WE CAN is a 2-year project funded by the European Erasmus + fund that aims to stimulate and support the integration of migrants in Europe through social innovation. For WE CAN social innovation means strengthening the role of migrants in the local community through (social) entrepreneurship and community navigators. WE CAN believes that (social) entrepreneurship and community navigators can be effective ways to stimulate and support migrants to participate in society and thus integrate. It has been shown that both (social) enterprises and community navigators can become particularly relevant when they fill gaps in the market and in mainstream support.


What does WE CAN do?

WE CAN offers migrants the opportunity to follow activation and training programs to strengthen entrepreneurial capacities or to improve the skills needed to act as community navigators within their own communities. For the content and design of the activation and training programs, WE CAN will use the strength and expertise of adult education and relevant civil society organizations at the local and international level (networks, multi-stakeholdersplatform).


Why WE CAN

The economic consequences of the Covic pandemic have disproportionately affected migrants in Europe. Unemployment among migrants is much higher than among the local population of European countries. If there is work, migrants often work on a temporary basis and under poor working conditions. WE CAN wants to reverse this trend through social innovation.


Implementation of WE CAN

WE CAN will be implemented in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain. These countries will exchange their project experiences, information and best practices with each other in order to jointly find solutions to common problems in the field of socio-economic inclusion of migrants.


Results of WE CAN

After the project period of WE CAN, the following results have been achieved:

• Migrants have followed activation and training programs in the field of (social) entrepreneurship and being able to act as role models (and thereby strengthening their entrepreneurial capacities and soft skills).
• We have trained migrants with skills to act as community navigators and who are able to make connections between the host society and their own community.
• There is a toolbox of information on (social and sustainable) entrepreneurship.
• Certification of the meaning of community navigator with a special focus on migration.
• (European) organizations work together to find solutions to common problems in the field of socio-economic inclusion of migrants (European multi-stakeholder platform).

1. Activation program in Catalonia

In August 2022 168 people attended the 20 workshops held in Catalonia. The aim of these workshops was to The aim of these workshops was to explain the labour and social inclusion opportunities that rural Catalonia offers.
Together with the two main stakeholders (Government of Catalonia and the Associació de Micropobles de Catalunya) we created this video:
https://youtu.be/C49qEg01R9Q


Transnational Project Meeting in Catalonia

In March 2023, 30 people attended the Learning, Teaching and Training meeting in Catalonia. CHAPTER#2 hosted the group and prepared a visit to three rural municipalities in Catalonia: Senan, Ulldemolins and Llardecans. The main objectives for these three days were:
1. Work together for finding synergies
2. Social entrepreneurship sessions from international experts
3. Design sustainable community actions
4. Storytelling from testimonials
5. Study visits to local social enterprises

Participants were engaged in a hackathon. During five sessions, participants could design a project and test Minimum Viable Product. The results were the following:

Intercultural link: Promoting interculturality and encouraging social networking to facilitate the integration processes of especially newly arrived migrants.
https://chapter2.cat/wecaninterculturallink

Altijd Samen - Always together: Understanding the Dutch culture.
https://www.chapter2.cat/wecanalwaystogether

Next level: Empowering women in their personal and professional growth by promoting skills sharing.
https://www.chapter2.cat/wecannextlevel


2. Social Entrepreneurship Pathway

WE CAN project has implemented a Social Entrepreneurship Pathway combining online sessions with mentorship. Slides can be found under a CC-BY licence below.

11 sessions have been implemented for the training Social Entrepreneurship:
Session 1: Teamwork skills & Intersectionality – May 29th
Session 2: Business Lean Canvas – May 29th, June 5th
Session 3: Know your customers – June 5th and 12th
Session 4: Creating a solution – June 26th and July 3rd
Session 5: Minimum Viable Product – July 12th
Session 6: Marketing – July 17th
Session 7: Accounting and Funding – June 19th
Session 8: Legal issues – June 19th
Session 9: Testing a business idea – July 17th
Session 10: Business model – July 24th
Session 11: Preparing a pitch – July 24th

3. Community navigators

WE CAN Community Navigators activities aimed at exploring opportunities in participants local area and how participants might become involved with more people, groups and activities.

Partners WE CAN

Partners in the WE CAN project are: Solid Road (The Netherlands), Project School (Italy), Associazione Sensacional (Italy), CHAPTER#2 (Spain), Pro Arbeit (Germany).

More information about the project partners can be found on their websites:

www.solidroad.nl
www.projectschool.eu
www.chapter2.cat
www.pa-epm.de
www.sensacional.org/