By Roan, Melissa, Sasha, Camila, Bruno and Nadira
We had the opportunity to be part of an intense social entrepreneurship program in June of this year. As such, we are currently in the process on how to implement the skills we have acquired by creating a sustainable program for young entrepreneurs in school. We would like to learn more on how to deal with the problems faced by the local Maastricht community, especially with youth.
One of the challenges we face as a school is how we utilize our skills and resources for the benefit, communication and integration of the local youth. Thus, listening and learning with people and organisations who have experience in this area would be invaluable. We visited 11 projects and interviewed respective members and got a feel of what they are tru=ying to achieve.
The aim of the project was to obtain information on various social-entrepreneurships in Belfast, Northern Ireland and utilize its knowledge in connecting the UWCM and the local community. Social entrepreneurship is growing exponentially in the city of Belfast, due to it’s constant bureaucracy and political deadlock, the people are taking action into their own hands in addressing the issues which damaging their communities.
These are the main goals we aim to pursue in the project week:
- Design and pursue a student-led project
- We aim to create a short-film on our short visit.
- The skills we acquire will be implemented in the UWCM social entrepreneurship hub
- Provide a service to an organization/community
- The ability to replicate structures and projects that will contribute to the development of new initiatives that will address social problems in the local Maastricht community.
- Work in coordination with Belfast-based NGOs and local community groups in obtaining new skills
- Organize activities outside of campus
- Implementing Social Entrepreneurships in the local community
- Explore a new country and culture
- Explore how organisations and projects handle social problems among youth in Belfast
- Improve our communication and collaboration skills
- By working with social projects in Belfast, we will develop how we communicate and collaborate our ideas to those who will benefit from future projects and entrepreneurship
- Achieve a positive (social) change
- As is evident in our previous points, the core of the project is obtain improved knowledge on how to achieve social change in Maastricht, Belfast and other personal contexts.
The general program was quite sporadic, as we ad to negotiate different times which suited us and the projects logistically. Our program goes as follows:
- Day 1:
- We met with Peter Edgar of Northern Ireland Science Park
- Explored Belfast with ‘the local’
- Day 2:
- 7am train to Derry!
- Morning meeting with Jessica Caldwell at the Playhouse
- Lunchtime meeting with the Social entrepreneurship hub Derry
- Experinceing the city walls and developing knowledge on the political context of Northern Ireland.
- Afternoon meeting with the Fab lab and Nerve centre with Eamon Durey
- Quickly back to Belfast for the Civic Conversation: 'Having Wellbeing at the Heart of NI Society' event.
- Day 3:
- Morning meeting with Liam McCusker - Young People Leading Change
- Lunchtime meeting with the leadership team of the NOW group.
- Afternoon meeting with Mango street smoothie entreprise
- Evening meeting with South Belfast Social Enterprise Hub
- Day 4:
- Morning meeting with The Thinking Cup
- Lunchtime meeting with the Loca Centre (Lower Oldpark Community Centre)
- Afternoon activity - visiting the ‘Titanic experience’ and the murals on the Falls and Shankill road.
The information gathered from this project will most beneficial in the creation of the Social entrepreneurship Hub in school. Also, it will help inspire and show others on campus implementation of ideas of SEs can be easily achieved.
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