"Through an innovative approach to social entrepreneurship, the project addresses two of Europe's main challenges: - youth employment; - social inclusion. In the EU-28 in 2018, there was an average of 3.4 million unemployed aged 15-24 and 22.4 million people in this age group in the labor market, according to the EU Labor Force Survey. This gives a youth unemployment rate of 15.2%. If we estimate the singular statistics of each of the member countries of the consortium of the YSEP project published in September 2019 on Statista, we find that the youth unemployment rate in Greece is 33%, Spain 32.2%, Italy 27.1% and France 19.2% ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/266228/youth-unemployment-rate-in-eu-countries/).In view of this situation, we are convinced that the social economy could be a way to go further and solve part of the problem of youth unemployment because it combines job creation and economic sustainability with a concern for equity, diversity and environmental goals. Indeed, we that, the fundamental principle to achieve social cohesion is the recognition of the true power of the youth community. This is why young people need to build on existing social entrepreneurship initiatives in Europe that have proven that existing resources in their local communities can be transformed into innovative social solutions to address challenges of young people's employment.The ""Youth Social Entrepreneurs Potential"" project aims to enable young people to develop their social entrepreneurship skills, critical thinking, civic and social skills and to acquire the skills needed to identify and value the resources of their local cultural and natural heritage in order to transform their business ideas into concrete actions while taking care of environmental sustainability and their compromise with the community.Project-specific objectives: 1. Promote a common understanding of the field of social entrepreneurship by exploring different concepts, formats, and models of social entrepreneurship (social enterprises, cooperatives, social economy vs solidarity economy, etc.).2. Facilitate the transfer of good practices and ideas from social enterprises, strengthen community spirit and increase the motivation of young people to participate in society by creating a set of existing local social entrepreneurship initiatives in each country.3. Helping young people with different situations learn how they can detect local needs and use their cultural and environmental heritage to launch a social initiative, by creating a European training methodology for Youth, modules, and training, learning materials and make them available in the form of open educational resources (OER). 4. Developing young people's entrepreneurial skills to identify resources and business opportunities within the local community and enhance cultural heritage, social and environmental skills, as well as the basic and cross-cutting skills, language and numerical skills.5. Share best practices and ideas on social economy initiatives in communities and create a best practice manual as a result of all project activities. The project's target groups are young people aged 18 to 29 who want to develop their business ideas while generating a positive ""return to society"". Needs were identified based on existing knowledge gained by some of the project partners from previous projects. Some of the challenges and obstacles identified are the lack of capacity to identify opportunities and resources within their local heritage, insufficient confidence in the transition to self-employment, lack of knowledge on how to balance for-profit objectives and ensure a positive impact on society (social, cultural, environmental, etc.), lack of support for social entrepreneurship in the region and lack and/or not up-to-date ICT skills. On the other hand, other young people may have knowledge of forms of self-employment, but do not have the information that it is possible to achieve economic growth while solving community problems. They need to develop their social and intercultural skills, critical thinking and responsibility to be active citizens in the communities where they live."

