Local Youth Policies on Social Entrepreneurship - Study visit to Portugal

This Study visit is designed for municipality officers and youth workers from Bulgaria, Croatia, Portugal, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Turkey, UK and Netherlands.

During the Study visit the participants will be able to see a variety of practices and models of youth social entrepreneurship and of mechanisms and structures that support such practices, as well as to transfer this experience into their own local reality. This will allow the participants to gain skills and knowledge to support young people in starting a business.

Moreover, they will develop a deeper understanding on the different realities, experiences and opportunities for youth social entrepreneurship and Local youth policies for social entrepreneurship aimed at the inclusion of young people with migrant background. We also expect that the project can contribute to a better understanding of youth workers on how to support the creation of social start-ups that can enhance the social economy and the creation of new job opportunities for migrant youth as a step towards social inclusion and integration.

The specific objectives of this Study visit are to:

 Allow youth workers to support the development of structures and mechanisms to increase the entrepreneurial competencies of young people, particularly addressing young people with migrant background;
 Allow youth workers to increase the knowledge of different models and approaches to support young people in setting structures such as start-ups;
 Develop further the understanding of the role of social economy, social enterprises, and social entrepreneurship to increase youth employment opportunities and to generate social development and well-being in our communities;
 Empower municipality workers to create more inclusive local youth policies for social entrepreneurship;
 Provide the opportunity for the project partner organizations to discuss further the possibility to develop a “European Youth Social Enterprises Network”