<< Objectives >>The project aims at empowering Lithuanian and European organisations working with migrants to build their capacity to promote social inclusion and integration in the labour market, by facilitating inter-community dialogue and ensuring upskilling of the participants. The project will create an international share of knowledge, best practices and educational tools. In the long-term it will create strategies, deploying the methodologies and tools of the social economy to create peaceful societies.<< Implementation >>The project activities are a secondary research on the role SE plays in building peaceful societies, focusing on the inclusion of migrants, 4 peer-learning activities that will involve Lithuanian and European organisations to share strategies, knowledge and practices, the creation of a handbook, gathering the outcomes from the research and best practices identified to multiply the knowledge across Europe, and the related project management and dissemination activities.<< Results >>The expected results of the activities are:Secondary research gathering the needs, challenges of SE in peace- building and collection of 10 cases from Lithuania and EuropeKnowledge exchange between participating organisations on transnational level, share of best practices between community-based organisations working with migrants on inclusion and community dialogue, and building cross-national networkHandbook for SE tools to build peaceful communities.

Social innovation actors take on an important role in finding solutions for societal challenges. However, many social enterprises lack entrepreneurial skills and digitization of their products or services and there is still a lack of support for social entrepreneurs, which is due to the fact that many business support organisations have little understanding of the specific challenges and needs of social entrepreneurs. The social innovation and the technology innovation ecosystems are currently not well interconnected and mostly considered separate ecosystems with different skillsets. The POSITIVE project will counteract these factors by raising awareness about the benefits of social innovation and providing capacity building about social innovation and social entrepreneurship to the tech innovation ecosystem, thus creating the basis for better support for social entrepreneurs and a more inclusive innovation ecosystem based on mutual understanding. The project will also provide new opportunities for social entrepreneurs to digitise their products and services and to acquire new business skills through the organisation of an Open Innovation Challenge in three countries (POSITIVE Impact Challenge), which constitutes knowledge transfer from the tech into the social innovation ecosystem, with the specific purpose to support regional SI actors to access alternative means of financing. The POSITIVE project will also foster the interlinkage of the two ecosystems on a regional and European level through cross-fertilization, knowledge exchange and policy recommendations on how the POSITIVE Impact Challenge model can be replicated. Thus, the POSITIVE project can not only contribute to the strengthening of the social economy on different levels, but also make the tech innovation ecosystem more resilient and equipped to tackle the important societal challenges by including social innovation actors.

<< Objectives >>The project aims to support prospective and current entrepreneurs in rural areas in strengthening their businesses and business ideas by transferring knowledge related to circular and resource efficient business models and digitalization.Further, strengthen connections among entrepreneurially minded people in rural areas, support availability of training around Circular economy, promote 'Green Responsible Entrepreneurship' and digital skills.<< Implementation >>The project intends to develop a training for enhancing digital & green skills of rural entrepreneurs in regards to CE and resource efficiency.The foreseen phases are:Preparation: Gathering the information for building the training.Structuring & Brainstorming: Designing the training methodology and topics.Developing: Creating the training in an attractive, user-friendly, digital format.Testing: Adjusting the training according to participants' feedback.Outreach: Promotion & dissemination.<< Results >>Expected results include: 60 Surveys and 3 focus groups to assess needs of rural entrepreneurs6 inspiring Circular Economy business modelsBrainstorming activity with 9 staff members1 Virtual tour of Community Cafe in LithuaniaDevelopment of at least 6 modules in an accessible and appealing digital format1 Training activity for 6 trainersValidation of modules & methodology with 30 participants & improvement of material3 Open House Events with a minimum of 45 participants in totalOutreach