<< Background >>Prisons are meant to punish the criminal, compensate the victim and to rehabilitate dysfunctional individuals to improve their lives and prevent them from committing further crimes (Centre for Entrepreneurs, 2016). Given the large numbers of incarcerated people in prisons in Europe (Germany 79, Ireland 82 and Romania 107 per 100.000 inhabitants), as well as the fact that there are high rates of recidivism for former prisoners (35% in Germany, 38.4% in Romania, 55.2% in Ireland), there is a great need to understand better the reasons for relapse among released prisoners and to create enhanced mechanisms for preventing further crimes. Research has shown that one crucial success factor for reducing recidivism can be reintegration into work (e.g., Chappell, 2004; Costelloe & Langelid, 2011). The solution sounds very simple, but there are multiple caveats attached to it for ex-prisoners: For example, there is a negative attitude of employers towards prisoners, which some attribute to stigma (e.g., Cooney, 2012), which makes it very difficult to find any employment for people that have a criminal record. More recently, people have tried an alternative approach to reintegration into work i.e. reintegration through entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship programs, which were often developed in and imported from the USA, have tried to foster entrepreneurial thinking and action in prisoners so that post-release they can become more autonomous and self-determined through self-employment rather than depending solely on employment. Although the idea seems plausible at first sight, such entrepreneurship trainings come with their limitations. For example, in a prison environment, using traditional teaching and training methods, it is almost impossible to have a competency- and project-based training approach, as prisoners are not able to test out their ideas whilst still being incarcerated. Similarly, the few available educational programs regarding entrepreneurship for prisoners have mainly focused on the business mindset approach aimed at delivering basic knowledge on running a business. However, recent research (Frese et al., 2016) has shown that in addition to this business approach, a psychological mindset approach to entrepreneurship education is fruitful in helping to generate the entrepreneurial intentions of people. These studies have been primarily conducted with students, however, it seems logical that such an approach would be especially beneficial to prisoners as it is crucial to work on prisoners’ attitudes, motivation and self-efficacy for them to develop a long-term oriented way of thinking and acting.Lastly, traditional prison entrepreneurship programs are failing to translate the knowledge gained during imprisonment into action once prisoners are released. Hence, it is important that an entrepreneurial training program for prisoners takes a multidisciplinary approach and includes the post-release phase. Of course, educational programs need to start during imprisonment in order to lay the groundwork for future self-employment and ideally such programs can also utilize digital teaching methods for their sustainability. But once free (then) ex-prisoners will likely realize the challenges of enacting their entrepreneurial thoughts and ideas and will need personal guidance and coaching for following through with them. Although in many European countries there are support organizations that help ex-prisoners to deal with the basic challenges of life including finding work, such organizations lack the knowledge and training in respect to entrepreneurial coaching for ex-prisoners. In European countries, such as Ireland, Germany and Romania, the increasing focus on entrepreneurship for prisoners has led to a growing need for evidence-based approaches to entrepreneurship training as a means for ex-prisoners to join the labor market.<< Objectives >>The overarching objective of the project is to design and evaluate a new integrated approach to an entrepreneurship education program for prisoners. These programs are evidence-based approaches to reduce the recidivism rate among prisoners, but given that most entrepreneurial ideas fail, a program that solely focuses on business aspects is not enough for achieving positive long-term effects. Thus, our new integrated and multidisciplinary approach aims at improving previous programs in three different ways:1. A multidisciplinary approach for the training, including fundamental training modules for reintegration.2. Integrate the psychological-mindset approach into entrepreneurial training programs, which might prove to be even more relevant to prisoners.3. Incorporate the post-release phase into the training by building capacity in community-based organizations for entrepreneurial coaching of ex-prisoners.More specifically by implementing the project we want to achieve the following goals:A. CREATING AN EVIDENCE-BASIS FOR PRISON ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMSWe want to create a transnational report that makes a strong case for more integrated approaches to entrepreneurship for prisoners. Hence, apart from