Dealing with the topics of Corporate Social Responsibility and Cooperation in the Youth Field, the “Prince, Merchant and Citizen as one: CSR in Europe” aimed at promoting the concept of CSR and to develop a long-lasting cooperation among Public, Private and Third Sector. The project aimed to set the basis and create opportunities for Third Sector Organisations to motivate companies and public bodies to introduce CSR policies in their daily activities, throughout Non-Formal-Learning methods. The project activities were implemented in Poland, Portugal, Turkey and Italy.
The project reached directly and indirectly over 1.000 young people coming from different cultural backgrounds, education, social status and age. Also their understanding and knowledge of CSR was very different as well as the interest in participating in this Project.
The youngsters actively involved gained competences, ability, creativity and self-confidence to take action at local and international level. Both in Portugal and in Poland, we have evidence that some of the volunteers involved found a job thanks to their participation to the project.
The project had a big impact and achieved tangible results affecting the participants, the organizers and the stakeholders involved. In the partner countries the experience with CSR and the Project was quite different.

 

Main activities implemeted within project:

1. International Preparatory Meeting – Warsaw
2. International Training Course – Porto
3. International Mid-Term Evaluation Meeting – Cagliari
4. International Training Course – Wroclaw
5. International Seminar – Istanbul
6. International Final Evaluation Meeting – Cagliari
7. Local Youth Initiatives (Conference Cycles and Workshops) – Poland, Portugal, Italy and Turkey

Partner organisations:
• Youth Art Research and Training Associationis a non-governmental social initiative organizing cultural activities for the youth and with the youth. Youth A.R.T aims to voluntarily promote the youth to take more active roles in the society through social and cultural activities with the tools of art, research and training at local and international levels. Youth A.R.T., as a youth initiative, has been enlisted among the most active organizations in Türkiye since 20th of April, 2008, and gained its legal status in 2011. As an active member of TDM 2000 Inter-national Network, we have taken about 300 Turkish youngsters to more than 110 projects in 25 countries.
Our main activities are Youth Exchanges, Training Courses, Seminars, Voluntary Services, Informative Meetings, Consultancy on Project Management, Art Workshops, Courses on Social and Language Skills, Social and Academic Research Studies, Camps, Trips, Festivals, Parties, Social Fun Facilities.
Youth Art is member of TDM 2000 International network.

• Volunteers for Sport Foundation was established by several sport enthusiasts in 2009 who believed that volunteer´s support is crucial for modern sport. V4SPORT.EU created by the Foundation is an innovative portal that enables browsing for voluntary adverts from all over the world and looking for people willing to help during sport events or for everyday activities. The Foundation cooperates with still growing number of over 60 sport organizations and almost 2000 volunteers. Together with streetfootballworld and Open Fun Football Schools Ukraine, we have coordinated the official community health education program of the UEFA EURO 2012, RESPECT your Health-Euroschools 2012.

• “ALINHAS?” started off as a youth sports organization that seeks to organize free activities, thus providing the society at large with the possibility of practicing various sports and participating in several socio-cultural initiatives. This project essentially arose from a simple wish of trying to not practice sports alone or with the same group of friends over and over again. At first, the activities comprised only surfing, kayak, mountain climbing and cycling since they incited the most interest and there was some availability of equipment. However, the group eventually grew and as such, soon came the need to form ALINHAS? in 2011 as a youth sports organization. This formal step was taken on one hand with the goal of defining ourselves and, on the other, with the purpose of allowing us to create the required structures to expand our own range of activities.
Moreover, we are also presently internationally engaged through the participation in the Youth in Action (YiA) programme so as to allow the discovery of new cultures and different lifestyles to our associates.

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The Association TDM 2000 promotes personal and professional development of youngsters and aims to make them citizens of the society where they are living.
TDM 2000 is an independent, apolitical and no-profit organization; it has educative and formative purposes and addresses to young people who want to collaborate in the voluntary sector. It believes on the mutual respect of different cultures and equality between people, and aims to contribute to the development of the Countries in which operates through the achievement of a greater awareness towards International cooperation, mutual comprehension and the need to be an active part inside of the modern society.
It commits, at a local and international level, to promote individual growth creating opportunities of interactions and the comparison between people and groups which belong to different social and cultural realities.
Its activities deals with seminaries, workshops, forming and elaboration courses and the organization of promoting campaigns for a greater promotion of common values, through the theatre, sport, photography, mass media and other instruments that involve young people.
TDM 2000 is one of the founders of TDM 2000 International network.

