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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment

Liang Shang from the City University of Hong Kong and Yanto Chandra from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed explicit research on the youth empowerment mechanisms applied in Social Entrepreneurship as a practice-based learning activity implemented in the Hong Kong University. The research poses a research question “How do social enterprises empower its beneficiaries?” and focuses on Soap Cycling, social enterprise founded in 2012 by David Bishop, a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. It started as an internship project run by University of Hong Kong’s undergraduate students. Now the project is run also in Mainland China, Singapore, Myanmar, Canary Islands, Philippines and India.

Youth empowerment is one of the key missions of Soap Cycling. Soap Cycling is a SE because it seeks to create educational and environmental value while generating revenue from various sources (i.e., donation, fees, etc.) to run its programs. This SE recycles unused soaps to improve sanitation and hygiene of young people in underdeveloped regions. By recycling unused soaps into new soaps, this SE seeks to address pneumonia and diarrhea, two leading killers of the children around the world (International Vaccine Access Center, 2015). These diseases can be prevented with appropriate hand washing with soap and hygiene education (World Health Organization, 2013).

Soap Cycling SE is operated by student volunteers, who are distributed across various managerial positions and operational aspects. These volunteers normally work for 13 weeks (during a semester) as a part of their undergraduate curriculum. With three other co-directors: Baniel Chung (an engineer and marketing expert), Beau Lefler and Dr. Chad Lykins (both lecturers in law at the University of Hong Kong), Bishop provides guidance and advice to students in managing the SE and encourages the volunteers to make decisions and take own actions (Chiu, 2012). Specifically, how does Soap Cycling SE empower students?

The research identified two important elements of youth empowerment in SE not previously discussed in the SE literature, which are: social-capital empowerment and entrepreneurial-capital empowerment. Specifically, social-capital empowerment consists of three sub-elements, which are (1) building social awareness, (2) creating meaningful participation, and (3) developing social connections. The other two elements identified as part of entrepreneurial-capacity empowerment and being central to youth empowerment SE, are: (4) power-sharing between youths and adults, and (5) building entrepreneurial skills.

Social capacity building

Soap Cycling SE empowered student volunteers’ social capacity through three main stages: social awareness building, meaningful participation and enhancing social connections. The social awareness building involves naming the problem, speaking out, raising consciousness, and researching. Before the student volunteers joined Soap Cycling SE activities, many of them lacked awareness of the hygiene problems in developing countries and had no idea what happened to unused soaps in hotels after they were used and how they might be repurposed. The SE develops young people’s social awareness or individuals’ understanding of the needs and historical specificity of social events and process (Dinev & Hart, 2005).

Meaningful Participation

Soap Cycling SE provides volunteering opportunities to university students by engaging them directly in charity work to “learn and help the less fortunate people in the underdeveloped countries”

Social Connections

Soap Cycling SE also provided student volunteers the opportunities to enhance their social connections through social and teamwork development skills. Through cooperation with others, the student volunteers met new people, developed networking, teamwork, communication and interpersonal skills.

Entrepreneurial-Capacity Empowerment

The SE was established to provide a platform for students to develop hands-on entrepreneurial and technical (e.g., IT, law, marketing) experience and better prepare them for future jobs. Research identified two elements of entrepreneurial-capacity empowerment: power-sharing between youth and adults and building entrepreneurial skills.

Power-sharing between youth and adults

Most youth internship programs do not offer students the opportunities to make real decisions, nor to suffer the consequences when they make mistakes. Taking responsibility for own decisions is a critical element in youth empowerment as constructive learning can arise from bearing consequences from one’s own actions.

Soap Cycling is operated by student volunteers and the volunteers are given various managerial positions to handle all administrative and operational aspects of the SE as a part of their 13-week internship.  The SE has empowered students to exercise their decision-making power. This enhanced the students’ self-confidence and developed their sense of responsibility, as SE enables power-sharing between youths and adults to work effectively and to suffer from the consequences of their mistakes.

