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Guidelines for Social Hackathon events

Hackathons originated in the IT sector and refer to events designed to bring teams together for 48 hours of intensive development in competition to solve a specific problem or challenge. Traditionally hackathon events have focused on software and hardware development in the tech sector.

This very effective and intense development method was adapted to address the social and environmental challenges of local communities. The social hackathon method was developed within the framework of the CoSIE project (Co-Creation of Service Innovation in Europe) in Estonia.

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The Guideline for Social Hackathon Events has been conducted in cooperation of Tallinn University School of Governance, Law and Society, Võru County Development Agency and NGO Helpific teams.

Cosie guidelines: here

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Source: SEIP (Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program) online incubation program supporting social entrepreneurs, impact oriented innovators and purpose driven businesses with an extended international network of peers, experts and mentors.

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The 5 most promising non-governmental projects in Lithuania for 2021

The most promising projects of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Lithuania have been announced. They have become 5 initiatives aimed at solving various social or cultural problems that are important for individual regions of the country or for Lithuania as a whole. The selected projects will be further developed in a special NGO Accelerator program.

The most promising NGO projects were selected after an intensive six-month training session. At the beginning of the year, a total of 10 carefully selected teams from 7 Lithuanian municipalities – Trakai, Širvintos, Švenčionys, Kėdainiai, Ukmergė, Šalčininkai and Elektrėnai – started the NGO Accelerator.

After the NGO Accelerator Commission evaluated the presentations of the participants’ projects prepared after the training, presented at the Pitch day event, the following were recognized as the most worthwhile to continue participating in the project and developing the ideas presented:

Kėdainiai District Women’s Crisis Center, which has created the initiative “Emotional Resistance Center” aimed at crisis prevention and strengthening women’s mutual help and support.

Krakiai Community Center, which develops social business, the community café, which sells the products of local farmers, carries out social, cultural, educational and voluntary activities that foster the culture of the Krakiai region.

LASS Pietvakarių centras, which has created the project “Sense of Tourism”, is designed to get to know the world through the senses of the blind – those who see are invited to experience the environment by touch, taste, smell and hearing.

The association “Kėdainiai Samaritans”, which together with the help of a local businessman provides assistance to the long-term unemployed, prepares, trains them and integrates them into the social environment.

Lina Baublienė and her project “Gather Lithuania” („Surink Lietuvą“), which aims to encourage people not only to travel around their country, but also to get to know its history, local people and discover new forms of travel.

The most promising 5 projects of Lithuanian NGOs this year were selected by the commission of the NGO Accelerator project initiated by the Kurk Lietuvai alumni network, consisting of Arūnė Matelytė, GovTech CEO, Gediminas Almantas, Chairman of the Board of the Open Lithuania Foundation, Marius Čiuželis, Founder of Marius Čiuželis Support and Charity Foundation and Silver Line, Justina Lukaševičiūtė, Head of the NGO Development Division of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor of the Republic of Lithuania, Arvydas Plėta, Innovation Partner of Katalista Ventures, and Greta Monstavičė, Head and Co-Founder of Katalista Ventures.

Photo gallery: https://bit.ly/3ugsZDz

The communication campaign is part of the project “Courage to Act and Change” and is funded by the Lithuanian Rural Network Technical Assistance Facility under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas.

Article is prepared under the provided material HERE.

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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.

Reach for Change has launched ′′Toolkits′′ with a set of tools for social entrepreneurs

REACH for Change has launched ′′ Toolkits ′′ with a set of tools for social entrepreneurs aimed at guiding and supporting more social entrepreneurs, even outside their incubator program.
Reach for Change Toolkits has been developed with support from the Innovation Agency Vinnova in Sweden and is a beta version of the platform.

The Reach for Change Toolkits has been developed based on 10+ years of experience in selecting, coaching and supporting social entrepreneurs as they have sought to improve the lives of children and young people in 18+ countries around the world. The Toolkit is a way to support more brave and passionate social entrepreneurs towards building sustainable social businesses, and support the larger ecosystem of social entrepreneurship.

