MAKE IT GROW! aims to create new connections between young social entrepreneurs (or aspiring) ,youth workers and policy makers. An innovative system made up of networks and strategies to enhance the resources represented by the new generations and expand the impact of their projects in the territories.

The project received a funding of around 200,000 euros from the Erasmus + - Capacity-Building in the filed of Youth (Key Action 2); the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo is involved as the lead organization, in collaboration with the Municipality of Edremit (Turkey), and the associations Art Kontakt (Albania), Orhideja Stolac (Bosnia Herzegovina) and Touristic Kluster (Montenegro).

The specific objectives of the project are:
1. To strengthen the dialogue between public bodies and social entrepreneurship’s players, enhancing the role of the youth workers as facilitators in this process. On one hand, it means to improve the knowledge and competences useful to support and accompany the creation of new young startups as well as to raise awareness on social entrepreneurship as a tool for youth employability and social inclusion. On the other hand, we want to foster the capacity of the young social entrepreneurs to communicate with the policy-makers, by identifying and expressing needs and contributing to the debate on social issues.

2. To share good practices and promote models among project partners and communities in the field of sustainable tourism, promotion of the cultural heritage and the role of the art/creativity industry as resources for community development, youth employability and social inclusion. In this scenario, a big emphasis will be given to the active involvement of women in the field of social entrepreneurship, as change-makers and promoters of social inclusion.

3. To support the capacity-building in the field of community engagement and bottom-up fundraising actions, in order to bring benefits both to the social entrepreneurs in terms of sustainability and to empower the youth participation and the sense of community belonging. The project aims at enhancing the ability of public bodies, organizations, youth workers and young social entrepreneurs in defining strategies to make the impact of social business initiatives effective, by involving the youth community and to find economic support for the projects’ implementation. Crowdfunding, in particular, is a powerful tool for social enterprises: for this reason, a big emphasis will be given to the digital skills development and awareness about tech for good.

4. To promote the networking between organizations and professionals coming from E+ Programme and Partner countries. The project is not only aiming to transfer competences and knowledge, rather enhancing the good practices and experiences represented by the Balkan partners in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Between 2022 and 2025, will be developed the following activities:
 Coordination meetings between the partners in Cinisello Balsamo
 Two training courses (the first in Cinisello Balsamo, and the second online) that aim at improving skills related to social entrepreneurship and community engagement, in which youths, youth workers and policy makers from partner countries of the project will take part; between one session and another, the participants will be called upon to elaborate guidelines and recommendations useful for administrations in order to support and accompany the young social entrepreneurs of their territory.
 Public seminars and study visits in;
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (run by Orhideja), focused on the role of women in social entrepreneurship; the aim of the activity is to challenge gender social standarts and propose new models represented by girls coming from marginalized contexts, to lead to a deeper structural change in society;
- Albania (run by Art Kontakt), on the theme of the creative and artistic industry as a promoter of innovation on economic and social development, and its ability to interact with youth culture;
- in Montenegro (run by TKM), with the aim of enhancing in-country and rural tourism as a key element for the economic growth of less favoured regions. Indeed, the art of promoting non-mainstream location contributes to strengthening the circular economy, welfare, social integration and local services; and encouraging people - especially youths- to “stay”, positively reconsidering their land as an attractive place.
 A workshop on fundraising tools (organized by the Municipality of Edremit and the Meraki - cultural desires association), during which young participants, youth workers and policy makers will collaborate to launch their crowdfunding project; following months of accompaniment in the setting of crowdfunding campaigns and in their actual implementation.