Building entrepreneurial skills

As part of 13-week work, volunteers have to submit an action plan to improve the SE and a general manager evaluates their performance. The volunteers work in various departments, from “strategy” (in charge of developing growth and expansion strategy), marketing (in charge of formulating marketing and branding strategies), manufacturing and delivery, to accounting, human resources, and law. The first-hand entrepreneurial experience helped develop students’ leadership, communication, creative thinking and interpersonal skills and other management skills.

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As stated by David Bishop, founder of Soap Cycling, university graduates often lack real-world experience and face difficulties in finding jobs after graduation. He wanted to change this situation and provided the students with a meaningful leadership and management experience.

To know more on how this specific SE achieves its objectives and empowers young people, read full text here or directly on ResearchGate.

For more information on the Soap Cycling, visit the webpage.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program

Meet Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program, incubation Program that Supports Social Entrepreneurs on their Journey From Planning to Implementation as well as offering online courses and consultations. Their members in co-operation with The CARe Network offer special support for individuals and organizations active in recovery oriented mental health care developing sustainable e-services.

seprogramme site

pic © seincubation.com

His founder Zsolt Bugarszki, PhD has relevant experience in  project management in the field of social innovation, sustainability and social entrepreneurship. As the Head of Tallinn University’s Social Entrepreneurship MA program in Estonia he is developing and running social entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability related courses and curriculum. Using the project-based learning method he is organizing development and incubation programs with an emphasis on social innovation.

Women Colleagues

pic © seincubation.com

Get an insight into their programme and more visiting their site: here

seincubationprogramme

Sign up for Incubation.

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Business models for social entrepreneurs in a time with Corona

Tara Anderson has written series of three articles for Pioneers Post on social enterprise business models in a time with Corona. The articles works as a guide for social entrepreneurs to help them develop the best possible and most resilient businessmodel for social enterprises to be able to survive through times of crises.

In the first article Tara Anderson gives a thorough beginners guide to what a social enterprise is. This gives social entrepreneurs a chance to see if they got the basics right. She focuses on the different elements that needs to be in the social enterprise business to be successful. In a time with Corona it has become even more important for social entrepreneurs to make sure they have the right business model.
Tara Anderson also explains why it is more complicated to run a social enterprise with two goals both to earn a profit and to have a social purpose and create impact. This means that social entrepreneurs constantly have to balance decisions between mission versus money, customers versus beneficiaries stakeholders with social priorities versus stakeholders with commercial priorities and so forth.

In part Part 2 Tara shares shares 17 social enterprise business model types in order to inspire and help social entrepreneurs to  shift their business model to more adopt to the Corona situation.
The 17 different businessmodels are also described in Business Model Zoo a material developed by Cass Business School
for each businessmodel type Tara Anderson gives examples of existing social enterprises.

In the final part of the series Tara Anderson suggests seven questions that every social entrepreneur needs to answer when they set out to build a social enterprise business model.
The questions are:

1. What social impact do you create for which beneficiaries?
2. Who are your customers, what do they want, and how do you structure the value proposition?
3. What products and services can you offer that achieve the best balance of profit and social impact?
4. What are your business model options, and how many should you run?
5. How do you finance the model?
6. How do you organize your resources to deliver profit and social impact?
7. Is your product and services portfolio balanced?

 

You can read Tara Andersons articles on Pioneers Post:

Part 1 Covid-proof your business model: a guide for social entrepreneurs

Part 2 Reimagining your business model: 17 social enterprise types to guide you

Part 3 Seven steps to consider when pivoting (or building) a social enterprise business model

Tara Anderson is director and co-founder at The Dragonfly Collective and a strategic marketing advisor for On Purpose both organisations that are working with helping social enterprises.

