European Sustainability Academy (ESA)

• Sustainability
• NGO News
• Speeches / Interviews
• Miscellaneous news
• Research

WISE women from all across Greece descent to Crete for experiential entrepreneurial workshop

The WISE project is a two-year project funded by the Lifelong Learning Program of European Union. The purpose of the project is to support 60 women from Greece, Spain and Croatia in launching their own social enterprise. Coordinating beneficiary of the WISE project is the leading Spanish University ESADE Business School and coordinating partner in Greece is the European Sustainability Academy (ESA). 

The European Sustainability Academy (ESA) in Crete will host the WISE program’s experiential learning workshop on the 12th and 13th of March, 2015. This follows respective workshops in Barcelona, Spain and Zagreb, Croatia. WISE is an integrated educational program for women, using cutting edge teaching methods based on an interactive and experiential learning model. The participants will have the chance to reflect and design their own solutions to achieve sustainable social change. The program aims to supply women with the skills, knowledge and tools necessary, to innovate and contribute in tackling their own community challenges through sustainable enterprise. The WISE objective is the development of an interactive virtual community that will continue the creation of networks among program participants after the end of the EU Project. 

Dr. Shibu Cheruvelil, the Executive Director of the Agency for Integrated Development Initiatives (AIDI) New Delhi and the Apokoronas Mayor Mr. Charalampos Koukianakis with his wife will be the workshop’s guests of honour.

As founder and director of ESA Sharon Jackson notes, women can be effective drivers of economic growth, especially during crises. The social economy sector employs 14 million people in Europe and has proven to be resilient during times of crisis. Additionally, research conducted during the initial stages of the WISE program - the results of which were launched in June 2014 at KPMG headquarters in Athens - revealed that women in all three participating countries (Spain, Greece, Croatia) still face barriers that discourage them from starting their own venture. This is corroborated by the fact that only 27% of Greek startups in 2013 were launched by women. This suggests a dire need to support women entrepreneurs in creating their own social enterprise. 

An integral aspect of social impact is social innovation. It represents a vehicle and the hope for a sustainable future. Social Innovation is about ideas that address the root cause of the modern societal challenges, not merely the symptoms. The contribution of social enterprises in addressing these challenges is important as social innovation is well embedded in their business model. Therefore social innovative ideas through entrepreneurship refer to solutions that integrate people and the planet with financial sustainability, which is a necessary condition for any entrepreneurial entity to exist and prosper. 

WISE program aims to be the bridge between women innovators and sustainable social businesses by giving them a fertile ground to blossom and fulfil their true untapped potential.