From 13 to 16 September 2022, the first training course promoted by Make It Grow!, a project financed by the Erasmus+ – Capacity Building program in the youth sphere that sees the municipality of Cinisello Balsamo in the role of leader, took place in Cinisello Balsamo.
The path, divided into 2 sessions (the first, carried out in the presence, and the second online, scheduled for March 2023), is aimed at increasing the knowledge and skills of the participants on the theme of social entrepreneurship and on the involvement of the community in projects with local impact. Another fundamental theme that affects the course, are the strategies that public administrators can adopt to support the spread of an entrepreneurial culture among the new generations inclusive. Last but not least, to digital and analog tools useful for developing and making youth startups sustainable over time.
The 20 participants are young social entrepreneurs (or aspiring such), socio -educational amateurs and administrators from Italy, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro and Turkey (all from the partner countries of the project).
This first part of the course included:
- Mutual knowledge activities and debate on the topic;
- The presentation of the skills models (YouthPass and Entrecomp) which will represent the basis for the evaluation of the actual impact of the path on the participants;
- A day dedicated to the deepening of issues such as social entrepreneurship, the characteristics/skills of social entrepreneurs (including those that distinguish it from the rest of the category) and sustainable development objectives; This session was conducted by Luca Frongia, an expert in the sector from the TDM2000 Sardinian Association;
- A day, led by the experts of Meraki – Cultural desires, dedicated to the theme of the involvement of the community and its “pillars” such as trust and listening;
- Study-Visit at projects supported thanks to the collaboration with the Municipality of Milan; In fact, the experiences of realities such as:
- QuBì, in the Niguarda district, a network of 26 private subjects who, depending on the individual areas of competence, addressed the problems of the citizens of the Town Hall 9 relating to poverty, education and free time, with the supervision of social workers placed a provision from the Municipality itself. The project was financed in its 2 editions by a call from Cariplo Foundation;
- Molce Atelier, born thanks to the “School of neighborhoods” program, through which the municipal administration has supported ideas and services by citizens in favor of the peripheral neighborhoods; Molce defines herself as “therapeutic tailoring”, hosting in his courses and in the production of clothes, women victims of violence;
- Rob de Matt, restaurant and bistro in the heart of the Diegano district, but also an association of social promotion, which is based on a project of social and working inclusion aimed at people with stories of marginality and disadvantage (people with psychic distress, political refugees , migrants in difficulty, former prisoners, NEET);
- So.De – Social Delivery, a project financed by the Crowdfunding program of the Municipality of Milan. This is the first ethical delivery of the city, which delivers home expenses, clothes, books, documents, furniture, with particular attention to the theme of dignified and protected work, to feed a virtuous circuit of conscious consumption and minimizing the impact on the environment.
The last day of the course was instead dedicated to the drafting of multiple hands of a document addressed to political administrators, in which the results and good practices collected during training are described and transformed into useful recommendations to other public bodies to implement initiatives on the same theme, involving young social entrepreneurs and socio -educational animators in the process.
There was no lack of moments of leisure and fun, from the intercultural evening hosted within the Coworking space Cofò, in the participation of all and all in the initiative “Il Pertini è dei Giovani“ included in the program of the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Cultural Center Cinisellese, among the presentation of the opportunities abroad promoted by Eurodesk, to the DJ sets.
If you want to know the results of the course, keep our website monitored: we will publish a final report soon!