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Better Incubation Communities of Practice for Youth / Larrissa de Moura : Working Towards a World Without Borders

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Michaela Lednova

As part of the Better Incubation programme, five thematic groups of Communities of Practice have been created to debate, exchange, investigate, plan, prototype and evaluate the activities in the field of inclusive entrepreneurship learning and exchange between IHUB and EBN Members, Caritas, and experts and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, namely migrants and refugees, people with disability, seniors, women and youth.

Larissa de Moura is one of the social innovators who takes part in the program and is engaged as the expert in the Community of Practice for youth. A Brazilian social innovator based in Spain, has experienced first-hand the challenges of being a young, migrant entrepreneur and developing her startup on her own, in an unknown country. Now, she is working towards a world without borders and paving the way for other young international students — as she once was.

Following a series of conversations with social innovators and experts engaged in the Better Incubation programme, Impact Hub had interviewed Larissa to share her entrepreneurial journey and tell her story to inspire us on how we can build a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Larissa’s curiosity and boldness have taken her through an intense entrepreneurial journey in the past years. INMI, a social startup dedicated to supporting young students in finding the best educational programs around the world, was born out of that journey. Inspired by the 2030 Agenda, INMI is an award-winning platform that connects the migrant community with a network of professionals and resources in an all-in-one support ecosystem.

Besides founding and leading INMI in Valencia, Spain, she is also the co-founder of ALDEA, a social organization where she develops consulting projects, training and territorial-community development through sustainability, interculturality and social innovation.

Q: In 3 words, who is Larissa de Moura?

A: An explorer of new experiences.

Q: Do you feel like this thirst for discovery and exploration translates into your life purposes? And talking about purpose, how would you describe yours — both professionally and personally?

A: I frequently ask myself: what makes us authentic? My hope is that everyone can discover it. It may be your personality, your voice, your history, your beliefs, your origins or even your experiences. I believe that everyone can unleash their dreams. We are changemakers, doers, social innovators, dreamers, thinkers, disruptors and much more.

Personally, in my 30s I had the chance of experiencing this process and it brought me boundless enthusiasm. 10 years ago, my purpose was to run a social business. Today, one of my purposes is to work towards a world without borders and empower more young people, women and migrants from different parts of the world.

Q: You have been doing consistent work to promote social, inclusive and sustainable business models with INMI and ALDEA. Could you share a little bit about your own story and how it led you to the social economy sector?

A: I like to say that I am a Brazilian and a little bit Valencian. Before I came to Valencia, I had been working in Brazil for almost 10 years in multinational companies. At that time, inspired by the Golden Circle and my boyfriend, Túlio, one reflection crossed my path: why do you do what you do? It made me realize that my professional skills were way beyond a job title and didn’t need to just fit in a CV. It led me to develop my purpose and explore how I would make a positive impact on the world.

Four years ago, I decided to do a master’s in social economy in Valencia and it was a game-changer for me. I discovered new motivations and professional challenges in the social field, explored intercultural networking, improved languages, and got in touch with new cultures. Thanks to these experiences, I am now working as a certified professional and going deeper and deeper into the business models of the future: social, inclusive and sustainable.

It is gratifying to see through this dual lens — as an entrepreneur and an impact business consultant.

Larissa de Moura talking about INMI at Col·lab Las Naves, in Valencia, Spain.

Q: Without a doubt, your story is one of great perseverance and focus on what really matters to you. Moving forward, can you tell us more about your current initiatives and work? Why do INMI and ALDEA exist and how did they start?

A: In 2017, when I was doing my master’s degree, ALDEA was created to support social development and consultancy projects with a focus on alternative economies, sustainability, interculturality and social innovation. It was my second entrepreneurial project and INMI, the last one. The first one, which was more of a life project, was when I decided to move to Spain. In a way, it is amazing to see how these 3 projects naturally connect with each other, even nowadays.

INMI was born in the 2019 Hackathon of Col·lab Las Naves, as an initiative that emerges from real experiences and difficulties of migrants. Like thousands of international students and migrants living abroad, our team went through difficult processes of local adaptation and integration. As we had gone through this firsthand, we were able to streamline these processes and develop an intuitive all-in-one platform to create easier and more accessible international experiences.

