Could youth contribute to the development of social entrepreneurship and in which way?
Youth participation in every society is important in terms of education, employment, healthcare, social integration, human rights, active citizenship etc. In this respect, it is important to find ways of activating young people in Macedonia to be motivated and inspired for making future social changes.
Inspiring and motivating youth for community development and solidarity is the base of the 4 workshops that were organized in the period of December 2021 – April 2022 in coordination between Social Integration & Empowerment Centre – SIEC (www.siec.mk), project Support to Social Enterprises and the National Centre for Support of Social Entrepreneurship.
The 1st workshop was a part of the local project for the promotion of social entrepreneurship with the support of the Aerodrom municipality in 2021, whereby youth, companies, municipalities, and civic society need to get informed on the benefits of social entrepreneurship and in which way it can contribute to the community socio-economic empowerment.
The 1st workshop with youth in 2021 was used to promote the project Support to SE activities (incluand to present the principles of the Barka Foundation, Poland and how they support vulnerable groups of citizens, developing social businesses all over Europe, Africa, and Canada.
The 2022 follow-up workshops as an added value to the local SIEC project are the result of the combined enthusiasm and coordination of SIEC and EPTISA teams, the ASUC secondary school youth and their teacher who strongly believe that small community actions can make bigger gradual changes in the society.
The March workshop hosted the social enterprise KOPCE, Red Cross, with the aim to inspire the youth to donate clothes to people in need and to learn more about ethical consumerism. Students were motivated to donate and buy clothes from the social enterprise and so support indirectly the people in need in their employment and purchasing affordable clothing items.
During the implemented workshops, young pupils have provided several relevant ideas on how they could make their contribution to the community in terms of supporting Roma families, elderly citizens, children with special needs and even Ukrainian refugees, which will be developed in concrete actions and future projects, in coordination between SIEC, ASUC school the project Support to SE and the BARKA FOUNDATION from Poland. Together, we will promote solidarity and mutual support in the country and in the region.
The youth initiative contributes to the EPTISA/ Barka project in terms of promotion of social entrepreneurship among youth whose participation is one of the key elements relevant to building social entrepreneurship and a strong eco-system in the country. For this purpose, the project team cooperates with schools, universities, professors, youth hubs and civic society to support youth activation in social entrepreneurship and will continue to do so in the future.
