Inclusion is Fusion!

Would you be an upcycler? The project StartUpcycling promotes youth employability through upcycling. 8 international partners worldwide developed methods and tools to show that upcycling can be a great tool to entrepreneurial learning, startup creation and waste reduction. Check out this VIDEO to get to know a few upcyclers. The partners developed a free online course that is available here: www.actione-learn.eu/startupcycling

Peter is an enthusiastic entrepreneur who discovered his love for agriculture only after having worked as a sales manager and having realized that there are more meaningful things to do in live. He is now managing our project partner UEZ, offering educational and entrepreneurial projects and producing biodynamic crops for the local community. He is passionate about bringing young people together, living for a sustainable future and talking about the success stories of his biodynamic gardening. He shares their idea about the concept of a Social Eco-Agriculture that empowers small-scale farmers in rural areas: The republic of Croatia is a touristic and agriculture country. Agriculture land is one of the main countries natural and economic resources and the structure of the land is not suitable for conventional agriculture but is perfect for ecological agriculture. Yet ecological grown vegetables for example, takes place to only 0,6 % of agriculture land. The small-scale far...

The German mountain equipment supplier VAUDE has followed the political call for integration in the labor market, employing 12 refugees. Meanwhile, all are incorporated and are socially integrated. Now, seven refugees might need to get deported. "We took responsibility and invested a lot of time and money. Now we should lose the workforce that we urgently need. It will be a great economic damage for us, not to mention human catastrophe. We no longer want to be the play ball for politics, "says Antje von Dewitz, VAUDE Managing Director. That's why VAUDE launched an initiative that in just a few weeks joined more than 80 companies and three associations from Baden-Württemberg. Together, they campaign for the right to stay for refugee employees with permanent work or training positions. This text was first published on www.unternehmensgruen.org and got translated by Teresa Wald.

We discovered a great example of "INFUSION" in Cairo: In late March,   a newly-established initiative called  Startups without Borders  gathered  around 200 women refugees at the American University of Cairo. The participating female entrepreneurs could  listen to each other’s stories and how each one of them was able to leave an impact in the societies she was moving to.  The goal was to support the matching of refugee and migrant entrepreneurs with available opportunities in order to help them launch and develop their startups. According to the  United Nations , Syrian refugees alone have contributed nearly $800 million to the country’s economy since the start of the Syrian crisis. Find out more in the article published by Wamda .

There are not too many project examples that merge the three pillars of the concept of Inclusion is Fusion.  Here is another project that is also aiming at young entrepreneurship, sustainability and social inclusion: PRESET The project “Preset“ strives for long-term future prospects of youth: It is about discovering and reinforcing the potential that especially lies in the field of ecology and development of sustainable projects. Young people shall be empowered and promoted so they are able to build up an independent economical future. The project “Preset“ strives for long-term future prospects of youth: It is about discovering and reinforcing the potential that especially lies in the field of ecology and development of sustainable projects. Young people shall be empowered and promoted so they are able to build up an independent economical future. Side benefits of this initiative are the improvement of transnational relations between participating youth organizat...

The following projects promote employability for youth, social inclusion and sustainability. We regard them as best practice examples: 1.   HOBBYHIMMEL It’s an open workshop, a place where all people can pursue their "craft" interest. Craft, art, repair, recycling, upcycling and much more are part of it. It provides machines, equipment, tools and above all the necessary space, but also provides know-how and assistance. People can exchange, get to know each other and support each other. It lays a special focus on alternative consumption, community building and a sharing economy. 2. BUNTGUT Under the label EINZIGWARE®, new textile products are produced in the Caritas region of Schwarzwald-Alb-Donau from old, no-longer-used textiles. The upcycling initiative also includes refugees and people who have no occupation. It has become a best practice model for community building through reusing discarded te...

Future Lab - Krizevci Croatia Stefan Stosic is inspired by meeting new people from different countries. He participated at the project Future Lab in Croatia in the summer of 2017 and got motivated to make a change on local and global level. The project aims at empowering the young generation in the Danube region to rethink and reflect their role in this society and to create new ideas of shaping their future and life sustainably. Stefan is sharing his experience with us:  It was the first time for me to be in project like Future Lab and it was really exciting to meet new people from Germany, Croatia,  Bulgaria, Ukraine, Italy and Serbia.  It was my the first time to be in Croatia too.  All week we were talking about the future, ecology, today's problems and how to change something, how to make a better future for us. We have visited the farm, kindergarten, Development center and technology park Krizevci. Our cordinators were very cool and professional...

Since 2010, Starkmacher  (est. 2006) started to invest more into projects in the fields of sustainability and environmental education. This direction has been promoted because of the sector related skills of two employees and the desire to make a change in society as far as these issues are concerned. The first project implemented was a Grundtvig Learning Partnership: Eco Navigation , a project with European partners on the trail of sustainability and sustainable lifestyles. Other activities comprise workshops in adult education on themes like sustainability or also more specific topics such as agriculture, permaculture and urban farming. In the last 2 years, the issue was combined with the question on how to enhance employability of disadvantaged youth and ecological themes were linked with employment projects. Most of the projects are international in order to boost intercultural and global learning at the same time. The most current projects in the field of youth employbility,...