Entrepreneurship and Community Cooperatives

WHY COMMUNITY COOPERATIVE FACILITATORS? Often in small towns and rural areas some useful services to the community are not provided, because the resources of the government are not enough to ensure its management. Even private resources are scarce, and so often rural areas do not have the services for children or for the elderly. Often, due to lack of resources, common goods are not well managed, such as green spaces or old abandoned buildings. Community Cooperatives are organizational and management models that encourage the participation of all citizens as “active members" of their community. Citizens can manage public spaces or community facilities putting together and organizing themselves. The model of cooperative community is providing answers to the needs of small rural areas in many parts of Europe. The project intends to support Entcom facilitators who can in turn support young people in the design and development of a common project community development in their communities. WHO IS THE TRAINING FOR? The training is for youth workers, trainers and policy makers interested in community development and creation of new services and new job opportunities in their local area. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Training focus on skill topics that CCF need to use in working with other people in their communities to help them on implementing their local community project. Community Cooperative Facilitators promote community cooperative in their rural area and support young people in analyzing their communities needs, identifying a project and operating for its effective implementation. After transnational training, participants will complete the training with the e-learning course, they will provide feedbacks, evaluations and recommendations, participating to the work for the EntCom final training course, the main output of EntCom Project. CONTENTS AND METHODS The modules that make up the training course will include a variety of activities to realize and develop appropriate competencies. Participants will be supported in learning, through formal and informal methods, how to help individuals and groups in: identifying their community project, using a cooperative model or a similar model, implementing the project, evaluating the state-of-art, developing communication and marketing techniques, and caring effective financial and human resources management. Training will be practical and effective, with the use of formal, informal and non-formal methods. During the training, participants will share experiences and local specifities, will meet local your workers and project managers, and learn from each other. They will be in touch with the local best practices and the lesson learned and challenges of local cooperators and local facilitators, project managers and policy makers that are supporting them. BACKGROUND The project “Entrepreneurship and Community cooperatives” (EntCoM) aims at fostering active citizenship and entrepreneurship (considering social entrepreneurship) in small or remote areas. The project has three clear activities: 1. the development and consolidation of entrepreneurial competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) in order to structure entrepreneurial initiatives under the specific framework of “community cooperatives”; 2. Foster learning mobilities at EU level to answer local needs; 3. contribute to the recognition and validation of such entrepreneurial competences under the ECVET, ESCO, EUROPASS and Youthpass framework. To read more: http://www.entcom.eu