The aim of the CERUSI project (https://epic-org.eu/en/cerusi-2/) is to support social entrepreneurship development, social innovation and circular economy in rural conditions in the Central European region.
EPIC non-profit organization has been trying to achieve this goal at theoretical and practical level. At theoretical level we have implemented public education/public awareness through the Academy of Social Innovation (so-called RSI Academy), https://epic-org.eu/en/academy-of-social-innovation-in-rural-areas-rsi-academy/, an online training course on social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and the circular economy.
There are 5 modules for all those interested focused on social entrepreneurship; especially: Rural Empowerment, Understanding Community Needs, Business Model Design, Impact Design and Sustainability Design.
In practical level we organise social-innovation workshops (laboratories) aimed to contact and networked the relevant actors deal with SE and provide them with the support needed to crate new social business in rural areas in Slovakia.
The original intention of the project was to organize public awareness meetings with SE stakeholders using the innovative approach of so-called RSI_Caravans, in Slovak regiones of Banska Bystrica, Košice and Prešov regions and to collect the key SE ideas and intentions from people from these regions. However, the pandemic situation forced us to organize project activities online.
Since January 2021, we have held almost 20 individual online meetings with social entrepreneurs who presented us their vision of a socially oriented business plan. Together with local entrepreneurs and social economy actors we have organised several online workshops for monitoring and analyzing the situation in social entrepreneurship in rural areas.
Based on online workshops 8 social entrepreneurs were selected-those who met the purpose of CERUSI project.
Online workshops for social stakeholders are being organised, in the cooperation of SE experts on the social economy – from the regional centers for social economy in the Slovak Republic, as well as from the Alliance for the Social Economy in Slovakia (ASES). EPIC Non profit key goal is not only to connect social entrepreneurs, but also to provide them with the practical advice and consultations in cooperation with experts, in order to make their way to the creation of a social enterprise as easy as possible.
Project partners:
GmbH ZSI – Centre for Social Innovation (Lead) – Austria
Regionalmanagement Burgenland GmbH – Austria
Social Impact – Germany
Democenter-Sipe Foundation – Italy
Foundation for Improvement of Employment Possibilities PRIZMA – Slovenia
EPIC non-profit organization – Slovakia
Cooperation Fund Foundation – Poland
Regional Development Agency of South Bohemia – Czechia
Foundation Cassa di Risparmio di Modena – Italy
