Social Impact Awards 2020 to be Held Online
Impact Hub Tbilisi, with the support of the Bank of Georgia and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), launches an international student program called the Social Impact Award. Given the current situation, the program has been fully re-launched online and expanded to various regions of Georgia.
The Social Impact Award 2020 consists of several occasions and includes a series of online workshops for young people living in Tbilisi, Kvemo Kartli, Racha-Lechkhumi-Kvemo Svaneti, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Guria, Adjara, and Imereti.
In the second stage of the program, the finalist teams selected by the jury will undergo a two-month incubation period, where they will hold a business model, make business plans, and prepare to be presented before the jury with the help of individual mentors.
At the last stage of the program, the winning teams will be revealed. They will receive financial assistance in order to implement their business ideas. In addition, the winners will take part in the Social Impact Award International Summit.
The Social Impact Award within the field of Social Entrepreneurship is the largest youth program implemented in 25 countries. It is oriented on educational courses for students within the frameworks of social entrepreneurship. The program offers young people a ten-months educational course to implement their own business ideas. During the program, students go through the whole process from generating an idea to drawing up a business plan, which gives them the opportunity to actually start a social business.
Impact Hub Tbilisi received a license to host the Social Impact Award in 2017 and has been giving young people the opportunity to start a social business since then. During this time, a total of 500+ students from different regions of Georgia participated in the program; About 60 young people underwent incubation and 9 winning teams were revealed. All projects respond to current social problems and offer innovative ways to solve them.
"We have a different format this year, we have decided to adjust to the reality and host the program virtually. In addition, we have very good news in terms of strengthening the regions. If the program gave only 6 finalist teams the opportunity to go through the incubation period and only Tbilisi teams met in these six, this year, with the support of the UN Development Program, 4 additional teams from the regions will be given a chance to go through incubation and work with mentors.", stated Co-founder of Impact Hub Tbilisi, Elma Keti Ebanoidze.
"Social entrepreneurship and business promotion are one of the main directions for the Bank of Georgia and we are glad that the interest in the program is growing year to year. This year's program has become even more interesting as the number of regions has increased and the program has completely shifted to a new reality, giving young people even more opportunities to see new challenges, helping them set new goals and ideas and gain practical experience, ”, noted the Bank of Georgia.
The project is being implemented for the second year in a row with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC).