<< Background >>The partnership believes that this is an ideal moment to implement REACT!. The current context all over Europe is a context of shift to a more sustainable society, and the European Skills Agenda clearly indicates the need to provide young people with innovative and green skills, and enable them to REACT! to the current environmental and societal challenges.Young people in Europe are aware of these challenges and certainly have the aspiration to make society more sustainable. However, youth workers in most places do not have the right tools and curricula to support them. This is the case in the 5 countries of the partnership: Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Although these countries have placed sustainability and circular economy as priorities to address by their most recent long-term strategies, there still is much to be done to put this into practice. Youth workers need to have at their disposal educational resources covering topics such as innovation and entrepreneurship, green skills on circular economy (CE) and personal development, and be empowered to support young Europeans make the most of their aspiration to make their society more sustainable, and acquire relevant skills for the future. For this reason, the partnership has decided to develop an innovative curriculum, focusing on social entrepreneurship, CE and personal development, addressed to youth workers of the 5 target countries. The curriculum is composed of online learning resources, guidelines for trainers and inspirational materials produced with the engagement of young entrepreneurs.<< Objectives >>REACT! aims to achieve the following objectives:1. To develop a set of innovative learning tools for youth workers on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development, to upgrade their capacity to transfer to young people skills required by the current labour market and overall context; 2. To provide online learning on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development to a group of 100 youth workers in the 5 countries; and, 3. To build the capacity of a group of 15 youth workers to train and transfer to young people skills on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development<< Implementation >>The partnership is going to implement the following activities:Organise 4 Transnational Project Meetings to adjust objectives and create synchronicity and flow and strengthen institutional ties of the consortium members;Produce 1 State of the art needs assessment report on non-formal education offers on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development for young people in the 5 target countries (R1);Produce 1 Online learning curriculum covering basics on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development for youth workers/organisations working with youth (R2);Produce 1 Resource guide to train youth on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development (R3);Produce 1 set of inspirational videos of young entrepreneurs from the target countries (R4);Engage with 100 youth workers that will enrol in the online learning curriculum;Select 15 youth workers and deliver an international LTT - Bootcamp in Ireland (with preparation webinar previously) and provide skills to the 15 youth workers to organise a local training with young people;Organise 5 Multiplier events held for overall 250 people; and Conduct an online wrap up Festival at the end of the project.<< Results >>The project will produce four concrete Results, as follows: R1 - State of the Art & Needs Assessment);R2 - REACT! Toolkit online resource on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development;R3 - Resource Guide: training guide for youth workers on CE, social entrepreneurship and personal development; andR4 - Inspirational videos made ”for and by young people” as a complementary and inspirational tool to R1 and R2 with testimonials from young entrepreneurs. In addition, the project expects to: Develop a transnational community of youth workers and young entrepreneurs across 5 countries and provide a space for them to share experiences, good practices on CE non-formal education, and strengthen ties for future collaborations; Allow youth workers to put in practice the skills acquired by the project by conducting an activity with young people at the local level;Create a space for consortium partners to exchange non-formal education methodologies and practices on CE for young people, and strengthen ties for future collaborations; andEnable project partners to strengthen their connections with stakeholders working with young people in their and other countries in view of future potential collaborations.

