Social Entrepreneurship Impact Hub

32 youth workers and youth leaders from 4 countries (Germany, Armenia, Georgia and Italy) will participate in the 8-day international training course "Social Entrepreneurship Impact Hub" which will take place in Yerevan, Armenia from 25 November-2 December 2018.

The European migrant crisis has reached critical levels and has dominated media coverage of the continent. The frustration and disempowerment of the disadvantaged youth in general and young migrants and asylum seekers in particular risks breeding low self-esteem, low motivation, cynicism and radicalization. Across Europe social entrepreneurs are stepping up to help address the social issues that have resulted from the migration crisis. Examples are many: A group of young people in Austria (Flüchtlinge Wilkommen) decided to create a website that connects individuals with spare rooms or apartments with a person who has fled their home country. Otvorena Mreža in Coratia was set up with the aim of ensuring everybody has free access to the internet. Talentify in Austria is a peer-to-peer online platform that connects young people with other young people and tutors to develop their academic and social skills, regardless of their social or financial background. And so on.

However, whilst the sector flourishes, there is limited involvement from migrant, refugee and ethnic minorities. Lack of access to credit and funding alongside, educational, religious, gender and language barriers all contribute to the issue. As a result, opportunities for potentially high impact and community-focused enterprises and entrepreneurs are lost.

Youth workers and youth leaders working directly with young refugees/asylum seekers and migrants are uniquely positioned to raise awareness of social enterprise amongst these minorities and to help grow the number of migrant and refugee social entrepreneurs.

Aim of the training course:
The training course aims to develop the capacity of youth workers to raise awareness and address migrant and refugee related issues in their work with young people using the tool of social entrepreneurship.

The training course will be based on non formal learning methods and principles, intercultural dialogue and communication including group discussions, interactive presentations, participant’s lead workshops, team work,etc. The training offers the implementation and reflection of pedagogical approaches and tools to educate about the current situation of refugees in Europe, anti-discrimination education and stereotypes. It aims to create a learning space with better self-awareness and awareness of the needs and goals of the groups of young people they work with to enhance the results of the learning process and give birth to high quality projects led by the participants in the future. The project aims to reveal the value of the Erasmus+ Programme as a tool for youth empowerment and raise awareness about Youthpass tool for supporting young people harness skills and personal growth through self-reflection and learning documentation.

Objectives of the training course:
- Widen perspectives of participants on the concept of social entrepreneurship as a tool for tackling local social problems of marginalized young people, refugees/asylum seekers and migrants;
- Identify existing resources for the young social entrepreneurs and share know how on social enterprises;
- Explore creative tools and methodologies for creating conditions for a dialogue, establishing a culture of diversity, acceptance and pluralism and for dealing with fears that exist in our society;
- Provide participants with educational tools and methodologies that will enable them to act as multipliers on refugee related issues in their work with young people;
- Learn to use Youthpass and the Key Competences for creative process of skill harnessing, self-reflection and documentation of the personal learning process;
- Promote Erasmus + Programme and explain how young migrants and refugees can be involved in it;
- Develop concrete social entrepreneurial initiatives;
- Develop concrete projects to be applied under Erasmus + Programme;
- Transfer knowledge and skills by developing and publishing online the booklet "Reshaping Youth Work Using the Tool of Social Entrepreneurship”.