Global demand for accessibility continues to grow, due in part to the strengthening voice worldwide of more than one billion people with disabilities & important frameworks, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. From a private sector standpoint, the Convention represents a unique opportunity to ensure equal access to information while achieving global harmonization of standards and economies of scale. Understanding that technology is the great equalizer for underserved populations & having a clear roadmap towards inclusive information & communications technologies (ICT), rather than simple compliance strategies, will benefit everyone in every industry.Specifically, the financial services sector is faced with the need to transform operations while providing truly exceptional customer experiences. Disruptive trends - such as the influx of mobile devices & global regulations- are driving demand for more human-centric technology, & creating an opportunity for innovation that are proving to be differentiators for the institutions embracing them. Consumer demand to be in control of interactions & information is forcing those in financial services to reconsider what’s important to stay competitive. By offering an online experience through any device personalized to individual needs, preferences & abilities, organizations can ensure they are reaching the broadest base of the population, especially the “unbanked” and “underbanked,” to enhance interactions & improve sales opportunities. Thus, access to & inclusion in financial services is crucial to poverty reduction & participation in economic prosperity & growth & development.Signing banks initially aims to point out the need of full financial inclusion to people with disabilities & to be more specific to d/Deaf bank customers. Persons with disabilities & d/Deafness have been amongst those traditionally marginalized from the financial services sector through a mix of inaccessibility, presumptions of limited need & capacity to manage finances, & mindsets that did not view them as a profitable consumer base. Signing banks emphasizes to the fact that this paradigm is now rapidly changing with growing evidence of their demand and need for access to services as well as the increasing income base of persons with disabilities around the world. Persons with disabilities and diverse abilities are demanding better and easier access to the entire range of financial services. Access to and inclusion in financial services is important to persons across the economic spectrum. And for persons with disabilities who live under the poverty line, it is essential that they are involved in financial inclusion initiatives & programs that will empower them and enable them to become financially independent.In order to reach these aforementioned outputs, Signing banks project has 3 main target groups: 1) the financial and banking world represented by RCCI, ESQUARED and by EOLAS, 2) d/Deaf people represented by Ergon and INNETICA; 3) adult educators with d/DEAF PEOPLE (30 per country).By creating a holistic strategy for embedding accessible technology across the entire enterprise from processes to product development to people – organizations can reinvigorate individual channels and harmonize them across the bank. Thus, Signing banks aims to provide a clear picture of the global forces at work that are transforming how employee- and client-facing applications, products and services are delivered to reach the broadest set of customers. The project also serves as a useful benchmarking source for governments and advocates based on its review of existing solutions already implemented around the world.The strategic objective of the project is to promote full financial inclusion to people with disabilities in particular to d/Deaf people, including traditional and alternative banking services, online payment services, financial transactions, and mobile banking.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:1) CREATE A REPOSITORY OF BEST CASES2) CREATE CLEAR GUIDELINES FOR BANKING INSTITUTIONS on how implement accessibility measures in their communication and products.3) CREATE A TRAINING for d/DEAF adults to improve their financial education and ability to communicate with financial institutions.TARGET:d/DEAF PEOPLE BANKING INSTITUTIONSeducators engaged with d/DEAF PEOPLEThe project will bring a clear EU added value since financial inclusion is a challenge faced by most EU countries. For achieving the project results, the international partnership established is essential because it brings complementary expertise for designing a programme with a high replication potential in other countries. Hence, the transnational collaboration established is essential because it enables partners to share good practices & combine knowledge towards the development of a replicable model for integrating d/Deaf people to European bankin

"<< Background >>The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2006, and signed by most of the EU country establishes, in Article 27 (on work and employment), “the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others”. This means that they should enjoy the same access to employment opportunities, remuneration and labour rights as people without disabilities. Similarly, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all United Nations Member States in December 2015, identifies people with disabilities as one of several groups of vulnerable people who must be empowered. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contained in the 2030 Agenda make explicit reference to disability in several labour market-related targets and their associated indicators.So, our main priority with this project is social inclusion as our target group – d/Deaf (in the scientific literature, deaf with the capital “D”; refers to those deaf people who feel a member of a linguistic and cultural community, instead of the one with the lowercase “d”; refers to those with hearing impairment but who do not feel part of the deaf community) young job seekers - is particularly vulnerable to social exclusion.In Europe-28 there are about 500,000 deaf young people. Their career aspirations do not differ from hearing youngsters. However, the obstacles that they need to overcome so that to achieve their professional goals are much bigger. There are many tools helping young people to effectively enter the labour market. Unfortunately, all or most of the mainstream resources in this field, are not accessible to d/Deaf young: as example texts do not meet their reading requirements, videos are not subtitled or translated into Sign Language, tools and other resources are inappropriate or inaccessible, mainstream support services, career counsellors, mentors, trainers, and youth worker have little or no experience with d/Deaf people. Our project is directed to young d/Deaf people, and to youth worker who works or would wish to work with d/Deaf young people. We would also like our project to have an influence on the people from the environment of young d/Deaf people and show them that it is worth supporting Deaf person in his/her professional aspirations.