Local Mentorship Program

We are happy to announce that the Local Mentorship program, part of the KA2 project “Young Changemakers for Circular Local Economy” (YouCycle) has been successfully completed. The Local Mentorship program was an opportunity for young people with a vision for a sustainable future to learn and develop their social business ideas along with successful local changemakers. 

During the implementation period of the local mentorship programme, the young participants, with the guidance of both social entrepreneurs and youth workers from EKO, worked intensively to develop their social business idea as fully as possible. 

The outcomes of this activity have been beneficial for all parties involved. The young people gained knowledge about ways and procedures of developing a social enterprise and ensuring its sustainability. Furthermore, they cultivated a range of soft skills such as teamwork, risk management, creativity, adaptability, etc. On the other hand, changemakers had the opportunity to be inspired by fresh perspectives and new ideas and to strengthen their leadership and communication skills. 

Supporting and mentoring the next generation of green/social entrepreneurs allowed both mentors and EKO youth workers to contribute to a cause they strongly believe in.

After all the groups had completed their work, each group presented their business idea in a pitch event. The final ideas that were presented are introduced below:

1. Maison de Vie: Their main aim is a house for every stray animal in an eco-friendly, recyclable, and sustainable way. The business idea focuses on creating sustainable houses from abandoned furniture. 

2. WeCompost: This team focused on the reduction of waste footprint and the utilization of Biomass in a beneficial way. Their business idea is to install compost bins in urban areas for public use by individuals and food companies, aiming to produce compost for agriculture or private gardens.

3. Eco-nests (Eco-Φωλίτσες): Aiming to the reduction of food and plastic waste, this team came up with an idea to make houses/nests out of bioplastic, which will be derived from food waste. 

4. Made of Love: The fourth team main goal is to support the integration of vulnerable groups, promoting eco-conscious practices and driving social change through community engagement. Their idea is a social kitchen that will provide food with international influences, while also offering employment and reintegration opportunities for vulnerable social groups.

Two of the above ideas were selected, based on the criteria of the programme, as the winning ones, Maison de Vie and Male of Love. Members of the selected teams will have the opportunity to participate in an international mobility to present their idea to the other partners of the project consortium (our partners from Spain, Belgium, Romania and Turkey) as well as to interact and exchange ideas and experiences with young people from the above partners participating in the mobility, after having carried out the same mission. Besides, the winning teams will receive a monetary prize within the framework of the programme.

We would like to sincerely thank the local changemakers for their important contributions to this activity. Their efforts and involvement made a real difference, and we truly appreciate the time and dedication they brought to this work. Mr. Christos Mamidis from IRTIS Network, Mrs. Neda Tozija from TransfoLAB ATH CoLab House, Mr. Ilias Saltiel from Athens Makerspace, and Mrs. Marilia Taschounidou as well as Mrs. Maria Vasiloglou from Book Garden thank you for helping make this initiative a success.

So, stay tuned for our next adventures!