Entrepreneurship and Volunteering
On August 19, our first project training took place: “Active youth for a sustainable future – The NGO sector as an opportunity for development”, Entrepreneurship and volunteering, in which 22 young people participated.
We were visited by three experts – representatives of both the NGO sector and business, who shared their valuable experience and expertise with specific examples from their practice and professional path, gave advice and guidelines for work and development, and provoked a wide discussion and a number of questions from side of the participants.
In order of their appearance on the program, they were:
Miroslav Todorov, founder of the Power Jump Association, shared how his affinity for sports years ago motivated him to look for ways to develop such an activity in Varna, focusing on making sense of people’s free time and a healthy lifestyle. Started as a volunteer in a number of events, Miro has gained invaluable experience that he manages to implement in his work, expanding the scope and social impact of what he does, as well as encouraging young people to take up the things they like and for looking for ways to realize them.
Miroslava Mileva, Director of the mentoring program at the Social Teahouse talks about social entrepreneurship from the first person – about the birth of the idea of a social enterprise, what is the motivation, what are the difficulties, how to look for funding, how to transparently manage it, how to instill trust and to win like-minded people and what is the effect of work when it is done with love. Mira gave the participants a homework assignment to provoke their critical and creative thinking, guiding them to generate an idea for a social enterprise. The need for solutions to significant social problems is the basis for creating a social enterprise, such as the Social Teahouse in Varna.
Last, but not least, was Kristina Ilieva – Marketing and Communications Manager at Taxback Group – a financial technology company, a long-time partner and donor of Karin Dom. In her role as a representative of the business, but also as a volunteer and like-minded to the cause of Karin Dom, Kris gave invaluable advice and guidance to young people on how to improve themselves when it comes to applying for jobs and especially through the prism of volunteering – about the importance of our volunteer experience for our successful professional development. To involve the participants in the job search process, we conducted a role-play where the participants were divided into groups, each group aiming to work on essential things to start the career path – writing a CV and cover letter and then acting out of an “interview for a job with an employer” situation. More useful things for the young people in the project were the tips on what NOT to do during an interview or when writing our cover letter.
Our next meeting is on 26.08 (Thursday) at 10 a.m. again at Karin Dom, when we will have a practical workshop “Making products”, in which we will look at the process of creating a product – from the idea, through the analysis of the target group, budget, design, target markets and more.
The project is supported by the “Youth Projects 2021” program of the Municipality of Varna
and aims for young people to see opportunities in the non-governmental sector
for personal and professional growth, for changing attitudes,
to improve the environment, to advocate
and an active civic role and position.
