The partners of the project are:

• Citizens in Action
• Xarxa CooperaSec
• STRANAIDEA
• Kaleido’Scop
• Nexes
• Confcooperative Piemonte Nord
• Unis-Cité

The Project

The overall objective of the project is to visualize the social impact of entrepreneurship initiatives in SSE, especially those ones promoted by young people.

According to that, SSEds wants to:

• reinforce methodologies to accompany young people in entrepreneurship in SSE, especially those with fewer opportunities;
• strengthen the competences and visions in SSE so that young people can undertake initiatives in their communities;
• elaborate new tools for SSE, fruit of a collective creation;
• create instruments for the evaluation of the social impact of SSE initiatives.

Over its duration, from January 2020 to December 2021, the partners of SSEds have elaborated 2 intellectual outputs:

• a “Toolbox on values, sustainability and social impact of the ESS“
• a “Training Module to approach young people to the ESS“, with focus on the social impact of the ESS

Toolbox on Values, Sustainability and Social Impact of the ESS

The “Toolbox on values, sustainability and social impact of the Social and Solidarity Economy” intends to provide SSE actors, who guide and educate (mostly) in sustainable and value-based SSE activities, a user-friendly system of classified SSE tools/methods. These tools/methods should be useful, at different stages and with different purposes and target groups, to guide young people towards their entrepreneurship in SSE.

Part of the Toolbox, the Imp’Act tool guides the user through building their own social impact assessment of an SSE project or initiative. It grounds on the values and principles of SSE, but it is applicable to all kinds of social projects and initiatives, also outside the SSE field.

Training Module to Approach Young People to the ESS

This training module provides concrete educational approaches to focus on social impact, for young people who are in the process of creating an SSE project. Overall, it aims at maximizing the potential for social transformation of future SSE initiatives.

“On a train to social impact” grounds on the principles of non-formal education and is a resource for facilitators that support young people in their educational path towards Social Solidarity Economy.

Outputs’ Objectives

Such outputs have been created for the benefit of young people and the actors of social and solidarity economy who want to deepen their knowledge over the topic and to train themselves on the social impact.

Read also

TOSCA – Online Training for Youth Organisations of European Solidarity Corps

L'articolo Toolbox on Values, Sustainability and Social Impact of Social-Solidarity Economy proviene da Youth Networks.

The point being that mainly soft-skills are not recognised as so. Generally young people don’t even discern which transferable-skills they have developed while volunteering or don’t have the tools to distinguish one another.

Here is a brief, not thorough, list to visualise what soft-skills are about:

• Public speaking;
• Empathy;
• Assertiveness;
• Responsibility;
• Leadership;
• Critical thinking;
• Problem solving;
• Team-work;
• Flexibility;
• And more.

Understanding My Journey Toolkit

S.A.L.T.O. has recently published a tool for young people to understand which transferable-skills they gained. It is called “Understanding My Journey partnership” and it is freely available. The purpose of the Toolkit is to help young people identify, map, and develop 8 different soft skills. It includes a practical guidance for developing 8 different interpersonal skills, plus overall advice on how to use each soft skill section. The 8 soft skills are as follows:

• Positive Attitude
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Time & Energy Management
• Work Ethic
• Problem Solving & Analytical Thinking
• Teamwork
• Leadership

GloRe Network: soft-skills certification

Needless to say, the list is far from finished. Youth organisations keening on helping their volunteers to get a certification for their soft-skills might find helpful the GloRe Network, a platform that certifies soft-skills through an e-learning process. The partner organisations can manage the Certification System, whilst their volunteers will have to go through a step-by-step e-learning process to acknowledge their interpersonal-skills.

Read also

How to: ICT and Volunteers’ Activities

Tools: Training on Youth Exchanges

L'articolo TOOL: Soft-Skills Development proviene da Youth Networks.

The Erasmus+ Programme aims at promoting equity and inclusion by facilitating the access to participants with disadvantaged backgrounds and fewer opportunities compared to their peers whenever disadvantage limits or prevents participation in transnational activities for reasons such as:

• disability
• educational difficulties
• economic obstacles
• cultural differences
• health problems
• social obstacles
• geographical obstacles

Vulnerable youth can be a greater educational challenge, but if we learn to respect their experience, strengthen and support their potential, we will see that their background is a value that can be associated with great empathy, creativity, passion, commitment, and intuition.

About the project

The project “Empower Vulnerable Youth: Theater, Creative Writing, and Emotions in Focus” was initiated and submitted by the association “Art of the Box” from Belgium. It consisted of a Training Course, an Advanced Planning Visit, and a Youth Exchange, and it connected 6 partners representing Belgium, Republic of Macedonia, Croatia, Spain, Greece, and Latvia. The project responds to the needs of organizations working with vulnerable youth.

The objectives of the project are: 

– to increase the quality of activities targeting vulnerable youth in partners’ organizations;
– to equip youth workers with new methods and techniques based on theater and creative writing, especially addressing issues such as managing strong emotions, self-confidence, self-awareness and leading to empowerment of vulnerable youth;
– to provide space for sharing and exchanging methods and techniques for work with vulnerable youth between the organizations and work on new project ideas;
 – to provide vulnerable youth with a direct opportunity to take part in an international youth exchange, giving space for personal and professional development and encouraging vulnerable youth to take part in international youth activities;
– to support long term cooperation between the partners under the Erasmus + Programme.

The outcome of this project is a BOOKLET. The aim of the booklet is to provide methods and techniques about creative writing and theater through winch can be handled strong emotions of youngsters especially vulnerable youth.

Partners:

ART OF THE BOX – Belgium
Mladi za marof – Croatia
Media Terra Nea – Greece
Volunteers centre skopje (vcs) – Macedonia
Asociación Mundus – Spain
Talsi region community foundation – Latvia

Related articles:
Find here ideas for ”Outdoor Activities for Inclusion”

L'articolo Learn how to empower vulnerable youth proviene da Youth Networks.

The project was implemented in cooperation of three creative associations from Latvia, France and Italy.

The main theme uniting all the activities and outputs of this project is body and movement based learning – its important concepts, principles, benefits, approaches and various methods, viewing the physical body as a domain of learning and transformation.

Partners have developed an online course about body and movement based learning and an embodied learning toolkit 

Find out more about this project and get access to the toolkit, online course and a podcast HERE.

L'articolo BODY and MOVEMENT as tools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset – Embodied Change proviene da Youth Networks.