Towards Collaborative Practice (TCP) Forum 2019 - Social Entrepreneurship for Local impact and Solidarity.

Young people hold in their hands the power to shape the future. Their creativity and fearless determination together with a grounded sense of community can be the cornerstone for a better future for our society.  “Towards Collaborative Practice” (TCP) is a growing community of youth workers, educators, entrepreneurs and government representatives that want to inspire young people to have a positive societal and environmental impact in the world.

Since 2015, the TCP Forum has been building bridges between youth work and other fields, promoting collaboration and new initiatives, particularly in the fields of social entrepreneurship and innovation. Now it’s your turn to join the community at the fifth TCP Forum. This edition’s focus is the contribution of social entrepreneurship to local development and solidarity, as well as the support that the local level (government, private sector and civil society) can bring to stimulate social entrepreneurship.

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 the 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  

Aim and approach:

We invite you to be part of an international network of like-minded people, ideas and social entrepreneurship projects, with a particular focus on Erasmus+ opportunities. The Forum gives you a chance to discuss future pathways for social entrepreneurship, explore new opportunities and build a cross-sectoral platform for cooperation on innovative projects.

Based on non-formal learning approaches which encourage your active participation with room for sharing good practice and expressing yourself, the forum will be an exciting mix of expert inputs, interactive workshops, group coaching sessions, field visits and many more. These sessions offer endless opportunities to discover the social entrepreneur in you. Professional coaches will support your individual development in a group setting.

An eco-friendly event:

Inspired by the previous edition of the TCP Forum in Budapest Hungary which focused on environmental awareness, the organizers 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.

Objectives of the TCP 2019 Forum Madrid:

• Encourage collaboration and partnership building between youth work and other sectors of the social entrepreneurship ecosystem.
• Raise awareness of and promote the solidarity dimension of social entrepreneurship policies and practices and their contribution to local development.
• Offer an opportunity for networking and sharing ideas, tools, methods, challenges and good practices.
• Use social enterprise 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 entrepreneurship.

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 15 member Erasmus+ National Agencies and SALTO-YOUTH Resource Centres. You can learn more about Youth@Work on Facebook @YouthatWorkPartnership.

Venue and duration:

The Euroforum in San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid), will host the TCP 2019 from 15 to 19 October 2019 (three full working days). Participants will need to arrive on the 15th in the afternoon and depart in the morning of 19 October.

Target group:

We are looking for 80 participants 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; cooperatives; foundations; local, regional and national government representatives; researchers; (social) entrepreneurs; youth workers; community workers; educators; trainers and young change-makers.

Travel costs will be covered by your Erasmus+ National Agency and the Spanish National Agency will cover full board and lodging.