities.

PIMEC is the most important employers' confederation that represents and supports the interests of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the self-employed in Catalonia. PIMEC counts over 100,000 SMEs, being the largest association of SMEs in Spain. He participates in 300 boards of directors and working committees with the most representative public administrations and social agents.

PRISM Consulting S.r.l. manufactures products and provides services capable of: increase the efficiency and competitiveness of organizations; stimulate economic and employment growth; support innovation, internationalization and transnational cooperation; promote the development of human resources skills; ensure easy access to communication and information tools

Through audiovisual and cinematographic productions, gaming and gamification, VR and AR solutions, graphics and promo-communicational, multimedia, interactive and web design, PRISM Consulting S.r.l promotes the image and value of services, products and corporate brands of companies that want to grow in their sectors of interest and in new markets, also characterized by elements of uncertainty, dynamism and turbulence, supporting them in the use of narrative techniques for sharing the corporate culture and core values.

The mission of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Institute for Business Training (CPU) is to provide companies with quality, modern and applicable knowledge, enriched by international experience and examples of good practice. The CPU is a training center that boasts an ancient tradition and significant experience in the development, organization and implementation of professional and technical seminars, training courses, workshops, short- and long-term courses and other events that respond to the needs of the room's customers.

The University of Social and Political Sciences of Panteion (PANTEION) has the honor of being the oldest university of social and political sciences in Greece, founded in 1927, making a great contribution to the promotion and development of social and political sciences in Greece.

It is one of the leading academic communities in Greece, with a relevant reputation especially in the areas of constitutional, administrative and international law, international relations, economics, sociology, political science, psychology and mass media studies.

The main goal of “Creative Caravan” project is to spread awareness and provide skills in the field of entrepreneurship among the general youth population in the IPA CBC region, through innovations in educational system based on new models of communication and presentation.

Project activities are based on business and creative industries education of a selected group of young people from Serbia and Bulgaria who will work with experts in real business environments with micro enterprises (youth owners, social business…) to develop their business models and market placement. This process will be recorded in format of TV shows and broadcasted on regional TV stations with idea to share knowledge and promote entrepreneurship through all phases of development of micro enterprises in the real business environment of Serbia and Bulgaria. At the end of the project, EXPO Conference in Serbia and Bulgaria will be organized in order to present developed solutions for micro enterprises and share experience of all participants in the “Creative Caravan” projects.

1. Increasing the motivation and awernes of unemployed, inactive, young people up to 29 years of starting a self-employed business, informing about the benefits and advantages of entrepreneurship, the essence of business planning and management and acquaintance with good examples and succesful practices.
2. Increasing the capacity of unemployed, inactive, young people up to 29 years old, willing to start their oun business and self employment.
3. Encouraging entrepreneurship is the most effective methods of tackling unemployment and professional and personal development

The project provides trainings related to the development of entrepreneurial, management and bisiness knowledge and skills. Prohject provides and consultancy services for the preparation of self-employed activities.

The main objective of the center is to provide quality, accessible and free information and consulting services, training in entrepreneurship, according to European standards and universal human values, needs and interests of young people. Specific objective: designing, building and maintaining a sustainable YIAC more flexible mechanism for triggering the activity of young people, encouraging personal development, motivation of social integration, inclusion to the European standards and values and improve the capacity of the foundation and other youth organizations in favor of targeted program to provide youth services.

Under this project was organized the first Youth entrepreneurship marketplace in 2010. 16 young (11 disadvantaged) entrepreneurs improved their skills for self-presentation and defense of their own business and social ideas.

The project involved actively employers /partners/ investors through participation in the event and consultancy support for young entrepreneurs.
Financed by National Center "Youth European Programs and Initiatives"

With this project the foundation got approval of the Bureau for Social Services as a social and business incubator for motivation, psychological work, group work for young people with and without disabilities in entrepreneurship by improving their practical knowledge and skills to present their business and social ideas, build on their experience of self-presentation and validation of their self-esteem as equal participants in a multicultural environment. The best practices of the first marketplace were replicated using print and electronic tools.
Financed by Sofia Municipality

This was the first international marketplace organized by the findation and the project was financed under Bulgaria – Serbia IPA Cross-Border Programme.

