The SEntrA project

Researchers: Paul McCusker, Lecturer, Faculty of Business

Funding: The full budget for the SEntrA project phase 1 was €170,360

Project Aim

The SEntrA project aims to promote social entrepreneurship among young people by offering a set of non-formal learning tools supporting youth workers and organizations to actively enhance youth social entrepreneurship. The participants directly involved in the project are 145 Youth workers, 100 young people from partner countries and 100 relevant stakeholders such as youth organizations, social entrepreneurship promoters, NGOs, public authorities, social enterprise incubators, universities etc. Partners, ARIS – A Really Inspiring Space-C, Fundatia Danis-RO, Norsensus Media Forum-NO, Asset Technology-GR, Atlantic Technological University, Donegal (formerly LYIT).

Specific objectives

  • Develop research-based knowledge on the social entrepreneurship landscape mainly but not exclusively in the five European countries involved (CY, GR, RO, NO, IE), with a particular focus on youth entrepreneurship and with regard to current policies, key trends, legislation & development issues (based upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals).
  • Develop a manual in alignment with the EntrComp Framework of the EC that will describe the framework of the relevant skills & competencies, as well as the methodologies, way of thinking and environment required to support youth acceleration in social entrepreneurship
  • Design a training toolkit as an educational tool that can be used by youth workers & youth organizations to prepare young people to develop social enterprises (aiming at reaching concrete Sustainable Development Goals)
  • Develop an online learning platform providing free access to young people, youth workers/organizations and decision-makers/stakeholders to create and develop social businesses and enterprises.

Learning resources & project outputs

  • Offer valuable transnational training to youth workers in an existing accelerator that may be transferred in other EU countries.
  • Create a dedicated Vlog that will feature video stories and will promote success stories from the participating countries about social economy, social entrepreneurship and social enterprises to inspire the target audience
  • Propose valuable public policy for boosting social entrepreneurship among young people. The specific policy brief will be disseminated and promoted among decision-makers

The project aims to increase awareness among young people, youth workers and youth organisations on the potential of social entrepreneurship, and will cultivate and nurture the social entrepreneurship concept among all target groups.

Phase 2: How to Build Social and Civic Incubators for Young People – The Civic Lab for Young People

Follow on from the SEntrA project Duration 01/01/2023 – 30/03/2023. Budget €8,160.

Using the legacy of the SEntrA project, with CLYP (Civic Labs for Young People) project, will start to explore the idea of developing social and civic incubators for young people in our communities, so that we can build creative confidence of the young people and the trust and support of relevant stakeholders. Through this professional development activity, designed as a networking event among various stakeholders reunited through the dissemination and multiplication activity of the SEntrA project, we aim to professionalise the youth sector by exploring ways of building its capacity to develop civic labs for young people in partnership with universities, the business community and the social innovation sector.

The objectives of the project are:

  • Support youth workers to share knowledge, information, best practices, ideas that could help the partners to build further youth projects that can address the lack of creative confidence of young people and stakeholders’ lack of trust in young people’s capacities.
  • Equip youth workers with competences related to social entrepreneurship, social innovation and civic and social incubation models.
  • Facilitate youth workers’ efforts in advancing some prototypes for building the youth sector capacity through community partnerships that will support the development of social and civic incubators for young people.

The project directly targets the general objectives of Erasmus+ for the mobility of youth workers, investing in the youth workers’ competences, thus the professional development of youth workers, for the benefit of their organisations and communities. Besides, the project contributes to the increasing capacity of the partner youth organisations, supporting them to better serve young people in responding to the current societal challenges.