During the period between September 28 and October 1, 2021 – the first study trip to Ioannina, Greece was organized for the partners in the project Refugees Economic Integration through Social Entrepreneurship (REINSER).
The purpose of the trip was to share the identified best practices in the field of integrating refugees through social entrepreneurship in host societies of ADRION programme area, as well as to discuss and gain insights of other relevant topics to the project. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, some of the partners joined the panels and discussions online.
Two panels were organized on the first day of the study trip, within which partners and associated partners from Greece presented the theme of social entrepreneurship in Greece as well as local responses to refugees’ integration. Afterwards, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, as an associated partner, held a keynote speech about the past activities and future plans in social economy.
The second day of the study trip started with a capacity building workshop led by University of Bologna, during which the participants explored the connections between the local economy, community development and social change. The partners carried on with presentations of best practices in Greece and in the ADRION area, after which they discussed the perspectives on the best practices collection.
Visits to Katsika and Agia Eleni Refugee Camps, where the project partners got the opportunity to interact with refugee community leaders, marked the beginning of the third day. The partners then scaled the social impact and transferability issues in a workshop led by Vasilis Kostakis, a professor of P2P Governance at TalTech and Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center. Later on, Attila Von Unruh, a social entrepreneur from Germany and a guest speaker provided the partners with the lessons learned from scaling up social impact across borders.
The last day of the study trip was reserved for a half day visit to the cooperative social enterprise The High Mountains, founded in 2015 by people who live and produce in mountainous areas and whose goals include boosting mountainous economy and production, reviving mountainous societies and protecting the environment. The study trip ended with the 2nd Steering Committee meeting during which the REINSER partners assessed the current situation and networking, but also discussed the transnational network and other important issues.
