At first glance, he is a young person just like every other student at Harvard University or Oxford - purposeful, determined, looking forward for new knowledge and with a promising future career. He is on the path to success in this field, working as a consultant for large-scale projects and worldwide corporations such as MC Kinsey. But there is something that entices him more than his promising career... In 1981 he founds Ashoka - a dream came true for change, development and support to social business, and for the change within ourselves when we discover the power of empathy. This young man is Bill Draton. He believes that each of us can be an innovator and guiding light for our communities through the causes and new creations that are important to them.
Impact Drive's team also believes in the power of change and community. Our organisation works with the teams of mission-driven organisations and jointly creates solutions for sustainability and efficiency in their activities, by developing their skills so they can in turn establish opportunities for change in their communities and beneficiaries.
The basis of out project "SoDivers - Social Business to Drive Diversity and Inclusion" is this exact concept of propelling a new generation of social entrepreneurs in civic organisations' teams who work with the young people of our communities. This project begins each month, and combines tools and efficiency of the social economy to combat and overcome the problems of social exclusion and inequality.
The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union and includes partners from 10 countries. They each work with young people and groups that are at risk of exclusion, and develop or have an interest in developing social entrepreneurship, and potentially encouraging their beneficiaries in this direction. The project partners know the opportunities that the social economy can provide and invest efforts in their youth workers to equip them with useful competencies for the development and support of social business.
The core of this project is the SoDivers - Social Business to Drive Diversity and Inclusion training, which is practical and tailored to the needs of youth workers from the partnering organisations.
The training involves 20 representatives of partner organisations. The training team, which brings together experts from Bulgaria, Poland and Slovenia, provides a space in which youth workers immersed in the energizing power of the Bulgarian mountains will learn, try, intertwine, present and exchange ideas for their projects, causes and endeavors related to social entrepreneurship. This is the step necessary to be taken to fit into the colourful yet turbulent world of desired change.
The training course will be complemented by online meetings in an extended format, dedicated to topics that are important for the organisations: EU policies on youth and youth work; social economy in Europe, the broad topic of diversity and the involvement and funding of civil society organisations. The online meetings will allow us to develop a network of partners and lay the foundation for cooperation and common solutions in the countries participating in the project.
In the long run, we believe that the project will provide knowledge, confidence, and networking, and will support NGOs in the important role that their teams have - on the one hand, as a first line of support for those vulnerable and affected by crisis, and on the other, as leaders embracing change and building the new normal.
Our team embraces change and stands firmly behind everyone who dares to seek the right solution, to support civic participation, to become a mentor, partner and supporter. SoDivers marks the beginning of a desired and necessary change in the direction of creating sustainable practices that meet the needs and challenges of the new age.
More about this project you could find on www.impactdrive.eu/sodivers.
