Announcement of the application for a social entrepreneurship competition
With the aim of strengthening and developing social entrepreneurship, the Latvian Social Entrepreneurship Association, together with the Luminor Bank, continues the annual tradition and announces the application for social entrepreneurship pipes or presentation contest “it will be to grow 2022”. The prize will have the opportunity to receive EUR 2 000 for the realization of a social business idea or project. Participation in the competition is free and may be submitted by 19 August.
Existing and emerging social entrepreneurs from all Latvia are invited to participate in the competition. They may be undertakings with or without the status of a social enterprise, associations and foundations which require funding for the realization of a new idea or an existing project. It is also possible for individual persons who have yet to lolo their social entrepreneurship idea and seek their start-up funding. To submit an idea or project that corresponds to the nature and definition of social entrepreneurship – to produce goods or to provide services with a view to addressing a social problem or to benefit society.
“211 social enterprises are active throughout Latvia and their number is increasing monthly. At a time when social problems are becoming more diverse and more complicated, the society is important to every person and company that is willing to address them. The competition“ that good will be growing ”is the support for these producers - social entrepreneurs - in order to raise money for business growth and to tell the general public about their work,” explains the idea of the competition. Regita Zyles, head of the Latvian Social Entrepreneurship Association.
“We are very pleased to continue the cooperation with Latvia's social entrepreneurship association and support social enterprises in the collection and implementation of their ideas and projects. It is important for Luminor to help social enterprises who identify and address major societal issues. Such a competition is a good spring point for these entrepreneurs to take one big step forward and get extra weight in the realization of their idea,” says Kerli vares, Luminor bank manager in Latvia.
The competition will take place in three stages. In order to apply for membership, an electronic application form must be completed. The second round of the competition will be driven by 25 stronger social entrepreneurship ideas or projects, and participants will participate in training where they will practice short, comprehensible formulating their ideas and presenting it to experts. The final of the competition will be held on 9 September in Riga, where ten finalists will go on stage and present their social entrepreneurship idea or project to the competition jury and live audience throughout Latvia in five minutes. The direct output of the competition will be seen in the “Delfi.lv” portal. The viewers will also have the opportunity to vote on their favourite.
At the end of the competition, two social entrepreneurs or authors of social entrepreneurship ideas will receive a cash prize of EUR 2 000. The winners will be determined by the competition jury and the vote of the live audience.
The presentation competition “it will be growing” takes place for a third year. Last year, more than 60 participants came forward and the final victory was achieved by the social enterprise “Intelligent Development Centre”, which is based on the training of attention and focus and the development of various cognitive skills, making the service available to various social risk groups. The second winner was the social enterprise Barboleta from Jelgava, who developed the methodological material – the game “what is happening to me?” to help children and young people understand the causes of stress and learn new ways of behaving how to deal with it.
The aim of the competition “will be to grow” is to promote the development of existing social enterprises and new social entrepreneurship ideas, as well as to tell them about these ideas for the whole of Latvia. The main partner of the competition is Luminor Bank. The event is supported by the Financial Institution “Altum”, co-financing its progress from European Union funds resources, Rimi and the portal “Delfi.lv”. The tender regulations and the application form can be found on the website of the Latvian Social Business Association sua.lv/konkurss2022/.
Other information: League Ivanova, liga@sua.lv, 26464686