Project “Social Entrepreneurship for Youth Empowerment in Finland and Latvia” is funded via Interreg Baltic Programme and partly by European Union during years 2023-2025. Aim of the project is to train young people living in rural Päijät-Häme and rural areas in Latvia, to start with a social enterprise. In EU, social entrepreneurship is considered important to promote as a practice, since it strengthens social resilience and contributes to maintain sustainable livelihoods. The project benefits particularly young people with fewer opportunities, as entrepreneurial skills empower them to develop their communities.
The project is led by international, non-profit organization Reach for Change from Latvia, that works for promoting the practice of social entrepreneurship in the whole world. Juvenia from South Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences serves as a project partner together with DILA (Lahti Diaconia Institute) in Finland, and the organization Creative Ideas in Latvia.
Aim of the project is to train Finnish and Latvian young people with 18-25 years of age for social entrepreneurship by online training and training camps in Latvia. On behalf of Juvenia, the training programme will be evaluated in terms of its replicability and societal impact.