The project “EU4Youth - Unlocking the potential of young social entrepreneurs in Moldova and Ukraine” (in short, the EUnlocking project) helps to foster the social entrepreneurial potential of young people in Moldova and Ukraine by establishing a favourable ecosystem for social enterprises as well as by inspiring and supporting more young social entrepreneurs to develop and sustain their innovative solutions to the promotion of social inclusion and environmental sustainability across both countries.
The project is co-funded by the European Union under its EU4Youth Programme and implemented by a consortium including the Gustav-Stresemann-Institut (e.V) (GSI) - lead organisation (Germany), AXA Management Consulting (Moldova), ECO-RAZENI Association (Moldova), Egalite International (Ukraine), National Assistance and Information Centre for NGOs in Moldova CONTACT (Moldova) and Pro NGO! e.V. (Germany).
The project lasts in 30 months, from 1 February 2020 to 31 July 2022.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- to improve the legal framework for social entrepreneurship in Moldova and establish this legislation for Ukraine based on Moldova’s best-practices;
- to improve capacity of young social entrepreneurs in business administration, fundraising and advocacy activities for promoting social enterprises’ interests through the development of a Moldovan-Ukrainian network of young social entrepreneurs;
- to motivate more youth in Moldova and Ukraine to start social start-ups and recognise their contribution to social inclusion and reduction of inequalities;
- to strengthen relevant business support structures for young entrepreneurs in both countries, including start-up funding.
THE ACTION IN BRIEF
- Establish an active network of 500 social entrepreneurs contributing to the promotion of public-private partnerships in Moldova and Ukraine;
- Create an EcoHub supporting young social entrepreneurs, which will play an important role to stimulate mutual learning, information and best practice exchanges among young social entrepreneurs, as well as provide seed funding for the 15 best social start-up initiatives that focus on environmental sustainability and have proven records offering employment opportunities for marginalised youth;
- Opening of 6 Social Entrepreneurship Labs in six most depressed and remote regions in Ukraine, ensuring outreach to underprivileged youth including young women/single mothers;
- Raise public awareness on social entrepreneurship, integrate social entrepreneurship topics into the university curriculum, and support young social entrepreneurs to earn public recognition for their innovative efforts to tackle social exclusion, inequalities and environmental degradation;
- The project expects to benefit at least 1.000 disadvantaged young people across the two countries.
To get to know how this project promotes and supports social entrepreneurship in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, strengthens the cross-border cooperation and best practice exchanges, as well as learn how you could participate in the opportunities offered by this EUnlocking project, please visit here.
For further details and updates about the project in English, Romanian, Russian and Ukrainian, please visit the following websites:
https://euneighbourseast.eu/topics/eunlocking/
https://euneighbourseast.eu/projects/eu-project-page/?id=778
Facebook group “Social entrepreneurs in Ukraine”:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975764189209741
Facebook group “Social entrepreneurs in Moldova”:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/720308305199160
More project photos in Photogallery >>
Among hundreds of projects, our project "EU4Youth - Unlocking the potential of young social entrepreneurs in Moldova and Ukraine" - in short, the EUnlocking project, was one of the five EU-funded projects winning the Award for "Excellence in advocacy and policy dialogue" in Brussels on 11 October 2022.