Our Shared Future is a project that provides skills to social entrepreneurs of the EuroMed and Middle East region. The project produces young entrepreneurs that can scale up and sustain their businesses and offers them a network to inspire each other and exchange ideas to trigger innovation. This year the theme is ‘Smart Cities’.
In the hands of skilled entrepreneurs, Social enterprises provide not just employment but also positive social impact in the community and on-going social innovation where community needs are left unserved by traditional public or private service. It is vital therefore to provide these entrepreneurs the business skills to realise their social innovation and to have a growing and positive impact on the community.
The project is about excellence, skills and innovation and hope. We select entrepreneurs with the business ideas to make positive social impact, and give them the skills to realise their goals through innovative online and offline means.
The project embraces not just the new business paradigm of social enterprise but also diversity and intercultural dialogue. As well as sharing ideas, the entrepreneurs get to know and appreciate the realities and cultures of the communities where each of them work. Our Shared Future is a story then of how Europe, north Africa and middle east is increasingly becoming a single community, rich in its diversity but united in a hopeful future. A shared future, where youthful enterprise contributes not just to GDP or employment figures but to personal fulfilment and wider social wellbeing. That is the value of social innovation.
A select group of social entrepreneurs are chosen from an international ‘call for ideas’ and are given the chance to follow an online business course given by Cisco Entrepreneur Institute. This interactive course with live tutoring from highly qualified trainers hones their business skills and refines their business plans. The entrepreneurs then meet in Malta over two days to receive further consultancy to finalise business plans, to consolidate the network and produce some policy recommendations. Sessions also aim to promote the transfer of innovative ideas in social enterprise between these regions. The group of 18 select entrepreneurs is varied, coming from countries including Libya, Egypt Spain, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Ukraine and the UK. The trainer and CISCO entrepreneur institute is based in the UAE.
The outputs of the conference will be presented in April 2013 in a biannual youth and citizenship conference, this year in in Marseille, France, where over 1000 youth will be participating.
For more information, please contact:
Stephen Benians
Director of Programmes, British Council Italy
+39 3355304045
