POSTPONED - Towards Collaborative Practice (TCP) 2020 Forum on “Social Innovation for Social Inclusion”

Background of the 6th edition of the TCP Forum

Why social innovation for social inclusion? 

This edition of the TCP Forum will be an opportunity to discuss future pathways for social innovation and how it can foster social inclusion, delving, at the same time, into topics such as digital technology and entrepreneurship for inclusion and participation, female entrepreneurship, migrants’ integration and multiculturalism.

Building on the success of the 5 previous Towards Collaborative Practice (TCP) Forums that took place in Sweden, Italy, UK, Hungary and Spain, the National Agency of Cyprus is pleased to host the 6th edition of the TCP Forum.

The National Agency of Cyprus shares the belief promoted by the European Union that social innovation can act as a “source of remedies for increased social challenges (rising inequalities, poverty, social exclusion, social conflicts and social injustice)” (Social Innovation Task Force of the EU ISG, 2015). In this context, the upcoming Forum will look into the inter-correlation between social innovation and social inclusion.

Since the concepts of social innovation, and thus social entrepreneurship, are rather “new”, and not extensively explored concepts in Cyprus, the Forum envisions to bring together a wide range of professionals, representing various fields of the market and the society, where they will exchange their experiences, practices and visions. Moreover, the Forum will serve as a platform for the development of a network of professionals working on social innovation and will act as a reference point for further developments in the fields and facilitate their collaboration at national, regional and European level.

The Forum will be a melting pot of ideas, tools and good practices which participants, representing different sectors, will have the opportunity to further explore through relevant presentations, workshops and field visits. The Forum will also support the mainstreaming of future cooperation among participants for the implementation of innovative projects and initiatives under Erasmus+.

Moreover, in the framework of the 6th edition of the TCP Forum, the National Agency of Cyprus has already hosted a national activity targeting local stakeholders. The aim of this activity was to build common foundations on social innovation initiatives, for the Cypriot actors in the fields, to facilitate their collaboration, and offer them the space for an exchange of ideas, good practice and challenges faced in an area, such as social innovation, currently under progress, in the Cyprus context. This national activity also served as a preparation phase for the transnational TCP Forum, representing a novelty brought by this edition of the forum.

Objectives of the TCP 2020 Forum Cyprus

• Encourage collaboration and partnership building between youth work and other sectors of the social innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
• Raise awareness of and promote the social inclusion dimension of  social innovation policies and practices.
• Offer an opportunity for networking and sharing ideas, tools, methods, challenges and good practices.
• Use social enterprise, social innovation and non-formal learning as a way to encourage and enable young people to sustain their entrepreneurial life skills.
• Encourage creativity, innovation, participation, solidarity, diversity and social inclusion of young people.
• Provide information on Erasmus+ and other opportunities to foster social innovation

Previous TCP Forums: More information about the project and previous editions can be found at http://www.tcp-community.eu  and @TCPCommunity (on Facebook).

To get the feel of the event, please watch the highlight videos of two previous editions: 

Liverpool UK (March 2018): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1EMxY2uiv

Budapest Hungary (November 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOSRhzYti0w&t=25s&fbclid=IwAR0KboFTkwnGdr5t8wy0oV_9gdtQGIOE_h8yEKwPOd-2Q8wSAZdSSFAiuUI  

An eco-friendly event: Inspired by the previous editions of the TCP Forum, the organisers endeavor to deliver an environmentally sustainable event, including site selection, menu compilation, coffee breaks and the materials we use. We believe it is important to show that there is always a way for events to be more eco-friendly, this being one of the principles of this project.

Youth@Work Strategic Partnership on youth employability and entrepreneurship of Erasmus+ National Agencies

The TCP Forum is part of the Youth@Work Partnership, alongside other projects tackling youth employability and entrepreneurship, organised by the 16 member Erasmus+ National Agencies and SALTO-YOUTH Resource Centres. You can learn more about Youth@Work at www.youthatworkpartnership.org and @YouthatWorkPartnership (Facebook).

Profile of participants:

We are looking for 60 participants from Erasmus+ Programme countries, Eastern Partnership countries, Southern Mediteranean countries and Western Balkan countries, with the following professional backgrounds: 

Employment, entrepreneurship and social innovation support services (chambers of commerce, incubators, accelerators, banks, social venture funders, etc.); formal education representatives (higher education, VET); cooperatives; foundations; local, regional and national government representatives; researchers; (social) entrepreneurs; youth workers; community workers; educators; trainers and young change-makers.