Within the project annually youths with business or social ideas between 15 and 29 with and without disabilities receive free consultation on business planning, social integration, entrepreneurship, contacts with investors. Result of the consultation is developed business plan and a three- minute presentation. During the event participants have the opportunity to present their ideas to potential investors, partners, banks and the media.
Funded by the National Youth Programme (2011-2016)

In 2017 we are planning to organize the forth Youth entrepreneurship marketplace in the framework of Youth Information and Advisory Center "Causes", funded by the National Youth Programme (2016-2020)

• The increase of the awareness and engagement of representatives of the local authorities ant experts in order to implement European practices for finding and guiding the innovative potential of the capital – in the economic, social and cultural dimension.
• The adoption of a special methodology-a sustainable management tool which will assist the implementation of the Innovation strategy for intelligent specialization of Sofia 2016-2020, which provides for the regular participation of experts and civil society organisations in partnership with local authorities in the culture and creative industries dimension.

In the framework of the project were held an information session on cultural and creative industries, as well as 10 individual consultations between representatives of the CCIs and various departments of the administration.

The result was published Handbook “The role of local authorities in promoting the CCIs “.

The project was funded by Program 'Europe' of Sofia Municipality.

The project enabled the Foundation to extend the scope of its activities in six more cities in Bulgaria-Silistra, Veliko Tarnovo, Rousse, Haskovo, Blagoevgrad and Stara Zagora. There we organized a public dialogue with all stakeholders in order to create a network for the support and promotion of youth entrepreneurship on the ground.

For this purpose were conducted 6 field studies on the status of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bulgaria. It was further examined a good practice of a partner organisation from Niš, Serbia in the field of the promotion of youth entrepreneurship and the creation of a business incubator for creative industries.

Project activities included the Organization of 1) study visit for sharing good practice; 2) share experiences of Youth entrepreneurial exchange for young entrepreneurs; 3) public dialogue with all stakeholders to create support network and promotion of youth entrepreneurship; 4) conduct of a campaign to raise public awareness.

With this project we want to raise environmental awareness and responsible behavior of children and young people from 5 to 18 years to their environment. The 13 educational institutions (5 kindergartens and 8 schools) in Sofia organized meetings with our team and volunteers. The children learned why it's good to recycle garbage and how important it is not to squander water. A traveling exhibition on umbrellas created a memorable visual messages that build sustainable responsible attitude to the environment, in children, parents and teachers.

In kindergartens and schools put the "Tree of promises", where each child has the opportunity and responsibility to promise something to the Nature.

The main aim of the project is enhancing career development, promoting of youth entrepreneurship and improving connection between education and business in the cross-border area by improving the access to information, best practices transfer and building economic synergy for the SMEs in the region of Sofia, Vidin and Zajecar.

The project is financed under Bulgaria – Serbia IPA Cross-Border Programme.

More here: http://www.ycbc.eu

Тhe project Jinger was financed by IPA cross border program Bulgaria-Macedonia. The the activities were implemented in Bulgaria (Dupnitsa, Blagoevgrad and Gotse Delchev) and Macedonia (Strumica, Radovish, Shtip).

The Overall objective was "Enhancing employment through career development support and promoting of entrepreneurship for sustainable economic growth in the cross-border area by improving the access to information, ICT tools, best practices transfer and building economic synergy for the SMEs in District of Kystendil, district of Blagoevgrad (BG) and South-East region (MK).

Specific objectives:

1. To promote social inclusion through effective integration into the labor market and developing economic independence;
2. To promote entrepreneurship through the means of continuing training, learning by experience and use of ICT;
3. To improve the links between SMEs in the cross border region through development of guiding materials for investments in the cross-border area;
4. To encourage economic independence of beginning entrepreneurs for raising the standard of living.

The project implementation led to:

1. creation of connections between business and educational institutions;
2. participation of institutions in economics knowledge based economics; 3/ public awareness campaign for ICT and new media benefits.

More on http://www.y-jinger.eu