Social Innovations Summer School gathers 40 activists ready to change the potential of communities
Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Summer School was held from July 29 to August 2, 2019 within the framework of the project "Strengthening local self-organization and civic engagement in Ukraine". The school gathered 40 participants who formed teams from 13 regions of Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Rivne, Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Zakarpattia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Poltava) from all the seven dioceses of the RCC.
Zinovii Svereda, a coach at the Summer School, Doctor of Social Economics, former Associate Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, commented on the importance of this training, "Social innovation is primarily the ability to build productive relationships between people. It is to be able to reveal the inner potential of the community and bring it out of the state of depression, that is, out of disorganization. One of the causes of poverty is social isolation of people. And community solidarity is the social innovation being most in demand today. Social innovation is to build a dialogue between people of different professions who create new products with new ethics and philosophy. For many, even prayer before studying is also an innovation, because it gives value to knowledge and helps to find one's vocation in life. The Summer School helps to realize several basic points: first of all, participants learn to make a personal SWOT-analysis, identify their strengths and weaknesses, risks and opportunities. Because the success of the project is the success of its coordinators and initiators. Participants learn to work in groups, and later this experience will be transferred to their communities. This will build a social network of communities ready to share experiences, experts and initiatives. When someone succeeds, everyone succeeds," added Dr. Zynovii Svereda.
A social entrepreneur is a person who is able to recognize and realize one's vocation, as well as turn it into one's life's work. During five days of work, the participants of the Summer School got acquainted not only with the basics of social management and entrepreneurship, but also launched a mechanism of thinking aimed at creating a new necessary social product or service, ensuring the sustainability of their project. The Summer School participant, Yuliia Lekh, wrote on her Facebook page several quotes from the training, which she called daily motivational slogans, "One sees opportunities, and the other sees only dangers", "Do not be afraid to have challenges among people", "The life of the project is productivity and creativity of the project founders".
A coach, Rostyslav Lukach, Deputy Director of the Agency for Industrial Development, coach of Rotary District 2232 (Belarus, Ukraine) worked in close cooperation with Dr. Zynovii Svereda at the Summer School. He demonstrated the importance of social management tools in practice. "It is important for the leaders of NGOs, initiators of social innovations to be able to convey their values and intentions to their target audience, to involve local authorities and potential partners, primarily local business. Over the years of consulting in the field of attracting financing and investment, I have developed a simple model of preparation for the meeting and the project presentation, which I shared with the participants. It is important to use all marketing tools for effective ministry. I see this in the participants of the Summer School, in these innovators, and I am confident that the projects prepared by them will be well received in the communities and supported by donors and local partners," said the coach, Rostyslav Lukach.
The coaches also presented examples of social entrepreneurship and demonstrated the possibility of changing oneself and one's situation on the example of successful projects. The participants worked on three components of social entrepreneurship: creative idea, message and compliance with the norms and requirements of the legislation to be an honest and "transparent" entrepreneur. At the end of the training, the groups presented their achievements, including projects of mini-bakeries, beauty schools, Catholic courses for young people, etc.
The project "Strengthening local self-organization and civic engagement in Ukraine" is implemented by the Religious Mission Caritas-Spes in Ukraine of the RCC funded by the German government and the Renovabis Foundation.