 

Recording of the Social Entrepreneurship Summit in Lithuania on Impact Investments is available online

On May 7th a large group of partners has organized annual Social Entrepreneurship Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Due to ongoing quarantine, all of the proceedings of the Summit have been aired online.

Here is a program of the event:

10:00 Welcoming and introduction

10:15 Lithuania Social Entrepreneurship environment review – that has been achieved in 2019, Andželika Rusteikienė, Lithuania Social Enterprise Association (LT with simultaneous translation)

10:35 Social Finance – review of the environment in Lithuania, demand, and challenges, Phil Tulba, Tulba Consulting (EN)

11:05 Social investment global perspective, Mariel Vincent Andres Rapisura, SEDPI Pte. Ltd., Philippines (EN)

11:45 Break

12:00 Measuring social impact: good case practice of Finland, Katja Anoschkin, Finnish Association for Social Enterprises (EN)

12:40 Reach for Change incubator and impact investment journey in Lithuania, Jurgita Ribinskaitė – Glatzer, Reach for Change (LT with simultaneous translation)

13:10 Break

13:40 Social impact bonds model and application possibilities in Lithuania, Neringa Morkvėnienė, Ministry of Finance (LT with simultaneous translation)

14:10 Impact procurements model implementation in pilot municipalities – Kaunas case, Daina Kleponė, managing director Enterprise Lithuania and Jolanta Baltaduonytė, Kaunas municipality (LT with simultaneous translation)

14:40Social investment in Lithuania – an alternative instrument to support social innovations, Eitvydas Bingelis, Vice-minister of Social Security and Labour and Viktorija Krutulytė, European Social Fund Agency (LT with simultaneous translation)

15:10 Break

15:25 Panel discussion (LT with simultaneous translation): Investments to social innovation and interinstitutional cooperation

Moderator: Arūnas Survila, NVO Avilys

Participants:

Eitvydas Bingelis, Ministry of Social Security and Labour

Ilona Javičienė, Ministry of Agriculture

Lukas Savickas, Office of the Government

Mindaugas Sinkevičius, Association of Local Authorities

Indrė Vareikytė, European Economic and Social Committee

16:25 Closing remarks

Here is the Youtube link to the video recording of the Summit in English and Lithuanian: https://youtu.be/ijmYHPS65E8

Organizers: Enterprise Lithuania, NVO Avilys, British Council, Tulba Consulting Partners: Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania, Lithuania social enterprise association, Pirmas Blynas

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Iceland: 39 well-being indicators

Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand established the Wellbeing Economy Goverments (WeGo) initiative in 2018. The project was inspired by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WeAll). In September 2019, Kartín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, introduced the proposed 39 well-being indicators under 3 main sections: Society, Environment and Economy. In April 2020, the Icelandic government has approved a motion from the Prime Minister to implement the use of 39 well-being indicators to measure prosperity and quality of life in the country.  At a time when the government faces some tough decisions related to the COVID-19 epidemic, these 39 indicators are proving very effective in creating their relief policies.

Shifting focus from GDP

Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir states: “Gross Domestic Product and economic growth are certainly important metrics and will continue to be so, but these factors do not tell the whole story about people’s quality of life and the successes of communities. It is important to have metrics that take the environment, society, and economy into account.”

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Iceland’s 39 well-being indicators are separated into three categories – social, economic, and environmental – and relate to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. On page 3 and 4 of the Well-being measurements document is a table of how each of the indicators can be mapped to a particular SDG.

Social enterprises in Iceland

Social enterprises at their core fulfill one or more of the SDGs in transforming the world into a more equal and just world. With this newly released and approved well-being indicators, social enterprises are positioned to offer effective solutions to meeting the 39 indicators. In addition, social enterprises continue to measure their successes not just through financial indicators (akin to GDP in governments) but also KPIs and impact measurements to continually improve on their effectiveness in delivering their services to their designated customer base. The social enterprises of Iceland are therefore well positioned to be the ground crew that assist the Icelandic government in fulfilling their 39 indicators.

