Progress, achievements and results of SOCIALNEET project in Slovenia (June 2020)

University of Primorska, Faculty of Management

Koper, 27.6.2020

progress-report-SLO-27062020Download

Report: Progress, achievements and results of SOCIALNEET project in Slovenia

25 awareness and information workshops were organized in Slovenia. There were representatives of volunteering organizations, educational organizations, NGOs and other entities. Information was well taken, interest seemed genuine, and promised support in sharing information about the project.

Preliminary research activities were ongoing mostly through desk research. We sent the report on local social capital in Slovenia on 12th November 2019. Main findings:

• The cooperation between CSOs and other institutions is not very developed.
• Characteristics/values that may mobilize CSOs towards collective action: trust, reciprocity, past experience. Common goals sharing capabilities to achieve target group needs.
• Collective action is difficult in the region, maybe because of the competition for same money.
• Stakeholders are not willing to share knowledge, and risk.
• Declaratively they are all for collaboration.
• Identified gaps in the institutional framework regarding the cooperation of CSOs: no tenders grant additional points when grading projects for partnering CSOs.
• CSOs are too fragmented.

Main findings about the unused resources:

• 53 spaces have been identified throughout Slovenia.
• Some of them can be given to the NGOs free use, if they work in public interest,
• It’s also possible to negotiate for a low rent with municipalities,
• There are some other possibilities: it’s possible to use co-working spaces with all the amenities, which might be interesting for starting social entrepreneurs, or use open offices, incubators, youth organizations premises, hubs etc.

Meeting point has been opened on the Info day, February 18, 2020 by vice mayor of Izola, vice dean of Faculty of Management and vice rector of University of Primorska and it stayed opened until the March 9, 2020. Activities and events such as presentation of Social economy association were planned; it will be reopened when health circumstances allowing.

Training courses have started on February 28, 2020 at 16:00 and have been interrupted by the epidemics on March 9. Initial training has been delivered for each of the groups, explaining the principles of social entrepreneurship, search for problems to be addressed in the society, methods of idea generation etc. On the third week, University closed all the activities and we stopped with trainings. Nobody knew how long this interruption would go on, after a while we decided to change a little bit the concept, in order not to lose the NEETs motivation for the project. So we reassumed with trainings online at the end of March.

Exemplary and innovative business plans are being developed in details during the activities with NEETs. After the end of training courses and work-based trainings, they will be available for NEETs in the Meeting point for further consulting sessions, when it reopens.