Commissioner N. Schmit sent a letter to Member States urging them to support social economy

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On Friday 23 April, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit (Jobs and Social Rights)  sent a letter to Member States’ Ministers of Labour/Employment urging them to ensure that social economy enterprises and organisations are well equipped and supported, so they can keep playing their crucial role to manage and overcome the COVID-19 crisis.  Providing over 13.6 million paid jobs in the EU, the #SocialEconomy has a key role to play in our economy and in the response to the #coronavirus crisis.

On 29 April Social Economy Europe (SEE) and its members had an exchange with Commissioner Schmit during the meeting of the European Commission Expert Group on Social Economy  and social  enterprises  (GECES). Schmit confirmed that the European Action Plan for the Social Economy will be published by the European Commission in the second semester of 2021. He called on social economy actors to actively contribute to shape this policy to ensure that social economy is at the heart of the economic and social  recovery that Europe needs and showed his intention to connect the Social Economy Action Plan with other EU policy areas such as the Green Deal, the Social Pillar or the Industrial and SME strategies. He also referred to the importance of mobilising EU funds and investments for the social economy in the framework of the recovery plan, which the Commission is currently working on, as agreed by the European Council, and of a strengthened EU budget (MFF).

Over 90 participants joined the GECES meeting, including representatives of various Member States such as Spain (represented by Director-General for Social Economy Maravillas Espín and deputy DG Juan Manuel Sánchez Teheran), France (represented by Sarah Robin, diplomatic counsellor to the High Commissioner for Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation), Ireland (represented by Andrew Forde, Head of Rural Strategy & Social Enterprise at Department of Rural & Community Development), Belgium and the Netherlands among others.

SEE President Juan Antonio Pedreño commented:“We welcome Commissioner Schmit’s letter to the Member States’ Ministries of Labour and the bold support expressed for the social economy. We encourage dialogue with social economy enterprises and organisations at all levels to ensure their access to instruments designed to overcome the crisis. The future Action Plan for the Social Economy will be key to boosting the development of enabling ecosystems for the social economy to thrive. It is clear that we need to build Europe’s tomorrow based on solidarity, sustainability and social progress. The social economy is ready to contribute to the EU’s recovery, offering an entrepreneurial model able to ensure no one is left behind.”

Read Commissioner Schmit’s letter here. For a PDF version, SEE has transcribed the letter here.

The story of Elisa’s volunteering in Athens with Wind of Renewal

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I am Elisa, and I participated in the Green Social Innovation volunteering ESC project with Wind of Renewal / Anemos Ananeosis from the 15th of February to the 15th of March 2020. I’ve been volunteering with refugees in Athens, through the European Solidarity Corps. I was supposed to stay three months more, but the coronavirus measures implied that we stopped our activities face to face and I had to go back to France. However, I consider what I’ve experienced there as one of the most intense period in my short lifetime.

But first, let’s present the organisation and the project I’ve been involved in.
The Organisation: Wind of Renewal (ANEMOS ANANEOSIS) is a social cooperative enterprise for Social and Green Economy, Innovation and Culture. Among lots of initiatives, Wind of Renewal runs the Welcommon Hostel.
The Welcommon Hostel: This innovative hostel is a community center hosting projects for social inclusion of refugees, sustainable tourism, non formal education, social entrepreneurship and intercultural dialogue. It gathers volunteers, tourists, Greek locals and refugees around activities in the context of the project «Days of Welcommon».
Days of Welcommon: Days of Welcommon project aims to have a social impact while connecting different lifeworlds and people from everywhere. Therefore all the events are open to everyone: refugees, tourists, volunteers, local people… The project covers various fields as art, language practice, integration activities, intercultural mettings, environnmental awareness activties, self empowerment…
All of these activities take place in the Welcommon hostel, which gather all theses different people, or outside for some of the cultural or sportive activities.
Role of the volunteers: Volunteers are involved to bring their help by giving language practices (english, german, french, greek) and organizing activities from Sunday to Thursday to include refugees, local people and newcomers in the hostel. Their role is very important to make the project sustainable and ever more creative.
II- Everyday life
Schedulde : From Monday to Thursday, we used to organise language practice and skills exchanges, every afternoon from 1 to 5. We used to create level groups for each language and to adapt our activities to the number of refugees attending the lesson, number that could vary a lot from a week to another, and to the number of volunteers we were.
I used to pratice french with two very committed türkish refugees, and english with a group of young afghan beginners.
Sometimes I’ve helped the german volunteers too, with families who wanted to learn it from scratch. Trying to keep the language groups as much stable as we could was part of the inclusion project, and allowed us to create special links with our ‘students’.
On the Sundays, we used to organise outdoor activities :
– cultural visits (Athens is full of historical monuments and museums)
– a photography tour that I‘ve organised with an other volunteer and a small group of very commited refugees
– a visit at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center and a beach cleaning
– a carnival party
We had lots of ideas for the following weeks, and asked everytime the participants about their wishes and own ideas of activities; not doing unilateral teaching was part of the project philosophy.
From 5 to 6, we used to do informal education with children, that we called «family time», during which we used to do some art activities or play games in english. The participants of this time-slot were very committed and this was an appreciated time for everyone.
In the evenings, we used to organise intercultural nights (we cooked specialities from one country with families and people who wanted to make us discover their meals), Karaoke nights and movies projections. Keeping a regular schedulde about these acitivities was very important for the social inclusion of people.
Athens and Exarcheia: The Welcommon Hostel is located near the city center of Athens, in Exarcheia which is a very lively neighboorhood, full of social and green initiatives, and historicaly the anarchist district of the city. The streets of Exarcheia are full of street art and there are both refugees and students from the Politechnic University, which is a very interesting merging of people.
Living all together: During the project, I’ve been living in the Welcommon Hostel with other volunteers coming from Belgium, Germany, Japan, England and France. Some tourists of the Hostel, (from Canada and India) joined the project for one week too. This intercultural merging of everyday has contributed to the enrichment I got from this month in Athens. We used to cook and eat together, and do lots of activities to discover the city. During this short period, we all felt like we found for a while a second family.
III- My experience and learnings
The context of Athens and refugee crisis: Being in Athens to work on social inclusion with refugees in the actual context has been very intense. I’ve been able to get 100% engaged for the cause I went for and to understand very precisely the situation: with the other volunteers, we attended lots of assemblies and went to lots of protest to demand the opening of borders.
A social and intercultural experience: Before coming, I had only a tiny experience working with refugees. I’ve learned many different stories there and think that now I understand well the difficulties they have to face, and all the reasons why they had to leave their country.

