Making good deeds profitable Erasmus Project

Project Title

Making good deeds profitable

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 : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Social enterprise in business should not only address the many social and environmental issues in the world but also be self-sustainable. This leads to many challenges for charity organizations to develop an innovative approach to solving the wide variety of social problems in society. We already see in Western Europe how social enterprise provides a successful tool for solving problems in rural areas like unemployment, lack of public services, other social and environmental issues while also being self-sustaining. However, in Lithuania and Latvia this idea is at its very initial stages. In these counties we are starting to see a significant move in creating social enterprise national concepts and policies.

Currently all major events are concentrated in capitals. The problem is that in smaller regions these activities do not have any major effect. While young people generate many creative ideas to grow social enterprise in rural areas, they lack some essential competences needed for practical implementation.

Therefore, this does not help create a space where the concept of social enterprise is well understood as tool for all country development in the Baltic region. The aim of this project is:

– To build concept of social enterprise at practical level by motivating and empowering young people as well creating a space for their ideas and creativity while increasing their knowledge on how to start and grow sustainable social enterprises.

Objectives:

– To spread ideas of social entrepreneurship in rural areas.

– To provide necessary competences and empower young people to develop social enterprise at the regional, national and international levels.

– To assist young people in discovering their innovative and creative thinking.

– Suggest innovative solutions to the problem of unemployed young people by helping them to create working places themselves and the same time create added social or environmental value for society.

– To encourage the cooperation of young people and share experiences.

– To adopt and create the best methodologies to assist young people grow and mature self-sustaining social entrepreneurship.

– To involve good practice from international partners to assist in contributing to sustainable development of social entrepreneurship in the European Union.

Project „Making good deeds profitable” requires 2 years of investment and will involve 140 young people. Our youth will have chance to become involved in project activities and learn how social enterprise is created and how it’s developed into sustainable business organizations that create added value to society.

The project will by run by three partner organizations from the UK, Latvia and Lithuania. The first two organization from the UK is focused on sharing good practices within the European context, and providing the best up-to-date methodologies and know how. The organizations in Latvia and Latvia will work more on practical level directly with the young people in project.

The project aims to create three main, long term tools to help ensure the implementation of social entrepreneurship in Lithuania and Latvia at practical level:

– To provide a methodology from other countries while implementing solutions that will be geared towards the unique environments in Latvia and Lithuania.

– To initiate activities of social cooperative amongst our youth – a very popular concept in the UK. Taking ideas that worked in other countries should help to start new enterprises in Latvia and Lithuania while also spreading ideas of community good and synergy.

– To create an international platform for Lithuanian and Latvian social enterprises with the main goal to increase the visibility of social enterprises. Social enterprises in Lithuania and Latvia can provide goods and services from social enterprises from an international e-store and inform society around the world about good causes outside their country.

Tools created in the frame of this project will potentially create a long term impact for implementing the concept of social entrepreneurship in Latvia and Lithuania.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 196056 Eur

Project Coordinator

VsI “Neformalaus ugdymo namai” & Country: LT

Project Partners

• Gerais norais pragaras gristas
• SIA Not Perfect
• SOCIALAS INOVACIJAS CENTRS
• Red Ochre Enterprises Ltd