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Rural Rules!
Start date: Aug 1, 2016, End date: Dec 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Marginalized youth living in European rural areas have a problem getting good jobs & continued education to get ahead in life and contribute to society (ec.europa.eu). They’re facing unemployment & they don't know how to get out of their situation. Starting a business in rural areas would be a great solution for them. This project aims to raise awareness about entrepreneurship in rural areas, provide youth with the skills on how to identify the business opportunities that exist in rural areas & develop new ideas. To promote this idea, a project “Rural Rules!” will be hosted in Lithuania. The youth exchange will take place in Kaunas on September 5-11, 2016 (+2 travel days). The project is implemented by organizations from countries where youth unemployment rates are especially acute (Lithuania, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Croatia). The youth exchange will have 36 participants (5 unemployed youngsters from rural areas aged 18-30 and 1 experienced youth worker per country). Priority will be given to those who are motivated & excited about rural entrepreneurship. The main objectives of the project is to train & inspire youth with less opportunities to start businesses in rural areas, so that they can be self-sufficient and self-reliant. By doing so they can create jobs for other marginalized youths in rural areas, thus creating a snowball effect of lowering unemployment and helping integrate them in-to society. In order to reach its aim, the project will seek the following goals: (1) introduce participants to the essentials of entrepreneurship in rural areas & how to share the knowledge with the other marginalized youth; (2) coach the youth on how to create sustainable businesses in rural areas, and the key skills needed for that; (3) generate new business ideas that will work well in rural areas of participating countries & show examples of successful businesses in rural areas to inspire them; (4) Create businesses that include the unemployed/underpriviledged communities living in rural areas, thus decreasing rural unemployment & building accountability for the community; (5) Creating a spill-over effect by inspiring other communities to contribute to the established businesses or to create new businesses in rural areas themselves. In order to achieve these objectives, a range of NFE methods developed by all the partner organisations will be employed. Main activities will include: 1) Ice-breaking & team-building games, 2) Energizers, 3) Workshops on the many aspects of entrepreneurship in rural areas, 4) Discussion sessions about entrepreneurship in rural areas, 5) Country presentations, 6) Visit to a youth center in rural area, 7) NFE games that are related to key skills in entrepreneurship in rural areas, 8) Quizzes, 9) Video creation, 10) Business idea pitching, 11) Cultural evenings. Since the project's goal is to reach wider, international public & disseminate the results effectively: 12) special videos 13) workshops for marginalized youth in partner countries 14) e-booklet will be prepared by the participants. All of this will ensure that the project would induce a positive effect on the participants, organisations & target groups in regional, national & international levels.The participants will acquire & improve a number of skills required for being entrepreneurs in rural areas. They will learn how to plan a business using proven methodologies & tools, how to come up with good business ideas, how to identify problems to solve, improve their understanding of key business parts & best ways to turn that solution into a business. They will also get a chance to extend their social networks & polish their ideas by meeting & talking to potential angel investors and entrepreneurs. This will help them successfully launch their business & in turn create jobs for other youths. The main target group of the project is the marginalized youth across Europe. This group will be reached directly by the workshops organized by the participating organizations in their respective countries after the youth exchange, and are anticipated to result in new businesses being born. The expected impact at all levels is to generate ideas for new businesses in rural areas that might be implemented & help lessen youth unemployment. Finally, it would set a good example, helping promote youth initiatives & implementation of future Erasmus+ actions.The results dissemination will be facilitated through involvement of digital media & spreading of videos & e-booklet prepared during the project. As a result, unemployed youth in participating countries are expected to start exploring the possibilities of starting businesses in rural areas.The project is anticipated to not only help participating youth enhance their skills and become entrepreneurs, but also increase general awareness of life in rural areas. As a result, reduced youth unemployment is expected; thus, making the project results very important.
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