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February 10, 2010

Promoting an Entrepreneurial Culture among Young People from Roma Communities

A youth enterprise initiative has made considerable progress engaging Roma communities through a range of interventions to introduce young Roma people to the world of enterprise. The encouraging outcomes of these measures prompted an invitation to Enterprise Development Worldwide to present at an international conference in Brussels on “EU Projects in Favour of the Roma Community” due to take place in spring 2010. 

The initiative, known as the youngbusiness.net 3 project (YBN3), led by Enterprise Development Worldwide, received funding from the European Union’s Leonardo Da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme for a two year project to transfer innovation and promote enterprise among young people in disadvantaged communities in Central Europe. An important element of the programme was to develop approaches to engaging and supporting young people from Roma communities to help them consider self-employment as a career option and, if appropriate, develop their own businesses.

A young Roma student supported by YBN3 says: “The YBN.3 project has taught me that anyone may have hidden abilities which can help in planning a future career. An innovative, unusual idea can be the source of a flourishing enterprise.”

The project targeted areas of high youth unemployment with substantial Roma communities in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. By supporting partners who are grass roots organisations working on the front line of their respective communities, best practice in the field of youth enterprise development has been transferred and innovative approaches to helping young people in Roma communities were developed over the course of the project.

Michael Manning-Prior Chief Executive of Enterprise Development Worldwide says: “We are delighted to be able to share the good practice that has been developed in engaging and supporting young people from Roma communities over the course of the YBN3 project at the forthcoming international conference in Brussels. It is only through the hard work of all the YBN3 partners and a willingness to develop and pilot innovative approaches in challenging circumstances that the successful interventions have been implemented“.

At the conference, a presentation will be given by Anett Dandóczi, a Roma student supported by YBN3 partner, the Móricz Zsigmond Secondary School. Anett will highlight the issues facing the Roma community in Ibrány, in North Eastern Hungary, where the number of poor, unemployed and under-educated people is very high.

A series of youngbusiness.net projects have been running since 1999. They have all had a common aim to encourage the spread of youth enterprise in the UK and throughout Central Europe. youngbusiness.net is a collaborative programme of enterprise support for young people in the UK and Central Europe, led by Enterprise Development Worldwide.

Notes to Editors
Contact: Michael Manning-Prior, Chief Executive, Enterprise Development Worldwide
Tel: +44 (0)208516 7700 Email: info@edworldwide.org

Background to youngbusiness.net 3
The youngbusiness.net 1,2 and 3 and youngbusiness.net UK projects have been running since 1999. They have all had a common aim to encourage the spread of youth enterprise throughout the UK and Central Europe. A variety of partners have been involved with each youngbusiness.net project, involving some of the existing partners, together with new ones. In this way, the accumulated experience is not lost, and more enterprise bodies can take advantage of the Programme’s experience of over 10 years successful operation in the region.

The youngbusiness.net projects have been supported by the UK’s Big Lottery Fund and the European Union’s Leonardo Da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme. youngbusiness.net 1 ran from 1999 to 2002; youngbusiness.net 2 from 2004 to 2007 and now youngbusiness.net 3, again supported by the Leonardo Programme, has run from 2007 to 2009.

youngbusiness.net 3 has shared its knowledge with seven Central European partner organisations - four of them entirely new to youth enterprise and youngbusiness.net. Through this project, more young people than ever have received a first introduction to business skills in challenging economic environments.
youngbusiness.net 3

Enterprise Development Worldwide led the collaboration with seven partners:

• Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre, Budapest, Hungary;
• Neuman Youth Enterprise Centre, Eger, Hungary;
• Móricz Zsigmond Secondary School, Ibrány, Hungary;
• Abigél Primary and Secondary School, Nyíregyháza and Debrecen, Hungary;
• Inkubator De Afaceri, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania;
• Regional Development Agency, Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia;
• Regional Development Agency, Moldava nad Botvou, Slovakia.

Enterprise Development Worldwide’s youngbusiness.net 3 partners in Central Europe encourage youth enterprise both before and after students leave school. They aim to improve entrepreneurship skills among young people and to provide a comprehensive support infrastructure for young entrepreneurs in their respective countries.

At the heart of the youngbusiness.net 3 project is the creation of the Society for the Promotion of Youth Enterprise in Central Europe, which was founded in late 2009. Not only does this guarantee the continuance of the work beyond the life of the current project, but it also demonstrates the commitment and viability of the youngbusiness.net partnership to cooperate effectively in the future.

The Society will seek support from a range of funders and programme funding streams, including the Leonardo Da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. It will work with wider groups of partners in the region to disseminate the key messages about youth enterprise and to spread good practice ever wider.

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