That’s why INMI exists: to create a world without barriers. We focus on providing resources and information for global education and the improvement of opportunities. We see it as a major move for reducing inequalities and creating local and global sustainable change.

“Diversity and inclusion must be a part of our daily lives. Underrepresented groups, like migrants, should have the same access to opportunities and tools to undertake, lead and occupy decision-making positions as everybody else.”

Q: A world without barriers sounds like the world we need. We are glad to hear how hard you are working to that end! Having that in mind and reflecting on your entrepreneurial journey until now, what recent achievements are you most proud of?

A: The first achievement is to be ahead of INMI, an award-winning social business committed to solving real problems — despite the many challenges I continue to experience as a young woman and a migrant. There were countless times when I was one of the few (sometimes the only) female or migrant entrepreneurs in the room.

Diversity and inclusion must be a part of our daily lives. Underrepresented groups, like migrants, should have the same access to opportunities and tools to undertake, lead and occupy decision-making positions as everybody else. I am very proud to be contributing to the advancement of this scenario from our sustainable perspective at INMI.

Larissa de Moura at Col·lab Las Naves

Q: We are on the same page when it comes to inclusion and diversity and it is great to hear that is an inherent part of your mission. The journey to promote social good, however, is not always a bed of roses. Can you share what have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a social entrepreneur on a mission towards a world without barriers?

A: I experienced many challenges; language barriers, building a support network from scratch, navigating the landscape of regulation taxes (in general, non-citizens face double the paperwork compared to local citizens), and facing the lack of tailored support to meet immigrant-specific needs, not to mention the recent pandemic barriers for international mobility. I could not miss the chance to share the many mistakes and successes that had the potential to make others’ own journeys easier.

In my case, it was key to be part of a local support network, the public accelerator of Valencia (Col·lab Las Naves), that provided me with mentorships, one-on-one support and guidance as well as connections peer-to-peer.

“For me, the entrepreneurial journey requires that kind of courage that allows you to move forward on your own — particularly when undertaking with impact, as we are doing things differently from the mainstream.”

Q: A supportive network definitely has the power of changing lives and businesses and your story is a great example of that. Now, looking to the future, what is your ambition for the upcoming year? What impact do you and INMI aim to make?

A: At INMI, our main goal for the next year is to get more young people from different countries to live a life-changing international experience! Especially when the worst of the pandemic is over and we can travel again. That is why we are scal ing up.

On another note, our surpluses are invested in social and environmental projects. When our clients travel with INMI, they contribute directly to positive social impact initiatives. In this way, people from diverse contexts can also experience living and studying abroad. That’s why we are working to consolidate our triple impact, locally and globally.

Q: Fingers-crossed for you to reach out and impact as many lives as possible! Aiming high like that when you are an entrepreneur requires a few things, but mostly courage. What is courage to you?

A: “Go, and if you’re scared, just go scared”. I really like this quote that a friend told me once. For me, the entrepreneurial journey requires that kind of courage that allows you to move forward on your own — particularly when undertaking with impact, as we are doing things differently from the mainstream.

Q: We appreciate your time to tell your beautiful story and, also, your efforts in taking part in our Community of Practice. So last but not least, what was your key takeaway from the first session?

A: The Community of Practice really is the heart of the LIAISE project. It is an international, inclusive and open space to exchange learnings and experiences. This collaborative dynamic allows us to work from the lens of vulnerable target groups and as real facilitators within the community.

Follow Larissa de Moura and her inspiring work at INMI on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Author of this post: Impact Hub

Invitation to participate in the online survey on entrepreneurship incubation

Posted on July 20, 2021July 20, 2021 by Michaela Lednova

The University of Bologna would like to invite practitioners, coaches, mentors and programme managers working with the incubation programmes across Europe, especially in Italy, France, and the Netherlands to share their experience and feedback regarding services/competences to serve entrepreneurs.

You are invited to provide your input through the online survey available at TAKE THE SURVEY.

The survey is conducted within a European project called MIG.EN.CUBE – fostering MIGrant ENtrepreneurship inCUBation in Europe, aiming at understanding the approaches and methodologies that work best in serving migrant entrepreneurs and the gaps in the competences in incubators/accelerators in this area of expertise.

