The Academy for Local Entrepreneurs of the Rinker Centre at the BCause Foundation is the Bulgarian nominee in the European Commission’s Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship Award. The Academy is the national winner of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2022 and is implemented for the 5th consecutive year with the financial support of Philip Morris Bulgaria. The initiative is part of the “Fun Summer, Caring Autumn” programme for sustainable community development in tobacco growing regions.
The European Commission has entrusted the running of the national competition in Bulgaria to the Ministry of Economy and Industry. The competition is carried out in two stages – selecting applications for national winners, who in turn must compete in six categories at European level.
“The Local Entrepreneurs Academy is the national winner in the Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship category. In September 2022, a jury appointed by the European Commission will review all national entries to select the big winners in the six categories and the grand prize winner. All national winners nominated for the European competition will be honoured for their contribution at a special ceremony in Prague in November, when the final winners will also be announced.
“To be awarded as a national winner, which puts us among the nominated finalists in Europe, is a great joy and recognition for us. But the most valuable and satisfying outcome of our work remains contributing to the retention and homecoming of people who decide to change their future and the future of communities in small towns and villages in Bulgaria. “The Local Entrepreneurs Academy 6.0″ will be launched on 12-September 2022, and with each edition since 2017, we are seeing more participants and more diverse and ambitious ideas for starting a small business,” says Elitsa Barakova, Executive Director of Bcause Foundation.
“Academy for Local Entrepreneurs” is a regional training program specially created for people with entrepreneurial ideas from the tobacco-growing regions of the country – the districts of Kardzhali, Haskovo, Blagoevgrad and Silistra. It is implemented by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Training “Rinker” at the BCause Foundation with the financial support of Philip Morris Bulgaria, as part of the program “Fun Summer, Caring Autumn”. Over the past 5 editions of the programme, more than 300 business ideas have been applied for. 65 entrepreneurial teams have gone through project development trainings and 19 of them have received grants totalling 130 000 BGN. The teams applied innovative ideas from Bulgaria and the world or based their projects on local assets, resources and traditions. Starting their own small and sustainable business, they create jobs and become an example of realization and good life in small settlements in Bulgaria.
Entrepreneurship is an important part of the solution to problems in remote regions. The Academy supports active people to gain different skills and confidence to implement their ideas, with training sessions that are pragmatic. Through the Academy, participants build business skills, receive advice and ongoing mentoring support, publicity and promotion of products and services and, not least, start-up funding. ” – says Yavor Gotchev from the Center for Entrepreneurship and Training “Rinker” at BCause Foundation.
“The Local Entrepreneurs Academy, as part of the “Fun Summer, Caring Fall” program, received another recognition this year. Two winners of the entrepreneurship academies are among those selected in Darik Radio’s annual “40 under 40” initiative. Kamen Bakardzhiev, founder of Kamen’s Flowers, winner of the third edition of the Academy in 2020, falls into the “Business” category. Ilian Popov, a swimming coach, who is part of the 5th edition of the Academy, is awarded in the “Sport” category for his dedicated work with children, including those with various physical or mental disabilities, in the only sports swimming club in Razlog ”Perun”. Additionally, Leta Panayotova, Katrin Tomova and Nadezhda Indzhova are also among the 40 awarded in the category “Education”. They are part of the team of instructors of the educational adventure academy for children and the academy for teachers, part of the program “Fun Summer, Caring Autumn”.
