The Social SEED Erasmus+ project partnership composed of partners coming from Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland (BISER – Partner of the SocialEnterpriseBSR network)  is glad to announce the conclusion of the first phase of the project, during which a methodological guide to design a social incubator for people at risk of exclusion has been produced as first output. Even though this is the result of another E+ project, we believe that sharing the results and best practices coming from 4 EU countries, with only one being from the Baltic Sea Region, may benefit all BSR and Nordic SE stakeholders.summary1

With the support of private companies, the project proposes an innovative approach to social incubators, creating a bond of interconnection between the world of business and socially disadvantaged groups. Entrepreneurship is thus the key, the opportunity to transform radically one’s own path. As expressed by economist Muhammad Yunus and cited in our title People should wake up and say “I am not a job seeker, I am a job-creator”.

In order to achieve this intellectual output, specific activities of theoretical and empirical research have been carried out, in order to detect and analyse the current situations with a specific focus on the needs and limitations of these groups.

In this regard, the Project coordinator Álvaro Gil Vilacoba said:

“The strategic partnership has analysed existing incubators in Europe to determine the main characteristics that a project of this type should have. Factors such as the optimal incubation period, the number of projects incubated per call or the offer of training content has been determined and will be considered in future actions. The type of relationship that should exist between the different members of the incubator and the main tools that will be used in the training process has also been determined. At the same time, the current offer of public incubators has been analysed and the difficulties that our target group must face in direct competition with other people”.

The main results of the researches above mentioned put in evidence that enterprise creation is a complicated mission, during which are requires many resources, a wide network and a lot of skills and knowledge. In addition to this, challenging situations that people at risk of exclusion may face must be considered, due to health and economic factors, as well as to training and connections resources.
According to this view, it has been highlighted what social incubators must consider, designing their support to people at risk of exclusion with a well-considered and technical approach.
This process of analysis also shed some light on the direction to follow and on the tools to use in the project next steps, during which the incubation methodology will be validated in order to create new opportunities and new development models based on inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

A short version of the Intellectual Output 1 Report is now available, which shows the main findings for each of the established activities. It’s possible to download the document in English, Spanish, Italian, German and Polish at the link: https://socialseedproject.eu/outputs/

Moreover, in the following link, it’s possible to download the whole document, that collects all relevant aspects related to the creation of a social incubator for groups at risk of exclusion https://socialseedproject.eu/download/175.

 

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. 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.