“Towards Collaborative Practice” (#TCPIsrael): the eco-sustainable dimension of social innovation and entrepreneurship - Study visit with contact making elements

The activity will be a meeting and exchange, encouraging cross-sectoral collaboration and partnership building between actors active in youth policies and involved in different sectors (non-formal, formal, business sectors), on aspects related to social innovation and entrepreneurship, with a particular thematic focus on sustainability (environmental and social).

Partnership implementing the activity: the seminar is promoted and coordinated by the Italian National Agency (ANG) within the TCA 2019 in cooperation with the Hungarian, the Maltese and British National Agencies, and Salto EuroMed Resource Centre.

Recently, environmental sustainability has undergone a renewal driven by grassroots forces of activism and social change, and often needs to find a new deal with the economic and business sector.

The activity is intended to enable and inspire “youth professionals” and active volunteers to discover what it means to manage the sustainable side of social entrepreneurship, organisational management, social innovation, by visiting specific and specialised schools, organisations, youth movements structures, social enterprises and social and environmental support structures and hubs in Tel Aviv and nearby.

The activity will explore how different organisations can become established as promoters of innovation, social justice and growth for society. It will also facilitate partnerships, create a network of several stakeholders and share practices and realities among them, particularly taking into account the European and Israeli contexts.

General aims of the activity:

1.            explore the innovative policies implemented in Israel in view to sensitize Youth in the framework of the social entrepreneurship and social innovation eco-systems, with a special focus on the projects and initiatives related to environment protection and the use of clean technologies;

2.            encourage the creation of projects and networking activities which are coherent with Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps SC Programmes.

Specific objectives of the activity:

1.            improve the knowledge of youth entrepreneurship and of the social and environmental impact of social enterprises in Israel;

2.            foster the creation of networks and cooperation among participants coming from Israel and European countries;

3.            offer the opportunity to analyse and share best practices, innovative methods and tools and challenges linked to the environment topics;

4.            discover the wide variety of opportunities offered by the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes and the European Union and make the first steps towards new cooperation projects at national and international levels concerning the environment.

We are looking for 40 participants, youth professionals and active volunteers working in the areas covered by this event, willing to develop E+/ESC projects, youth workers, project managers, social entrepreneurs, from youth organisations, entities and institutions working in the framework of environmental sustainability, youth starts-ups, universities, foundations coming from the Erasmus+ Programme countries and Israel.     

Implementation of the activity: the activity will be developed over 5 working days and besides testimonials and institutional inputs, it foresees field visits, in particular at organisations, incubators, schools, innovative projects caring for the environment; get to know each other sessions and networking among participants; information session on the European youth programmes; thematic sessions and working groups on the environment topics and evaluation of the implemented activities.

The project is part of the Youth@Work Partnership on youth employability and entrepreneurship of Erasmus+ National Agencies, an institutional alliance of 16 Erasmus+ National Agencies and SALTO-Youth Resource Centres. The focus of Youth@Work is on supporting how Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps can be used as an instrument to foster youth employability and entrepreneurship, and to reinforce networking and exchange of practices among the countries and EU partner regions covered by the partnership. More about Youth@Work at www.youthatworkpartnership.org