Sources:

Iceland Government unveils Well-being framework
Iceland to Measure Social and Environmental Prosperity

 

Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash

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Clipster, co-living and start-ups in Gdansk

Today we present you the article about CLIPSTER –  is a co-living/co-working startup accelerator program in Gdansk, Poland. 2020 will see the continuation of the international Clipster pre-acceleration programme (launched in 2015) offering a co-living option, first of its kind in Poland. Selected on the basis of their applications, candidates from Poland and all over the world are invited to Gdańsk where they are provided with co-living and co-working space and are offered opportunity to participate in training courses and mentoring. Participants are able to test their business ideas in a creative, international team. Clipster won the Polish finals of the Central European Startup Awards and was named the best incubator and acceleration programme in Poland, taking the second position in Central Europe.

You can read it here: https://medium.com/@gdansk/clipster-co-living-and-start-ups-in-gdansk-24f0c8d73c44  or the transcription below:

clipster

Several people have decided to live in one place, even though they didn’t know each other earlier. Some of them have an idea regarding a business, others, skills in which they can help support these ideas. Their home is Clipster, in Gdansk. Currently there is room for three more people. Clipster was founded by Alfabeat and the Gdansk Entrepreneurship Incubator STARTER. Both are organizations which, for years, have been helping develop ideas into businesses, supporting start-ups created under their wings to achieve success.

This unique place was formed in the Culture Garrison, a new hot spot on the cultural map of Gdansk. Clipster is made-up of single and double microapartments with a kitchen annex and bathroom. Why micro? To give the residents a place to eat and sleep, without encouraging them to create their own private den. The entire basis on which Clipster is founded on encourages Clipsters to spend as much time together in a common room dedicated to work.

Who is the ideal candidate?

“Clipster is unique because it supports co-living, meaning, all participants of the project live together”, says Kinga Kuczynska from STARTER. “We’d like to invite all individuals who have an idea for their business, even those who might not have an idea but want to find one.”

At first, it’s possible to live at Clipster for three months. After that, the residents’ activity and development is verified and based on this their stay can be lengthened by three or even six months.

“At Clipster we offer an easy and harmless entry into the business world. Three months can be spent here without any commitment and can help answer vital questions such as: Is a career in a start-up fit for me? Will I find my team here? Maybe I belong in a corporation?” explains Jan Wyrwynski from Alfabeat. “However, a start-up is an obligation for a few years. If you receive money from an incubator, you can’t back away. At Clipster, ideas can mature and they don’t necessarily have to achieve success. If the idea is interesting though, we will invite its founders to form a business with our help.”

Entering the business world with support from Clipster is very intensive. At the moment, the process of connecting the residents and mentors into pairs is underway. Individual tutors are made-up of people who have already had success introducing an innovative product into the market. Among them are investors, advisors, managers and participants of international projects.
The residents will have to take part in weekly courses. The courses will go over teachings of business models, presentations, how to engage investors, and sales and marketing.

Jan Wyrwinski also underlines the weight of Clipster’s location: “The entire purpose is to mix different backgrounds which were exclusive up until now. The Culture Garrision gives us such possibilities. On the other side of the wall we have a gallery, right next us we have a music club and not far from here students of the Music Academy and Technical University have their housing.” counts Wyrwinski. “The more things going on in this melting pot, the better. We want to enrich the start-up scene in the Tri-City which currently is only Polish. Clipster is a way to bring in foreigners. At the moment we are waiting for confirmation from a very interesting candidate from Moldova.”

“The interactions and what goes on between participants is very important.” underlines Kuczynska. “We are very interested in what comes out of this combination of energy, ideas and characters.”

From the beginning of 2015, 10 people have already moved into the Clipster microapartments. The next three will move-in shortly. Tomasz Gabrys, a citizen of Gdansk, an alumni and electronical engineer from the Technical University of Gdansk, was the first.

