The project “Creative Rural Empowerment And Thinking Innovative Villages and Ecosystems through Cacao” - CREATIVE CACAO will be implemented by 7 different organizations from 6 countries, (DE, IT, FR, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia) over the course of 18 months, starting on August 2018.It responds to the following challenges: rising levels of unemployment, promotion of sustainable, smart, inclusive growth and participatory processes among youth and the general migration trend from rural areas to urban ones. The main objectives are:• To provide youth with technical cooperation, innovation, and specialized knowledge on Cacao• To conceive and promote sustainable rural communities taking advantage of their assets, attracting and retaining businesses and residents of all ages, particularly youth, and ensuring that economic development results in lasting improvements, making a critical connection between economic competitiveness, agricultural and quality of life : Re-Thinking Villages It relies on the following activities:• Int’l Training in Brazil (28 participants). Topics: Agriculture and rural life as mean of re-integration into the society; Youth in global participation democratic processes; Re-Thinking Villages idea and ways of implementation.• Int’l Training in Colombia (28 participants). Topics: Cocoa production; The challenges and threats for cocoa producers; Cocoa marketing systems in cocoa producing countries; Good agricultural practices and sustainable farming; Evolution and economics of cocoa processing, quality aspects, characteristics and analysis of cocoa beans.• Int’l Training in Italy (28 participants). Topics: cocoa trade, focusing on developing awareness, knowledge, and skills; Sustainability and traceability developments in the cocoa supply chain; Understand chocolate chemistry and flavour as well as the ingredients and processes that contribute to taste; Understand the processes and machinery needed to turn dried cocoa beans into chocolate• Job Shadowing in Bolivia (6 participants) with the aim of involving relevant actors from youth work, education, politics, administration and businesses, promoting wider take up of results and outcomes. The project foresees three main dissemination activities: the Conference in Colombia, the Int’l Forum in Italy and the event in Bolivia, during which the outputs will be presented, 1) motivational and educational media production (social marketing, advocacy tool and educative entertainment); 2) academic and technical publications.The partners will integrate good practices derived from this project and the new skills developed in existing and planned offers for young people and youth workers. The trained youth workers will act in their local communities as multipliers helping to create an enabling environment, that genuinely assists young people in creating own business, in finding better or new employment opportunities and in becoming promoter of innovative rural villages and ecosystems.

"At the beginning of the 21st century, our Western societies are at a crossroads for further development in almost all areas of life. They are decisively characterized by the tension between the opportunities that result from scientific and technological progress and the limits that are associated with this progress which express themselves in negative social and environmental consequences. The main challenges are a) climate change and the necessary departure from the fossil age, b) globalization of markets and changing work organization, c) shifts in the division of labor and fragile employment biographies d) an increasing variety of new communication and learning opportunities in the digital age. Against this background, sustainable changes at different levels are necessary. Basically, it is important to find a balance between preserving lifelong structures and targeting further development. Up to now, innovations have often only been designed according to technical or business criteria. However, tasks of the future increasingly arise in the social sphere, which must also be won over for technical and organizational problem-solving offers. The project ""Promoting Social Innovation Management (PROSIM)"" is being implemented by 4 NGOs and one University from 4 EU Member States (DE, BE, IT, PT), all working in the field of Social Entrepreneurship (SE), with a particular focus on young people. The overall objective of the project is to qualify educators, trainers and multipliers in the area of SE in order to support potential young entrepreneurs in founding their companies and to be able to accompany them during the start-up phase. For this reason, two innovative educational formats are to be developed and tested within the scope of the project: 1. A multiplier training for social innovation, 2. A training program called ""Social Innovation Manager"" (SIM), which is targeted at potential young entrepreneurs. In addition, training material, guides and ""good practice"" models are made available to a wide range of users via the online resource ""Social Innovation Management"" (www.prosim.starkmacher.eu). The project enables the participating institutions to realize targeted and high quality offers for their target group of young social entrepreneurs on the topic of entrepreneurial thinking and acting. In this way, they give then a tool, to develop new solutions to their challenges, e.g. entrepreneurial activity. In the medium term, the participating regions benefit from an increased number of start-ups in social entrepreneurship, which creates new jobs in innovative business areas locally and regionally. This creates a dynamic that translates into other regions and thus reverses the development of recent decades in a sustainable way and gives young people a perspective for their development, whether in urban or rural areas. Of course, all activities in the field of social entrepreneurship not only create new jobs and help to preserve existing jobs, as is the case with the transformation of existing enterprises into social economy organizations (especially workers' cooperatives). In addition, the creation of new jobs will often benefit people who are hampered by access to work in the rest of the economy, such as women and young people. In addition, the project strengthens rural underdeveloped regions in Europe, reduces rural exodus and urbanization and counteracts the demographic, economic and economic crisis, especially of young people. At the national level, the promotion of Social Entrepreneurship will be perceived and sustainably promoted and supported. The developed educational products will find their way into the offers of other NGOs as well as public institutions. The growth of social entrepreneurship and the emergence of specific forms of organization will increase awareness of the social impact of economic activity at both individual and societal levels. Internationally, further projects from the partnership will be initiated and realized. This leads to an increasingly European approach to education and contributes to the EU's youth strategy and to the implementation of the call from the EU Commission study ""Taking the Future Into Their Own Hands""."