Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Camp Methodology Handbook
Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Camp Methodology Handbook is an outline of the guidelines for organizing innovation camps or similar events with strong focus on social entrepreneurship. This Handbook has been developed in the framework of the INDIGISE project(„Promotion of Social Entrepreneurship in the Youth Sector by Digital and Informal Education Tools“, April, 2020 – March 2022), which is focused on young people, who are looking for positive social and (or) environmental changes in society, and (or) feel the need to create own business, but lack support, competencies and finance. Combining the experience of universities’, NGOs’ and business networks’ professionals, and operating with the latest trends in education, INDIGISE project partners from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Norway provided such support and promoted youth social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region by digital and informal education tools.
This Manual is a set of interactive and innovative educational material and ICT tools as well as gamification and brainstorming methods dedicated to training, educating and raising awareness on the subject of social entrepreneurship among youth that is recommended to use by EU countries’ schools, universities, NGOs etc.
The content of the Handbook is of a recommendatory nature, can be easily modified according to the specifics of the innovation event, and contains the following main sections:
General parameters about when, where and how to organize the event, who should be the main key players of the innovation camp: their responsibilities and duties.
Time schedule: how to prepare for the innovation event on time and properly.
How to find and select the most motivated participants and to encourage sponsors, judges, trainers, conventional and (or) social business representatives, moderators, volunteers and other key players to participate in the event.
Social entrepreneurship is a unique idea – mission of the 21st century that, because of different historical and business ecosystem development as well as present attitude in different countries, is perceived and defined differently. Social entrepreneurship is a model of activity, the essential mission of which is to solve social and environmental challenges through commercial activities. Social businesses use innovative and business-based approaches to make life better in our communities or to address environmental issues.
Innovation camps are a highly effective tool for steering young learners towards developing social business ideas, that may one day be realized, something which is not always easily achieved in a traditional classroom context, as well as the perfect way to educate and motivate academic staff, non-formal education providers, industry experts how to encourage more entrepreneurship education in the classroom.
Baltic Sea Youth Platform is
an Erasmus+ Programme project aiming at empowering youth and fostering actual
participation in decisions and policy-making in the Baltic Sea Region. It started
on February 1st 2020 and was prolonged from August 2022 until December 2022. Despite
many difficulties and inconveniences caused by the pandemic, the project
partnership supported and got involved in many significant youth-oriented
initiatives throughout the past year, thus promoting the idea of BSYP.
In 2021 project partners
meetings were held online every two weeks, which contributed to building strong
engagement and developing new initiatives and great ideas for further
cooperation.
On March 1st, BSYP conducted
the Youth Forum within the 2nd EU Macro Regional Strategies week
hosted by DG REGIO. Julia Orluk, ERB’s Youth Board former Chairwoman, who’s
been engaged in the BSYP project from its’ very beginning, was among the
panellists of the bottom-up session
to empower the participation of Youth and Civil Society Organisations in MRS.
In March 2021, the First Interim Report for the Baltic Sea Youth Platform Erasmus+ project was submitted and approved by the Swedish Agency.
In April, the BSYP project
participated in two youth-oriented events:
BSSSC Youth Network on April 14th and Digital Youth Workshop on Green
and Social entrepreneurship co-organized with Youth4Nature.
May 2021 was another busy
month for BSYP. On May 6th BSYP became a part of a youth panel during a CBSS
trafficking conference focusing on human trafficking during the digital era. The
meeting was co-organized by TH-TFB and the CAR unit of the CBSS. Next, on 12th
– 14th May, the CBSS Ministerial Youth Edition was held, where again
BSYP was very active. During the event, young people from the Baltic Sea region
came up with great ideas that evaluated the CBSS Vision Statement Beyond 2030, presented
to the Foreign Ministers at the CBSS Ministerial on June 1st.
Finally, between 28th
and 29th May, BSYP joined the BSSSC Youth Spring Event, where modern
democracy, Baltic sustainability and entrepreneurship were discussed with
experts from EU Parliament.
On June 22nd, all BSYP project
partners and associated partners joined Partnership Day to work on the platform
vision with ACTER experts. Project partners discussed further steps regarding
virtual platform development, toolkits and guidelines issues within Baltic Sea
Youth Power Box, policy recommendations, youth input to the Baltic Sea Cultural
Cities and other matters connected to the external report.
August 2021 was also filled
with extraordinary events dedicated to Youth, and the BSYP project was proud to
be a part of them. Starting up with 41st Hanseatic Days days on 19th
-21st August, a hybrid event taking place in Riga and online. Among
others, the program included the “Youth Hanza” event, which was a
virtual meeting of young people from member cities, during which issues of
current issues in the region such as the climate and environment, the
participation of young people in these processes, as well as the history and
traditions of Hanseatic cities were discussed interactively.