Better Incubation Communities of Practice / Sandilya: Building the Pillars for Migrants Inclusion Through Social Innovation

Posted on July 19, 2021August 9, 2021 by Better Incubation

How to make the field of entrepreneurship more inclusive to groups that have been historically and systematically left behind, namely migrants and refugees, people with disability, seniors, women and youth? Together with members of the European Business & Innovation Centre Network (EBN), the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and Caritas organizations, Impact Hub gathered experts and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups in a series of virtual working sessions – Communities of Practice – to debate, exchange, investigate, plan, prototype and evaluate the activities in the field of inclusive entrepreneurship.

Throughout our Better Incubation working sessions, we were inspired to delve deeper into the participants’ diverse stories and to learn more about the “whats”, “whys” and “hows” behind their efforts to build inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems. One of the entrepreneurs who greatly sparked our curiosity was Hrishabh Sandilya.

Sandilya considers himself to be “a multipotentialite and systems-thinker” and is committed to a more resilient future, where there’s social, climate and gender justice for all. Premised on the pillars of sustainability, economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and socio-cultural integration, Sandilya’s incredible work at Project Phoenix is dedicated to providing social innovation training for refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers on European grounds.

Besides founding and leading Project Phoenix on the ground in Nicosia, Cyprus capital, he is also responsible for mentoring Project Phoenix’s fellows and volunteers. To learn more about Sandilya’s background, his journey and his plans to keep impacting the world in a positive and lasting way, check our conversation below:

Q: To get us started, how would you describe yourself in 3 words?

A: I’d describe myself as a neophile who challenges existing systems.

Q: We definitely need more systems’ challengers like you to keep changing our world for the better. And talking about making this world a better place, what’s your purpose, both in the professional and personal spheres? How do you believe them to be aligned?

Personally, I want to see a more just and equitable world, where we are more in sync with each other and nature, and a high level of trust within society. Professionally, I want to work towards that goal, specifically in the migrant-inclusion space, through systemic and sustainable solutions, harnessing the power of social innovation.

Q: In getting acquainted with your work, when preparing for this interview, it seems to us that you’re doing a great job in making your purposes real and tangible with Project Phoenix. Could you tell us more about it? Why does it exist and how did it start?

Project Phoenix is a migrant-led European NGO and social enterprise dedicated to systemic change of the inclusion ecosystem. It was founded by my colleague Michael Goecken in Belgium and I joined him as a Co-Founder and moved to Cyprus to set it up in mid-2019.

We are currently running a pilot project in Cyprus, where our programming involves an intensive fellowship program focused on entrepreneurship and skills development, the creation of innovative partnerships with other civil society groups for collective action, and solutions-based research and advocacy pillar that aims to influence policy for systems change.

Q: That’s amazing! When looking back on this inspiring two-year journey, what recent achievements with Project Phoenix would you say to be most proud of?

A: There’s been a few, but the most satisfying ones involve co-creating with our fellows, empowering them and giving them agency. Helping our fellow Laetitia Tchakoute to launch her clothing label Aphrogee, has been a success we keep celebrating, as it goes from one strength to another.

Other recent big wins include finishing a transdisciplinary research study on the impact of COVID-19 on refugees in Cyprus and multiple iterations of online professional English skills and mentoring program for asylum seekers in Cyprus, led by ELT professionals in India.

Q: That’s very fruitful for such a short period of time, especially considering that the COVID-19 pandemic was taking place for most of it (and still is). Considering all that, what do you think were the biggest forces and drivers of your perseverance and success?

A: The biggest drivers of our success have definitely been our incredible fellows, staff and volunteers (and extended network of partners, mentors and advisors). Without them, we wouldn’t exist!

As a new organisation, we’ve struggled for funding our entire existence (especially through the pandemic), but they’ve made it possible through their hard work, substituting funds for passion and skills. This has allowed us to have an outsized impact that many better-funded and better-staffed organisations would have failed to have.

Q: In the end, it’s been all about a resilient community driven by a common purpose. Now, when you look ahead, what are Project Phoenix’s goals for the upcoming year? What impact do you aim to make?

A: Our goal over the next 12 months is to launch Constellation! our refugee social innovation lab in Nicosia, accelerate a few more fellow businesses and further the conversation in Cyprus on addressing migrant inclusion systemically – based on our research and experience with innovation.

