Social Entrepreneurship Skills to Young CAREgivers of people with chronic Illness

Background A young carer provides physical or emotional support to a mentally ill loved one. Young carers may care for relatives who have a physical or mental disability, mental health problem, chronic illness or alcohol misuse problem. According to Becker, (2000), a particularly vulnerable group that we focused on, are young adults aged 18-25. For those young adults the care load they have to shoulder is particularly heavy, their educational and vocational opportunities are limited by their geographical location and influenced by their domestic situation, and there are also intergenerational challenges present. Young carers are a group at risk of social exclusion and their career and educational opportunities are often limited by the role they play in the family. This situation necessitates professional support from multiple sources. Not only does it concern health services and education support services, but it may also call for family services. The project addressed the educational needs of young caregivers and offered them social entrepreunership skills accordingly. Objectives The principal goal of the project was to educate young carers of chronically ill individuals about social entrepreneurship with the ultimate objective of helping them develop social entrepreneurship skills. The project targeted young carers and young people working for young carers and offered learning opportunities so that they could develop their social and entrepreneurial skills. Widespread use of ethical practices such as impact investing, conscious consumerism, and corporate social responsibility programs facilitate the success of social entrepreneurs. We promoted the idea that young caregivers can become social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur takes up a pressing social problem and meets it with an innovative solution. Young caregivers can become social entrepreneurs due to their personal experience and need for flexible working hours. We shared good practices in the support of young caregivers among the partners from Greece, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands. Partners EPIONI, Anemos Ananeosis, and Consorzio Global Med Care (former Consorzio SGS) are active in the nonprofit sector in Greece and Italy. Implementation In the context of the project we: 1) compiled a guide of good practices in the support of young caregivers who wanted to develop their social entrepreneurial skills (https://bit.ly/3kiybCD) and a short study.(shorturl.at/axD14) 2) delivered six seminars and one webinar for the program "Erasmus for young entrepreneurs." 3) conducted a face to face learning activity in Leiden, Netherland by our partner DFW2W (Feb 2022) (https://bit.ly/3EXGkpq) 4) held three transnational project meetings in Athens, Greece (Oct. 2021), Istanbul, Turkey (Jan 2022), and Lanciano, Italy (Oct 2022). At these meetings the partners EPIONI, Anemos Ananeosis, Istanbul Gelisim University (Turkey) and the Social Cooperative Consortium Global Med Care (Italy), shared good practices, conducted focus groups and discussed the entrepreneurial skills that young caregivers need to develop for a successful career in the non-profit sector. Our Dutch partner DFW2W, while hosting the short-term Joint staff training event in Leiden, shared their expertise and conducted study visits to relevant stakeholders. The project was built on the existing experiences of countries, such as the Netherlands, which offered adequate training to young people who wanted to develop their entrepreneurial skills. Achievements The project produced: 1. A good practice guide on the social entrepeunership skills of young carers of chronically ill people 2. Six seminars and one webinar about "Erasmus for young entrepreneurs." 3. Three transnational project meetings and a training activity. 4. A 3-minute video of a former member of the European Parliament sharing the important role of young carers as social entrepreneurs, uploaded to the project website (link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYUel662kjU). Additionally, each partner registered two social entrepreneurs as “Hosts” in the "Erasmus for young entrepreneurs" platform. Several young people participated in the project. Those young people from Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey attended meetings (virtual or physical) and had the opportunity to share their experience as caregivers or learn more on the issue of young caregivers.