<< Objectives >>MAKE IT WORK project will develop project results - tools and training materials - designed to provide access to employment regulations in an inclusive and accessible way for d/Deaf young job seekers. With the products of the project, d/Deaf young job seekers will be able to access employment information in sign language and accessible written form to use in their daily working lives. So, they will have digital resources in sign language at their fingertips which they can refer to in their own time, replay and repeat, consult without outside help - in other words, they can use the project outputs to exercise self-determination in their employment relationships and working lives. At the same time, provide training and materials for a youth worker to give them the instrument to support the social and professional inclusion of the young d/Deaf job seeker. This is empowerment.We plan to do it by:1. developing a set of tools helping and guiding young d/Deaf job seeker in the process of entering the labour market (translated into their languages).2. giving young d/Deaf job seeker information about how to define what skills and competencies they already have, and about how and where they can improve them.3. giving young d/Deaf job seeker information about which skills and competencies are mostly required at the labour market.4. giving tools and instructions to youth worker about how to empower young d/Deaf job seeker and support them on their professional inclusion.5. encouraging career counsellors to reach Deaf young people and help them to enter the labour market effectively.<< Implementation >>• Communication via project management tool and skype (at least 4 meetings per year) • Establishing and maintaining the project office. This will be the centre of project management and administration, the place of collecting all documents connected with project implementation.• Hiring project administrative staff. There will be one project manager, who will be responsible for all administrative and management issues related to project management (at the level of organization and at the level of the whole Consortium). In each partner organization, there will be one administrative officer, who will be responsible for the administrative side of the implementation of the project in their organization.• Preparation of all necessary project documents: contracts with project partners, reporting templates;• Development of a Project Management Plan (main management document containing all rules which will be followed during implementation of the project – managerial, financial, quality assurance, the definition of roles of each partner, time management), setting out duties and responsibilities of each partner organization;• Setting up a financial plan (which is a part of project management plan), clear to all partners, which points out: payment schedules, necessary financial documents, and other issues related to project finances;• Settling deadlines and milestones – establishing a pattern that helps to achieve goals on time, as well as ongoing monitoring of the implementation of these (detailed Action Plan containing division of big tasks into small ones and timelines for each small task).• Skype management meetings (1-2 representatives of each partner institution – regular review on progress within the project, ongoing evaluation, minimizing the risk of non-achieving project goals).• Project Leader: monitoring project activities, monitoring work of partner organizations, project management• Project partners: coordinating fulfilling obligations assigned to each partner in a bilateral agreement,• Costs are related to project management and administration (salaries of staff, office costs, etc.• 20 (4 per partner) half-yearly reports (both narrative and financial) • 20 (4 per partner) half-yearly quality reports • 20 (4 per partner) half-yearly dissemination reports • 20 (4 per partner) feedback questionnaires - there are completed after each TNM • 5 sustainability reports (1 per partner)• 5 final reports (1 per partner) • 3 Project Results• 5 MEs• 2 Learning Teaching Activities• 4 TPMs<< Results >>MAKE IT WORK project will have 3 mains projects results: First project result: ""Analysis and Abstract"" This first product will be a digital survey (video in sign language with subtitles), analysis and transnational report (or abstract) to ascertain attitudes and knowledge levels regarding employment regulations among young d/Deaf job seekers. Second project results: ""E-accessible Toolkit""This package will be a set of materials for young d/Deaf job seekers. These materials will contain basic information (considering the specificity of the group, which is young d/Deaf job seekers) about how to define their strong sides (what skills and competencies do they already have), how to decide where they want to work, how to look for a job (and where), how to prepare application document, how to act during the interview, basic information about what to be aware of starting a new job. We will also add information about what soft skills and competencies are nowadays mostly wanted by employers from different sectors, and where young d/Deaf job seekers can find courses helping to improve these skills. These materials will be available in the form of publication and short videos. The whole materials will be translated into the sign languages of partner countries.In the framework of this package, training involving young d/Deaf job seekers will be organized.Third project results: “Breaking the sound barrier: Supporting deaf young people with careers guidance”.This will be a set of guidelines for youth worker – about how to empower young d/Deaf job seekers for their socio-professional inclusion. This will be publication available in English and languages of partners with summarizing in sign language. In this publication, we would like to show youth worker that fruitful work with young d/Deaf job seekers people is possible (even if they do not know sign language) but should be different than with hearing young people (not necessarily harder). And at the same time, this work can be satisfying and give impressive results – if only it is done considering the specificity of young d/Deaf job seekers and respecting their needs. We want to give them practical instructions about how to reach young d/Deaf job seekers, how to work with them, how to help them to increase their chances to enter the labour market."