Q: This systemic vision you have is really very important to generate real, sustainable and lasting social change. We wish you all the best in these next steps! And on the topic of next steps, we all know that entrepreneurship requires courage. What is courage to you?

A: Courage, as an entrepreneur, is not losing that self-belief that led you to take that step in the first place. It involves trusting your instinct by doubling down on it through hard work when things don’t seem to be turning out the way they should.

Q: We couldn’t agree more with your words. Thank you very much for sharing your inspirational story and thoughts with us! To end this conversation on a high note, would you like to share what was your key takeaway from the first Community of Practice session?

A: My key takeaway was that there are so many other great initiatives and allies out there doing the same important work. Connecting to them for inspiration and building on a vision together is what excites me about our Community of Practice.

Picture description: Hrishabh Sandilya and Laetitia Tchakoute at the launch of her clothing label Aphrogee.

Follow Hrishabh Sandilya and his impactful work at Project Phoenix on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Author: ImpactHub, https://impacthub.net/migrants-inclusion-social-innovation/

IN-CUBA Conference to discuss Disability and Entrepreneurship

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Better Incubation

Entrepreneurship is rarely thought about for people with intellectual disability.

Even if there is an openness to supporting people’s ideas and ambitions, setting up and management may be seen as a heavy burden, and the necessary support to do so very difficult to find.

Sometimes, however, what is needed is just a change of perspective to expand the concept of enterprise to embrace something creative, personally fulfilling and validating that is attempted or undertaken, particularly if it requires boldness or courage. Then you need a group of visionary partners that are not afraid of breaking barriers and are willing to involve users and their families in a new adventure; one that develops an “incubator” methodology focussed on people with intellectual disability and based on the principles of co- production.

That was the starting point of IN-CUBA interreg project. Three years, and several focus groups later, they are ready to present the
results of this adventure together with the voiceof its protagonists .

The moment is particularly apposite as we have just seen the launch of the new European Disability Strategy , which will
provide a strong framework for all the EU initiatives in these fields in the next ten years.

We are therefore happy to invite you to the IN-CUBA Conference to discuss Disability and Entrepreneurship through the initiatives
carried out within this Project, present the results of this action, and foster exchanges between all the stakeholders involved: organisations from the social sector, incubators, educators, users, representatives of the public sector, and policy makers.

Check the full event agenda here

ABOUT IN-CUBA project

The IN-CUBA (Incubators for CO-productive Enterprises and Social Inclusion) Project wants to foster social inclusion by developing an incubation methodology based on co-production addressed to people with intellectual disability. Working on co-productive approaches has highlighted the capacity of users to become protagonists and have an active role, opening the doors to new possibilities and further developments. In fact, the scientific literature and several success stories confirm that, through the appropriate support, people with intellectual disability succeed in concretizing ideas through long-term projects, especially projects that lead to the creation of companies. This opens up new opportunities for the development of people’s employability and social inclusion. However, if at present national systems tend to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, these programmes are rarely accessible to people with intellectual disability and no measure is put in place to investigate the potential impact entrepreneurship can generate for them and their entourage.

An incubator is an organisation that helps new and start-up companies to develop by providing support services and enabling access to the resources they need. In the context of IN-CUBA however, we can define incubator as a support for the development of projects and ideas? a methodology based on co-production that supports the development of ideas and projects to transform them into enterprises (considered in its widest meaning).

IN-CUBA aims to support and assess new approaches to the access to entrepreneurship for people with intellectual disability reducing disparities and promoting inclusion. To these goals the action foresees to:

Develop a methodology based on co-production to incubate ideas, identify the ways and source of funding, and transform them in enterprises;
Enable users to be equal partners within the planning and development of a project, thus enhancing self-determination;
Provide opportunities for self-development and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities so that they can be acknowledged as people that can contribute to the development of their community.
Testing the results in dedicated pilot actions aimed at the setting up of enterprises;
Evaluate the impacts of the entrepreneurial process on the quality of life of the users as well as the overall impacts of the project in terms of social inclusion ;
Disseminate project experience and outcomes, also in view of enhancing social representation and promote the adaptation of methodologies at local level;
Promote the development, testing, and implementation of innovative practices in the field of training for professionalisation;
Promote activities that could better prepare professionals on equity, diversity and social inclusion in the training / learning environment.

