Undertaking Together

Project facts

Project promoter:
Idealoga, Community Intervention, Cooperative Society from Madrid (Idealoga, S. Coop. Mad.)
Project Number:
ES04-0049
Target groups
Unemployed,
Entrepreneurs
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€51,323
Final project cost:
€51,323
From EEA Grants:
€ 39,262
The project is carried out in:
Spain

Description

Unemployment is one of the most serious consequences of the economic crisis, condemning many women to situations of social exclusion. Women find it very difficult to create or maintain a company, facing funding problems, lack of support and work-life balance. In recent years the rate of women entrepreneurs has decreased compared to that of men. The project aims to improve the employability, social conditions and quality of life of participating women, through a process of training and consultancy for social and collective entrepreneurship. The project is expected to achieve the empowerment of women participants and their training for accessing and maintaining employment and promoting entrepreneurship of women according to the principles of Social and Economic Solidarity . It will promote experience sharing among the participating areas in the project (Aragon, Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and Norway) and knowledge of the Social and Economic Solidarity will be drived internationally.

Summary of project results

Juntas Emprendemos is a project aimed at reducing the grave effects that the economic crisis has had on women and their access to employment opportunities. The training activities and advisory services have enabled participants to improve their self-esteem and empowerment, as well as their ability to initiate and maintain an enterprising project within the parameters of the Social and Solidarity Economy. Many of the participants have been able to develop and put into practice their business ideas and discuss the viability of their projects. In each territory (Madrid, Aragón, Cataluña and Euskadi, the Basque Country) mutual support networks were developed, which the women will maintain upon project completion. The meeting in Madrid served to form the base for the creation of a future exchange network among entrepreneurship projects, although that process will certainly require an investment in further resources and more work. This is the commitment of the promoting team and the associate entities: to look for new resources that make it possible to continue offering support to the entrepreneurship projects with the aim of fostering their consolidation.

Summary of bilateral results

The participation of the Norwegian entity Norway consisted of an exchange of experiences, mainly via the publication of news on the project web site, about women’s entrepreneurship initiatives that the entity fosters in Norway. Due to difficulties in coordination, the participation of the associate entity in Norway was more limited than planned. Contact was maintained via email and it was not possible to make the trip as planned due to coordination difficulties. Near the end of the project, we received a complete report on their school on entrepreneurship; however, given that this information was received when the intervention in Spain was almost finished, it was hard for us to include the experiences in Norway in our processes. In any case, the material received will enable us to enrich future interventions.