On February 16, 2022, the Business Consultancy and Training Services (BCTS), Lebanese partner of "Reinforcing social and solidarity economy for the unemployed, uneducated and refugees" Project (MoreThanAJob), coordinated a teleconference for the project’s partners, sub-grantees, and stakeholders to discuss the progress made on the 10 winning projects of its sub-grants which target vulnerable groups.

The event included insightful speeches delivered by Dr. Esmat Karadsheh, Mediterranean Office Coordinator), Eng. Mohammad Itani, Focal point in Lebanon, Ms. Duaa Quri, and Mr. Alessandro Zedda from JTS. It also included presentations delivered by the 10 winning projects.

The first winning project in Palestine is titled" Orjuwan: Fostering the Economic Empowerment of Fresh Female Graduates (From the Marginalized Areas) and Preparing them to Enrol in the Labour Market". It aims at empowering 50 Palestinian youth through professional programs in the field of graphic design and digital marketing, fostering their capacities of self-employment, providing networking opportunities and encouraging their entrepreneurship.

The second one is titled "Economic Empowerment of Poor Women from Less Fortunate Families". It aims at empowering women from disadvantaged backgrounds who financially support their families by making homemade products or other domestic activities. Through this project, these women will be involved in training activities and programs on how to make their homemade products financially rewarding.

In Italy, the first winning project titled “Artigianato Interculturale - NOZ: CRESM” addresses the working conditions of the street-sellers in Palermo, focusing in particular on the ones with a migrant background. It aims at promoting the renewal of their business model in a sustainable, ethical and legal perspective. The project will develop their entrepreneurial and handicraft competences in order to foster the production of creative works. Selling those kind products will improve the quality of their merchandise, thus opening up the possibility of increasing the profit.

The project will offer:

• Training courses on digital and traditional handicraft, in particular with biomaterials
• An information service on ethical and sustainable entrepreneurship

The second one titled “The Game: Per Esempio ONLUS” envisages the launch of activities aiming to raise the levels of social and labour inclusion of migrants, to strengthen collaborative relationships between SSE and PA, to enhance social and welfare services addressed to young and adult migrants. To achieve this, the project will:

• Create an employment orientation desk and peer-to-peer career guidance services, which will be located in different places of the city centre
• Organise four Italian language laboratories with a particular focus on vocabulary related to the labour market
• Organise four job orientation workshops
• Develop promotional brunches to provide information on the services as well as to foster socialisation among the participants

In Jordan, the first winning project titled “Diary and Cheese production” aims to promote income and social solidarity of the unemployed youth, poor families and Syrian refugees who lives in the area. The project consists of two phases; phase one is to provide training courses to the target group to be able to produce the products of the sheep's milk. The duration of the 1st is approximately 45 days. However, the training and supervising will continue in the 2nd phase. In the 2nd phase, the necessary equipment and raw material (milk) required will be provided to the target groups. The raw material will be purchased from the sheep owners in the area. The production process will be supervised by the association for each family. At the end the marketing process will be provided to the producers for the market and neighbouring areas.

The second one titled “Social Solidarity Economy Values and Principles: Education and Training: International Support for Applied Scientific Research” aims to understand the topic Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) as a transversal movement, linking values and principles to collective actions and practices. At the end, trainees from various geographical regions in Jordan will understand the dynamics of SSE, as well as they will be able to distinguish SSE from other economical dynamics. They will also be equipped with the main knowledge, as well as basic competences, to implement those values and principles into practice and collective action.

In Greece, the first winning project titled “Educate Your Future- EdAct” aims to respond to this socio-economic phenomenon, taking into account current trends in the labour market, taking full advantage of the possibilities that technology offers. Specifically, it is built on the creation of a website that will provide specialized courses (seminars, workshops, etc.) in the areas of the labour market where there is a gap between skills needs and demands.

The second one titled “Guide your Career “GuideCar”: Symplexis”. GuideCar mentorship program will give their beneficiaries the opportunity to develop the career, leadership and diversity of skills they need to succeed in a dynamic global workforce. After extensive research, this project will establish formal best practices to drive program success among the vulnerable groups. Program operates under strict parameters and defined goals. Program even features orientation sessions where program participants develop the skills necessary to maintain mutually beneficial relationships. In this project, beneficiaries and employees will partner with senior managers and executives from both of the SEE and PA Sector, who set career goals and plans across business, HR, and IT departments, will be the target group.

In Lebanon, the first winning project titled "Carving out a better path forward" intends to address the inequalities present within the Lebanese labour market, particularly in the most deprived areas in Lebanon such as Beirut, Mount Lebanon and Bekka. Through implementing this project, new sets of skills and qualifications amongst under-skilled workers, especially those coming from less privileged areas in Lebanon will be cultivated. Help and support will be provided to those who are deeply affected by the situation in Lebanon through offering health and safety in the workplace awareness sessions, vocational trainings for under skilled labour and soft skills trainings.

The second one titled" Psychosocial and economic resilience of women in deprived areas" targets vulnerable women and girls from different rural areas who are the most affected by the ongoing aftermath of the political and socio-economic crisis in Lebanon (socio-economic collapse, ongoing uprisings, a debt crisis, Beirut’s port explosion, rising political instability, Covid-19 global pandemic, etc.)

Through the project, vulnerable women will be supported by providing them with primary and essential protection services throughout peer-to-peer counselling sessions and their integration in the labor market by initiating income generation and employment opportunities.

To achieve this particular goal, Common Effort will aim to focus on those three crucial components;

• Enhancing the psychosocial wellbeing of vulnerable and defenseless women from the most deprived areas of Lebanon through Peer-to-Peer (P2P) counselling sessions.

• Strengthening economic resilience of decentralized sector-focused women clusters through social business development workshops.
• Fostering efficient dialogue, cooperation and synergies between emerging social initiatives and relevant private and public sector’s stakeholders.

It is expected that after implementing the above- mentioned projects, about 500 long- term jobs (50 per sub-project) will be offered for vulnerable people.

The participants, Partners and Sub-grantees, agreed during the teleconference to continue the collaboration and set further meetings in order to discuss the progress of each project and to achieve the purpose of MoreThanAJob framework.

Stay tuned, we will present an overview of the progress made on each project in the coming days.

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