SIV (SOCIAL IMPACT VOUCHERS)

Do you love a good story? Storytelling sets a context in a scene. Last December one of our German partner started a story-telling Facebook action, giving the reader the possibility to become a donor just before Christmas. Because behind each voucher, there is a donor!

Jeder liebt eine gute Geschichte - wir genießen sie und wir erinnern uns an sie. Durch Storytelling wird ein Kontext in Szene gesetzt. Für unseren Projektpartner, das Diakonische Werk in Württemberg, ist dies ein lohnenswerter Versuch, SpenderInnen / private InvestorInnen für ihr Gutscheinmodell 1+1 zu finden.

Especially in view of the Covid19 pandemic, the already popular IT field has seen a lot of additional demand, as it is also a field where remote work is easy to implement. This is where the voucher program currently being carried out in Austria as a cooperation of Caritas Vienna and Everyone Codes within the Interreg SIV project steps in. The program aims to train in programming participants with an unemployment background and subsequently to aid them in securing a job after graduation.

2021 will be a crucial year for the SIV project. The project partners will verify the feasibility of the voucher system and endeavour to fill the fund with resources for its long-term and sustainable operation. The Slovak partner decided to help two disadvantaged groups – secondary school graduates and social enterprises employees. Discover how they will do it.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed trends in the labour market? How to improve our digital skills that are necessary for remote work? Polish partners are looking for answers to these questions. Their activities focus on adapting women to new circumstances, adjusting their previous experiences to the digitized world. Find out more.

Wie hat die COVID-19-Pandemie die Trends auf dem Arbeitsmarkt verändert? Wie können wir unsere digitalen Fähigkeiten verbessern, die für die Fernarbeit notwendig sind? 

The re-entry into working life of long-term unemployed people with disabilities needs to be re-energised.

Within the Interreg SIV project, Fund 05 is working on establishing pilot schemes in different industries that will be financed from the SIV social impact fund after its establishment. In doing so, these schemes will be tested in practice by involving the target groups of the project and by assessing their suitability.

The Austrian Voucher Program in cooperation with everyone codes has successfully ended in June 2021 at Caritas Vienna. The basic program of the coding school in Vienna started in November 2020 and ended in March 2021 with 23 participants.

Das österreichische Voucherprogramm in Kooperation mit everyone codes ist bei Caritas Wien im Juni 2021 erfolgreich zu Ende gegangen. Das Basisprogramm der Programmierschule in Wien startete im November 2020 und endete im März 2021 mit 23 TeilnehmerInnen.

Within the framework of the Social Impact Voucher project, IFKA helped to organize 2 recruitment events for disadvantaged job-seekers in Nyírkáta and Tarpa, Eastern Hungary and supported the voucher-based recruitment and job placement of 21 jobseekers exposed to the threat of long-term unemployment.

Im Rahmen des Social Impact Voucher-Projekts half IFKA bei der Organisation von zwei Rekrutierungsveranstaltungen für benachteiligte Arbeitssuchende in Nyírkáta und Tarpa, Ostungarn, und unterstützte die gutscheinbasierte Rekrutierung und Arbeitsvermittlung von 21 Arbeitssuchenden, die von Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit bedroht sind.

INTERREG Central Europe - Did you know that long term unemployment in the EU is still above 2.5%? With the SIV project, we are discovering innovative mechanisms for solving social challenges with private capital. SIV (Social Impact Voucher) project, started in March 2019 and will last until February 2022, integrates 11 partners from 8 Central European countries. Their common idea is to transfer and test an inspiring experience from Germany, where a program for employing people from disadvantaged groups had been successfully invented. The whole idea worked there thanks to vouchers that literally changed (and have continued to change) lives. Thanks to them, job seekers from various disadvantaged groups have been able to find a job, earn an income and feel useful again.

INTERREG Central Europe - Wussten Sie, dass die Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit in der EU immer noch über 2,5 % liegt? Mit dem SIV-Projekt erforschen wir innovative Mechanismen, um soziale Herausforderungen mit privatem Kapital zu lösen. Das SIV (Social Impact Voucher)-Projekt, das im März 2019 begann und bis Februar 2022 laufen wird, umfasst 11 Partner aus 8 mitteleuropäischen Ländern. Ihre gemeinsame Idee ist es, eine inspirierende Erfahrung aus Deutschland zu übertragen und zu testen, wo ein Programm zur Beschäftigung von Menschen aus benachteiligten Gruppen erfolgreich erfunden wurde. Die ganze Idee funktionierte dort dank der Gutscheine, die buchstäblich Leben veränderten (und es weiterhin tun). Dank dieser Gutscheine konnten Arbeitssuchende aus verschiedenen benachteiligten Gruppen einen Arbeitsplatz finden, ein Einkommen erzielen und sich wieder nützlich fühlen.

One of the innovative tools applied within the voucher system in the Czech Republic is also the BEC method, thanks to which start-up entrepreneurs from disadvantaged groups can test their business.

The INNOFUND endowment fund will provide support for the employment of disadvantaged groups on the labour market in the Czech Republic.

Polish partners launched work. Her program that brings unemployed women, employers and future skills together in one – a social impact fund within Social Impact Vouchers project. They clue of the program is to make sure both employers and employees understand how rapidly the labor market is changing, and that future jobs we don’t even know yet, require lifelong learning from all of us in order to stay in the loop.