Associated partners of project
a) Poland:
• ARIDOTACJE – Agency of Innovation and Development
• REM Association
• University of Wroclaw
• Polish School Sports Association
• MANUS Foundation
• UNDP (United Nations Development Programme, Project Office in Poland)
b) Italy:
• Agenzia Regionale per il Lavoro – Cagliari (Regional Employment Agency)
• CNGI (Coordinamento Nazionale Giovani Imprenditori)
• Unica 2.0
• Provincia di Cagliari
• CRENoS (Centre for North South Economic Research)
• Cagliari’s Faculty of Economics
• Cagliari’s Faculty of Political Studies
• Centro Servizi Promozionali per le Imprese
• Banco di Sardegna Foundation
• Associazione Sarditinera Onlus
• MO.D.A.V.I. Onlus, Federazione provinciale di Bari
• Confcooperative Sardegna (Confederation of Italian Cooperatives)
• Comitato imprenditorialità Femminile (Women Entrepreneurship Committee)
• Confescercenti
• CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro)
c) Turkey:
• Istanbul Kemerburgaz University, School of Foreign Languages
• Beyoğlu Municipality and Youth Center
• Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey (CSR Turkey)
• Kadir Has University
• Boğaziçi University Alumni Association (BÜMED)
• P3 Organization Company
d) Portugal:
• Geoclube – Associação Juvenil de Ciência, Natureza e Aventura
• Sociedade de Debates da Universidade do Porto (SddUP)
• Iuris FDUP Junior – Júnior Empresa
• Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) – Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento em Ciência e Tecnologia
• FAP – Federação Académica do Porto
• FEP Junior Consulting – Júnior Empresa da FEP

Target groups of the project
• Young participants
• Third Sector Organizations
• Public Bodies
• Private Sector Actors

Tangible results:
• The volunteers involved in the CSR in Europe project in Poland were literally pushed in an empowering process that brought them from cooperate as volunteers in the National Stadium of Warsaw, to be hired for their commitment. So from young Polish people with fewer opportunities, they found a job, gained experience and competences and benefited in a concrete way from the project’s results.
• The V4Sports Foundation started a big intercession activity, bringing the point of view of the European Commission on CSR directly to National public Institutions as the main Universities in the country. Their aim has been to mainstream a practice of students involvement in CSR activities supported or directly organised by the University, with the input coming from the third sector. The process started thanks to the commitment of the CSR in Europe Polish project coordinator, together with his team of action: the definition of the strategy to make that cooperation become truth and have his first concrete results was already launched. The on-going process is involving progressively more Universities that would like to do the same and develop their own CSR strategy.
• The Foundation developed his own a sort of business thank to the project, that makes this forth tangible result for the NGO really remarkable. The companies that were contacted by V4Sports have been open to cooperation, but what has been surprising, is the contamination that was generated: the voice about the project has been really well spread, so much that big private companies asked the Foundation to set up their CSR policy strategy.
• Geoclube gained prestige due to the active role undertaken during the project. As already referred, the small NGO became in one year a bigger structure, obtaining an office where gather together volunteers and organize activities.
• TDM 2000 International, network of NGOs working at the moment from the general headquarters in Italy, started through the project a structured dialogue with one of the most important associated local partners, the Regional Employment Agency. The Agency is a very important public institution in the Region, that focuses his efforts on unemployment and structured policies to face the problem at different levels of action. The dialogue and the cooperation with TDM 2000 International was particularly focused on youth unemployment, NFL, international mobility and the potential of a topic like CSR at the local and international level to boost capabilities, self-improvement and entrepreneurship of young people.

Main products developed during the project:
• Booklet

• Webpage of the Project

• Reports

• Brochures and other informal material

• Presentations and NFL tools

Follow-up of the project
TDM 2000 International is looking for a follow up strategy that creates future occasions and opportunities that become systemic and not just sporadic and that they are able to reach a large public, with the help of all the associated partners that will take this commitment.
Some examples of activities potentially realisable are listed below:
• The involvement of schools, bringing the discussion about entrepreneurship and CSR not just to more young people but also to children, so in elementary and middle schools, through specially designed activities and systematic non-formal training tailored on the target audience
• Organization of meetings with local Public and Private Stakeholders in order to show the project made and to invite them for future partnerships
• Work innovation campaigns offered by the NGOs to the private companies, through workshops to their employees
• Activities organized by NGOs that offer services to the companies (language courses, non-formal education to mediate the conflicts, stress management)
• Working together with companies and institutions to develop activities that meet their needs
• Job shadowing in companies that work following the principles of CSR
• Corporate volunteering organized together with the NGOs
• An activity that through the support of the public sector and the involvement of the financial sector, helps the SMEs to access to credit, and at the same time encourages companies to adopt CSR practices into their business strategies

Multimedia Materials of International Activities:
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter

Reports:
• Italy
• Poland
• Portugal
• Turkey
• Report Activities GENERAL – CSR in Europe

Downloads:
• Booklet on best practices of CSR in Europe
• CSR in Europe Project’s presentation
• CSR in our lives
• CSR in Poland
• CSR in Turkey
• What is CSR short
• What is CSR

• Final work from participant 1

• Final work from participant 2

 

Reading list:
• USEFUL LINKS CSR in Europe