Women Inclusion through Social Enterprise Erasmus Project

Project Title

Women Inclusion through Social Enterprise

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Inclusion – equity; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF PROJECT
Within the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy, entrepreneurship is seen as a means of boosting employment and in particular to reaching the European employment target of 75% for women and men throughout the EU by 2020.
The OECD and the European Commission aim to build more inclusive economies and societies, social enterprises link economic and social value creation and play a key role in making this a reality. They create new jobs, are a vehicle for efficient and effective service delivery, enhance citizens’ participation in their communities, and turn innovative ideas into action for the benefit of the society (Boosting Social Enterprise Development, OECD/European Union, 2017).
Social enterprise is an under-utilised source for gender equal opportunity, indeed, globally, only 29% of women’s rights organisations use income generation activities. Many lack the information, competences, tools and resources to take advantage of social enterprise. Data from the UK suggests the pay gap between men and women in social enterprise is 24% the same as the global average women are under-represented in leadership of social enterprise in 4/5 and this is worse the larger the organisation (Activist to entrepreneur, the role of social enterprise in supporting women’s empowerment, British Council 2017/ G086).
The WISE project aims to create leadership opportunities for women in the field of social entrepreneurship and tackle working environment based gender segregation to improve equality.
WISE OBJECTIVES
– To foster social inclusion of women from all ethnic, faith and social backgrounds, to increase their employability, skills development, entrepreneurial education and finalisation of innovative social business ideas, by providing with a safe space to become active members of society.
– To empower Adult Educators through capacity-building activities aimed to equip them with innovative tools to address Women’s challenges and to support and facilitate creation of social enterprise;
– To promote intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding of cultures by ensuring cultural diversity among the participants
PARTICIPANTS
Direct target groups:
182 unemployed women of disadvantaged background
60 Women with social entrepreneurial experience
30 Adult Educators
Indirect target groups:
285 Training centres, community learning centres, women’s organisations
ACTIVITIES and METHODOLOGY
Active participation and holistic approach will be transversal to all project activities.
1. Research and Development phase: During IO1, Partners will collect quantitative and qualitative data through the active participation of WISE’s Direct Target Groups.
2. Testing Phase: after the first version of the development of the learning materials (IO2 and first part of IO3, 4, 5), the Adult Educators and Mentors, supported by Project staff in each country, will pilot it with Women learners. In this phase, cooperation, participation and a strong evidence base will be part of the methodology.
3. Evaluation and Finalisation phase: A formal evaluation coordinated by P2 will precede the mainstreaming activities (dissemination, led by P4) to ensure high-quality outputs. Based on evaluation’s results, IOs will be adapted and finalised.
4. Exploitation phase: The last phase of the project will be the strategic exploitation of project results. IO1 results will lead to IO2. Also, the experiences from the testing and evaluation of IO2 will feed in IO3,4,5. The development of IO5 will follow a HOLISTIC approach that brings together the participative results of IO1, and the evidence-based development of IO2.
The project will impact upon both local communities and practices of Adult Educators. Target groups, indirect beneficiaries and stakeholders will be reached through local events and international conference and project activities.
Tangible Outputs:
– A Contemporary Comparative Study on Social Enterprises in EU Economies and the role of Women within these Social Enterprises (IO1);
– European Training Module: What are social enterprises and why do they enable women to develop their own labour market opportunities (IO2)
– A Step by Step Guide and “WISE” Course Manual for Adult Educators (IO3)
– A Training for Peers/Mentors (IO4)
– Self Directed Training Module and Resource Bank for Women Social Entrepreneurs (IO5)

In the long-term, WISE will contribute to improve participants’ quality life. WISE will innovate training at a European level by providing a flexible template that meets adult educators’ needs and that can be adapted to different contexts and topics. A relevant and high quality training for adult educators in supporting social business development will endeavour to create more inclusive and equal societies throughout Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 367530 Eur

Project Coordinator

MERSEYSIDE EXPANDING HORIZONS LIMITED & Country: UK

Project Partners

• CENTER ZA IZOBRAZEVANJE IN KULTURO TREBNJE JAVNI ZAVOD
• ANUP-International
• MAGENTA CONSULTORIA PROJECTS SL
• Promimpresa Società Benefit S.R.L.
• GROUPE DE RECHERCHE ET DE REALISATIONS POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT RURAL