Social Business Academy (Urban)

Civitas Status

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Budget

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Context

The Social Business Academy is a project that nurtures the next generation of social entrepreneurs and funds the launch of social enterprises in cities across three regions of Romania: North-West, Center, and North-East.

Although the concept of a “social economy” remains relatively unknown in our country, within the European Union there are already 2.8 million social economy enterprises, representing 10% of all businesses in the EU. Nearly 13.6 million people (approximately 6.2% of EU employees) work for social economy enterprises.

In Romania, there are 2,931 social enterprises, of which 1,863 have a valid certification recognizing their status. Together, they employ 5,621 people (according to RUEIS, October 2024), representing less than 1% of the total employed population at the national level.

Social enterprises are businesses that invest 90% of their profit into a social mission or have 30% of their employees from vulnerable groups. As such, they can be an important part of the response to Romania’s high rate of risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), which stood at 32.0% in 2023—equivalent to about 6.0 million people (according to the National Institute of Statistics).

Our goal

Through the Social Business Academy, we aim to accelerate the development of the social economy sector. The project offers a free training program that will prepare 132 people to become social entrepreneurs and will fund 34 social enterprise ideas with approximately €61,000 each. Once established, each business in the project will create 4 jobs for disadvantaged individuals.

The initiative is designed and implemented by a partnership consisting of the Civitas Foundation for Civil Society Cluj – the project’s beneficiary (in the North-West region), World Vision Romania Foundation (in the North-East region), and the Civitas Foundation for Civil Society – Odorheiu Secuiesc (in the Center region).

The goal of the project is to increase the number of sustainable social enterprises in urban areas of the North-West, Center, and North-East regions, by creating a dynamic and impactful framework that supports both the development of entrepreneurial skills for those wishing to start social enterprises and the integration of individuals from vulnerable groups into the labor market—targeting measures to boost the potential of the targeted areas.

What’s next?

By April 2027, the Social Business Academy will support the establishment and operation of 34 social enterprises in the project’s three regions, creating 136 jobs in urban areas of Romania. The project will include:

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The project (MySMIS Code: 305409) is co-financed by the European Social Fund+, through the Education and Employment Program 2021–2027. For detailed information about other programs co-financed by the European Union, we invite you to visit: www.mfe.gov.ro!