“My work is to analyze the market for various patents and new technologies. Of most interest to me is the part where we have to check the demand for such a product and creating it, already after we have the technology and team”, says Tomasz. “I have participated in patent creation process several times. I know where people usually get held up. Most often it’s what we want to create in Clipster — a team of competent people who are able to spend a lot of time together not “jumping to each other’s throats”, however, stimulating mutual development.

He counts on mentors and the huge contact base. “Contact some of the rare Polish and European experts with specialist knowledge is incredibly difficult”, stipulates Tomasz. “When someone opens the door for you, the specialists will to help is much larger and it saves you much energy.
Another resident, Piotr Bialobrzeski is from Bialystok. He is an architect, who after his studies at the Technical University of Gdansk, decided to stay and can’t imagine living elsewhere.

“I spend my time putting together projects, however, for quite some time now I’ve been thinking of a start-up. I used to work with NGOs in creating various events where I was responsible for finding sponsors”, he says. “I want to create a web platform connecting both worlds, however, it this is a project completely separated from my own industry. I have to learn everything from the beginning and there is no better place for me to do that than Clipster where I can meet people who already have achieved their ideas. I count on their support and inspiration.”

Other than this, Piotr would like to find at least two residents who would like to create this platform with him.

Robert Rozanski landed in Clipster straight from Manchester, where he studied and started his doctorate in artificial intelligence.

“I came back to Poland because my scholarship ended and life here is cheaper. I am from Elblag, however, I was looking for residence in Gdansk and I found Clipster’s offer”, says Robert. “I have no idea what will become of my stay here, we’ll see. If someone will have an idea for their business which will require the use of new technology, I’ll help. In December I plan on handing in my doctorate thesis. Being here I can simultaneously expand my knowledge and contacts in the business world in which up until this point I didn’t have any relation with. Business and the academy seem very interesting, however, they restrict some flexibility. I would like to take some time to think about where my vision of life fits best.

The founders of Clipster plan on expanding the idea of co-living for the creative minds in Gdansk. A project on a much larger scale than Clipster will be developed in the same location — the Culture Garrison.

“Co-living is a fresh trend, present in only a few cities in the world for a few dozen months. The development of such a new idea in Gdansk could help position our city as an important place on the start-up map of the world”, underlines Kinga Kuczynska.

If you’re interested in knowing more on Gdańsk Business Incubator “STARTER”, operated by the Gdańsk Entrepreneurial Foundation and their great initiatives visit their website: https://www.inkubatorstarter.pl/en

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Project Social entrepreneurship development in the Baltic Sea region SEBS2 is executed under the Erasmus+ program and co-financed by the European Union.

Responsible for the content solely publisher/presenter; it does not reflect the views of the European Commission or any related financial body. Those institutions do not bear responsibility for the information set out in this website.

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15 collaboration tools for productive teams

In these time during the COVID-19 epidemic alot of social enterprise teams are working from home. To stay on top of their game they’re looking to enhance, now more than ever, ways to collaborate online. Here is a list of some collaborations tools to help your teams.

Communicate with your team: Flowdock, GoToMeeting, Slack, WebEx to keep the communication channels open with your teams from instant messaging to video calls.

Managing your projects and tasks: Asana, Dapulse, ProofHub, Redbooth, Trello, Wimi, Mialnote are critical project management tools to help coordinate effectively and monitor task progress or keep track of objectives.

Create together: CodingTeam, Igloo, Google Doc, Quip assist where at times a task requires more than one person and collaboration is needed.

How do you choose between the different online tools available? Read the full article for details and tips.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Impact Startup Denmark – new development programe for social entrepreneurs

Den Sociale Kapitalfond (The Social Capital Fund) and Industriens Fond (danish Industry Fund) are behind Impact Startup Denmark – a new development programe that aims to professionalize entrepreneurs and match them with impact investors, so that they are ready to create new solutions for the benefit of society and the competitiveness of danish businesses.

