PANDORA – Discovering European opportunities for Female Entrepreneurship Erasmus Project

Project Title

PANDORA – Discovering European opportunities for Female Entrepreneurship

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

The main idea of ​​the “Pandora – Discovering European Opportunities for Female Entrepreneurship” project was to develop an educational path for disadvantaged women and to share good practices in the fields of women’s economic integration and entrepreneurship. The project aimed to create a partnership between the associations in order to improve their impact on adult education and increase the skills in the workplace and the entrepreneurial spirit of women, thanks to a training program, the sharing and use of new tools and methods successfully tested by the other partners.

The specific objectives therefore followed three main lines:
– Create a greater awareness of the skills, abilities and opportunities that can be used to found cooperatives, social enterprises or other economic initiatives run by women.
– Exchange good practices with organizations, institutions and social enterprises, in order to identify some aspects related to adult education and female entrepreneurship that represent examples to follow.
– Allow volunteers and social workers to acquire new skills and knowledge through long-term mobility that helped them formulate and implement local activities in the best possible way.

The partnership involved four organizations from four different countries such as England, Poland, Turkey and Italy, that work in different sectors with a specific focus on adult education, economic development, entrepreneurship and the social sphere:

HRYO is a non-profit organization that operates in the field of human rights since 2009 using the non-formal education methodologies, considering education as an essential aspect to create a reality that promotes and protects human dignity, all aspects of equality and sustainability.

Fundacja Autokreacja aims to promote the attitude of active participation in civil society. Through various initiatives in the field of social economy he wants to contribute to the civil, cultural and economic development of Poland, focusing the spotlight on the problems of various often marginalized social groups.

Yenimahalle Municipality is the local administrative body of Yenimahalle, one of the metropolitan districts of the Ankara province. The municipality has an international relations office and the European Union that acts in cooperation with various institutions and organizations at local and international level and manages projects in the social and cultural sphere concerning women who are victims of violence, children at risk, disabled people and the elderly. In addition, the municipality of Yenimahalle runs a shelter for women which is recognized as one of the best in Turkey.

The Ubele Initiative was founded in 2014 with the mission of contributing to the sustainability of the African Diaspora community in the United Kingdom and building a better future (Ubele in Swahili means “the future”). It is a new intergenerational community building initiative that aims to increase the capacity of our community to lead and create innovative and entrepreneurial social responses to some of the most problematic social issues.

During this long 2-year project, beyond three transnational meetings among the partners, the project involved specific learning mobilities for staff and for the target groups in order to work together and exchange experiences and ideas.

12 staff members of the partner associations were involved in the mobility of two months each in order to work with another organization and experiment with new tools and methodologies. During the mobility experience, the interested person was able to feel as a part of the host organization and receive a training-on-the-job on the specific tool / practice and a deeper knowledge of the methodology behind it. Once back the volunteers / social workers / youth workers participated in the organization of the local activity regarding what he / she experienced during the period of mobility. Local activities lasted two months each and were divided into four different topics: ICT literacy, English language, business administration and female entrepreneurial skills. In addition, 2 short-term joint mobilities involved the target group and the staff. The main idea of ​​this process is to develop competences, on the one hand to train social workers for the interventions targeting women and, secondly, to give disadvantaged women the opportunity to compare their background, the context and the experience with the other participants from different partner countries and to share ideas for future projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 140852,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

H.R.Y.O. Human Rights Youth Organization & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Yenimahalle Municipality
• THE UBELE INITIATIVE
• FUNDACJA AUTOKREACJA