Count On Me — Estonia

Count on me was an Erasmus+ training course for youth workers focusing on the topic of Social Entrepreneurship. It happened between the 5th and 12th of May, in the middle of Estonian beautiful nature at venue Vanaoe.

 

Twenty participants from all over Europe and of all ages gathered for seven days of training in a beautiful place lost in the middle of the endless forests of Estonia. The training covered all aspects of creating for-profit and non-profit businesses and NGOs with a social and sustainable focus. We addressed topics such as what is social enterprise, different types of business strategies, impact models, sources of income (revenue models) and the definition of a business plan including detailed market research. We also had the opportunity to present existing individual and collective initiatives of social enterprises before coming together in small groups to support new initiatives of the participants. We went all the way from the initial idea to the presentation in front of potential investors.

 

The program included a visit of two social enterprises in the city of Viljandi, where we were able to better understand the objectives of the program. These were very emotional moments due to the human dimension of both projects – first was old people’s home and second workplace for people with disabilities (mental/physical).

 

The training was coordinated by Marco Santos from the Estonian organization MTÜ Noored Ühiskonna Heaks and facilitated by Helena Leszczyńska and Ondra Podlešák.

 

Thank you very much to the entire team for your magnificent work and your human qualities!

Filip Kňažek