Digital Social Entrepreneurship of seniors and adults with different abilities

There is an alarmingly big number of seniors and adults with disabilities who lack the employment and regular salary/income. Quite often, both salaries of the employed citizens, as well as the pensions for the retired seniors, where exist - are not fully sufficient for the high costs of life in those “older” ages. More and more seniors and adults (with disabilities), thus, are looking forward to another way of regular money incoming into their households. In addition, persons with disabilities often face societal barriers and disability evokes negative perceptions and discrimination in many societies. For this target group, formal education takes too much time and is not a preferred option to take. The adult education is a very appreciated option both for seniors and adults with disabilities and is perceived as a better option, as it is easier to enrol in an adult education programme, as well as the courses last shorter and are following the latest trends and needs of society and opportunities existing. The project responded to the outcomes of the survey implemented and regular work with our beneficiaries and educators of our organisations; by empowering for and promoting the digital social entrepreneurship among them.

Motivation of partners in this project was to “equip” seniors and adults with disabilities with set of skills needed to work on personal development in fields of digital-social-entrepreneurial intelligence and creating (self-)employment opportunities proactively in today’s reality of employment uncertainty and the world of extinction of many known jobs and occupation now and even more in the future. With this project, we want our beneficiaries, seniors and adults with disabilities, to improve their digital social entrepreneurial skills, and we also aim to empower more adult educators for organising digital social entrepreneurial learning activities, in line with the newest updates. Project objectives were: - Empower seniors and unemployed adults with disabilities for digital social entrepreneurship start-up. - Empower our adult educators and improve knowledge management of our organisations in theory and practice for building competences of educators in digital social entrepreneurship for seniors and adults with disabilities. - Exchange good practices and further develop quality strategic partnership among partners from 4 European countries with different realities in regards to employment and digital/social entrepreneurship.

Project activities were: - A1 – Project Management activities throughout the duration of the whole project. - M1 – Kick-off meeting in Modena (IT) hosted by LINK DMT. - O1 – Handbook “Exploring Digital Social Entrepreneurship for seniors and adults with different abilities”; led by LINK DMT and co-lead by Zanandrea (IT); Produced in 5 languages. - M2 – Second meeting in Zadar (HR) hosted by Realization. - O2 – Curriculum “Empowering adult educators to encourage Digital Social Entrepreneurship start-ups among seniors and adults with different abilities”; led by CNELL and co-lead by Iteccion (RS); Produced in 5 languages. - O3 – Toolkit “Mentoring and supporting seniors and adults with different abilities for Digital Social Entrepreneurship start-up”; led by OH (DE) and co-lead by Iteccion (RS); Produced in 5 languages. - M3 – Third meeting in Pancevo (RS) hosted by Iteccion. - O4 – E-learning course “Digital Social Entrepreneurship start-up course for seniors and adults with different abilities”; led by Realization and co-lead by Wizard (HR); Produced in 5 languages. - C1 - LTTA Training of trainers; in Pancevo (RS) hosted by Iteccion. - E1, E2, E3, E4 – Open conferences in Zagreb (HR), Novi Sad (RS), Cento (IT), Hannover (DE) - M4 – Evaluation meeting in Munich (DE) hosted by OH.

Intellectual Outputs: O1 – Handbook “Exploring Digital Social Entrepreneurship for seniors and adults with different abilities” Purpose: It is a step-by-step guide for successfully preparing seniors and adults with disabilities to start-up digital social business with simplified instructions on needed steps. The Handbook also serves as theoretical and conceptual resource for adult educators when organising further empowerment of beneficiaries in Digital Social Entrepreneurship (DSE), in line with the latest developments. O2 – Curriculum “Empowering adult educators to encourage Digital Social Entrepreneurship start-ups among seniors and adults with different abilities” Purpose: It is a resource material for educators to organise a 7-day long training course on empowering adult educators to further develop (online and offline) organisational culture, mentoring and education/workshops/courses for seniors and adults with disabilities and other beneficiaries in our communities on the topic of digital social entrepreneurship start-ups. O3 – Toolkit “Mentoring and supporting seniors and adults with different abilities for Digital Social Entrepreneurship start-up” Purpose: It is a resource material that serves as a theoretical and conceptual resource for andragogic workers in adult education institutions, educators and professors who work closely with seniors and adults in organisations, schools and institutions. The toolkit gives recommendations to educators when organising workshops and activities with seniors and adults with disabilities in DSE, as well as it consists of 12 different tools explored and adapted for using in NFE when directly educating and mentoring seniors and adults with disabilities for digital social entrepreneurship (DSE) start-up. O4 – E-learning course “Digital Social Entrepreneurship start-up course for seniors and adults with different abilities” Purpose: It is an innovative and up-to-date digital tool / online course for relevant topics and with tools for start-up of digital social enterprises for interested individuals, beneficiaries. It allows for bigger impact of our project, as it is free and easily accessible from any community, country. This is an internet-based course on DIGITAL SOCIAL Entrepreneurship for seniors and adults with different abilities who are hard to reach and who otherwise don’t participate in many education activities. The tool is an interactive platform where the participants are able to read, watch videos, take quizzes, communicate with each other and do a lot more. All the above intellectual outputs are available in English, German, Croatian, Italian and Serbian, catering to multiple countries where these languages are official. Direct Results: Utilisation of Outputs: *- 24 multipliers adult educators across partner organisations utilised the intellectual outputs and tested them with beneficiaries on local level; In this way also testing for its efficacy both at a personal and organisational level, aiming to refine processes and practices in adult education activities. *- at least 80 beneficiaries, seniors and adults with disabilities (20 per country) benefited directly from these outputs through the actions of these multipliers. Training the Trainers and further Empowerment: *- 14 adult educators participated in the Learning Teaching Activities (LTTA) and are subsequently empowered to educate other adult educators. Post-project, these trainers will organise smaller training sessions in their native organisations, thereby indirectly benefitting another 20-30 adult educators who will be equipped to use the project’s outputs in their daily activities. Local Impact: *- 113 local multipliers/adult educators across four countries empowered during the multiplier events. The focus was on accentuating the significance adult education for digital social entrepreneurship education, and ensuring the necessary support structures are in place for entrepreneurship education work for digital social entrepreneurship start-up among seniors and adults with disabilities. Expected project results were two-fold: (1) the organisations developed publications to be used to provide quality NFE about Digital Social Entrepreneurship (DSE); (2) we also developed online course that can be used by target groups who are not able to physically attend educational activities and/or who we had no chance to work with before. In sum, the project not only produced valuable, multilingual resources, but also ensured the empowerment of a significant number of adult educators, trainers, and multipliers, amplifying its impact across multiple countries.