Since 1 September 2015, the Rijeka Development Agency Porin has been participating in the Erasmus+ project ‘Enterprise in Interface’ – ENTER. The first partnership meeting took place on 1 and 2 October in Belfast. The duration of the project is 24 months.
Partners in the project are:
- East Belfast Enterprise – Northern Ireland Development Agency located in Belfast
- Canice Consulting – a consultancy agency in Northern Ireland specialising in online learning;
- Creative Spark is a training agency for people living in the ‘interpretation’ area, Dundalk-Ireland
- Momentum is a training agency focusing on social inclusion, Leitrim, Ireland
- Association for the Development and Emancipation of Muslims (VOEM) is a national non-profit organisation active in adult education and promotes an open and tolerant society through social dialogue.
Conflicts in Northern Ireland have left behind many conflicts between Protestants and Catholics. Unfortunately, as immigration and ethnic diversity grow, there is a greater conflict between groups, causing ethno-religious tensions in urban centres across Europe. If left unaddressed, these tensions can cause further ghettoization, poverty and even open conflict, threatening a Europe that aims to achieve a peaceful and prosperous society for all.
Given the neutrality of entrepreneurship development within the public policy order and the emergence of innovative business models of mixing social and economic goals, now more than ever, education and training enterprise programmes have a major impact on personal and collective economic and social development in conflict areas.
The aim of the project is to improve the access and quality of training of social organizations to vulnerable groups living in the areas of confrontation by updating their knowledge, skills and organizational abilities.
To achieve this, we will:
- a) Establish 4 ‘Enterprise in Interface’ alliances, with stakeholders from the public, private and non-profit sectors working together to explore the needs and opportunities to promote successful entrepreneurship in communities, and develop collective and individual strategies in 4 regional operational programmes.
- b) Create, publish and promote the ‘Entrepreneurial Toolkit’ and encourage the creation of further Alliances across Europe.
- c) Develop and publish a training plan and programme and training materials for emerging vocational practices, social innovation and business models and skills needed to effectively employ participants from these vulnerable backgrounds.
- d) Test, publish and strongly promote the course, in order to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream vocational education.
The Rijeka Development Agency Porin participates in the project as a representative of the city, which is an example of good practice. Rijeka is a multicultural, tolerant city where members of different religions and nationalities live in peaceful coexistence (as evidenced by the fact that there are Catholic and Orthodox churches in Rijeka, as well as synagogues and mosques that allow members of different religions to perform their religious ceremonies with dignity, as well as the fact that members of 22 national minorities live in Rijeka).
If you want to see how the first partner meeting went, check out video.
