Why this toolkit?
In the pursuit of sustainable and inclusive development, social entrepreneurship has emerged as a powerful force for positive change, especially in rural areas. The unique challenges faced by these communities demand innovative solutions that address both economic and social dimensions. In this direction, we believe that, by fostering collaboration, accelerating the learning curve, and inspiring others, the act of sharing good practices becomes instrumental in building a more sustainable, equitable, and socially conscious future – this is where the “Social Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas” Toolkit comes into play.
In case you decide to use one of the methodologies presented in the toolkit, we would be more than happy if you could share your experience with us, by writing us an email.
HERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE TOOLKIT
The context
Guided by the values of inclusion, diversity, equity and empowerment, Associazione Joint organised a youth exchange called “Social Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas”, that took place from 7th of November to 15th of November in Ligonchio, Italy. A total of 25 participants (including 4 group leaders & 1 facilitator) from 4 countries – Italy, Spain, Bulgaria & France – participated in the mobility activity, out of which 10 participants (41.66% of the total number of participants) were identified facing fewer opportunities in their daily life, many of them with social issues in terms of social integration and the level of English close to zero.
Consequently, together with the team leaders through multiple online preparatory meetings, we designed the objectives and the methodologies, according to the needs shared:
- Teach participants more about entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and sustainability.
- Offer the opportunity to develop a group idea for a social enterprise to be developed in a rural area at risk of depopulation.
- Sharing best practices to combat depopulation of rural areas, starting with the younger generation.
- To share best practices and create together with a multicultural group strategies to promote youth participation, youth initiatives and youth-led social enterprises in rural areas.
- The program aimed to provide young people with a multicultural learning experience.
- To promote the Erasmus+ programme and international mobility opportunities.
In order to reach these objectives and taking into consideration the discovered language barriers, we decided to structure the activities as practical as possible, in order to make them as little based on verbal communication and to encourage the youngsters to express themselves creatively, while involving each partner & empowering the participants to take a step forward, through skills sharing. In this direction, we strongly encourage you to create personalised materials, based on the needs of your participants and we hope that you will find inspiration or even test the ones listed in this toolkit.
