SocEntYouth

In the context of COVID-19 recovery, a global climate crisis, rising inflation and renewed geopolitical instability, it is vital that we continue to reinforce individual and societal resilience in the Baltic Sea region. A key element of this is ensuring that all members of society have equitable access to sustainable, dignified livelihoods, as well as the tools, training and support needed to get there.

The EU has recently promoted social entrepreneurship as a vital tool in strengthening the resilience of European societies, and has particularly highlighted the sector’s suitability for younger generations who are less likely to see a contradiction between making profit and creating social impact. However the visibility of the sector remains low, especially outside the region’s major cities.

This project therefore aims to unleash the power of social entrepreneurship as a tool to support the self-development and self-sufficiency of disadvantaged youth in Finland and Latvia. By the end of their engagement with the programme, participants should have developed strong entrepreneurial mindsets, transferable soft skills, and most importantly a clear understanding of how to start-up their own socially-minded business. Their continued development as social entrepreneurs will then be supported long-term through a new online peer network.

With its focus on social entrepreneurship as a tool for youth empowerment, we believe our project will be one of the first of its kind in the region. Our project approach will therefore be grounded in cross-border sharing of expertise, in-depth evaluation, adaptability and reflection on potential replicability. The project will conclude with a series of dissemination activities directed towards relevant stakeholders.

The total budget of the project is 748 594,26 EUR, an investment of approximately 6 000 EUR per participant.