The idea behind new program, Impact StartUp Denmark, is that social entrepreneurs and impact investors team up to create solutions to the welfare challenges.
Denmark needs ambitious social entrepreneurs, who offer sustainable solutions to some of the welfare system’s biggest challenges. At the same time, Denmark need impact investors, who can help scale the strongest entrepreneurs and bring them further on the way to growth and exports.

That is whyDen Sociale Kapitalfond is now looking for social entrepreneurs, who will participate in the new intensive accelerator program:

“The market for social entrepreneurs and impact investors is large and uncultivated, and a path needs to be identified where the two parties meet in a professional arena and where the parties can jointly develop the companies so that they create even greater social value,” says Birgitte Frost Mathiesen, partner and director inDen Sociale Kapitalfond.

At the same time, there is a growing need for new business models, partnerships and networks, and the need for impact investors has never been greater:

“Entrepreneurs play an important role for Denmark and can help develop the community and create new export adventures. But in order for entrepreneurs to be successful, it is crucial that they be matched with talented investors, so that together they can take a joint responsibility in a sustainable and positive transition – and at the same time create a profit, ”says CEO of Industriens Fond, Thomas Hofman-Bang.

Once the social entrepreneurs are found, Impact StartUp Denmark will be launched. Entrepreneurs participate in a boot camp, a pitch day, a six-month accelerator course, a demo day where entrepreneurs meet new investors, and eventually a 12-month support program with couseling and handpicked advice.

To be eligible to participate in Impact StartUp Denmark, the business of the social entrepreneur must have potential for scaling beyond Denmark’s borders. The entrepreneur must be registered with a CVR number and the business most be between 0-5 years.

FACTS:

Impact StartUp Denmark is supported with 5 million DKK from Industriens Fond and serves as the Danish part of an overall Nordic initiative focusing on social entrepreneurship and impact investment.
Learn more about Impact Startup in Finland here

Social entrepreneurs are characterized by having a business model that offers solutions to some of the welfare state challenges, while impact investors are investors who place their investments in companies run on the basis of a desire to exercise corporate social responsibility.

Interested impact investors and entrepreneurs can read more about Impact StartUp Denmark here (in danish)
For further information contact:

Birgitte Frost Mathiesen, Director and partner, + 45 28 49 00 80 – bfm@socialkapitalfond.dk

Stine Lomholt, Business Development Manager, + 45 23 73 15 83 – slo@socialkapitalfond.dk

RIA Cyber ​​Protection Guide for Entrepreneurs

This week, the Information System Authority (RIA) launched a new cybersecurity campaign, ‘Be especially IT-conscious during the emergency situation’, which warns people about cyber threats related to teleworking. All tips for safe distance learning and working at a home office are gathered on the website www.itvaatlik.ee.

‘Due to the current emergency situation and the measures necessary to prevent the coronavirus, a large part of the Estonian population has switched to teleworking and distance learning, using a wide range of technical tools and platforms. This has created favourable conditions for cybercriminals to take advantage of insecure communication platforms chosen due to haste, careless data sharing, and the lack of face-to-face communication. That is why we launched a campaign which helps to reduce the risks of working from home under the ‘IT-vaatlik’ brand, which has been well-known already since autumn,’ said Margus Noormaa, Director General of the Information System Authority.

The information is intended for people who, in one way or another, come into contact with teleworking and distance learning. ‘Ole IT-vaatlik’ reminds computer users to check who they are emailing, update the software on the devices they use for teleworking, avoid suspicious attachments and links, and take care of their personal information.

Simple advice in Estonian and Russian for safe teleworking during the emergency situation can be found on the website www.itvaatlik.ee

The government supported the proposal to allocate additional funds from the reserve allocated for coping with the coronavirus crisis to RIA’s cyber threat prevention campaign ‘Ole IT-vaatlik’.

 

More info: https://itvaatlik.ee/kkk/