Twelve youth start-up projects have been selected for EU grant awards under the EU4Youth project "Social Entrepreneurship in Armenia and Georgia (SEAG)".
The 12 projects were selected from a total of 68 young start-ups, who took part in the grant competition of the SEAG project launched in December 2020.
The winners operate in the sectors of tourism, HORECA, handicrafts, toy production, education, fashion, and agricultural mechanisation. These enterprises uphold social missions such as environmental protection, cultural heritage protection, employment, re-socialization of young ex-offenders, education, integration of ethnic minorities, social space, and the involvement of persons with disabilities.
The grant signing ceremony with the first seven winning young social entrepreneurs took place on 16 June at the venue of one of the winning projects, the Cafune social café in Rustavi. Contracts will soon be signed with the remaining five. With the contracts signed, implementation of the projects will begin, in line with the business plans submitted by the grant winners.
The EU-funded project "Social Entrepreneurship in Armenia and Georgia (SEAG)" has been implemented since January 2020, as part of the EU4Youth initiative, by Mercy Corps Europe in partnership with the Association of Business Consulting Organisations of Georgia (ABCO) and the Armenian NGO Development Principles (DP). The main goal of the SEAG project is to strengthen the social entrepreneurial potential of young people aged 18-29 in Armenia and Georgia. The project provides creative young people from Armenia and Georgia with the necessary knowledge and skills to establish sustainable social enterprises, and supports the development of a favourable ecosystem for social enterprises to develop and prosper in both countries.
