Youth Empowerment Through Social Entrepreneurship – YES, WE CARE!

The idea behind the project ‘Youth Empowerment Through Social Entrepreneurship “We Care” (YES, WE CARE)’ is aimed at developing skills of youth to appreciate the community, the environment and their participation in the social and political processes as well as to work on sustainable businesses in the field of social entrepreneurship (SE).  The project intends to inspire youth to build up their network and be engaged in entrepreneurial activities around certain societal issues, caring for the homeless, sick or elderly, becoming aware about preserving the nature or helping vulnerable groups.

Younger generations are torn between the temptation to withdraw from social participation and the desire for a more open, active and responsible society which is also less centralized and less dependent on traditional organizational forms. The EU 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth recognized that, “in order to overcome the current economic crisis, the recovery cannot be based on a ‘business as usual’ approach”. Social entrepreneurs strive to solve burning issues in their local communities and national society by positing innovative solutions to social problems and represent an important source of inspiration and energy for a recovery.

The project activities can be summed-up as following:

  • Kick-off meeting in Macedonia;
  • Research and Mapping of Local Social Entrepreneurship Projects;
  • Study visits (Social Startup Safari): in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya;
  • Mobility of youth workers;
  • Trainings in the field of social entrepreneurship:
    • Training of trainers for social entrepreneurship (Austria);
    • Training for establishing of a social enterprise (Slovakia).

The project is based on a partnership between Macedonia: Association for Education Mladiinfo International , Austria: Impact Hub Vienna, Uganda: Let Us Save Uganda, Slovakia: MladiinfoSlovensko, Rwanda: Never Again Rwanda, Kenya: Youth Volunteers for Community Development.

Within Youth Empowerment Through Social Entrepreneurship “We Care” (YES, WE CARE)’ project, it was developed and produced a Booklet of Inspiration for Social Entrepreneurship in Europe and Africa. 

This project is Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.