In a world that has many difficulties and obstacles for young people and their employment, social entrepreneurship can be a breath of fresh air. This sector of the economy is one of its rapidly evolving sectors. Social entrepreneurship can offer many opportunities to young people and help them develop their skills and professional experience. For this to happen, however, it is important that young people are constantly informed about the opportunities, challenges and innovations of this industry, so that they can take advantage of them and therefore evolve.
The project SEYW – The added value of Social Entrepreneurship in Youth Work is a bridge between Social Entrepreneurship and Youth. The main goal of the project is to analyze the meaning, methods and values of social entrepreneurship, as well as to highlight examples of similar actions that will motivate young people.
One of the methods used by the project to achieve this goal is study visits to social enterprises in partner countries – Italy, Luxembourg, France, Greece, Estonia and Bulgaria. During these visits, social entrepreneurs and representatives of organizations involved in the implementation of the project, have the opportunity to discuss, to express the opportunities and challenges faced by this industry in their country, and to share their experiences as entrepreneurs in the field of social entrepreneurship.
After the visits that took place in Italy, France and Luxembourg, it was the turn of our country. Representatives of organizations from Italy, Estonia, France, Luxembourg and Bulgaria had the opportunity to visit social enterprises in Larissa and talk to entrepreneurs of the industry. Specifically, they visited and were informed about the Social Cooperative Enterprises (KoinSEP): “Horippos”, “Exantas”, “Noon Egno” and “Agrotourism Cooperative of Women of Gonnoi – Antigonides”.
During the visits, the participants had the opportunity to get to know how social entrepreneurship works in Greece and in addition to understand the actions and goals of the visited social enterprises, but also to get to know the local tradition through the exhibitions of the Folklore Museum of Gonnoi, and the Museum of Cereals of Pappas Mill in Larissa.
Upon completion of the study visits to all partner countries, the participating organizations will work together to develop a report, which will contain all the information that the representatives of the organizations have collected during the visits. In this way, young people will be able to stay informed about the opportunities and challenges of social entrepreneurship at European level.