The Reach for Change Toolkits is a platform for social entrepreneurs who are creating a positive social impact and can find guidance to support their entrepreneurial journey through the stages Proof of Concept and Scaling Readiness.

To access the Toolkits you register on https://toolkits.reachforchange.org/en/. The registration is free of charge. We are looking forward to testing the platform rigorously and to improving it further.

UNICEF Innovation Fund: Call for frontier technology startups addressing Child Online Safety

UNICEF Innovation Fund: Call for frontier technology startups addressing Child Online Safety.
Up to USD $100,000 of equity-free seed investment from UNICEF’s Innovation Fund is available for companies building software solutions that respond to the four broad categories of digital risks to children: Content, Contact, Conduct and Contract Risks.
Deadline for application submission is 20 December 2020. More info:
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SEDETT project contributed to expanding the availability of educational materials for social entrepreneurs

SEDETT project aims to develop a digitally enhanced blended learning set of S.E. development, education and training tools SEDETT that can be used by, social entrepreneurs to learn how to assess their capacity development needs (IO1), educators and trainers in HE/FE and VET to deliver formal and informal courses of education and training (IO2).  The materials produced will be open access and also include an e-tool that can be used by social entrepreneurs to identify creative education methodologies for use in their organisational development (IO3). Thus the target groups for this project are students/learners, teachers, partners institutions, other educational institutions, research centres, employers and their associations, unemployed youth, education, careers and youth advisory agencies and policy-makers, new social entrepreneurs, existing social enterprises & their employees seeking to up-skill and achieve life long learning.

Here is a link to multiple educational materials and other outputs for the social entrepreneurs produced within the SEDETT project:

https://www.sedett.eu/result-and-outcomes/

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Reach for Change to connect social enterprises with IT entrepreneurs by joining Vilnius Tech Park

Reach for Change, an independent global nonprofit organization that originated in Sweden, is furthering its work to unite the business and social sectors by joining Vilnius Tech Park, the biggest startup hub in the region.

Reach for Change was originally founded as a partnership between the Swedish social entrepreneur Sara Damber and entrepreneurial investment group Kinnevik. Its founders understood that many people have innovative ideas on how to improve the lives of children and youth, and want to start a social enterprise to achieve their vision. However, these people often lack the funds, skills, advisors, and networks to make their vision a reality.

One of the core aims of Reach for Change is to bring together the best of the business sector with the best of the social sector. According to Jurgita Ribinskaite-Glatzer, the Country Manager for Lithuania, cross- pollination between these two fields creates excellent results. “We believe that the business and social sectors have a lot to learn from each other,” she explains, “and our programs have proved that when they come together, they can create the perfect chemistry for social innovation.”

Today, Reach for Change, through its network of incubator programs across 18 countries, is supporting 205 innovative, early-stage social entrepreneurs who are addressing a wide range of pressing issues for children. Through a mixture of seed funding, business development and network development support, Reach for Change is helping them to develop and scale their solutions, creating impactful, sustainable organizations.

Reach for Change was launched in Lithuania in 2014, where it currently supports 9 social entrepreneurs. And joining the Sapiegos tech park in Vilnius will be the first time globally Reach for Change has chosen to locate its operations in a startup hub. Ms Ribinskaite-Glatzer is confident the decision will bear fruit. “We know that networks of smart, brave and passionate people can really create magic, so moving to Vilnius Tech Park helps us surround ourselves with other people like us,” she comments. IT solutions boosting social entrepreneurship Reach for Change has a number of IT startup initiatives in its portfolio. For example, one of its Change Leaders – the term given to the entrepreneurs who direct Reach for Change projects – has designed an application that helps autistic children to manage their daily routine. Since children with autism are very particular about their schedule, this app makes sure that their day can flow smoothly.

More information is available here.

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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.