Oana Coșman
Applications are open until July 11th. The Circle will teach 60 participants to build resilience by cross-pollinating structure, strategy, and creativity in their work. A European Erasmus+ program, targeting wellbeing and sustainability for the business, as well as the entrepreneur.
Activities take place online and offline, in travelling learning circles hosted by each program partner: Matera Hub in Italy, Impact Hub Madrid in Spain and Zitec and Impact Hub Bucharest in Romania. The Circle is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The program will develop the capacity of its 60 participants to overcome challenges posed by disruptive situations, such as the covid pandemic. It will build and develop 3 sets of skills: creative skills, digital skills and entrepreneurial skills, with a special focus on sustainability, international mindset & wellbeing. The Circle is a response to a post-pandemic context that brought the need for creative thinking & innovation to the forefront of societal resilience.
60 OPEN SPOTS. APPLICATIONS OPEN UNTIL JULY 11TH
Applications are open until July 11th, to freelancers and entrepreneurs from Italy, Spain and Romania. The program will accept 60 participants in total: 30 from creative industries, 30 from any other industry, and targets all business development stages.
The Circle also integrates an important diversity component, aiming to include at least 20 women participants and 5 participants from disadvantaged communities – migrants, minorities, refugees.
Participation is free. More so, The Circle will offer options to cover travel expenses to those chosen for international travel. Applications are open on www.jointhecircle.eu.
4 EUROPEAN HOSTS FOR THE ACTIVITIES
The Circle is organized by a consortium of 4 partners: Impact Hub Bucharest and Zitec in Romania, Impact Hub Madrid in Spain and Matera Hub in Italy. It is coordinated by Impact Hub Bucharest and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
“I am happy to be able to build on previous experience and implement the second project with Impact Hub Madrid, strengthen the relationship with our friend Zitec and build a new partnership with Matera Hub, all ready to #JoinTheCircle. The past 3 years were marked by exponential growth for Impact Hub Bucharest; we grew in diversity of the implemented projects as well as the diversity of public and private investors, the entrepreneurs mentored and monitored and our international reach. Having worked with creative freelancers, with agrifood and tech entrepreneurs, with women and diaspora as target groups, we always had in mind the growth and the opportunities we can support and provide for program participants.”, says Lucia Radu, Program Manager, Programs & Entrepreneurial Growth Division Impact Hub Bucharest.
A HYBRID ONLINE-OFFLINE CALENDAR
The main activities will take the form of offline “learning circles”: 5 days of learning hosted by each country, taking place over the summer of 2022. The circles will include participants from all countries, each participant will take part in one learning circle, and may have the option to travel to one partner country for it.
After being accepted, the participants will have their first activities online, as digital workshops, in October 2021. These will be followed by a mix of online and offline activities ending February 2023. The complete calendar will include: 2 online sessions, 4 offline international learning circles, 4 post-circles online sessions, 1 online festival and 3 post-program physical events to disseminate the results, the educational content and promote the participants.
LONG TERM OBJECTIVES AND IMPACT
The program aims to not only teach necessary skills, but also to create a community of allies within the group of 60 participants, over its 17-month span. It will also train a core group of staff within the partnership on how to support creatives and creativity — to improve the teams’ capacity to provide support services for creative industries and to train professionals to use business creativity.
For long-term impact beyond the participating group, The Circle promises to develop and validate new frameworks for learning entrepreneurial, creative and digital skills and to make them available for the general public: freely and translated in 4 languages: Italian, Romanian, Spanish and English. The “kits” will take the form of 6 complex e-courses on startarium.ro — the digital platform for entrepreneurs.
“We are proud to lead this very European program and give our local community access to the powerful resources, know-how and people of the 4 program partners. It will also be the first time Impact Hub applies the educational infrastructure of Startarium to an international context, so it brings us great joy to essentially host a digital learning center for European entrepreneurs.”, declares Monica Alexandru, Product Manager, Programs & Entrepreneurial Growth Division Impact Hub Bucharest.
