BSR Youth Social Entrepreneurship Development (BYSED) summary

 

Project “Baltic Sea Region (BSR) Youth Social Entrepreneurship Development (BYSED)” was approved in February 2016, and received a grant from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region 2014-2020 Programme –  Seed Money Facility under EUSBSR Priority Area Education.

The main aim of the Seed Money BYSED project was to develop the main project application proposal for the EUSBSR Flagship Project in the area of Education in the 2014-2020 or any other relevant funding in the field of strengthening social entrepreneurship in youth sector involving experienced partners working in the given field.

Partners

  • Baltic Institute for Regional and European Concern – BISER (Poland)
  • Social Innovation Centre (Latvia)
  • Public Institution “Sveikatingumo idėjos” (Lithuania)
  • Estonian Social Enterprise Network (Estonia)
  • Social Entrepreneurs in Denmark (Denmark)
  • Riga City Council (Latvia)
  • Gdańsk City Council (Poland)

 

Project timeline

Project activities took place between March 2016 and April 2017.

Project statement

Low level of social entrepreneurship activities aimed at youth in the BSR states is key driving need of the main project. The European social system is insufficient regarding enforcing youth to undertake entrepreneurial activities and actions, especially in the majority of CEE and BSR countries. We observe no clear evidence of direct support towards youth social entrepreneurship and respective tools. There is a need for research of factors affecting the engagement of youth in social entrepreneurship activities.

 

Project activities:

1) 1st of April 2016: Project kick-off meeting in Stockholm, Sweden with EUSBSR PA Education Coordinator and EntrepreneurshipLab.

2) Research on educational needs in the social entrepreneurship in youth sector

3) Policy development process with best practices

Objective: To analyze the policy development

Activities: number of meetings with stakeholders and desk research

4) Main project organization

Objective: Organize the main project: developing and deciding on work packages (WPs), primary and secondary goals and objectives

5) March 2017: Final Project meeting in Gdańsk, Poland. Establishment of network of NGOs interested in youth social entrepreneurship projects and activities (PL, DK, LT, LV, SE, FI, IS, EE)

 

All 7 BYSED project partners actively took part in the preparation of the “state-of-the-art” report on youth social entrepreneurship in  5 BSR countries.

III. Results of research:

  1. Analysis of the available secondary data and complementary projects in the Baltic Sea Region.
  2. Legislative support of social entrepreneurship in youth sector including youth policy.
  3. Educational support of social entrepreneurship in the youth sector, including the mapping of stakeholders and cooperation with them.
  4. Case studies – describing the best cases for supporting social entrepreneurship in youth sector at the municipal, national, private level.
  5. Analysis of focus groups transcripts – collecting the opinions of stakeholders about educational needs in the social entrepreneurship in the youth sector.

The full report is attached to the BYSED final report and is being distributed among the various stakeholders we contacted with during the BYSED project. The report is also available on Partner’s websites.

Reaching out the stakeholders:

During the BYSED project Partners also approached different stakeholders also working in the field of youth SE, who are important contacts for our Network regarding BYSED project visibility, but also future project applications in the field. Overall, BYSED project partners organized ten focus group meetings/dissemination events for over 128 external participants, mostly: youth, youth activists, NGO representatives, academia representatives, municipalities representatives.

During the BYSED project phase we had personal meetings with:

EUSBSR PA Education coordinator (kick-off meeting in April 2016 and EUSBSR Forum in Nov 2016 during the BYSED seminar);

EntreprenerushipLab representatives (kick-off meeting in April 2016);

– Secretary-General of the Union of Baltic Cities (March 2016 and during the BS NGO Network Forum in June 2016) –> invitation to meet with 2 UBC working groups: Youth Commission (meeting in Turku, April 2016) and Sustainable Cities Commission (meeting in Copenhagen, May 2016);

– Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference during their annual Forum – Aug 2016, where LP presented the information about BYSED project and outcomes of the international workshop/focus group discussion that took place during the BS NGO Forum in Gdansk, June 2016 – speech in word file available on BSPC website);

Baltic Sea NGO Network representatives during the BS NGO Network Annual Forum in Gdansk, June 2016 where we had a workshop called “BSR youth social entrepreneurship” – participants from 11 BSR countries representing the NGO sector discussed the importance of formal and non-formal education in shaping the entrepreneurial mindset. The outcomes of this workshop were presented during the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Riga in 2016;

– attendees of EUSBSR Annual Forum in Stockholm, where we organized one of the seminars called “Is youth social entrepreneurship the solution for sustainable rural areas?” – The event called: Is youth social entrepreneurship the solution for sustainable rural areas? Was co-organized with Coompanion Kalmar and BS NGO Network and gathered over 40 participants who joined us for a panel discussion and world-cafe style discussion;

Junior Achievement representatives in Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland (we submitted national project application about youth social entrepreneurship with one of the JA representatives as our co-partner thanks to BYSED project);

Polish Economic Society (PTE) and Pomorskie in the European Union Association during the final meeting – potential partners interested in next project applications (PTE to be involved in Erasmus+ application);

– local youth councils representatives in all project countries (they attended our focus group meetings – all reports and meeting minutes available).

 

Two main projects were submitted based on the Seed Money Facility project partnership and project cooperation:

  1. Nordic Council of Ministers NGO “Social entrepreneurship development in the Baltic Sea region” (granted, project started in Sep 2017);

2.Erasmus+ Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, Strategic Partnerships for youth “Promotion of social entrepreneurship in youth sector by digital and informal education tools” (InDigiSE).