My personal apreciation: First, I would like to go back there as soon as the international situation allows me to do so. I feel a huge frustration having to leave after only one month in such a social experience. Moreover, thinking about long-term implications, my professional project will for sure evolve in the direction I took during this ESC: I want to get committed in such social issues and even work again with migrants. Finally, I did know nor Greece neither Athens before arriving there but I’ve been strucked by the cultural and historical aspects of the city and would love to come back later to live a few months more there.

Euro-Mediterranean Intercultural Τrends, a free online course by ALF

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Open Online Course: Euro-Mediterranean Intercultural Trends
A learning journey through the Anna Lindh Report “Intercultural Trends and Social Change in the Euro-Mediterranean region” (see the reports of 2010, 2014, 2018)
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The online course “Euro-Mediterranean Intercultural Trends” is based on the Anna Lindh Report on Intercultural Trends and Social Change in the Euro-Mediterranean region, including a unique public opinion survey among a representative sample of the Euro-Mediterranean population about mutual perceptions, values and openness to diversity.
The pilot version of the course will be in English and will run from May 12th to June 8th 2020, jointly delivered by the Anna Lindh Foundation and UNIMED, the Mediterranean Universities Union. New editions will be planned for 2020.
Participation in the course is free of charge. Registered participants will receive an email message with detailed instructions on how to access the course.
The course duration is four weeks, with an estimated commitment of around two hours per week. The course is video-based and interactive, in this way participants will have the possibility to discuss the content and the main course messages with peers from around the Mediterranean. Learners who will complete the course activities will receive a Certificate of Participation.
MAIN TARGETED LEARNERS
The course is mainly targeted to
– lifelong learners who want to better understand the different cultures and values of the people around the Mediterranean;
– social workers or researchers working in intercultural settings;
– students dealing with intercultural subjects;
– school teachers facing multiculturality in their classroom;
– journalists reporting on cross-cultural issues and
– decision-makers wishing to gather data and analyses for policy development.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
By taking the course, you will:
  • increase your understanding of mutual perception between people from different European and Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries (SEM), about their identities, values, fears, women’s role in society, the impact of religion on their views and their inclination to mobility.
  • learn what actions people expect in order to reduce radicalization and increase multiculturality, taking into consideration different opinions.
  • learn what is the impact of different media on people’s opinion and which are the most reliable and trustworthy media in different countries.
COURSE CONTENT
The course is composed of four modules:
Module 1 Representation of the Mediterranean and Mutual Interest. Through this module, you will learn about common values and attitudes, interests and expectations of the people living in the EuroMed region and their perception towards other countries/people.
Module 2 Values and Mutual Perception. Through this module, you will learn what are the most important values for people living around the Mediterranean and how the role of women is perceived and it is expected to change.
Module 3 Interaction across Cultures. Through this module, you will learn about how people from the two shores of the Mediterranean interact and how they construct the representation of the “other” as well as the role of media in this process.
 
Module 4 Living in Diversity. Through this module, you will learn about the impact of religion on people’s point of view and what could be efficient actions to contrast radicalisation and for better living in multi-cultural cities and societies.
 
Watch this video to learn more about the Intercultural Trends and Social Change in the Euro-Mediterranean Region.
 
Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal is an active member of the network of Anna Lindh Foundation