<< Background >>According to the EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030, people with disabilities constitute 25% of the total European population. Despite of progress achieved in the last years, they still face considerable barriers in access to education, employment, recreation activities, and have a higher risk of social exclusion. The Covid-19 pandemic has amplified the obstacles an inequalities. In order to promote their participation as citizens, it is vital to highlight the potential of people with disabilities and special needs, promote an open and welcoming environment and help them find their place in the various fields of life. The emphasis must be on developing their autonomy and reinforcing their self-confidence and self-esteem through cultural, sports and recreational activities.In line with the trends to be more socially responsible and generate a social impact, more and more providers of sports and leisure activities are starting to design inclusive offers. In fact, in a society where consumers are increasingly aware about social causes, a significant part of them expects that brands and companies meet these expectations.More socially aware consumers, in combination with an ageing population creates opportunities for the sports and (active) leisure sector to design products and services with a positive impact on society. However, there is a considerable lack of knowledge regarding how to design and organize them appropriately for this particular target group.SPORTS INC. connects the needs of the “end-users” with the opportunities the current tendencies offer to those active in the sports and leisure sector, i.e. the direct target groups:- (Prospective) entrepreneurs wanting to set up a business in the fields of inclusive sports and leisure;- Existing entrepreneurs in the field of sports and leisure who want to make a turn-around and make a social impact through changing their current activities towards inclusiveness;- Civil society organisations working with and for people with disabilities, who want to set up their social enterprise as a means of giving their beneficiaries work experience and diversifying income, or train their beneficiaries to become (prospective) entrepreneurs.Existing and prospective entrepreneurs need encouragement and support in order to start new businesses or adjust the existing ones. They need to understand the customer needs and market trends, learn from best practices, network with fellow social entrepreneurs. They need to be able to fully understand the implications of such a service and/or product offer, i.e. the concept of what it means to be disabled or have special needs, and how this affects participation in these type of activities. They should also be aware of environmental factors such as accessibility (e.g. information, mobility and products). It is not about merely offering the service or product, the business strategy, internal processes and communication and marketing also need to align, to generate the necessary confidence among (potential) clients (“practice what you preach”). Civil society organisations that work with and for people with disabilities and special needs, need to extend their competences in the area of (social) entrepreneurship in order to fully support their members in their efforts to start own business, or to provide employment opportunities. The aforementioned trends, needs and challenges apply to the participating countries and organisations. The project partners either directly represent the target sector or support the target groups, and want to bring about a change in their own organisations and/or supporters. SPORTS INC addresses the aforementioned needs by raising awareness on the opportunities inclusive sports and leisure products and services offer, providing accessible learning opportunities and supporting the creation of social enterprises in the field.<< Objectives >>SPORTS INC. aims to develop a learning programme that gives (prospective) entrepreneurs, business owners and managers from the sports and leisure sector, as well as the civil society organisations, the knowledge, skills and competences to ideate, design, develop, implement and market a service (or product offer) adapted to the specific needs and circumstances of people with disabilities or special needs, either by turning around their existing business or create a new (social) enterprise.