Youth for Innovation: Social Entrepreneurship and Media

Young people today face multiple challenges, including economic downturns, precarious employment, and the fallout from recent pandemics, which disproportionately affect them (Labour Market and Wage Developments in Europe, 2020, EC). While strides have been made in reducing youth unemployment, there's still a need to improve job quality and the socio-economic landscape. Financial constraints, lack of experience, and limited knowledge about funding hinder young individuals from pursuing self-employment. Efforts to overcome these barriers and promote innovation can unleash young people's potential. However, the pandemic has exacerbated challenges, particularly in employment and social engagement. Yet, the crisis has highlighted the transformative power of digital media and entrepreneurial innovation for learning and professional development. The YISEM project has focused on digital entrepreneurship to empower young people to shape a more equitable future. Entrepreneurial skills not only drive business ventures but also foster problem-solving and risk-taking abilities. Post-pandemic societies demand adaptability and ingenuity from youth. Thus, inclusive approaches to digitalization and entrepreneurial support are crucial.

The project was designed to contribute to an increased quality of youth work through creation of new educational material and by providing formative and experiential opportunities for young people in the form of small-scale social projects based on entrepreneurial principles. A main focus has been the promotion of active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and social entrepreneurship. The project further addressed digital transformation by promoting social entrepreneurship with a positive use of the media, encouraging media literacy and digital marketing. Inclusion and diversity played a central role in all activities. Specific objectives addressed were - to promote digital entrepreneurship competences and social engagement of young people, ideas for innovative career paths and NFE opportunities - to foster quality youth work by providing educational material for youth workers to support young people in social projects - to strengthen capacities of youth work organizations in the fields of social entrepreneurship and digital media, and the inclusion of youth with fewer opportunities - to raise awareness on the potentials of youth participation for social innovation

The project objectives have been achieved through a number of activities involving partner organizations, young people and youth workers. 3 transnational project meetings: - Kick-off meeting - Mid-term monitoring meeting - Final evaluation meeting. Regular partner meetings, including frequent online contact, ensured the quality implementation of the project. Partners exchanged their best practices, contributing the full potential of each organizations’ expertise and existing tools in the fields of non-formal education, social entrepreneurship and youth initiatives, and digital media. 1 Blended Mobility of young people, including a bootcamp training in Italy, follow-up webinars and local hubs in partner countries - 24 participants (18-26 years old) from 6 partner countries - 8 day training activity with non-formal and peer learning methods. Through YISEM, a network of young people was formed to put into practice their social ideas by using entrepreneurial and digital marketing competences. A bootcamp was organised in Italy to give young people the needed competences and skills. For additional learning, visits to start-ups and social initiatives in the field were organized. During the learning activity, participants developed their own ideas for social and entrepreneurial engagement and planned the implementation at local level. Coming back to their countries, local innovation hubs were organised by the project consortium to support the development of these small projects, supported by webinars during the period. At the end of the project, the national groups presented their work in the local multiplication events. Their stories and experiences were shared with the other national groups through online exchange. Production of open educational resources: A podcast series of 38 episodes was produced in 6 working languages on topics of social entrepreneurship; including easy to understand theoretical knowledge, inspiring examples from practice, tips and suggestions from experts in the field. The series addresses 1. young people to encourage their entrepreneurial spirit and competences in order to promote their participation in social and economic development of society 2. Youth workers, to provide them with the necessary knowledge and tools to support young people in their development and in the implementation of their own initiatives. International and local multiplication events: During one final international multiplication event and local events in each partner country, external stakeholders learned about the project results. Invited guests (youth workers, associations, educational institutions) hadthe opportunity to give feedback on the educational resources and discussed their adaptability to their own working environments. Representatives of the local young innovator hubs presented their social entrepreneurship initiatives to a professional public to promote social development of their communities and find potential supporters (strategic partners, expert support, financial support for continuation and sustainability of activities).

TANGIBLE RESULTS – A podcast series (38 episodes, in 7 languages) has been developed as main project result: how to encourage youth social entrepreneurship and civic engagement based on digital marketing. The Podcasts has been produced by the consortium during the local hub activities and integrated webinars and online meet-ups with young participants to potentialize their learning experiences. They tested the contents as part of the learning blended mobility giving inputs for improvements. Towards the end of the project, the podcast episodes were released to the public, youth workers and young people as open learning tools (OER). The podcast has been recorded in 7 languages to ensure inclusive learning opportunities for young people with fewer opportunities and maximize the impacts on target groups while also widely spreading the tool potentially to different EU countries. The podcast is publicly available on Spotify as “Youth for Innovation Podcast”. A project website has been established to share background information on the project and make the complete podcast available as a learning resource (https://www.viakreaktion.de/yisem ). The podcast has been structured into four main categories to help guide young people and youth workers to suitable content: 1. Project ideas by the youth teams, 2. Interviews with entrepreneurs from the different partner countries as local examples of best practice, 3. Thematic episodes as learning tools on crucial topics regarding social entrepreneurship and media, and 4. Experiences of the local hub youth teams. As further results of the project, the young people involved have gained - increased empowerment, sense of initiative and active participation in the social and economic development of their communities; - increased chances for (self-)employment through specific competence development and first-hand experience; - increased competence acquisition on: digital and social entrepreneurship, digital marketing, media literacy, project management, business planning and communication. - raised networking on EU and local level, experience in working in an intercultural European environment. For the involved partner organizations the project has resulted in: - exchanged good practices and innovative tools, especially regarding new digital tools of youth work and analysis on social entrepreneurship based on digital competences; - exchanged and newly developed tools in supporting young people with fewer opportunities; - creation of local hubs to sustain involved young people. - increased local networking through the podcast promotion in schools and local youth associations: raised interest among young people, local social enterprises and youth institutions to engage in future actions. - 250 participants at the multiplication events directly learned engaged with the project rersult - Approx. 1600 persons reached on podcasting platforms (by February 2024), more listeners are expected as the podcast continues to be promoted by the partners - 680 visitors to project site on partner websites Through sharing the project result with youth workers and practitioners working with young people the project helped raise awareness on the importance of youth participation, employment opportunities and entrepreunership. The educational podcast has provided inspiring examples of local best practices and new innovation ideas by young people themselves. The contents promote the potentials and capacities of different sectors working together for social impact and positive development of young people in their communities.