The “Green Cross Society”, together with international partners (Poland, Latvia, Georgia, Moldova and Portugal) starts implementation of the project “Entrepreneurship in the rural tourism sector for youth with disabilities / ERTSYD”, 589878-EPP -1-2017-1-UA-EPPKA2-CBY-EP-PE according to the European Union program: Erasmus + “Capacity Building in the field of youth – Eastern Partnership – Partnership for Enterpreneurship”.

Duration of the project: 15.10.2017 – 16.10.2019.

Venue and partner organizations:

• Ukraine, Lviv region, city of Lviv, NGO “Green Cross Society”.
• Latvia, Youth Organizations Association “IMKA Latvija”
• Georgia, Georgian Speleologists Union
• Portugal, “MAKE IT BETTER”, Association for Innovation & Social Economy
• Poland, Fundacja Instytut Rownowagi Spoleczno Ekonomicznej
• Moldova, Ecological Counseling Center Cahul (ECC CAHUL).

Aim of the project and main activities:

The project aims to foster young people from rural areas, also youth with disability in entrepreneurship through development of the concept of sustainable argitourism. Through series of activities (training courses for youth workers, youth exchange, development of web portal and publication) is getting to rise the capacity of youth workers in empowerment of youth in their place of life and increase their engagement in social and work life.

The project objectives consist of:

• selecting youth and workers from rural areas of the partner countries who are interested in carrying out the project;
• preparing and distributing the Manual “Basics of hospitality and service providing for persons with disabilities in the rural tourism sector”, translated into the six languages of the partner countries, with 500 copies for each country;
• posting a publicly-accessible electronic version of the Manual;
• training young workers through a series of trainings in the accessible rural tourism sector at the local level;
• training youth with disabilities to launch their own business in the rural tourism sector;
• establishing close collaborative relationships amongst project participants and transferring knowledge base to educational establishments that train students in the rural tourism, restaurant and hospitality sectors;
• conducting promotional and advocacy campaigns that would encourage youth with disabilities to work in the rural tourism sector.

Target audiences:

During the project implementation the project results will reach:

• youth, included youth with disability living in rural areas who are interested in increasing their competences in the field of entrepreneurship, as well as raise the independence and capacity to work;
• youth workers, who are working in rural areas, who will increase the competences in the field of working with people with disability and get to know good practice from partners countries regarding agritourism and sustainable tourism as a way of developing youth entrepreneurship in rural areas;
• stakeholders, who will benefit from the outcomes of the project, as well as “opinion makers” such as teachers, researchers, publishers, online hosts, etc., will act as catalysts for the dissemination process;
• entrepreneurs, who can improve their incomes and products based on the knowledge and experience of others and make their agritouristic places accessible for people with disability in order to spread the idea of sustainable and reliable tourism;
• local administration, who can get benefit of increased numbers of tourists visited their villages and small towns and improve the inclusion of all group of citizens to the public life.

The project plans to build the capacity of 6 organizations working with youth (3 from European Union and 3 from the Eastern Partnership) through a series of inclusive mobility initiatives (training of trainers, youth exchange) and capacity building activities (web portal, manual, final conference) aimed to develop the entrepreneurship of youth from rural areas, also youth with disabilities. Each country in the consortium will be responsible for a specific aspect of project topic, namely: Portugal – social inclusion and sustainable tourism; Georgia – tourists safety in rural areas; Ukraine – the art of hospitality and adapted services for persons with disabilities; Moldova – environmental aspects of tourism in rural areas; Poland – social entrepreneurship; Latvia – universal design. Project partners will collaboratively prepare a capacity building programme (including web portal and handbook) which will be passed on to other youth workers in their countries to increase their organizations social impact and visibility. Youth workers from EU and Eastern Partnership countries will raise their intercultural/social skills and competences to work with diversity in all its forms which will decrease the number of youth who could be facing social exclusion in their countries.

Expected results of the project:

• Three trainings for 24 participants (in Ukraine, Portugal and Georgia), 1 Youth Exchange and the conference (in Ukraine) with involvement of 60 participants have been organized.
• 24 prepared youth workers, 12 of which will be able to conduct trainings for disabled youth and their families on how to start one’s own business in the rural tourism sector.
• Among 32 participants, 30 of those with fewer opportunities will be able to take part in Youth Exchange and to see in practice the examples of entrepreneurial activity of persons with disabilities in the rural tourism sector.
• The manual in 6 languages, 500 printed copies in each language will be prepared and produced (B5 format, 200 pages with colored binding and colored pictures inserts).
• A web portal, providing with information on the project and an interactive map of accessible places in the field of rural tourism for persons with disabilities will be created as well as all manuals will be worked out in the framework of the project for the free access for users.
• The proposals to the governmental structures of each country concerning application of the recommendations on preparing young people with disabilities on how to start their own business in the rural tourism sector will be elaborated.
• Over 60.000 of people will be informed on project implementation via social media.

Entrepreneurship in the rural tourism sector for youth with disabilities website