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES1) Set the scene and identify the challenges, context and case studies, through a mapping exercise and survey, defining skills and competences that will drive the learning programme.2) Develop an accessible and validated learning programme, with its content, assessment method and e-learning space, fit to the needs of the 3 main target groups.4) Enhance a systemic and strategic approach to seizing the opportunities of inclusive sports and leisure, either through the transformation of existing businesses from the sports and leisure sector, or by creating new (social) enterprises, by using (validated) action plan templates (1 for each target group).5) Ensure wider use, take-up and sustainability of results through comprehensive and wide reaching sharing and promotion activities and a robust exploitation plan.SPORTS INC. will create accessible learning opportunities for existing and prospective (social) entrepreneurs, including people with disabilities and special needs that will be reached through civil society organisations participating in the SPORTS INC. programme. The learning needs analysis and learning opportunities offered by the project will enhance and support the entrepreneurial drive, and at the same time help develop knowledge allowing to set up successful social businesses in the areas of inclusive sports and leisure.The existing and prospective entrepreneurs will acquire or improve knowledge and skills needed to understand the needs of their disabled & special needs clients, design and market inclusive and innovative products and services. Furthermore, they will learn how to align the internal processes, position and market their products/ services and analyse the social impact which is being generated. SPORTS INC. will also help extend and develop the adult educators’ competences of (social) entrepreneurship in civil society organisations, enhancing their abilities to support their members. These organisations will also be able to use the acquired knowledge in order to start their own (social) enterprises in the field and provide work-based learning experience to their beneficiaries, contributing to an increased employment of this vulnerable group.Persons with disabilities and special needs are considered the final beneficiaries of the project, as they will be the end-users of the inclusive sports and leisure activities offered. Moreover, whenever a civil society organisation sets up a (social) enterprise in the field, they are not only the end-users of the services, but can also be employed and gain work-based learning and job opportunities.Due to the inclusive nature of the project, special attention will be paid to involve participants with disabilities or special needs. The equal treatment and inclusion strategy will ensure health, wellbeing and equal treatment of all participants, and will explicitly pay attention to the involvement of those with disabilities or special needs. The accessibility of the learning programme will be ensured through its development (e.g. by using specific fonts, writing style, inclusion of international sign language translation for key parts) bearing in mind different abilities.Through sharing and promotion activities, SPORTS INC. will also help achieve improved communication and cooperation among education centres, organisations supporting people with special needs and those supporting social entrepreneurship, including the project partner organisations.<< Implementation >>The work of SPORTS INC. is structured around 3 Project Results (PRs). The methodology is based upon the SMART philosophy, meaning that every result and every activity has been defined on the basis of the following criteria: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. The 3 PRs are centred around a logical work-flow approach, which starts off with the design of a mapping exercise and the definition of the skills and competences needed, to result in the definition of the learning approach and the SPORTS INC. Curriculum and Syllabus (PR1). Based upon this result the SPORTS INC. Programme (PR2) is developed, consisting of the learning content, assessment method, and the digital training platform. To increase the impact of the learning process and facilitate its practical application, specific Action Plan templates with complementary tools and guidelines is developed for each of the main target groups of the project (PR3). SPORTS INC. Programme and Action Plans will be validated by representatives of the target groups. Their recommendations for improvements will be applied and lead to the final version of PR2 and PR3, which is used to increase the uptake of project results and its impact. The development of the Results will start from the beginning of the project and will end in Month 24, with the last 2 months dedicated to improving PR2 and PR3 based upon the results from the validation by the target groups. The Validation Methodology will provide guidance for testing and evaluation of the developed SPORTS INC Programme and Action Plans. The importance of the validation is acknowledged by including it as a separate activity in the PRs (PR2/A4 and PR3/A4). SPORTS INC. will organise 2 types of multiplier events:The partners in 5 participating regions will facilitate the development of (social) enterprise business plans and roadmaps by the participants in the pilot validation activities. The participants will go through the proposed learning path and apply the acquired knowledge to develop their plans and roadmaps. This set of events introduces them