To these goals, a very committed partnership is engaged in developing a 36 Months action to help addressing diversity and promote shared values, equality, non-discrimination and social inclusion through innovative and integrated approaches. The Project is coordinated by APEMH with the support of ARFIE and it involves 8 partners from 5 European countries.

The project is based on research and analysis and real testing, and all the foreseen activities are based on co-production and will see users as protagonists.

Discover more on www.co-production.eu/in-cuba

Better Incubation Communities of Practice | Rut Turró: On a Mission to Build an Inclusive Fashion Industry

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Better Incubation

How to make the field of entrepreneurship more inclusive to migrants and refugees, people with disability, seniors, women, youth? Together with members of the European Business & Innovation Centre Network (EBN), The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and Caritas organizations, Impact Hub gathered experts and entrepreneurs from all 5 groups in a series of virtual working sessions – Communities of Practice – to debate, exchange, investigate, plan, prototype and evaluate the activities in the field of inclusive entrepreneurship.

In this framework, Impact Hub is interviewing the Better Incubation CoPs’ participants to share their stories and expertise. Time to meet Rut!

The first virtual session took place at the end of May 2021 and we got inspired to hear about what different entrepreneurs and experts are doing to build more inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems. One of the participants is Rut Turró, she is, in her own words, a social entrepreneur in the fashion industry. She is also a woman entrepreneur and the founder of Moving Mood, which started as a clothing line for people with reduced mobility and turned into a research and consulting partner for the fashion industry on the topic of inclusive fashion.

We asked her why she became an entrepreneur, what impact she aims to make on the world – she also shared examples of impact in action.

Inclusive entrepreneurship Rut Turro founder of Moving Mood

Rut Turró, Founder of Moving Mood

Q: In preparing for our interview, I loved reading about how you want to give more power and opportunities to women, who carry the burden of day-to-day work but are under-recognised. I’m curious about your story as a woman entrepreneur, but first, what did you want to be growing up?

A: I wanted to be like my mum, to take care of the house, the kids, etc. When I was seven years old, my family started a bakery in Barcelona. This was a turning point. Everything changed completely, with my parents working all day, every day, including weekends. My sister and I spent Monday to Friday with a babysitter. Saturday with parents and Sunday with grandparents. Suddenly, I did not want to be like my mum anymore. I wanted to be happy. I remember every year on my birthday I had the same wish: may everyone be happy.

Q: Your parents became entrepreneurs and it sounds like this wasn’t the path you wanted to pursue when you were young. Yet, you call yourself a social entrepreneur today. Why did you become an entrepreneur?

A: Because I couldn’t find any job linked to social impact and fashion design. The only option was working in design for fair trade products at an NGO. Options were very limited and, usually, NGOs have many volunteers, not paid jobs. In the long run, this wasn’t a sustainable path. Also, the products were ‘hippie’ and it was not my style. I would buy them because of the philosophy behind, not because I liked them. So, I decided to start a project by myself. Bringing together social impact, fashion and design.

Q: It’s always interesting to hear how personal frustration leads to new businesses! Beyond your desire to design better fair trade products in the fashion industry, were there any insights that led to starting Moving Mood?

A: The initial idea was to develop a clothing line for people with reduced mobility. All adapted garments available around 2011-2014 were very poorly designed and not fashionable at all! I started under the name Fit and Sit, focused on clothing for people permanently seated. It did not work very well. I understood early on that people wanted to buy clothes from traditional brands, so, I changed my initial idea and began to sell a service and provide knowledge on inclusive fashion for designers and brands. We changed the brand name to Moving Mood, moving for a good mood. And we are focused on research, product development, consulting and education.

Q: Inspiring to hear! Now, let’s talk about impact. What impact are you already making on the fashion industry – and perhaps as a woman entrepreneur too – and what’s your impact ambition?

A: Our impact is to include accessibility in design collections without the need to create a specifically adapted line, so all garments can be used by the whole of society, independently of their needs. We are training companies, design studios and students.

Our impact ambition is to build a more equal fashion industry, with more inclusive products and job opportunities. For example, we developed an adaptation for an industrial sewing machine, so it can be used by people with physical disabilities!