addressing teachers, trainers and educators in prisons, and researchers, this report will also be targeted at political decision-makers who want to take decisive action to improve reintegration of ex-prisoners into society and work.B. TEACHING PRISONERS’ FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS THAT WILL FACILITATE THEIR REINTEGRATIONAs prisoners face multiple different socio-psychological problems and challenges after release we want to ensure that they are being equipped with knowledge they need concerning, for instance, accommodation, family issues, substance misuse, financial issues, etc. As these problems will likely occur and complicate life-planning, and in the worst-case lead to recidivism, preparing for them is crucial.C. FOSTER ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AMONG PRISONERS AND TRAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS As many prisoners face social stigma and prejudices when searching for a job, this project wants to raise awareness for alternative ways of reintegrating through work, i.e. through entrepreneurship. Apart from a business-mindset, prisoners also need a psychological-mindset approach to entrepreneurship to assure that they can work in an autonomous, goal-oriented and sustainable manner. As a result, trained prisoners will generate business ideas, which they ideally turn into a reality after release, thereby reducing the recidivism rates.D. BUILD CAPACITY IN COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL COACHING OF EX-PRISONERSReintegration organizations support ex-prisoners in finding a job, yet many lack the competencies for entrepreneurial coaching that follows entrepreneurship training during imprisonment. By creating an entrepreneurship coaching guideline, we equip staff members in these organizations to build capacity in coaching and consulting of these ex-prisoners, thereby expanding their offerings.E. RAISING AWARENESS IN THE SOCIETY AT LARGE FOR A MORE INCLUSIVE APPROACH TOWARDS EX-PRISONERS Prisoners face multiple prejudices when reentering society, both in the work place and private life. In order to raise the awareness of the public for this vulnerable group we want to create a multimedia dissemination strategy showcasing successful examples of ex-prisoners who have founded a company. INCLUSIVENESSThese goals can only be achieved by a multidisciplinary perspective and a holistic approach towards entrepreneurship for prisoners. This consortium, therefore, combines expertise from sociology, social work, psychology and business in planning to create a learning experience that reaches a large number of prisoners across Europe and motivates many of them to take steps for becoming self-employed after they are released.<< Implementation >>In this project, we aim to create a novel and integrated training approach to entrepreneurship for prisoners. Starting with an in-depth analysis of prisoners’ and ex-prisoners’ challenges to starting an own business after release, we will develop three digital teaching modules geared towards reintegration into society, i.e. the fundamentals for reintegration, the psychological mindset approach to entrepreneurship and the business approach to entrepreneurship. These training modules will be created with self-administered E-Learning in mind, but will also serve as a foundation for blended learning approaches in countries where E-Learning in prisons is still in its infancy. While these digital teaching resources will be geared towards prisoners (up to 12 months prior to their release), results produced in PR5 will be aimed at community-based organizations (CBOs) and associations dealing with ex-prisoners (i.e. after their release) to build these organizations’ capacity in the domain of entrepreneurial coaching of ex-prisoners i.e. by creating an entrepreneurial coaching guideline. Finally, the last output created in this project will be targeted at policy makers and society at large. An awareness campaign will be built around short videos, a podcast series and a case study that highlight the challenges for ex-prisoners trying to reintegrate into society and showcasing success stories that could also serve as motivation to many.To sum up, we will implement the following activities during the course of the project:1.MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION AMONGST PROJECT PARTNERS FOR CREATING PROJECT OUTPUTS GEARED TOWARDS A NOVEL INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAINING FOR PRISONERS AND EX-PRISONERSRegular virtual and transnational meetings of experts in the consortium will lead us to create a set of integrated multidisciplinary teaching and training materials for prisoners close to their release (up to 12 months before their release) as well as an entrepreneurial coaching guideline for ex-prisoners that is to be administered primarily by community-based organizations in the criminal justice system.2.PILOTING DEVELOPED TRAINING MATERIALS WITH PRISONERS We will begin with creating a solid evidence-basis for trainings, then generate manuals and teaching and training material before implementing them into a digital platform accessible from within