to the program and platform and motivates them to participate and create their own business plan. Regional/National closing multiplier events are planned in each partner country. During the events, the SPORTS INC. final outputs will be presented to the target group and stakeholders. The events will provide an opportunity to extend project dissemination, and encourage a wider set of the target group and stakeholders and use the outputs. PROJECT MANAGEMENT activities will support the achievement of the results through a participative management structure, well-designed management processes and the 6-monthly activity and financial reports provided by the partners. Quality evaluation with yearly quality reports and risk management provide further support. Within the management structure, a combination of different levels and means of communication will be used. A constant flux of internal communication will be maintained thanks to meetings, phone communication and email, and complemented with the project management tools. 5 transnational project meetings (3 face-to-face and 2 online) and bi-monthly online meetings will support project management, monitoring and quality control. SHARING and PROMOTION will start with the development of Dissemination plan (DP), to ensure each partner understands what is expected and how the partnership will share and promote the project over the lifespan of the project at local, national and European level. A number of sharing and promotion activities are foreseen, including the development of project website, social media presence, newsletters and leaflets, press releases and events.Exploitation Plan will be developed by the end of the project. It will define the strategy for exploitation in medium and long term, and will provide details on how the results of the project will remain available and updated.<< Results >>The materials and content developed in SPORTS INC. will give the prospective entrepreneurs in the field of inclusive sports and (active) leisure, as well as the existing entrepreneurs, business owners and managers in the sector, the knowledge, skills and competences to reap the benefits from the opportunities inclusive sports and leisure offer, i.e. to ideate, design and develop such an offer based upon a good understanding of the concepts and issues, and ensure alignment of their strategy, internal processes and communication.The usefulness and adequateness of the programme can only be ensured when it has solid foundations and roots in reality, i.e. based upon the needs and demands of the persons with disabilities and special needs (end-users of the offering) and closes the skills gap for the entrepreneurs and business owners. The PR1 Curriculum & Syllabus will analyse the context, needs and skills gap, and define the learning approach and objectives for the programme (PR2).PR2 SPORTS INC. programme will provide the target groups with the skills and competences to start a venture in inclusive sports and leisure or to turn around an existing business, and understand both the implications of offering services for persons with disabilities and special needs, as well as the business related aspects to be taken into account. Accessible learning space will be created with people with different abilities in mind (international sign language for core parts of the space) and ensuring that it is accessible for all.Achieving a real impact and ensuring that the learning actually results in concrete offers for inclusive sports and leisure, requires to go further then merely providing training. Action Plan templates (PR3) will support the prospective and existing entrepreneurs and businesses (including the civil society organisations as prospective ones) in this effort, and smoothen the path from ideation to actual product or service offer.Due to the attention that is paid to ensuring relevance for the targeted civil society organisations, a cascade effect is generated, as the creation of a (social) enterprise by them creates employment and learning opportunities for their beneficiaries, and gives them experience-based insights when supporting their beneficiaries in setting up their own enterprise.

<< Objectives >>Our objectives are to promote cooperation and exchange of experiences and good practices in the field of social inclusion and sexuality education for parents of people with disabilities (PWDs).<< Implementation >>We plan to implement:3 Transnational project meetings.3 Main results of the project:- Identification of barriers and social needs.- Course curriculum.- Empowerment guide and materials.5 Multiplier events.<< Results >>- Prepare and deliver sex education classes for parents with children with disabilities.- Develop question and answer materials for parents to help them provide accurate, rights-based information to their children.- Implement sex education sessions for families to encourage intergenerational dialogues.- Target parents through activities with the community or identified/guested.