Newsletter 2
Newsletter 2
Author: nimda
Press Release 4
A celebration of youth-driven social innovation is set to take place at the upcoming EPIC Final Conference and Hackathon. This landmark event marks the culmination of the Entrepreneurial Citizenship for Social Change project, bringing together young social entrepreneurs, youth workers, and industry experts to showcase sustainable solutions to pressing community challenges across the Western Balkans.
The Social Innovation Hackathon Final
The highlight of the event will be the highly anticipated Hackathon Final. After months of intensive capacity-building using the newly developed EPIC Curriculum and Toolkits, teams of young innovators will take the stage to pitch their social business models to a panel of experts.
These youth-led initiatives, deeply rooted in the European EntreComp framework, aim to tackle local social and environmental issues. The hackathon will demonstrate the participants’ journey from identifying community problems to designing actionable, sustainable ventures using tools like the Social Business Model Canvas.
Reflecting on Impact
In addition to the live pitches, the Final Conference will serve as a platform to reflect on the successful pilot implementations in Kosovo, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Stakeholders will discuss how the initiative successfully bridged the gap between social work and entrepreneurial action, empowering dozens of youth and youth workers, even in regions lacking formal legal frameworks for social enterprises.
Key Event Highlights:
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Live Pitching Sessions: Young entrepreneurs present their innovative social ventures.
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Impact Panels: Expert discussions on the outcomes and future of social entrepreneurship training in the Western Balkans.
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Networking Opportunities: A collaborative space connecting youth workers, young leaders, policymakers, and potential investors.
Join the Conference
Stakeholders, youth workers, youth, and the public are invited to attend this dynamic event to support the next generation of socially responsible leaders and explore opportunities for cross-sector collaboration.
Event Details:
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Date: 17/02/2026
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Time: 10:00
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Location: HomeWork Hub, Sarajevo
For more information about the EPIC project and to stay updated on our activities, please visit our website epic-project.eu or contact us at epic-project@kmop.org.
Press Release 3
A new set of specialized resources, the EPIC Toolkits, has been officially released to support the development of social entrepreneurship across the Western Balkans. These toolkits provide a practical roadmap for young innovators and educators to transform social challenges into sustainable entrepreneurial ventures. You can access them directly at the EPIC Toolkit Portal.
A Comprehensive Approach to Social Innovation
The toolkits were developed to provide hands-on application of the EPIC Curriculum, utilizing non-formal learning methodologies to foster a social innovation mindset. The resources are tailored into two distinct editions:
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Toolkit for Youth: Focuses on developing core competencies such as leadership, ethical thinking, and opportunity identification. It guides young people through the practical steps of creating a Social Business Model Canvas and performing SWOT analyses to solve community issues.
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Toolkit for Youth Workers: Equips youth workers with advanced mentoring and counseling strategies. It emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence and social justice, helping youth workers provide structured support for young entrepreneurs.
Impact
The effectiveness of these tools was validated during pilot implementations, where they received high praise for their clarity and utility:
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Kosovo: 100% of youth participants found the content very clear and easy to understand. The training successfully engaged a diverse cohort, with 83% of applicants being women.
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Albania: The curriculum and tools allowed participants to engage with real-world social enterprises, such as New York Tirana Bagels. Consequently, 85.7% of youth worker participants expressed the highest level of satisfaction.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina: The toolkits provided the first structured exposure to social entrepreneurship for many, helping them move beyond the traditional “humanitarian” view toward a value-driven business approach.
Sustainable Skills for the Future
Even in regions lacking a formal legal framework for social enterprises, the EPIC Toolkits empower participants to operate effectively by focusing on the European EntreComp framework. By bridging the gap between social work and entrepreneurial action, these resources ensure that the next generation is ready to lead sustainable, community-focused innovation.
Get in Touch: For more information about the EPIC project and to stay updated on our activities, please visit our website epic-project.eu or contact us at epic-project@kmop.org.
Press Release 2
The newly developed curriculum offers a comprehensive educational journey into social entrepreneurship, specifically designed to cultivate a social innovation mindset among young people in the Western Balkans. Structured across six core modules, the program guides learners from the foundational trends of social entrepreneurship and the EntreComp Framework to the practicalities of social business modeling and opportunity identification. To ensure a holistic learning experience, the content is delivered through an interactive eCourse and a downloadable PDF, complemented by a series of assessments that validate the acquisition of key entrepreneurial skills.
Beyond the core instructional content, the implementation strategy includes a specialized Train the Trainers Manual, serving as a definitive guide for educators to deliver the curriculum effectively. This is further supported by a suite of supplementary materials and resources that bridge the gap between social work and entrepreneurial initiatives. By providing these tools, the initiative ensures that trainers and participants alike are equipped with a toolkit to navigate social innovation, from initial planning to the successful execution of social business models.
Training implementation across the Western Balkans showed remarkably high engagement:
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Kosovo: 83% of participants were women, and over 70% of youth found the curriculum completely relevant.
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Albania: Sessions successfully integrated local social enterprises, with 92.9% of youth rating the training’s utility as high.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina: A youth-led approach provided many participants with their very first structured exposure to social entrepreneurship.
