Strengthening of the capacities of individuals through establishment of the municipality social business / Posilňovanie kapacít jednotlivcov prostredníctvom obecného sociálneho podnikania Erasmus Project

Project Title

Strengthening of the capacities of individuals through establishment of the municipality social business / Posilňovanie kapacít jednotlivcov prostredníctvom obecného sociálneho podnikania

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Romas and/or other minorities; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Establishing of municipal social enterprises has become a popular tool of support for people with low qualification or education as well as tool of the local or regional development. Experiences from abroad show that the municipal enterprises are often the only relevant source for the local development.
Social enterprises include more benefits for the engaged actors: education of employees, support for their skills development, support for the community development and overall development of the locality.
Despite the high level of interest from the side of Slovak municipalities, there did not exist structure for providing education and skills needed for managing social enterprises. The situation was alike in the Czech Republic. From the above-mentioned situation raised the need to create a more systematic training program.

The main output of the project activities was development of the training program which was offered to municipalities, as well as to wider range of stakeholders in the area of social economy. The aim of the training program was to strengthen the entrepreneurial thinking in the municipalities leading to sustainability and independence on public resources.

The content of the project:
– to develop accredited training program of municipal social entrepreneurship
– to create a freely accessible database of information about the municipal social entrepreneurship as a mean of strengthening of the capacities for people with low
education or qualification background
– to empower entrepreneurial skills and way of thinking in 70 municipalities

The curricula of the training program had been co-created by all the partner organizations and applied on 12 seminars (in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland). Overall 245 participants enrolled the program, which exceeded the original expectations of the project more than three times. The freely accessible online training program is the first platform in Slovakia providing all the information needed for the successful establishment of the municipal social enterprise.
The most important impact of the project is development and practical use of this tool contributing to employment and employability of the disadvantaged people.

In addition to this, we have been successful to spread the impact of the project into the legislative environment as well. Three of the lectors of the training seminars in Slovakia were simultaneously part of the expert team for drafting Law on Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship at Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic. Thanks to training seminars organized in different regions, we could identify barriers obstructing successful establishing of social enterprises. The findings were transferred to the proposed Law on Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship.
Transnational aspect of the project enabled to share the good practice examples from various contexts and countries.
The project activities were realized in consortia of five partnering countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia and Scotland. All the engaged organizations are active in the area of the social economy.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 217717 Eur

Project Coordinator

NEZISKOVA ORGANIZACIA EPIC & Country: SK

Project Partners

• EPIC Assist Charity
• Otevrena spolecnost, o.p.s.
• PREMIKI – ZAVOD ZA SVETOVANJE, PROMOCIJO IN RAZVOJ DOSTOPNEGA TURIZMALJUBLJANA
• Obec Spissky Hrhov
• NOMADA Stowarzyszenie Na Rzecz Integracji Spoleczenstwa Wielokulturowego
• PERYFERIA Osrodek Solidarnosci Miedzykulturowej