YES

From 2021 to 2023 we are participating in the YES project (Youth Employment and Social entrepreneurship), co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission. It is a partnership with organisations from Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, China and Romania, that are putting their heads together to increase youth education and employability. This will be achieved in the form of social entrepreneurship.

The core of the project is to develop a strategic, locally-tailored youth entrepreneurship framework in the participating countries, so that young people have a chance to emerge from unemployment through entrepreneurship into self-employment. It thus wants to empower young people, from the ages of 18-24, with knowledge and skills on social entrepreneurship.

The main goals are:

  • To establish action plans to stimulate youth entrepreneurship and employment, i.e. much-needed local policy frameworks;
  • To establish local task forces, enlisting business, academia and decision-makers as active contributors to the action plans’ development, together with young people and youth workers;
  • To create a supportive environment on a local level to expand young people’s knowledge and entrepreneurial skills.

Kick-Off Meeting

Due to COVID-measures, the Kick-Off meeting for the YES project was held online on 18 August 2021. This virtual meeting was a good opportunity to connect with our project partners from Romania, Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria and China. The project was thoroughly explained and the key activities were planned. In this way, all organizations were ready to take the next steps in the project!

Rotary

Mark Williams, the President of the Rotary Club of Brisbane, project partner within this project, explained us on 17 October 2021 how Rotary clubs are organised in Australia and in Belgium. This ensures the involvement of local business people in Belgium in the subsequent activities as they possess both the knowledge and the experience to get an idea going. Thank you Mark for sending us a recommendation to our local Rotary club.

Internationale training : SPARK en FUEL

A group of young people from Belgium participated in the SPARK (18 and 20 October) and FUEL (25 and 27 October) trainings organized by QUT (Queensland University of Technology) from Brisbane, Australia. These programs want to empower young people with knowledge on social entrepreneurship, so that they can develop the necessary competences to take matters into their own hands. SPARK is a program that talks about the main principles of entrepreneurship and teaches young people a new way of thinking. FUEL is a course that helps young people with which steps they need to take in making their own ideas a reality. In the next step, we will try to implement these ideas on a local level.

TASK FORCE MEETINGS

On 13 October 2021 and 7 December 2021, we organized the first two task force meetings in Brussels. These task forces are the YES mechanism for coordination and communication with all stakeholders. They consist of representatives of local businesses, fundraising experts and experienced networkers. During the task force meetings, we discussed also the scholarly output planned by the project partners.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IDEA

We are fan of ecotourism, so we use our bicycle to travel around Belgium and the rest of Europe. We are the “smartphone generation”, so the hardest part of getting outside and onto your bicycle is having to leave the wall outlet where we charge our smartphone. Our dream is, when we arrive on our camping spot or in the youth hostel in the evening, to use our smartphone immediately to chat with friends and family. However, reality is that our batteries need to be recharged first, as we used a lot of power during the day on the road for navigation, pictures, videos and so on.

Our project : having our smartphone battery charged during the day, while cycling, so we have a fully charged smartphone when we want to be online.

Our team of volunteers, building on the DOVE best practice, developed an entrepreneurship idea : ENERCYCLE. This is an ecological smartphone charger operating during cycling.

IMPLEMENTATION : PROTOTYPE OF ENERCYCLE

We want to sell a box with all equipment to charge your smartphone while cycling, so it is easy to install with the guidelines we will provide. It should be possible to mount our Enercycle on any bicycle, no matter what smartphone you own. We will make sure to think about mechanics and electronics.
We made a promotional video and delivered 50 units of the prototype.

ENERCYCLE : PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

We made a promotional video to explain and promote our social entrepreneurship product Enercycle.

LARGE SCALE YOUTH EVENT

Our team of young volunteers organised a large scale youth event on 31 December 2022 in Hasselt, Belgium. The purpose was to present the Enercycle prototype and the draft of our Local Action Plan. It was the perfect moment for starting a discussion about the European Green Deal, which is one of the top priorities of the European Commission.

LOCAL ACTION PLAN

We have developed a Local Action Plan, considering the latest data and research evidence in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of our country. In order to promote employment and entrepreneurship, our team has 4 recommendations : to remove barriers in education, to better prepare young people for a job, to promote matching between young people and employers and to encourage social innovation.
On 20 February 2023 and 10 June 2023, we organized the last two task force meetings in Brussels to discuss the updated Local Action Plan, which has been validated.

DISSEMINATION ON WORLD BICYCLE DAY

The General Assembly of the United Nations decided in 2018 to organise the World Bicycle Day each year on 3 June. We promoted Enercycle on Facebook on 3 June 2023. Our post went viral, with over 304.847 views and over 1.100 likes.

FINAL MEETING IN GUANGZHOU

The final partner meeting in Guangzhou (China) was the perfect moment for the evaluation of the project. Our 4 representatives had the opportunity to discover the other social entrepreneurship ideas as well as the different local action plans. We also attended a conference organized by the Chinese project partner. A guided visit to an important industrial park outside Guangzhou delivered extra motivation to discuss further collaboration.