This September, the graduation ceremony for this year’s round of participants of the everyone codes “Java Advanced” course took place in the Millennium Tower in Vienna. After five months of hard work culminating in an intense 6-weeks project, the spectacular view over the Danube from the 36th floor provided the perfect backdrop to celebrate the participants’ successful completion of the program.

Since November 2021, five more women from Heilbronn (Germany) are part of the project ‘Job 'n Kids’. Mothers – quite often single mothers – are supported in order to fulfill their professional reorientation.

Seit November 2021 sind fünf weitere Frauen aus Heilbronn (Deutschland) Teil des Projekts 
Job ’n Kids. Oftmals alleinerziehende Mütter werden bei der beruflichen Neuorientierung unterstützt.

The Social Impact Vouchers project is coming to the finals! And while it could be time to review and evaluate the results, we still have a lot of work to do. In upcoming months, we need to complete and fine-tune the model of voucher programs so that they are viable even after the end of the project. We have an exciting year behind us, which has brought us a lot of experience, failures and successes, which is great, but how do we manage to make the idea of ​​the SIV project a reality in Slovakia?

Das Projekt der Social Impact Vouchers nähert sich dem Finale! Und obwohl es an der Zeit sein könnte, die Ergebnisse zu überprüfen und zu bewerten, haben wir noch viel Arbeit vor uns. In den kommenden Monaten müssen wir das Modell der Gutscheinprogramme vervollständigen und feinabstimmen, damit sie auch nach dem Ende des Projekts lebensfähig sind. Wir haben ein aufregendes Jahr hinter uns, das uns viele Erfahrungen, Misserfolge und Erfolge gebracht hat, was großartig ist, aber wie schaffen wir es, die Idee des SIV-Projekts in der Slowakei Wirklichkeit werden zu lassen?

On the 9th of December 2021 Google and the Slovenian Ministry of Digital Transformation have signed an agreement on the basis of which Google will invest 2.5 million euros in Slovenia in the next two years to help with digital transformation. The recipients of funds are the leading Slovenian research, educational and business institutions. One million euros of the whole investment will be allocated by Google.org to strengthen the Slovenian social entrepreneurship ecosystem. The funds are part of the new Google.org Social Innovation Fund in Europe, which supports the development of social entrepreneurship in Europe. Under this fund, grants were provided to Fund 05, our Slovenian partner in the Interreg SIV project.

What role can private donors play in the fight against unemployment? This question was the focus of the Policy & Practice Conference at WU Vienna on May 03, 2022. The conference marked the conclusion of the Interreg project "Social Impact Vouchers" (SIV). Within the framework of the project, eleven partners from eight Central European countries have developed voucher models for different vulnerable groups affected by unemployment over the last three years and tried to find private donors to participate in the funding. The conference served to present results and experiences and to reflect on them together with various experts.

Welche Rolle können private Geldgeber in der Bekämpfung von Arbeitslosigkeit spielen? Diese Frage stand im Zentrum der Policy und Practice Konferenz an der WU am 03. Mai 2022 zum Abschluss des Interreg Projekts „Social Impact Vouchers“ (SIV). Im Rahmen des Projekts haben elf Partner aus acht zentraleuropäischen Ländern in den letzten drei Jahren Gutscheinmodelle für verschiedene von Arbeitslosigkeit betroffene vulnerable Gruppen entwickelt und versucht, private Geldgeber zu finden, die sich an der Finanzierung beteiligen. Die Konferenz diente dazu, Ergebnisse und Erfahrungen zu präsentieren und gemeinsam mit verschiedenen Expertinnen und Experten darüber zu reflektieren.

From using innovative tools at labour market to creating a new format of privately as well as publicly financed incentives, SIV project activities are building a better future for everyone. In May 2022 four webinars were organised within the framework of the Interreg SIV project. Through our webinars more about our experiences gathered during the SIV project and on how to apply this for your own work was introduced.

Auf der slowenischen Woche im Rahmen des Vorsitz Sloweniens der EU-Ratspräsidentschaft wurde das SIV Projekt von Goran Jeras aus Kroatien im Vorfeld vorgestellt.

IFKA, as the Hungarian partner of the Social Impact Vouchers project, implemented its experimental voucher program between 1.2.2021 and 31.12.2021. The program targeted some of the most disadvantaged settlements on the action territory of the “Catching Up Communities Program” in Eastern Hungary. The experimental program has been implemented with the involvement and professional support of the TUTOR Foundation for Helping the Poor and the Sick as the external labour market service provider of the pilot.

Do not miss out on webinars series held within the framework of the Interreg SIV project in May 2022. Over the course of the next three weeks, you will learn through our webinars more about our experiences gathered during the SIV project and on how to apply this for your own work.

As a part of the Interreg CE project Social Impact Voucher (SIV), we established a transnational social impact fund - Next Access, which involves both private and institutional donors.

Im Rahmen des Interreg CE Projekts Social Impact Voucher (SIV) haben wir einen transnationalen Fonds für soziale Wirkungen – Next Access – eingerichtet, an dem sowohl private als auch institutionelle Geber beteiligt sind.