For the last six months, 137 young entrepreneurs gathered in 46 teams from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia worked on developing their social business ideas. In the upcoming days, they will compete in front of a jury for financial support and access to a regional incubation program to make their ideas a reality. In total, 12 teams will be supported.
A total of:
- 33 training sessions on social business development,
- 19 meet-ups for community building,
- 182 mentoring sessions,
- 26 experts consultations,
- 135 one-to-one coaching sessions and
- 6 regional peer learning business sessions were organised.
These events allowed the young people to actively develop their social business idea, have a chance to learn from each other, get open to new ideas, create a connection between projects developed in different communities and create new friendships and connections across the Western Balkans.
Implemented by six Local Incubators from the Western Balkans and coordinated by a consortium composed of regional and European partners, RISE (Regional Incubator for Social Entrepreneurs) aims to enrich the Western Balkans social entrepreneurship ecosystem and enable young people to develop innovative societal solutions thus contributing to reconciliation and cooperation in the region. A positive change in the Western Balkans is possible while stability and prosperity can be achieved only by fostering reconciliation and cooperation in the region.
The selected entrepreneurs are young people from the region, 18 to 35 years old, motivated to learn about social entrepreneurship and be involved in a regional intercultural program. Through this tailor-made approach, they develop their concrete ideas that tackle social or environmental issues in their communities. Participation in the RISE project is also developing their skills and contributing to their employability.