Youth capacity, social entrepreneurship and municipality cooperation are some of the key areas we’re exploring as part of the project LOCAL-Y-MPACT together with our partners from Latvia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Portugal. As we’re half way through the project we thought we’d share some of the first results that we believe are useful for municipalities, youth organisations, social enterprises and intermediaries across Europe.

Youth organisations and social enterprises

As part of our initial research work all partner organisations explored our local regions and municipalities – in our case we’ve teamed up with Region Dalarna in Sweden – and have put together a database for each country of youth organisations and social enterprises to provide an opportunity to get to know active organisations and to develop productive solution-oriented collaborations not only between the municipalities in which they operate, but also internationally. You can find the Dalarna list here.

Cooperation models

We’ve explored various cooperation models between municipalities and different kinds of youth organisations and social enterprises and have put together examples of best practice. You can find them here.

Needs and challenges when developing successful partnerships

The report “What are the needs and challenges to develop successful partnerships between municipality and community based organisations?” tackles the needs and challenges of building a cooperation between municipalities and community based organisations that work with youth or with the aim to improve the lives of youngsters.

Main conclusions of mapping needs and challenges

The main takeaways of mapping the needs and challenges of municipalities and community based organisations and social enterprises in our partner countries – Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Portugal – have been put together in a report that includes tips and ideas for intermediaries working with similar projects. You can find the report here.

We hope the insights and ideas from these reports will inspire and foster the creation of meaningful, productive and long-lasting partnerships and cooperation modes between municipalities and youth organisations and social enterprises. And if you’re interested in finding out more about the project you can find all reports and databases over at the website of project coordinator Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia.

The above mentioned outputs were created in the context of the project “Enhancing youth capacity in municipalities and encouraging mutual cooperation using social entrepreneurship as a tool, LOCAL-Y-MPACT” The objective of the project “LOCAL-Y-MPACT” is to strengthen the cooperation between community based youth organisations and social enterprises and local municipalities, and promoting social entrepreneurship as an effective tool for reducing economic inequality, promoting social inclusion and integration, creating resilient society and fostering active participation within local communities.