During the days of 8-12 April 2019 all BASET partners - KISMC, CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District, together with investors, finance professionals and lecturers, experts and social ventures from Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium and the UK, took part in a 5-days training in London under the project BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training, co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
 
The training, which was organised and hosted by the BASET project partner - Caban Capital, aimed at delivering a brief overview of the project, its target groups, main objectives and results so far, and more specifically the details of the 3rd intellectual output: Train the Investors Handbook (TIH).
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All participants had the opportunity to support and contribute to the BASET project, as well as learn more about training methods in investing in social ventures as well as provide feedback on the current status of the development of TIH. There were discussions on impact investment and raising funds for social impact, impact measurement as well as challenges in attracting financing for impact, case studies and best practices in angel investment in social enterprises. Moreover, as part of the training, there was a workshop on choosing appropriate business models and marketing strategies for social entrepreneurs.  

Additionally, views were exchanged on important areas within impact investment and investing in social enterprises with a social mission such as the role of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, how crucial the size of the market is when investing in impact as well as the tenacity of those leading social impact projects. During the training and discussions among all participants, a number of factors playing a key role within the impact investment training domain regarding investors were concluded: empathy, impact first - then profit, measuring impact, SDGs, selection process, prioritizing, sustainability and circular economy, data, business models, country legislation, risk, value, ROI, collaboration and consciousness.

​Despite the training and overview of the intellectual outputs - TIH, the participants from all countries, invited by the project partners, actively took part in a specially organised by Caban Capital tour for experiencing the social impact ecosystem in London with the support of Social Enterprise Experience Tour. The tour demonstrated a range of innovative social enterprises in developing areas in London. The enterprises were:
- Shine - a community-led space to shine, a place for people in Haringey to grow ideas and build networks within the local community;
​- Blue House Yard - a redevelopment and re-imagining of an empty and underused site in London; a transformed area for local creatives, entrepreneurs and residents to use for period of 5 years;
- Cakes & Ladders - a board game cafe with a conscience; a double-decker bus in the heart of Wood Green selling locally sourced coffee, cake & toasts, alongside ale and over 500 board games on board;
- Green Rooms - a London's arts hotel; a social enterprise offering affordable accommodation and event spaces inspiring creativity.
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Additionally, Eddie Capstick and Gianprietro Pucciariello's, who are change makers of the social impact's ecosystem in London as well as far beyond, and founders of Appymaps - an app mapping the social impact ecosystem - social businesses within communities, presented their new and exciting impact project to all the participants. 

Currently, Appymaps is focused on 3 things:

• building maps of social impact places and businesses;
• building an app prototype which integrates maps of social impact places and businesses to support communities and individuals in the way they choose where to eat, drink, buy, go to events, get informed and find a job. All communities around the world can now have their own app which includes these features;
• running Social Impact Experience Tours: walking from one social impact venue to another and meeting their founders, which is an incredible experience to be inspired and explore the specific local area.

 
In June 2019, their London Social Impact Map reached 10.000 views.
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During the 5 days of training, all participants had the opportunity to learn more about the work of Caban Capital and its work for accelerating positive impact via the Seedslife Caban Impact Investment. The business model of the fund is to support social entrepreneurs in Africa, while providing an opportunity for investors to participate in high growth emerging markets and benefiting from the longstanding infrastructures created by enterprises nurturing sustainable impact in local communities.

The feedback of all participants' experience was extremely positive and insightful in the topic of social impact not only in London, UK but also in the BASET project partner's countries. All participants exchanged views, experience and took part in discussions which will help with the final shape up of the Train the Investors Handbook and materials in the Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training project, co-funded by the Erasmus plus project of the European Union. Moreover, each participant had the chance to experience and embrace a part of the London's social impact ecosystem and feel the positive energy and passion of running a social enterprise or an enterprise creating social impact. 



Author
Partner @BASET
Caban Capital

On the 22-26 October 2018 all BASET partners - KISMC, CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District, together with educators from Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium and the UK, took part in a 5-days training in Brussels under the project BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training, co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. 

The training, which was organised and hosted by the BASET project partner - Creative District, aimed at delivering a brief overview of the project, its target groups, main objectives and results so far, and more specifically the two already produced draft intellectual outputs:
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1. Social Entrepreneurship Development Model (SEDM)
2. Train the Trainers Toolkit (TTT)

All participants had the opportunity to support the project by testing the teaching methodology and the certification procedure implied by the project. There were discussions on how the Social Entrepreneurship Development Model provides the invited to the course educators with the necessary knowledge and information on the typology of social entrepreneurs. Furthermore, views were exchanged whether the information in the draft was useful and easy-to-use as well as there was an overview of what mentors and trainers needed to know about training and mentoring social entrepreneurs, which had been linked to how SEDM supports this process.

Additionally, the educators were familiarized with the Train the Trainers Toolkit and reviewed and assessed the relevance and ease of use of the established methodology. During the training there was a workshop for social entrepreneurship and discussions on the content, structure, tools, examples and best practices to be included in the further development of the project and the TTT.

Despite the training and overview of the two intellectual outputs - SEDM & TTT, the educators from all countries, invited by the project partners, actively took part with specially designed for the training workshops as well as everyone participated in diverse gamified activities supporting the delivery of the final results of the BASET project. The participants also presented about their case studies and best practices of working with social entrepreneurs & social enterprises, partnering for change and impact investment, social entrepreneurship challenges, social inclusion, neuroscience and emotional intelligence. Moreover, the discussions also covered the Business Model Canvas for social entrepreneurs and social impact as well as social innovation acceleration programmes.

Besides all the activities and intensity of the few days in Brussels, Creative District also invited all partners and educators in an area, which the organisation is currently in the process of revitalizing, due to securing a good number of commercial spaces to promote the cultural and creative sector by implementing projects by adding societal values. 

All participants had the opportunity to learn more about the work of Creative District and their business model supporting social entrepreneurs. Because of the hard work, resilience and social mission, the team at Creative District are now providing access to spaces that usually people won't have access to, such as spaces with no value or the so called 'dead spaces' causing negative image to the specific neighbourhood, but via workspaces, meeting spaces, commercial spaces and exhibition spaces, Creative District has revived plenty of areas in Brussels and has supported the business and entrepreneurship community.

During the 5 days in Brussels, Creative District organised a visit to a social enterprise-restaurant Les Uns & Les Autres in the neighbourhood of Molenbeek, where all the participants could meet the social entrepreneurs, try the deliciously prepared food and have a feel of the community union of the place. This restaurant, social and open to all, is a local service created by the Local Mission of Molenbeek in August 2004. It is approved as "Local Initiative for Employment Development" (LDEI).

The feedback of all participants' experience was extremely positive, especially because the location of the restaurant, i.e. Molenbeek, which a few years ago was in the world spotlight for its Muslim population and presented as a jihadist breeding ground. This, unfortunately, destroyed the neighbourhood's image which has been slowly recovering in the last couple of years with the help of the local authorities and social entrepreneurs embracing the diversity, creativity and culture of the area.


Author
Partners @BASET
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