On 28th – 31st
August, BSYP joined the ReGeneration Week 2021 – a hybrid event, where people
participated physically on the Åland Islands and through the streaming tool
Coeo. The ReGeneration Week provided an international meeting place for
intergenerational dialogues for a sustainable system change. The theme for the
ReGeneration Week 2021 was “ReThinking The System”, which highlights
the need for a sustainable recovery after the pandemic. ReGeneration Week 2021
offered interactive lectures and workshops, intergenerational dialogues and
provided tools to contribute to a more sustainable life in connection to the
five different domains in Anatomy of Action.
On August 29th, the Council of
the Baltic Sea States (CBSS)/Baltic Sea Youth Platform, together with the
Swedish delegation to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) and the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, organized the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth
Forum to promote dialogue between young people of the region and policymakers.
The Forum gathered young
people and members of parliament from the Baltic Sea Region who discussed how
to secure a democratically and environmentally sustainable future. It provided
an opportunity for young people to give input to policymakers on the issues at
hand and gain insight into international parliamentary cooperation.
Furthermore, BSYP was an
active participant at the EUSBSR Annual Forum 2021. On September 30th, CBSS
organized a panel discussion on Empowering Youth for Green Entrepreneurship,
which became a platform for young entrepreneurs from across the BSR to share
their insights on how to start a green business and provide their experience
regarding existing obstacles and barriers for receiving funding and building a
business model. The panel also gave the floor to representatives of financial
institutions and programmes. The participants also had an opportunity to
discuss how to improve the status quo regarding financial mechanisms and
accessibility and provide a more supportive environment for young people to
start their businesses in the BSR. The last day of the Forum was entirely dedicated
to youth issues. Participants joined a plenary session on Youth’s involvement
but also heard more about Klaipėda as the European Youth Capital 2021, the role
of Youth in implementing ambitious green agenda of the EU, the presentation of
Lithuanian Sea Museum, creative workshop on SDGs, presentations of sustainable
solutions of businesses and many more.
In October, CBSS announced a call for the Baltic
Sea Youth Dialogue 2021: Looking forward, looking back – 30 Years of
Collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region. The dialogue, held between 4th-28th November, consisted of three
lectures on the following topics: Safe & Secure Region, Sustainable &
Prosperous Region and Regional Identity. All participants of the lectures had
an exciting opportunity to dialogue with experts from the region. The
discussion was followed by two activities: a cross country assignment and a
learning diary. Each activity’s best creative entries were later awarded during
the online ceremony on December 11th 2021.
On November 1st, the Baltic Sea Youth Platform partnership
announced the recruitment for the Baltic Sea Talent Pool. Young people (18-30
years old) eager to be active in shaping policies within the region could apply
to join one of the working groups: advocacy – responsible for writing policy
recommendations and taking part in the events,
culture – implementing local actions and being
part of the development of the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities and Regions Project
Or to become a part of BSYP taskforce for
child protection policies.
On November 23rd, CBSS
presented the BSYP during the “Connecting minds across the ages” side
event at the NDPHS Partnership Annual Conference.
Finally, on 25th
and 26th November, the BSYP project partners met physically in
Stockholm for the first time after nearly 20 months. At the two day meeting,
organized in the premises of CBSS, representatives from Sweden, Norway,
Lithuania, Estonia, Germany and Poland, including many youth representatives,
had an opportunity to discuss the current status of the Project, partner
contribution, funding options, add-ons to be created, development of
intellectual outputs within Project as well as Strategy, Vision and Partnership
beyond 2022. The second day of the meeting was filled with some great workshops
within the Baltic Sea Belongs to Kids project and very fruitful discussions
among members of BSYP Working Groups.
BSYP Vision Beyond 2022
As a follow-up of the youth involvement in the first CBSS Committee of Senior Officials meeting in mid-September, BSYP was asked to provide a first draft of a vision for the BSYP after the project ended. The document is an internal document of the CBSS to continue the discussions on the institutionalization of the BSYP. It was meant to start a debate amongst the CBSS Member States on how financial support of the BSYP could look like after the Erasmus+ Project ends. On November 23rd, the CSO met and discussed the BSYP Vision Beyond 2022 proposal and how to move on with the BSYP.
Do you want to learn about and practice collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region? Let’s get together, get to know people from abroad and discuss what has happened with experts from the field. Even better – work on what has happened and can happen together with your peers!
The CBSS is calling 18–25-year-olds from around the region (citizens or residents from member and observer states) to join the Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2021: Looking forward, looking back – 30 Years of Collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region. The dialogue will consist of three lectures with the exciting opportunity to be in dialogue with experts from the region, and the following activity:
Cross-country assignment (group entry based on one of the lectures): Get together with three other young people from the region, meet, discuss, create and have fun together with the chance of winning a great prize; Only 36 places are available and an application is required!
Learning diary (individual entry based on an aspect from one of the lectures). As 15-25-year-olds, you can follow the streamed lectures and send in your thoughts for the chance of winning a great prize.
Applications, participation and creative entries are encouraged and there will be prizes for the three best groups (one in each category), and the three best individual entries. The finalists will be selected by a renowned jury and awarded during the online ceremony on 11th December 2021. The deadline for submission is Sunday, 28th November 2021.
