Entrepreneurship in rural tourism sector for youth with disabilities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Entrepreneurship in rural tourism sector for youth with disabilities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Capacity Building for youth in neighbouring and enlargement countries

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

The main aim of the project is to involve rural youth with disabilities in starting businesses in the rural tourism sector, foster their social integration, raise their self-esteem in order to improve their further financial position. Within the project it is planned to build the capacity of 6 organizations working with youth – 3 from European Union and 3 from the Eastern Partnership Countries through a series of inclusive mobility initiatives (training of trainers, youth exchange) and capacity building activities (webportal, map of accessible rural guesthouses, manual, final conference) aimed to develop the entrepreneurship of the youth from rural areas. Project partners will collaboratively prepare a capacity building programme which will be passed on to other youth workers in their countries to increase their organizations social impact and visibility. Youth workers from EU and Eastern Partnership countries will raise their intercultural/social skills and competences to work with diversity in all its forms which will decrease the number of youth who could be facing social exclusion in their countries. Each country in the consortium will be responsible for a specific aspect of the project, namely: Portugal – social inclusion; Georgia – tourist safety in rural areas; Ukraine – the rural hospitality and adapted services for persons with disabilities; Moldova – environmental aspects of tourism in rural areas; Poland – social entrepreneurship; Latvia – universal design. The project objectives include: 1) selecting youth and workers from rural areas of the partner countries; 2) preparing and distributing the Manual “Basics of hospitality and service providing for persons with disabilities in the rural tourism sector”, translated into the 6 languages of the partner countries, with 500 copies for each country; 3) posting a publicly-accessible electronic version of the Manual; 4) training young workers through a series of trainings in the accessible rural tourism sector at the local level; 5) training youth with disabilities to launch their own business in the rural tourism sector; 6) establishing close collaborative relationships amongst project participants and transferring knowledge base to educational establishments that train students in the rural tourism, restaurant and hospitality sectors; 7) conducting promotional and advocacy campaigns that would encourage youth with disabilities to work in the rural tourism sector. An interactive map prepared for the project featuring rural guesthouses accessible for tourists with disabilities and descriptions thereof will be used to disseminate accurate information on the new types of services. Through this innovative project considering especially marginalized social groups in their capacity building will bring social change and is a valuable contribution to the practical implementation of the UN Convention On The Rights Of Persons With disabilities and answers the aims of UN Year of Sustainable Tourism

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 148776,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

GREEN CROSS SOCIETY CIVIC ORGANISATION & Country: UA

Project Partners

• JAUNATNES ORGANIZACIJU APVIENIBA IMKA LATVIJA
• CENTRULUI DE CONSULTANTA ECOLOGICA CAHUL
• FUNDACJA INSTYTUT ROWNOWAGI SPOLECZNO EKONOMICZNEJ
• UNION OF GEORGIAN SPELEOLOGISTS
• MAKE IT BETTER ASSOCIACAO PARA A INOVACAO E ECONOMIA SOCIAL ASSOCIACAODE DIREITO PRIVADO