RuReality | Social Entrepreneurship

The topics of “RuReality” project were sustainable entrepreneurship and rural development.

The main idea that we wanted to convey was encouraging youngsters to repopulate
rural areas creating sustainable business, cooperating with the territory and other enterprises, and participating actively in the social and political life.

We created ideas and considerations on it with the youngsters involved to see how
this could be achievable, therefore stimulating them to develop entrepreneurial ideas following this approach.

Download the output.

Youth Exchange in Ligonchio

The Youth Exchange took place in Ligonchio (Italy), a depopulated area in the Apennines, and involved 37 young people from Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
During the meeting we implemented workshops on social entrepreneurship, sustainability, visited local social enterprises and, finally, we guided the participants in developing 4 entrepreneurial ideas, to be implemented in the area of Ligonchio.
During the workshops we used several methodologies, mostly inspired to the “Youth@Work” methodology, developed during the Capacity Building project “SEEDS.2” of Associazione Joint.

This short presentation of the activities aims at inspiring all the youth workers and organisations who want to develop projects on similar topics. For more information on the specific methodologies, do not hesitate to contact us.

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Partners:
Associazione di promozione sociale Joint (Italy)
ASOCIACIÓN BRÚJULA INTERCULTURAL (Spain)
Green Association (Bulgaria)
Lag Sava (Croatia)
International Labour Association ILA (Netherlands)

L'articolo Project Result | “RuReality”, Social Entrepreneurship proviene da Youth Networks.

On one side, it addresses the urgent need for alternatives to dominant economic systems. On the other side, it values solidarity and democracy and engages vulnerable people. Doing so, it contributes to social cohesion and development of skills that support employment and reduction of inequalities.

In youth volunteering, it can drive young people to creativity, initiative taking and leadership. Furthermore, it enhances their engagement within the local community for their own personal and professional growth and the collective growth of the community.

This represented the main topic in the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 project implemented by 13 National Committees of the volunteering federation ICYE.

About the project “Young Leaders for Social Change: Entrepreneurship through Volunteering”

The project involved ICYE National Committees in 13 countries and 12 international volunteers, who learnt about social economy and entrepreneurship. They planned and implemented projects and activities over 8 months for and with the beneficiaries of their host organisations. International volunteers led entrepreneurship projects or worked in organisations tackling social issues and creating alternative economic opportunities.

As an outcome of the project, the involved associations created a handbook. In particular, it contains the necessary non-formal learning and social entrepreneurship methods and skills, useful in different contexts and settings.

It represents a useful tool for staff, youth workers and facilitators of volunteering organisations to train volunteers during their international voluntary service. But also, for the volunteers engaged in diverse community development host organisations across the world.

You can find the Handbook here in English/ here in Spanish.

Related articles:
SEEDS2: social entrepreneurship for the youngsters

L'articolo Social Entrepreneurship through Volunteering proviene da Youth Networks.

SEEDS2 brought together eight organizations, four from Europe (Italy, Finland, Turkey and Spain) and four from Latin America (Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina).

The main goals of the project were:

• Fighting unemployment through the creation of Social Entrepreneurship projects for young people;
• Creating a Youth Exchange in order to enhance the internationalization of the project and underpin the local context from where the participants came from;
• Increasing the competences of the staff members of the organizations through a Training of Multipliers, two Youth Exchanges and six local trainings on the topic;
• Applying methods of non formal education, peer to peer education, active participation and intercultural learning;
• Inspiring young people to have a proactive part in Social Entrepreneurship and attracting the youth from Latin America to the methodology of youth exchanges following the model of the Erasmus+;
• Reinforcing the networks between the participants and the stakeholders and among the participants themselves;
• Making the organizations that were part of the projects more visible and, by this, reinforcing their mission through an increase of the resources;
• Testing new dissemination tools, like innovative media;
• Becoming a benchmark in the field of Social Entrepreneurship.

The goals have been achieved in a rather satisfying way. An entire section of tools and methodologies is available, providing a social-economy mindset and entrepreneurial skills for the organizations that took part to the capacity building.

L'articolo SEEDS2: social entrepreneurship for the youngsters proviene da Youth Networks.

As for the methodology, it was released a toolkit that encompass the topics of ideology and ethic, business plan, marketing and communication and project cycle management. Through the use of the means and resources explained in the videos, the participants could acquire new competences and a new awareness to harness in the field of social entrepreneurship. Here they are:

The capacity to have clear in mind the concepts of social and business entrepreneurship (and the difference between them):

To work in groups capable of performing and get to common conclusions by complementing each other for a common social interest:

To start and get through the process of creating a business and social entrepreneurship idea:

To grow familiar with the different concepts (business/social entrepreneurship, civil society work/NGO):

And, finally, to enable the participants to turn the outcomes, the ideas, into concrete business models.

L'articolo SEEDS2: social entrepreneurships and how to manage them proviene da Youth Networks.