prisons. These trainings will be both self-administered as well as face-to-face, and will enhance the skills and knowledge of prisoners and ex-prisoners in the domain of entrepreneurship.3.ENTREPRENEURIAL COACHING FOR EX-PRISONERSUsing the evidence-based entrepreneurial coaching guideline that will be developed in this collaboration, we will train community-based organizations to guide and coach ex-prisoners who have firm intentions towards the establishment of a successful and sustainable business.4.A BROAD AWARENESS CAMPAIGN FOR DIFFERENT GROUPS OF STAKEHOLDERSGiven the social stigma attached to ex-offenders, the project will implement a broad communication strategy to reach society at large (as potential customers of ex-offenders’ businesses) as well as policy makers, community-based organizations, and prisons to make a case for more entrepreneurial training of prisoners. To make a solid evidence-based case for more multidisciplinary approaches to entrepreneurship education in prisons, this awareness campaign will also include the transnational report produced in project result 1 (PR1) and will be broadly disseminated to a variety of stakeholders across the partner countries.<< Results >>For PR1, a transnational report on entrepreneurship education for prisoners will be created. To do so, the project partners will review the existing global academic literature on prison reintegration and prisoner entrepreneurship. Additionally, the report will incorporate a qualitative approach. Project partners will establish contact with prisoners and ex-prisoners and conduct interviews with them to get their view on self-employment and the development of entrepreneurial intentions during their time in prison. Furthermore, relevant stakeholders in each project country will be contacted and interviewed as well to include their view on the design of an effective entrepreneurship education tool which incorporates the business-mindset approach, as well as the psychological mindset approach necessary for entrepreneurial efforts to flourish. The transnational report will be disseminated through all available channels of the (associate) project and partners and will serve not only as the evidence-based foundation for the remaining project outputs, but will also raise the interest of relevant stakeholders in the project‘s objectives.PR2, 3 and 4 will target the prisoners themselves. We aim to have at least 60 prisoners participating in the designed courses across all project countries. The multidisciplinary entrepreneurship course will be piloted with face-to-face teaching and then shift towards a blended-learning approach or a pure digital learning approach, depending on the legal and administrative framework in the countries. It will consist of 3 modules, i.e. PR2, 3 & 4. For PR2, the project partners will develop a training kit concerning the most problematic areas for prisoners after their release. Seven awareness modules, ranging from accommodation issues to financial issues, will be discussed. Each module holds several activities for prisoners: reading texts, watching videos and self-evaluating exercises. In PR3, prisoners will develop the right mindset to become successful entrepreneurs after their release. Important issues, such as innovation, proactivity, self-control, time management and persistence, will be developed through self-directed activities such as reading texts and watching videos, which convey the educational content, but also through exercises and small workshops (depending on national/regional policies in prisons). In PR4, the participants of the entrepreneurship training will complete the business-mindset approach to entrepreneurship. They will work through the business canvas model, which will guide them through different considerations for enterprise, such as generating customer segments and key resources, and engage them to think about these domains.PR5 targets released prisoners on the one hand and on the other hand staff members of NGOs. During the project, a blended learning short course for staff members will be implemented which aims to enable staff members to consult and support ex-prisoners regarding the establishment of their own business. For this purpose, a step-by-step guideline containing effective entrepreneurial coaching techniques and skills will be developed. We aim to reach at least 15 released prisoners across all partner countries and just as many staff members. PR6 is part of the dissemination strategy of the project results and also serves as an awareness campaign for different stakeholders. Project partners will present key information on the challenges encountered by ex-prisoners upon release in graphic form via teaser videos, as well as produce a podcast series featuring successful entrepreneurs who were ex-prisoners. We aim to include at least six successful ex-prisoners from all partner countries. Furthermore, a real-life case study on prison entrepreneurship will be written and distributed on different channels. As all active and associate project partners will use their channels and networks to distribute these outputs, we are optimistic that over 1000 people will be reached