Youth Enterprise through Arts Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth Enterprise through Arts

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Creativity and culture; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Context:
The importance of developing entrepreneurial skills in young people is well established as both a means to economic growth, as well as to enabling young people to achieve the goals they set out for themselves. With the emergence of innovative social enterprise models, now more than ever entrepreneurship programmes can empower young people to generate positive impact at individual and community level.

However, while enterprise centres & VET institutions struggle to engage with young people, tens of thousands participate voluntarily in youth group activities, especially in the creative, performing & digital arts, presenting a clear opportunity to widen the impact of entrepreneurship education. The problem? The majority of youth workers, lack the knowledge, skills & confidence to teach entrepreneurship.

The YEA project was carefully structured to find new ways of integrating high quality entrepreneurship training into existing youth services & structures by training youth workers in the field of creative, performing & digital arts. The YEA project set out 2 key objectives to achieve:
1. Integration of entrepreneurship training into youth services & the promotion of entrepreneurship as a transversal skill
2. Forge an effective & replicable model to provide the learning and structure

Participating Organisations:
YEA was delivered by 6 orgs from UK, Ireland, France & Malta with a strong cross-sector focus:
1. Dungannon Enterprise Centre (Lead) – Principal supplier of entrepreneurship education & training in Northern Ireland
2. RIDC – Hub organisation working for community development & responsible for youth work services in Roscommon, Ireland
3. Beam Creative Network – Youth work org engaging over 200,000 young people in arts&drama programme, exploring issues such as diversity, cultural identity & conflict resolution.
4. Momentum – Accredited enterprise training centre with a specialisation in online & blended learning
5. Musique de Nuit Diffusion – Cultural centre in Bordeaux working with disadvantaged youth.
6. Vismednet – Maltese youth work organisation whose programmes emphasise the validation of informal & nonformal learning

Description of undertaken main activities
Over the course of 24 months (October 2015 to September 2017), the YEA partnership achieved its objectives through 4 key Intellectual Output (IO) deliverables:
• IO1 Establishment of 4 sustainable, sector focused Regional Alliances to study & capture best practice in the development of Youth Enterprise through Arts. These Regional Alliances brought together key youth, enterprise, & social policy stakeholders to explore best practice in integrating entrepreneurship education into creative arts youth work, devising individual & collective commitments to action in a YEA Action Plan.
• IO2 Creation, publication & promotion of the “Youth Entrepreneurship through Arts Tool kit” to encourage the creation of further Alliances across Europe. The “Toolkit to guide the establishment of a YEA Alliance” focuses on “how-to” strategies to mobilise a diverse group of stakeholders from youth work & creative arts orgs to work together & explore the creative arts as powerful conduits to engage young people in new entrepreneurship approaches.
• IO3 Creation & publication of a course curriculum for Youth Workers, Vocational Education Teachers & Community & Economic Development Practitioners to effectively engage the young people they work with in entrepreneurship education & help them explore their innovation & enterprise skills through arts.
• IO4 Development of an intensive blended learning “Youth Enterprise through Arts” online course based on open education resources.

Results and Impact attained:
YEA represents a new generation of project that treats entrepreneurship as a transversal skill & a mind set which empowers young people to recognise & solve problems, create value & design sustainable initiatives. Such an approach can be used in any field the young people chooses to apply it to, creating innovation in private or public sectors, at individual or community level. As a result of the project:
• hundreds of young people (18-30 yr olds) strengthened their entrepreneurial mindset & acquired concrete entrepreneurial skills, manifested in the development of a proposal for a cultural project or creative initiative which were innovative, sustainable & ready to attract funding
• Enterprise providers found new ways of engaging with hard-to-reach young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Youth work & Creative Arts organisations acquired key skills to integrate entrepreneurship mindset & skills as part of their services
• Communities experienced increase in social & knowledge capital, with young people more empowered as leaders of change in general, especially those who go on to successfully implement their cultural project.
• Stakeholders in the region understand & actively support integrated approach to ensure high

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 269142,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

Dungannon Enterprise Centre & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Roscommon Integrated Development Co. Ltd t/a Roscommon LEADER Partnership
• VisMedNet Association
• MOMENTUM MARKETING SERVICES LIMITED
• MUSIQUES DE NUIT DIFFUSION ASSOCIATION
• Bardic Educational Arts and Media Limited