Yesterday, we have been present at the closing event of SIRCle project ‘Social Innovation for Resilient Communities’ funded by Erasmus+ Programme which aimed to present its achievements to wide audience and to engage with European policy makers on the value of social entrepreneurship. Also, together with the participants we had the chance to get a first-hand experience of the Evoneer’s Journey led by experienced facilitators and social entrepreneurs, who completed this training shared their experience to showcase this special tool developed within the project.
Initial goal of the SIRCle project is to support the development of life sustaining cultures which will lead to empowerment of individuals, the establishment of supportive networks, the transformation of existing organisations, and the birthing of new social enterprises all embedded in a field of resilience and economic prosperity.
The ‘Evoneer’s Journey’ (from EVOlutionary PioNEERS) consists of personal development workshop and an adult education course, and is an experiential programme centred around a story of regeneration unfolding over nine stepping stones. Evoneers are seen as a change-makers who need support to maintain the drive and motivation required to create new activities and innovation. Concrete steps of the journey are presented on the picture below.
These courses are for individuals or groups and teams who wish to explore how to reconcile their societal commitment with making a living. A five-day workshop, over two weekends approximately a fortnight apart. Experienced trainers/facilitators provide guidance through the experience. One hour of one-on-one coaching offered between the two weekends. Several tried and tested tools and solutions support the experience. The ‘journey’ can be adapted to different timescales and contexts.
This individual and collective journey should allow participants to:
• define aspirations and motivation,
• build the bases of a new project or revisit an existing project,
• develop a set of competences which will help you create a soci(et)al entreprise which reflects specific objective or transform and develop an existing organisation more sustainably towards an increased resilience in your region,
• participants will also have access to a wealth of information to complete the training and to a support network which helps to sustain their inspiration and motivation.
