On Thursday, February 25, we organized the first international Live Talk on the topic of social entrepreneurship in the V4 countries. If you did not have time to watch Mladiinfo Live Talk IV., it doesn’t matter. You can watch the whole discussion on our Facebook while a selection of the most important can be found here. If you speak slovak, here is the Slovak version.
Our guests were social entrepreneurs and participants of Social Impact Awards Julian Gerhart from Zmudri.sk, Karolína Krejčová from Indiánky and Anna Kmecová from RescueRoom. During the Live Talk, they presented their projects to us and gave us some advice for a successful project. Enjoy reading!
Social entrepreneurship focuses on achieving a positive impact on society but this also includes the ability to support these ideas financially. As you have already imagined, “one does not live out of love”. Our guests highlighted the financial aspect mainly due to the large amount of time that they devote to the project. If you want to fully devote yourself to achieving the goals, you need to ensure a minimum coverage of your costs.
Social entrepreneurship requires more support than the usual type of enterprise. The Czech Republic and Slovakia differ in number of inhabitants which is directly related to the size of the support system. Thus, Slovakia lags slightly behind the Czech Republic, but thanks to projects such as the Social Innovators Network or Social impact Award we are gradually catching up.
„At the end of the incubation program, we already had a clear concept that we could start implementing the next day.“
Anna Kmecová
Kája from Indianky offered us multiple examples of support systems in the Czech Republic, such as Impact Hub Prague, Česko Digital or dmStart. On the other hand, Anka from RescueRoom emphasized the importance of networking in the form of discussion panels for non-profit organizations and regular participation in acceleration and mentoring programs. Both would definitely advise you to enter any competition or program:
„… even if we don’t enter the program, there will be one more person who reads the application and knows about our non-profit project.“
Karolína Krejčová
Since we are in a pandemic situation where the health of a large number of people is at stake, our guests would direct their further ideas to this sector. Anna, as a rescuer, clearly has a lot of experience in this area, and therefore she would address the information gap regarding hygiene measures in health establishments or retirement homes in the form of a disinfection plan or information campaign on protective equipment.
Mental health also suffers from a pandemic. As Julián suggested, this topic has been de-tabooed and he sees another potential for socially oriented projects in it.
Many of us are glued to our computers and try to replace physical meetings during a pandemic. “Zooming” does not fully replace an ordinary meeting, however, it offers new opportunities. As Kája suggested, many participants of Indianky meetings opened up much more than during offline meetings. The comfort of their own home allowed them to disconnect and reconnect at any time or make a cup of tea. Thanks to this situation, Kája found out that the online form can be more comfortable for their audience and increase the positive impact on their participants.
„In a certain way it was more pleasant for them. Now we know that our assumptions were wrong.“
Karolína Krejčová
Rushing things is not good. Anna Kmecová had several ideas on how to do things online. At the end, she decided to launch a 30-day Rescue Challenge with her team. The second idea was an interactive textbook supplemented by augmented and virtual reality, thanks to which you will be able to see, for example, burns on your own hand.
These concepts are hardly used together, and yet during the pandemic, many teachers became experts in video and interactive content creation. Julian himself also helped them with adaptation via the creation of several teaching modules for teachers. Because Zmudri.sk was an online project from the beginning, during the corona, Julian struggled with a lack of time and prioritization rather than a lack of work.
„I feel like there are pressing issues everywhere and I don’t know where to jump in first and where the help is most needed when we talk about education.“
Julián Gerhart
Mladiinfo Slovakia regularly publishes new offers for volunteering abroad, but you can also gain new experience directly via our guests’ projects. Julián, Anka and Kája are happy to welcome new members. If you want to get involved and support a good cause or improve your skills, be sure to write to them!
„Without a team, it is rather difficult to realize your idea.“
Julián Gerhart
Do you want to know more details? Watch the whole live talk on facebook.
