Kick off meeting of #CoOp project was held in Oslo, Norway, between 15-22 October, 2017. Participants, representing partner organizations, Youth Work Ireland (Ireland), Asset Tec (Greece) Fundacja Robinson Crusoe (Poland), Fundatia Danis (Romania) and Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), got together to plan the 2-year project, but also to learn from each other, from their CSR and fundraising experience.
During the first project meeting, the partners planned the project activities, set the project calendar in detail and discussed the ways to enhance closer cooperation between business and youth work, in the frame of the Erasmus+ project financed by Aktiv Ungdom (Norway).
Within the framework of a 5-days joint-staff training, the partners held small workshops on their expertise areas, relevant for the project’s objectives, such as Corporate Social Responsibility, fundraising methods, research methods, visual storytelling and mobile film making, youth workers’ involvement in fundraising, etc. At the same time, the partners presented the national contexts of their countries in regards to SMEs’ involvement and support given to youth work, and CSR trends. The training course was dedicated to the partners’ staff involved in the project.
During the same training, the project group visited Norwegian institutions to get to learn more about CSR and SMEs in Norway. In this frame, the group first met with Robert W. Vaagan at Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus. Vaagan delivered a lecture on how CSR is defined and practiced in Norway.
After this meeting, another eye-opening and mindset changing meeting was held at Innovasjon Norge with Arnfinn Lundberg Bakke, who talked about #CSR in #Norway, and the Norwegian companies’ approach to CSR practices when comparing to companies from other countries from Europe.
CoOp project aims to enhance the collaboration between Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and youth organizations, thus to promote and encourage private investment in youth development, and education. The main goal of the project is to support youth workers and youth organizations to diversify their funding sources and attract investments from the business sector, by professionalizing them in the field of CSR / fundraising from SMEs.