"How much do coworking spaces really contribute to developing competences, social inclusion and employability for young people? How and how much can they promote solidarity, youth protagonism, involvement, participation? If instead, as it looks like, these experiences are not so effective, which innovations could improve the impact of what is promoted by these “new spaces” for youth?In business-oriented coworking spaces, the management often ends up considering social impact as a side effect and/or a corporate social responsibility - based marketing strategy. Employees in charge of managing spaces, activities and projects may be skilled on new labour market trends, but often, not very much on connecting with the community at a local level.In social innovation-oriented coworking spaces, the management instead might use some business strategies just to get a sort of quality award in the eyes of their users. Employees in charge of managing spaces, activities and projects are often expert in social intervention but so, they may be more inclined towards looking for public support and funding, than towards entrepreneurial attitudes and self-sustainability.Successful experiences show that interaction among the users/inhabitants of a coworking space cannot be left to chance; specific methodologies and tools are needed, in order to improve interaction and synergies among these users: some social work must be put in motion here. More often, although, coworking spaces tend to become closed systems which only relate to labour market, limiting social interventions to simple marketing value or avoiding them completely. Co(youth)working project idea is to empower coworking spaces and networks to reach a relevant social impact on their local context, to assure economical self-sustainability and support effective development of entrepreneurial skills by youth hosted in the spaces. We aim at opening coworking spaces to new relationships, putting them in an ongoing dialogue either with their young users, and with surrounding local communities, improving participation, active citizenship, local development of human and social capital.Specific project objectives are:1. outline the role of the youth worker as a key figure in the management of a coworking space, identifying the necessary skills and the training and development path for them; in fact we aim at enhancing the animative actions and the youth work approach to support young entrepreneurs and new startups on the one hand, and human, social and economic development of local communities on the other;2. propose a tool, a useful guide for organizations that want to open a coworking space (or innovate the existing one), that is the synthesis of the partners' experiences: a collection of recommendations, tools, activities, possible resources and risks (and possible solutions to be adopted to overcome them);3. enhance the role and involvement of public bodies and territorial networks in the management of coworking spaces, so as to facilitate dialogue between stakeholders, provide a broader view of the society in which they are inserted, monitor the processes in their continuity, coherence and long-term impact on the territories;4. define a cross-sector strategy for coworking spaces management, combining attention to social impact with support to development of startup enterprises hosted in the spaces.The actions will develop in 3 phases:PHASE 1 - September / December 2019:in this phase we will build two working groups that will collect (October) the characteristics of the coworking spaces / networks involved and the indicators to evaluate their functioning; a local survey activity will follow, which then (December) will be pooled to build a unique benchmarking.PHASE 2 - January / May 2020:in this phase we will carry out a training course (January) on the skills (hard and soft) that a youth worker must possess to animate a coworking space, transforming it into a relevant subject for the social impact on the territory and ensuring together the economic sustainability. Following what was learned during the training course will be tested in different territories (until April), and then meet in a mid-term meeting (May) in which the coordinators monitor the progress of the project.PHASE 3 - June - December 2020:in this phase the guidelines will be built (June) to be disseminated in the territories (until October). A final event will then be held (November) and a final evaluation and follow-up meeting, in the hypothetical form of a training course for future operators, to create a network of ""social oriented"" coworking spaces."

MIG.EN.CUBE is set to take into account the current critical issues in fostering migrant entrepreneurship in Europe, characterized by a fragmentation of incubation programs targeting migrant entrepreneurs, the diversity of actors that provide incubation activities, a strong focus on the “demand side” (i.e., migrant entrepreneurs) but a lack of training opportunities and exchange of best practices for incubation professionals targeting this group, and the super-diversity of (would-be) migrant entrepreneurs. MIG.EN.CUBE thus seeks to enhance the knowledge and competences of diverse incubation professionals dealing with (would-be) super-diverse entrepreneurs, so as to foster the opportunities for migrant entrepreneurs to learn and experience how to start and growth a successful business. The project aims at (1) increase the understanding of specific incubation needs of migrant entrepreneurs and of the competences required for incubation professionals working with them; (2) systematize and share best practices for innovative incubation programs for migrants across