The closing of the European Union co-financed FOSO POCO project has created a strong foundation, whilst opening new doors, for collaboration between social economy stakeholders from Tartu (Estonia), Cork (Ireland) and Malta.
The one-year project, entitled Fostering Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystems post Covid19 – in short FOSO POCO – which is co-financed by the EU’s COSME programme, comes to an end on 31th January.
Social Entrepreneurship is a business model which places people and the environment above profit, and aims to improve the surrounding community as a result of its business operations, often involving said community in the day-to-day running of the business. This is a niche currently unfulfilled by Government and Big Business, so FOSO POCO provided an entry point for start-ups to tackle societal issues.
The FOSO POCO stakeholders met online over three separate occasions, between July and September, where each entity held a workshop on a given topic, such as Tartu City Council’s talk on Social Enterprises in a Post-Covid19 Economy, Cork City on Social Enterprise – Pilot, Pitch and Internationalise. Malta’s talk was centered on Fostering Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystems – A policy perspective.
Around 50 stakeholders from the three partner regions joined the project’s closing event organized online recently.
During the closing event, the three partners presented their project experiences and concurred that the project had allowed for the building of a stronger collaboration between stakeholders, and increased awareness about their social enterprise ecosystem, both in their respective organisations as well as in the wider community.
The various stakeholders shared best practices, developed over the course of the programme, such as Malta’s own SEAM (Social Entrepreneurs Association Malta) lobbying for recognition of social enterprises as legal entities to further the good they can do, and cement their place in society.
The event was concluded by all acknowledging the great results from the excellent work done, and taking note of the many opportunities available for the near future. Cork City Council, Tartu City Government and Malta Enterprise aim to join forces once again and investigate potential new project opportunities which are relevant to the local social economy, whilst keeping close contact with their relevant stakeholders.
For more information about the project, contact: euprojects@maltaenterpise.com
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