Deadline: July 30, 2015
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and Fondazione CRT are accepting applications for the Entrepreneurs for Social Change, a one-year programme, which aims to support young social entrepreneurs in the Euro-Med region. The 2015 edition of the program will start with a training, held from the 18th to the 25th October 2015 in Torino, Italy.
This 8-day training will bring together 20 young people from the region to enhance the skills needed to boost a business idea with a social mission, and be a powerful motor of economic development and social inclusion. In addition to this training, the selected 20 young adults will receive feedback from peers, mentoring from experienced social entrepreneurs and will be matched with potential investors.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a social entrepreneur? Do you want to create social and economic opportunities for you and for others around you? Do you want to improve intercultural relations in your community and across the Mediterranean? Do you have the courage to challenge yourself? Then you might be who they are looking for!
Training Details
The training will focus on two main aspects of social entrepreneurship:
The business aspect, i.e. the framework of the social enterprise:
- creating a solid implementation plan;
- defining the target audience/clientele and finding the appropriate partners;
- being strategic and efficient in the search for funding / capitals;
- understanding the need to continuously network;
- ensuring sustainability of the social enterprise.
The social aspect, i.e. the content of the social enterprise:
- fully understanding the cultural and religious diversity of the context in which the social enterprise will be implemented;
- being strategic (finding a niche, responding to a need) in either leveraging this diversity or addressing challenges related to it;
- being equipped with the skills to prevent and address tensions or conflicts with links to cultural or religious diversity.
Benefits
- There is no participation fee.
- All participants will be provided with round-trip tickets to Torino as well as accommodation, meals and visa support.
- Participants are however, responsible for covering incidental expenses such as phone calls, meals outside of the training, souvenirs, local transportation for non-official portions of the program etc.
Eligibility
- Young adults between 18 and 35 years old from the Euro-Med region are welcome to apply
- Applicants should either already have a social enterprise and need to learn how to develop it or should have taken steps to start a social enterprise and want to learn how to build their business forward.
Selection Criteria
Organizers of the training will adopt the following selection criteria to shortlist the best 40 candidates: • Applicant’s background;
- Objectives of the social enterprise;
- Capacity to frame social context and diversity issues;
- Capacity to address cultural/religious challenges;
- Capacity of the social enterprise to generate employment;
- Financial sustainability of the social enterprise.
Application guidelines can be obtained here.
For more information, visit Entrepreneurs for Social Change.
