Social Entrepreneurship Training

The training course „Social Entrepreneurship Training 2“took place in Uzana, an area near the city of Gabrovo, Bulgaria. 38 youth workers from Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Albania, Spain, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, Italy and Saint Maarten had the opportunity to participate. The duration of the project was between the dates 01/05/ - 30/11/2017, including the days of program activities (1-8 August, 2018).

The project aimed at developing the organizational and management capacity of partner organizations, which deal with and deploy social enterprises/youth centers. The focus, on one hand, aimed at increasing the organizational capacity to create, develop and successfully manage and promote social entrepreneurship, and on the other hand to set up trained youth workers to work with marginalized and socially excluded young people. The main needs which the current project addressed were concentrated at increasing youth employment and social inclusion. Through this project the participants and the participating organizations gained skills that could be implemented to specific business and entrepreneurial tools to solve social problems. The participants were also informed about the opportunities offered for developing of Social enterprises and increased their motivation for using innovative tools in their work.

Among the main topics addressed were: concepts for developing and managing of social enterprises; strategic planning; human resources and team management; financial management; a spiral of Social innovation; management tools; start-up management; identifying stakeholders; leadership skills and personal qualities of the social entrepreneur; development of social ideas.

The program methods followed the model "Learning through experience" – debates, simulations, energizers; ice-breakers, communication games, acquainting and sharing activities; group debates; coaching sessions, creativity; reflection and self-analysis, open space and others; The activities were based on the principles of experiential learning and the Kolb's Cycle.

The results upon realization of the project were: an increase in the capacity of the participating organizations in the management of social enterprises; increasing the level of key qualities and competences of the people occupying leadership positions or actively working in social enterprises; accumulation of specific business and entrepreneurship tools for solving social problems; sharing experience and setting up trained youth workers to work with marginalized and socially excluded young people; some experience and good practices between partner organizations were exchanged ; examples for successful businesses and manuals among participants, created by youth social entrepreneurs were provided.

The project has had an effective impact on two levels: on individual level (for youth-workers) and global level (organizations; beneficiaries, stakeholders, local communities and society). The impact on the participants generally expresses the increasing of their capacity; competences for work with marginalized and socially excluded young people; The impact of each one of the partner organizations enriched their fields in order to solve social problems among the youngsters in large scale, using social entrepreneurship tools.

The long-term benefits of the project are addressed at partner organizations which will successfully manage their social enterprises in the future, thus generating entrepreneurial ideas, addressing social problems and initiating activities and events among their society, which will also be engaged to help more young people. More about the project on the web: https://setbycet2.wordpress.com/2018/08/17/the-project/