e-Makers

Climate change is becoming increasingly harmful, prompting social enterprises to find solutions and create environmental impacts. Digital transformation opens various opportunities for social enterprises to tackle environmental challenges such as access to clean water, electricity, and education. However, it is noted that 71% of social entrepreneurs struggle with financial sustainability. This situation highlights the need for more support and digital-based training for young entrepreneurs, especially those in environmental social enterprise. Digital transformation can promote the growth and financial stability of social enterprises. Effective tools such as gamification methodology can enhance training for youth in this sector, enabling them to use digital tools in tandem with entrepreneurial skills to address societal and environmental problems. (Source: [https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/06/11/self-sustainability-the-dilemma-at-the-heart-of-socialentrepreneurship/, https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/15495710/Games_final_JRC78777.pdf])

The project aims to nurture environmental social entrepreneurship among the youth through digitization. The specific objectives include enhancing the digital competencies of youth workers, promoting social entrepreneurship and environmental awareness among youths, and developing organizational capacities for innovative social entrepreneurship training. The project strives to strengthen social entrepreneurship activities, develop advanced digital skills, improve soft and professional skills and enhance cross-border communication among youth workers. It also aims to adapt gamification methodology, contributing to the sustainability of social enterprises, and internationalization strategies. The project aims to build a sustainable society by improving green and soft skills of the youth.

Activities were designed to meet the identified needs in the field of social entrepreneurship. Each activity and the output supports the objectives of the project. The main activity of the project is the development of three intellectual outputs. Through transnational meetings, LTT activity, and multiplier events, the quality of the outputs were intensified. Accordingly, the development of the intellectual outputs: -The non-formal training toolkit of digital social entrepreneurship: It was produced for the youth workers to improve their skills and resources to train young people on social entrepreneurship and environmental challenges including digital opportunities. The training materials included in the toolkit were designed by non-formal learning methodologies. In this way, the transversal and soft skills of young people are enhanced as well as the social entrepreneurship skills. -LTT activity was significant to assess the quality of the training materials and to make necessary improvements. -The manual for digitalization of social enterprises: It was developed to enhance the advanced digital skills of the youth workers. The manual covers all stages and the workflows in social enterprises, including data management, financial management and marketing, education, research, and capacity-building activities for environmental issues. EU&PRO has been an associated partner for organizing virtual classes for youth workers after completing the output. Through these virtual classes, youth workers have received training on digital opportunities to be employed in different stages of social enterprises. Thus, EU&Pro based the three days of training on the first two outputs that have been developed for the E-makers project. You can see the training recorded in E-makers website: https://e-makers.org/en/training.aspx?Id=125 On the one hand, the functionality of training materials in the online manual was tested, and on the other hand, youth workers gained invaluable skills and resources to improve the sustainability of their enterprises. -Virtual Board Game: This improves the social entrepreneurship skills of youth workers and young people in innovative and enjoyable ways. The game is instructive for the target groups since players will learn the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, the models of social enterprises, and how to achieve sustainability while playing the game. Playtesting sessions were implemented to test the game with youth workers from partner institutions. The first test was carried out in Cagliari, with TDM volunteers and partners of the consortium during the last international meeting of the consortium. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1LT8_OgAKevpel1tWwiyaSreJ3J_VwTKS Through these playtesting sessions and feedback received from participants, improvements were made to the game. In fact, due to technical issues, we have delayed the delivery of the project in order to have the game in a high quality. Website for the game: https://www.emakersgame.com/ or in the website of the project https://e-makers.org/en/default.aspx#Results where you also can fin the manual for the game. Furthermore, the virtual board is available on online platforms without any costs or limitations. In this way, the project will reach more target groups beyond the European borders. - LTT activity: The activity aims to improve the social entrepreneurship skills of young people aged between 18-30. Young people who are working to fight against environmental challenges in youth initiatives, university clubs, or individually were encouraged to implement their innovative ideas in social enterprises through this activity. All training materials was designed to equip young people with the necessary skills and competencies. Moreover, through LTT activity, the toolkit was tested whether the training materials are of the desired quality or not. -Transnational Meetings: Through the meetings, the quality of the project outputs, the time and budget management, and the general project management were regulated by all partner institutions. These meetings strength the coordination and communication between partners. In this way, a productive working environment was ensured to improve the quality, effects, and scope of the activities. -Multiplier Events: During the multiplier events and dissemination activities, project outputs and results were introduced to the target groups, NGOs, decision-making authorities, and individuals. Thanks to these activities, the awareness of environmental problems and social entrepreneurship will be increased in society.

The project produced both tangible and intangible results on participants, target groups, participating institutions, and broader circles. Three intellectual outputs were the most significant tangible results of the project. The intellectual outputs are been used by the participating institutions to improve youth workers' digital competencies and promote social entrepreneurship training of young people. The non-formal toolkit and the online manual, as tangible results, enhance the quality of management, research, marketing, and youth work in the participating institutions by strengthening the social entrepreneurship skills and advanced digital competencies of youth workers. In this way, the partner institutions satisfy the needs of their target groups with innovative and comprehensive resources. Moreover, transnational cooperation enables the participating institutions to produce quality results to improve the sustainability of social enterprises and the social entrepreneurship skills of young people. Youth workers will become much more competent in managing all stages in the workflow of the social enterprises by completing the project and integrating the intellectual outputs into the everyday activities of the participating institutions. Furthermore, a virtual board game adds value to the capacities of the participating institutions by increasing their recognition and reputation at the international level. The project activities enhance the know-how of all partners, improving capacities and professionalism to work at the EU level, and strengthening their networks across Europe. Furthermore, the participants from all partner institutions have benefited from the results produced during the project. The project's outcomes create the ideal setting for participants from partner institutions to develop more modern, professional, and open working environments. Transversal and soft skills obtained throughout the project implementation add value to the work culture in the institutions. The project results enhance the management, teamwork, and communication skills of managing staff and project working groups in all participating institutions. Other expected results of the project are as follows: Youth workers have been provided comprehensive training materials on advanced digital skills to manage the workflow of social enterprises in all stages, including financial management and marketing, data management, research, education, and capacity-building for environmental issues. Youth workers have been equipped with innovative tools, training methodologies, and materials to train young people on digital social entrepreneurship and environmental challenges. The outputs of the project strengthen the non-formal training capacities of the youth workers and, in this way, the necessary quality human resources are provided for the sustainability of the social enterprises. Through the implementation of the intellectual outputs, young people received quality tips, clues, or information on social entrepreneurship. Through non-formal training activities, young people’s social entrepreneurship skills, as well as soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and initiative skills, have been enhanced. The awareness of environmental issues has been increased among young people, and they have been encouraged to take action to solve these problems and to become E-Makers as can be seen after analyzing the evaluations and the video created for the LTT in Soria.. The project results have been disseminated to wider circles so that other social enterprises will benefit from the training materials and tools produced during the project. The awareness of environmental challenges will be increased in society. In this way, the social enterprises will be able to build relationships with other interest groups, institutions, and initiatives across the boundaries.