Sail with Social EntrepreneurSHIP

Sail with Social Entrepreneurship in Greece

Youthfully Yours sent two Slovak volunteers at the beginning of April to represent our small but great country in the Greek city of Thessaloniki for the informal training course Sail with Social entrepreneurSHIP.

The project focused on the topic of social entrepreneurship, which is still a big novelty in Slovakia. In a nutshell, social entrepreneurship improves the quality of life of local residents and is characterized by the fact that, unlike traditional businesses, it does not generate profit for the owners' pockets, but must be reinvested back into the business.

“We had the chance to see how a country, thanks to social entrepreneurship, can motivate people to create an environment in which they will feel good.”

During this course, we visited several local social enterprises to see theoretical knowledge in practice. The goal of the enterprises was to strengthen youth initiative and ensure the inclusion of socially disadvantaged individuals.

“WE - Once an old abandoned warehouse - today a building for antigravity courses, a circus club, a skiing simulator, snowboarding, a skatepark, a workspace for young people, which hosts famous DJs in the evening and welcomes locals and non-locals in its club premises.”

We were enchanted by the idea of social entrepreneurship and regretted that something similar does not yet exist in our country.

In addition to visits, we also went through the basics of creativity and its use in business, where we proudly presented the Creative Guru workbook, which we created together. Other activities on the list included, for example, comparing social entrepreneurship in individual countries (Slovakia was not the only one that had not yet implemented it) and through games and discussions, we gradually learned about the PDCA management model (plan do check act) and design thinking.

But it wasn't all just about learning and visiting businesses. The first days were focused on various team-building activities and exercises to create a strong bond among participants. We also had a day off, when we jointly visited a local restaurant with homemade cuisine and admired the beauties of Thessaloniki.

The project organizer InfinityGreece excellently took care of both accommodation and food (as a vegan, I really couldn't complain).

The entire training course took place in the form of informal activities and exercises that were intended to contribute to the development of skills for youth workers. So our final recommendation is: take advantage of the opportunity from the EU to get to know cultures and the world we live in. When if not now.