100 social innovators for the next century

Project “100 social innovators for the next century” emphasizes an importance of assurance of children rights and equal opportunities driven by the civic society and social innovators. The movement of social entrepreneurs will be highlighted by telling their stories.

Focus groups:

Young people, children’s rights professionals, social entrepreneurs across Baltic-Nordic region.

Project background:

In today’s world both the global economic trends, as well as the environmental challenges highlight the need for new business models based on sustainable development and smart solutions. Cooperation in sustainable development goals implementation in the Baltic Sea region offers an opportunity for countries in the region to find solutions to common problems and learn from each other. Support for development and promotion of new partnerships in the Baltic sea region is certainly valued as it can accelerate positive development in youth education and employment, integration and equality.

In Lithuania an important role in informing the public on this issue plays non-governmental organizations and active citizens inspired by good practices from the Nordic countries. One of such organizations is Reach for Change, an international NGO working with enhancement of social entrepreneurship and innovative skills among children and youth. The organization has already established a great network of social entrepreneurs and leaders for change.

For the implementation of sustainable development goals there is a clear need for civil society, representatives from the business community and academia to convey the key aspects of the Agenda 2030. This document states a broad shared challenge facing all of the Nordic countries – to develop and understand the SDGs in the Nordic context.

The project 100 social innovators for the next century contributes to Agenda 2030 and the 17 sustainable development goals by:

• Showcasing children and especially young people as the agents of change who would be highly involved in processes of policy formation in relation to the wellbeing of children and young people;
• Stimulating discussions, networking and cooperation in SDG related fields by raising awareness about children’s and youth rights, equality and social inclusion.
• Communication about social innovations, based on best practices from Nordic countries, and Lithuanian social entrepreneurs impelling youth actively involved in solving social problems.
• Raising awareness about SDGs implementation for well-being society and social entrepreneurship as way to solve most pressing issues based on the best practices from Nordic countries;

Aim and goals:

This project aims while unleashing the power of social entrepreneurship and innovation to create a better world for children. In terms of implementation if sustainable development goals the contribution of authorities is usually insufficient, therefore social entrepreneurships play an important role. There is a great number of individuals and organizations out there, with innovative solutions on children’s lives improvement. However, they often lack support requisite to realize their ideas and scale their impact.

During this project sharing of best practices and tools between the Nordic and Baltic non-government actors (NGOs, the private sector, local level actors) will represent a concrete area of Nordic cooperation – social entrepreneurship.

100 social innovators for the next century aims to increase public awareness and encourage active participation in creating social value for children and young people.

Project activities:

Nordic Council of Ministers together with Reach for Change are going to organise a conference to present the cases of social enterprises working in the field of social innovations for SDGs implementation and to search for successful cases of collaboration between social entrepreneurs, public and private sectors. As a part of the conference there are will be organised discussions about SDGs for youth audience precisely. Youth will be actively involved by creating a network of young social innovators.

During the project there will be launched discussions on social entrepreneurship and SDG implementation as well as interviews with social entrepreneurs, both success and failure stories about them and their enterprises.

Communication campaign on social entrepreneurs, social enterprises, social innovators and innovations in Lithuania is going to invite 15 participants for intensive training where they will work with their ideas. 3 best ideas will be invited to take part in Reach for Change incubator programme and 1 winner will get 20 000 Eur grant.

Project partners:

Reach for Change network in Nordic countries, TELE2, TV3. Partner in Finland is social business association Arvo-Liitto.