Europe; (3) provide incubation professionals with new, tried-and-tested materials and tools for advising, training, performing, and assessing incubation for migrant entrepreneurs.MIG.EN.CUBE is innovative in contents because it develops and strengthens relevant and high-quality knowledge and competences of incubation professionals, accounting for the super-diversity of migrant entrepreneurs and the diversity of incubation professionals’ profiles, extending the offer of high quality learning materials and training opportunities tailored to individual adult learners’ needs. The project is innovative in approach, because (1) it assumes that not only migrant entrepreneurs should be supported, but also the incubation professionals working with them (matching supply- to demand-side); (2) it works with a bottom-up logic, developing materials based on a scientific assessment of best practices and real training needs of targeted beneficiaries; (3) it is based on the collaboration between academic institutions, private companies, and civil society bringing complementary perspectives and competences. MIG.EN.CUBE is innovative in methods, because it proposes the development of learning materials based on a bottom-up approach and interactive processes, and the use of methodologies focusing on the development of transversal competences and action learning. Transnationality is a key feature of MIG.EN.CUBE, which brings together 3 European countries (Italy, France, The Netherlands) characterized by different immigration flows and legal frameworks and 2 European countries providing pan-European approach (Austria and Belgium). The methodology of the project is designed around four main phases: (1) the preparation phase, carried out before the beginning of the project and within the first three months of activity, to provide with a strong background to start; (2) a scanning and assessment phase, which aims to increase the public understanding of specific training needs of migrant entrepreneurs and incubation professionals dealing with this group; (3) the production phase, which regards the development of training contents targeted to incubation professionals; and (4) the dissemination phase, aimed at achieving impact and relevance. A total of 453 persons will be directly targeted in project activities, as involved in qualitative and quantitative research for Synoptic Scan and Training Needs Diagnostic Assessment, development and piloting of “Incubating Migrant Entrepreneurs” MOOC and “The Inclusive Incubator” Guidebook, national Dissemination Seminars and European conferences. Around 7,000 persons will indirectly benefit from project activities through extensive dissemination actions and long-term impact of intellectual outputs. The main project results will be the MIG.EN.CUBE Synoptic Scan Research Report, the Library of current practices to incubate migrant entrepreneurs, the Training Needs Diagnostic Assessment Research Report, the “Incubating Migrant Entrepreneurs” MOOC and “The Inclusive Incubator” Guidebook. Collateral outcomes will be dissemination and exploitation tools, such as public presentations, scientific and non-scientific articles. In order to ensure the long-term availability of all project results, they will be placed on the project website, which will store virtual resources (digital) under open access for 2 years after the end of the project, other virtual repositories, and connected to EPALE platform. The impact of the project is expected to be significant both numerically and in terms of results from building capacity of the target group in the long term, also aided by a relevant Associate Partner (UNCTAD). The project will strengthen the efficacy of support programs linking entrepreneurship and migration, focusing on the development of relevant high-quality knowledge and competences for operators in the supply-side and policy-makers.

The project Women Entrepreneurs in Regional Inclusive Ecosystems - WeRIn aims at making entrepreneurship education and support programmes more inclusive at both ends of the story; at the time when female students receive the entrepreneurship education, and when they transcend the boundaries of HEIs, thus bridging the apparent “Valley of death” from entrepreneurship education towards the incubation of ventures from female students in HE and women that after graduation have decided to embark in an entrepreneurial career, hereafter denominated graduate aspiring women entrepreneurs. The goal is to make women feel invited to the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. The question is: How can we enhance the inclusivity of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and embeddedness of female entrepreneurs therein, through the design of more inclusive academic and non-academic entrepreneurship education and support programmes? This is the main question that we want to address throughout the project. WeRIn covers the concept of inclusion of entrepreneurship education and support programmes from two main dimensions: 1) the gender and the 2) the structural. Being (gender) inclusive is making women to feel invited to the entrepreneurship scene, while being (structural) inclusive means to transcend the boundaries of HE into the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region and to ensure that female entrepreneurs can become truly embedded in these ecosystems. The notion of embeddedness entails having access to and being involved in regional networks and benefiting from the resources available therein. These dimensions will constitute the main constructs to guide our research and operationalise our efforts in fostering more inclusive regional entrepreneurial ecosystems.