Improving digital tools and methods for boosting women entrepreneurial skills in Covid-19 era

ATHENA" centered its initiatives on the EU's 2021-2027 youth strategy, emphasizing the integration and training of young individuals for comprehensive inclusion in social and economic spheres. Alt...

ATHENA" directed its focus toward backing young women in entrepreneurship, prioritizing digital and alternative tools tailored to COVID-19 restrictions. Eight European organizations from Spain, Italy, Finland, Belgium, Lithuania, Ireland, Slovenia, and Poland collaborated over 24 months, aiming to enhance their youth work approaches, explore innovative European practices, and craft adaptable strategies for promoting young women's entrepreneurship. "ATHENA" pursued specific objectives: Enhancing youth work methodologies for promoting young women's entrepreneurship, particularly by introducing COVID-19-adapted strategies. Raising awareness and knowledge among youth workers and decision-makers regarding novel COVID-19-adapted strategies for fostering young women's entrepreneurship. Facilitating the comparison of situations across European countries and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and experiences among partner nations. Gathering the best COVID-19-adapted practices in supporting young women's entrepreneurship. Creating sustainable and adaptable knowledge applicable and testable across different European contexts. Emphasizing the value of new COVID-19-adapted strategies adaptable to youth work policies and initiatives.

ATHENA was established upon a transnational collaboration among various entrepreneurship-related organizations spanning eight distinct European regions, fostering cooperation at the European level. This transnational approach aimed to expose participants to diverse opinions and experiences from different national contexts, ensuring the exploration of innovative COVID-19-adapted practices. The goal was to equip European youth workers with tools to navigate pandemic-related challenges in supporting youth entrepreneurship. ATHENA envisioned a pilot project involving all partners, testing digital and alternative strategies within local contexts through an integrated approach that engaged stakeholders from each territory. Consequently, the project embraced a local dimension. Expert youth workers provided by project partners led the pilot projects, implemented in various partner cities. These initiatives focused on European youths' responses to challenges like the Covid-19 economic crisis, unemployment, and other pertinent social issues. The project aimed to uncover common solutions for the European challenge of youth social inclusion by leveraging IT and alternative tools. This effort aimed to refine adaptable youth work methods and practices for diverse European cities. The project's outcomes were condensed into an online report, an interactive MOOC featuring supplementary material, and practical guidelines tailored for youth workers. These resources were intended to consolidate the lessons learned and strategies devised during the project's implementation.

"ATHENA" aimed to adapt and improve work methodologies and tools applied to assist and encourage women entrepreneurship, considering the new pandemic situation and digital transition needs. The project roadmap was developed through close collaboration and increased flows of knowledge between project partners and different stakeholders in each target territory. The main outcome of the "ATHENA" project was the development of an experiential development training program for youth workers, aiming to enhance their skills regarding the new COVID-19 situation and how to adapt their work to the new reality, encompassing digital, online, and alternative methods and tools. Specifically, "ATHENA" accomplished the following: Offered a unique training package to City Councils, Universities, Private entities, and Non-profit organizations related to youth entrepreneurship promotion, emphasizing the explicit link between organizations, communities, businesses, and the integrated approach as a success factor. Offered guidelines to enhance youth work methodologies concerning youth entrepreneurship support, specifically adapting working methods and tools to the new COVID-19 situation. Provided quality information and collected European best practices regarding potential COVID-19-adapted methods, tools, and initiatives in the field of youth entrepreneurship promotion, including comparisons among different European realities. Provided sustainable and adaptable knowledge for implementation and testing in other European contexts. Offered useful insights for the introduction of new COVID-19-adapted strategies. Facilitated access for youth workers and decision-makers to essential open training resources related to youth entrepreneurship promotion. Became a best practice example and a training model for other EU initiatives aiming to enhance new COVID-19-adapted strategies for young women entrepreneurship among youth workers and their communities. Developed relevant material for e-learning platforms used by project partners, as well as a MOOC for further exploration of the "ATHENA" training program. Developed promotional information to highlight project results and emphasize COVID-19-adapted strategies for promoting young women's entrepreneurship. Developed a sustainable cooperation network for promoting young women's entrepreneurship through new online, digital, and alternative strategies.