Creating the social entrepreneurs of future Europe 

Social entrepreneurship is the use of start-up companies and other entrepreneurs to develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a variety of organizations with different sizes, aims, and beliefs. At times, profit-making social enterprises may be established to support the social or cultural goals of the organization but not as an end in itself. For example, an organization that aims to provide housing and employment to the homeless may operate a restaurant, both to raise money and to provide employment for the homeless.

Bringing the concept of social entrepreneurship to Youth Workers is very important, and worth it. The main aim of the training course is to train the youth workers and youth leaders in the concepts of social entrepreneurship and social innovations and their practical implementation as instruments for solving important social issues, that couldn’t be effectively solved with the conventional methods known. It will give the means of starting a social enterprise to the participants and the young people they are working with in their every day work, on the other side by developing social entrepreneurship these same young people can benefit by taking part in newly created social businesses. Other objective of the training course, is the possibility that the social entrepreneurship offers in tackling youth unemployment, which is one of the biggest problems of the current European youth generation. 

Objectives

• Real exchange of good practices in the field, giving examples and sharing local experiences from the participants’ countries.

• Local level marking of the important obstacles to social entrepreneurship and in the countries that the participants are coming from and in European level.

• Exploring the possibilities offered by the European programmes for starting, popularization and promotion of social entrepreneurship and social innovations.

• Providing information for the most popular channels of funding of social enterprises and social innovations, like the different online platforms for fundraising and others.

• Erasmus + programme will be introduced, and the possibilities it gives for personal and professional development of young Europeans. Erasmus + projects to be developed during the training course.

• The participants will be introduced into real life examples of successful social enterprises, how can they be started and how to be sustainable.

• Introducing set of tools and methods for work with young people with fewer opportunities and NEETs, with the aim to be used when the youth workers will work with their main targets once they get back home.