Multi-sectorial partnership for capacity development to enhance entrepreneurship opportunities for vulnerable youth in Milan, Lisbon and Madrid.

YEP “Young Enterprise Program” is the short name for the project “Multi-sectoral partnership for capacity development to enhance entrepreneurship opportunities for vulnerable youth in Milan, Lisbon and Madrid”, funded by the Programme Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnerships in the field of Youth. The project run from November 2016 to October 2018 in three European cities: Milan, Madrid and Lisbon. YEP was promoted by ICEI Institute for International Economic Cooperation (Milan, Italy) in partnership with public and private organisations coming from the three cities: • Action against Hunger and the Employment Agency of the city of Madrid (Madrid, Spain) • Association of Lusophone Culture and Citizenship and the Municipality of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal) • The Municipality of Milan – Training and Labour Area, Labour Market Unit, Impact Hub and Foundation Giacomo Brodolini (Milan, Italy). The project promoted new practices and approaches at European level to support entrepreneurship of young people with fewer opportunities - such as NEETs, migrants, youth with a low educational background, social or geographical obstacles, etc.. These youngsters struggle more than their peers in entering the labour market and participate into society: starting their own business, by turning their ideas, passions and talents into action, can represent a way to overcome these obstacles. YEP final aim was to strengthen the employability and the social inclusion of vulnerable youth. Specifically, the project carried out in each of the 3 partner cities: • An information and communication campaign on entrepreneurship, targeted to young people (especially those with fewer opportunities) and private and public stakeholders; • An entrepreneurship training programme for a total of about 80 vulnerable youngsters (40 in Milan, 20 in Madrid and 20 in Lisbon) • An incubation programme for the best 15 business ideas (5 in each city) and a total of 17 young people with fewer opportunities. Moreover, YEP carried out the following activities at European level: a) Three transnational staff training events among partner organisations, to exchange and transfer experiences, practices, approaches, etc. in socio-economic inclusion of vulnerable youth and support to youth entrepreneurship of young people with fewer opportunities; b) Three “Intellectual Outputs” which summarizes the new and innovative methods and tools formulated, tested and validated in the project: - Handbook “Not-for-profit organisations and youth entrepreneurship: how to support young people with fewer opportunities”; - Training toolkit “Empowering young people through entrepreneurship: a trainer’s toolkit”; - Methodological Document “Starting up: how to incubate businesses from young people with fewer opportunities” c) A series of dissemination actions and events, including national and transnational Multiplier events, a project blog and newsletter, and a video presenting YEP results. Finally, YEP: • Fostered local multi-actor stakeholder partnerships in each city, by engaging a wide range of public and private organisations in the project, such as not-for-profit organisations and NGOs, public authorities at local, regional and national level, entrepreneurship and business support organisations, Universities, etc., with the aim to work together to contribute to create a favourable environment for young entrepreneurs; • Strengthened partners’ skills and competencies in promoting and implementing youth entrepreneurship programmes and initiatives and to support young people with fewer opportunities; • Improved the knowledge and the technical and transversal competences of the vulnerable youth directly participating in the project, so as to contribute to strengthen their employability and social inclusion.