By Karolína Silná, Ředitelka| Director Ekumenické akademii

At the RIPESS co-organized European Social Solidarity Economy Congress “UniverSSE”, held in Athens in June 2017, the need for advocating for an economy that meets the needs of all people treating them as citizens and right holders instead of addressing them simply as consumers or stakeholders was emphasized as well as further training of practical Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) skills: not only how to start a social enterprise and other SSE initiative but also how to develop/innovate and how to run activities sustainably in the longer-term perspective. This could be creating an alternative market, an ecosystem of sustainable businesses – in a horizontal way (sustainable supply chain) and vertical way (intersectoral approach). Furthermore skills of community building seem to be essential, advocacy actions as well as campaigning and communicating the values of Social Solidarity Economy.

This was an impulse to develop a project, that would facilitate the spread of SSE activities by providing knowledge, skills and competences, with a special regional focus on Central-Eastern Europe. The joint project of RIPESS Europe and organisations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Austria is called „Building up Social Solidarity Economy“ and was successfull in the 2018 call of Erasmus + educational programme of the EU. The project will start in October 2018 and the primary goal is to create an informal innovative European training programme of 4 modules on different aspects of Social Solidarity Economy. The educational materials and training tools will be produced in the languages of the involved countries and also in English, to make them available for a broader audience. An important part of the project is also to develop cooperation and networking at the regional and European level during different events.

The project partners are representing various forms of supporting Social Solidarity Economy and entrepreneurship, placed in different context and will bring together very innovative practices and experiences.

The project partners are: RIPESS Europe, Ecumenical Academy (Czech Republic), Dobrze Food Cooperative (Poland), Utopia (Slovakia), Katholische Sozialakademie Österreichs (Austria)

More information to come soon…