(RISE) Awarded two youth ideas for social enterprises

On February 16th, in the newly opened “Center for Social Enterprises” in Skopje, the announcement of the winning ideas from the RISE project was implemented, a project which is being implemented by “ARNO” for the second year in a row. The expert jury gave the best grades for the ideas “Camp” – an outdoor kindergarten and “Yes for Less” online platform based on eco-community. The young people from these teams through the RISE program will receive financial support in the amount of 2500 euro and will continue to develop their ideas within the incubation phase. Thanks to the supporters of social entrepreneurship at  local level, these two teams will receive additional awards: branding package from the graphic design studio “Kontura” and media promotion from the portal innovativnost.mk

“We congratulate all the teams for the successfully completed program. ARNO is here to support and encourage young people to develop their skills and not give up on their dreams. The two winning teams have a lot of work to do, and our team remains committed to mobilizing all stakeholders to support social entrepreneurship. Therefore, at this moment we send message to the business community from Stip to help the opening of the first kindergarten on open air  and to all who read this to join the Yes for Less community, for a start, by following their Instagram profile. ” said Marjan Icoski, program manager at ARNO.

Barbara Sadovska from the project “Support for Social Enterprises” also addressed the announcement of the winners, announcing the legal framework for social entrepreneurship and grant support for young social entrepreneurs. On behalf of the Regional Office for Youth Cooperation (RYCO), Vladimir Gjorgjevski, Director of the Local Office, congratulated the project and the winners, emphasizing that social entrepreneurship can be a tool for connecting and bringing together young people from the region.

The selection of the best ideas was made by the expert jury composed of Barbara Sadovska – Eptisa project “Support to social enterprises”, Ardita Bonati – RISE consortium, Aleksandar Kostadinov – RIKO / local office, Sofija Daceva – Matrioshka, Diana Mitrevska – Inovavativnost, Igro Madzov- Startup Macedonia, Stefan Perchinkov – Evaluator.
The second RISE generation of young social entrepreneurs received support from mentors: Bojan Kordalov, Igor Mishevski, Katerina Zlatanovska Popovska, Mihaela Vasilevska, Natalija Burgieva, Sanja Mancheva, Sara Beniulis, Dimitar Jovevski, Ljubomir Trajkovski, Aleksandra.

The RISE project was developed and monitored by a consortium consisting of the Regional Office for Youth Cooperation (RYCO), the SOS Pulse GROUP, the Southeast Europe Youth Network (SEEYN), the French Institute and the Franco-German Youth Office (OFAJ) and six local incubators – ARNO, Balkan Green Foundation, Nesto vise, Smart Kolektiv, IEC Tehnopolis and Yunus Social Business. The RISE project is co-financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Regional Office for Youth Cooperation (RYCO). ARNO is proud to have been selected as a local incubator and national structure implementing the 3-year project together with credible partners from the region.