Q: An inclusive sewing machine, what a good example of impact in action! I’d love to learn a little more about your views on women’s entrepreneurship. Over the past years, you have collaborated with many entrepreneurial women – what have you learned from them?

A: We are stronger together, we are better together. I constantly meet powerful women I admire. We connect easily, try to help each other and share contacts. I truly believe we empower each other. There’s often a shared feeling and understanding of the troubles we face or have faced in the past – and shared pride in having come to where we are today as entrepreneurs.

Q: I have to ask then, what advice do you have for female entrepreneurs?

A: My advice for any entrepreneur is: do something that makes you vibrate from every pore of your skin.

Follow Rut and her inspiring work on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Author of this post: Impact Hub

Accelerating the SDGs – The role of Crowdfunding in Investing for Impact | EVPA report is out!

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Better Incubation

New research by EVPA explores how impact crowdfunding platforms achieve positive social change by financing social organisations or enterprises that advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Crowdfunding’s role in the impact sector has grown in recent years thanks to its unique way of raising funds to support social organisations and enterprises, attracting retail investors and philanthropists to social innovation and enabling them to participate as funders of societal solutions. The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to accelerate this growth, with increasing demand from social start-ups struggling to access financial resources and rising public interest in crowdfunding.

The report “Accelerating the SDGs – The role of crowdfunding in investing for impact” focuses on impact crowdfunding platforms, i.e. investors for impact pooling and managing resources from individuals, as well as public and private sector agencies, to enable social purpose organisations to maximise their social impact, and taking a highly engaged approach to support their investees. Impact crowdfunding platforms can be either grant-based crowdfunding platforms or social investment crowdfunding platforms.

It highlights that crowdfunding platforms can amplify the impact they generate if they find ways to collaborate with other investors for impact, such as foundations, impact funds or financial institutions, or with different types of impact crowdfunding platforms.

For example, foundations can help crowdfunding platforms reduce the risk of campaign failure by providing anchor investments (e.g. providing the first 20-30% of the investment to trigger a campaign), or through match-funding instruments whereby the foundation can match the contribution of the crowd. Crowdfunding platforms can also cooperate by e.g. sharing deal flow with impact funds or banks and financial institutions that support social organisations and enterprises with different repayable instruments, such as debt or equity.

Collaboration between impact crowdfunding platforms and other investors for impact brings key opportunities to the impact ecosystem. Crowdfunding platforms can detect trends, such as the type of supporters attracted, provide insight to policy makers and generate indicators which can help forecast the potential market traction of a product or service. Collecting and leveraging data, for instance by sharing due diligence reports or campaign KPIs, will avoid duplicating efforts and facilitate the development of partnerships.

Establishing long-term partnerships is crucial to enable collaboration, learning from each other and sharing tools and expertise. However, this requires aligned strategies, trust and a significant time and human resources commitment.

“Crowdfunding platforms play a key role in creating positive societal impact and can be a catalyst for new forms of collaboration with different impact players”, said Roberta Bosurgi, CEO of EVPA. “Other investors for impact must be part of this process, to leverage the opportunities that crowdfunding platforms bring and collectively contribute to a sustainable, fair and inclusive future.”

Michele Scataglini, CEO and Co-Founder of Fund4Impact added: “Enabling matchups between startups and funders in a hugely diverse impact agenda across the world requires a digital platform harnessing crowdfunding technology and impact metrics. This not only creates rich data on trends that are valuable to social investors, foundations and all tiers of government, but also teaches startups to intuitively engage in impact measurement from the very beginning, embedding impact measurement within the DNA of the company.”

EVPA will present the new research piece “Accelerating the SDGs – The role of Crowdfunding in Investing for Impact” during a webinar on June 10th. The objective of the E-Talk is to provide a brief introduction into the growing field of crowdfunding, and present selected use cases and examples to illustrate how investors for impact can work alongside crowdfunding platforms.

Source: EVPA website

How to make social entrepreneurship more inclusive? The “Inclusive Social Entrepreneurship Webinar” will explore the role of entrepreneurship in achieving inclusive labour markets and a human-centred economy

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Better Incubation

Building on the Better Incubation initiative and the collaboration between the Caritas Europa network and the Better Incubation project partners, Caritas Europa organises the ‘Inclusive Social Entrepreneurship Webinar’, within the theme of achieving inclusive labour markets and a human-centred economy.

