Social entrepreneurship or how to put social needs before profit? – Schell Alexandra
To really understand this subject, we should start by defining what social entrepreneurship is. As it is already known, an entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business, taking on financial risks in hope for profit. But what, exactly, does it mean to be a social entrepreneur?
While taking part in a workshop set up for us in Gimnazija Celje-Center, during our Erasmus+ project, we found an answer to this question. We managed to define social entrepreneurship as an activity through which someone invests in people, focusing on the needs of those surrounding them, gaining no apparent material winnings; the organization of a business around specific social and environmental causes, that can include both non-profit organizations and charities and for-profit social enterprises.
Under the guidance of a Slovenian teacher, Rok Lipnik, and alongside Slovenian students, we were dared to play the social entrepreneur for a couple of moments. In groups of 4-5 people, we brainstormed ideas to figure out how could our schools take on projects that could help the social environment around them. We found a way to save money by cutting the use of electric energy and water through sustainable means, that our schools either already have or could invest in. That money, in our opinion, could be used to solve social needs.
With Arina, Nika, Tamara, and Jerneja, I learned that you don’t necessarily need to have a ton of money to start bringing a contribution to society, like some of the public figures nowadays. You just need to be willing to look around, willing to give a helping hand without expecting to get something out of it and remember that kindness is always returned in some form. All of us left that workshop with a smile on our faces, and our hearts a bit lighter knowing that we can help those around us no matter what.