Caritas Europa is indeed a key partner of Better Incubation: we can count on the valuable presence of Shannon Pfohman in our Advisory Board, and 5 Caritas members participating in our Communities of Practise.

For Caritas Europa, an inclusive labour market, which respects the rights and dignity of every worker, is an essential part of a human-centred economy and a key way to foster a more inclusive labour market is through the promotion of the social economy and social entrepreneurship. However, there is still little focus on how to make social entrepreneurship more inclusive and how to develop the entrepreneurial capacities of under-represented groups such as women, migrants/refugees, people with disabilities, youth and seniors, so that they can also pursue social entrepreneurship as a career choice and support their local community. For these groups to be able to access capital, benefit from business support, develop relevant strategic partnerships, and have a strong ecosystem around them, we, as actors involved in social entrepreneurship need to understand their needs and tailor our approach accordingly.

The objective of this webinar is fivefold:

to have a discussion/exchange with strategic partners and EU policymakers on how to make social entrepreneurship more inclusive;
to offer a platform for Caritas members to present their experiences with inclusive social entrepreneurship;
to better understand how strategic partnerships can help drive social entrepreneurship for social inclusion;
to enable new innovative strategic partnerships between Caritas’ members and other stakeholders able to support them;
to better understand from European Commission representatives how EU policies can help advance inclusive social entrepreneurship and facilitate strategic partnerships at national and local level.

Check out the full event description and the programme here

Among speakers, there are also some participants of the Better Incubation Communities of Practises:

> Wingee Sampaio (Cartier Women’s Initiative) – EVPA member and Observer of Better Incubation CoP on Women
> Mariama Njie (Coventry University Social Enterprise CIC) – certified EU|BIC (EBN member) and member of the CoP on Migrants and Refugees

Better Incubation Communities of Practise at the starting blocks

Posted on May 19, 2021May 19, 2021 by admin

Between May 18th and May 21st, the Better Incubation Communities of Practise (CoPs) meet online for their first monthly call.

Migrants and Refugees, People with Disability, Seniors, Women, Youth: these are the five thematic working groups which serve as a social space in which participants can discover and further a learning partnership related to a common domain. The programme proposes a model to link together theoretical concepts with practices and guidelines for effective action. In this sense the CoPs foreseen in Better Incubation will serve as a powerful virtual space where participants will debate, exchange, investigate, plan, prototype and evaluate the activities in the field of inclusive entrepreneurship.

The CoPs are formed by at least 7 individuals: 4 representing members of IHUB and EBN, 1 representing Caritas Europa, and 2 external participants, either entrepreneurs from the under-represented group the CoP is working on, or experts on the subject more broadly. Coordinators from IHUB or EBN facilitate the work of the 7 representatives on each CoP, who come together online every month between May 2021 and May 2022, in 1,5 hours long sessions.

Following a selection process that brought Better Incubation partners to assess 100+ applications from 30+ EaSI countries, 36 CoPs participants from 19 EaSI Countries were selected.

Impact Hubs: Amsterdam (Netherlands), Athens (Greece), Budapest (Hungary), Istanbul (Turkey), Kings Cross – London (UK), Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Munich (Germany), Reggio Emilia (Italy).
EBN members: Bwcon GmbH (Germany), Accent Inkubator (Austria), Laval Mayenne Technopole (France), BIC Euronova (Spain), Coventry University Social Enterprise (UK), Ruse Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Bulgaria), IPNincubadora (Portugal), CEEI Aragon (Spain), Entreprendre.wapi (Belgium), Fundecyt (Spain).
Caritas: Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, Denmark, Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Caritas Association Romania
Experts/Entrepreneurs: Hope 4 The Community (UK), Intellexi (Hungary), Project Phoenix (Cyprus), UNIRE (Italy), Project Ahead (Italy), INMI (Spain), Care Hub (Romania), BlindLook (Turkey), Oilright (Romania), Movingmood (Spain).

Moreover, EVPA offered its members the possibility to join the CoPs as observers and get involved in specific discussions around access to finance and impact assessment. So far the following organisations are involved in the Better Incubation Communities of Practises: The Human Safety Net, Cartier Women’s Initiative, Fundacion ONCE.

CoPs participants already met on April 16th for the Better Incubation Bootcamp #1: a full day online event designed by the project partners to let CoPs participants getting to know each other, familiarising with the programme and starting drawing the “journey” the 5 CoPs will undertake between May 2021 and June 2022. The event was a mix of plenary and breakout sessions aimed at offering participants with different opportunities to learn from and exchange with peers, also allowing for interactions between individuals belonging to different CoPs.

“The CoPs should not be seen as structures that work in silos focusing on one specific vulnerable target group, but rather as bodies activating a mutual exchange within the same community and among the other communities. The transversal CoPs will analyse the conditions that prevent specific groups from embarking on entrepreneurial careers through a series of cross-cutting lenses. Most importantly, this approach will generate several policy insights, which will become one of the key outputs of the CoPs.”

Partnerships for maximising social impact is the topic of the last appointment of the Digital Road to Mannheim event series

Posted on March 25, 2021May 20, 2021 by admin

The European Social Economy Summit: Digital Road to Mannheim will be hosted on April 29 with the theme Partnerships for maximizing social impact.

EBN’s Chiara Davalli will be representing EBN and the Better Incubation project in the panel Insight: Innovation Ecosystems for Social Change – towards a more inclusive and impact driven approach to innovative entrepreneurship at 12.00 CET

Description

There is an undeniable link between strong economies, prosperity, social fairness and sustainable development. In the sustainable transition, the entrepreneurial innovators providing new solutions to tackle the global challenges we experience in our local, regional and national environments are the key enablers. Supporting those who support this new innovative kind of entrepreneurs should be part of the equation. As vehicles for sustainable growth, social and inclusive entrepreneurs are the cornerstones of a rapidly growing social economy sector.

Social entrepreneurship, as a movement and as a term, is moving rapidly into the mainstream. Also, inclusive entrepreneurship, specifically targeting under-represented groups in society can help tackle the growing inequalities Europe is experiencing. Actively including migrants, women and youth has the power to stimulate economic activity through job creation and by empowering individuals. It is about fairness and equity, the realisation of individual aspirations, economic empowerment and growth. It is both a moral and economic imperative.

The next era of entrepreneurship is about raising the bar, levelling the playing field, expanding participation and scaling the networks of social, financial and knowledge capital that provide the foundation for successful and sustainable start-ups and scalable businesses. Business support organisations (BSO), in all their varieties, could expand their scope and increase their role by providing capacity-building and support services to innovative SMEs taking up the call to deliver in the sustainable transition.

Chiara Davalli, Senior Project Leader, European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN)
Ann Branch, Head of Unit, European Commission – DG Employment(tbc)
Kristian Mancinone, Social Inclusion Expert – ART-ER
Rocío Nogales Muriel, Executive Director – EMES

Better Incubation: a network of networks linking incubation actors for inclusive and social entrepreneurship

Posted on February 2, 2021May 20, 2021 by admin

EBN, Impact Hub and EVPA collaborate to formalise knowledge exchange under the Better Incubation programme, powered by the EU-funded Linking Incubation Actors for Inclusive and social Entrepreneurship Project.

During the event launch on 27 January 2021, Ann Branch (Head of Unit, EC, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) highlighted the perfect timing for such a pilot project stimulating mainstream BSOs to broaden their horizons to social and inclusive entrepreneurship: ‘The timing has never been better; it feels like we are beyond a ‘tipping point’ in the sustainability debate. We hope LIAISE can contribute to this bigger picture by bringing these two groups of entrepreneurs onto the radar of mainstream business incubators and mobilising the collective power of European networks’.

On EBN’s side (coordinating the action), CEO Laura Lecci declared to be proud of leading this network of networks and to connect ‘unusual partners’ at the regional and European level, making the most of the different perspectives, skills and expertise towards a more inclusive and sustainable transition: ‘Together with our partners EVPA and IHUB, and with the support of Caritas Europe, Cooperatives Europe, EMES and ENSIE, we will work to provoke an ecosystemic change in Europe’.

There is an undeniable link between strong economies, prosperity, social fairness and sustainable development. Supporting those who support Entrepreneurial innovators providing new solutions to tackle the global challenges should be part of the equation as both a moral and economic imperative.

Already at proposal stage, LIAISE already received more than 60 letters of Supports from European innovation and inclusion players willing to be part of this eco-systemic change.

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