The Foundation for partnership and civil society development held the first Virtual school of social innovation. The school held online for ten days from 5th to 16th of October 2020

The virtual school of social innovations is the first pilot activity of the Regional Center for Social Innovation – “ReCeD’Istria”, whose interactive web platform will be published at the end of the year. The ReCeD’Istria platform will bring together information and news from various fields to help develop social innovation and social entrepreneurship that will contribute to solving problems in society.

The first theme of the virtual school was “Local Philanthropy – an Opportunity for Innovation and employment”. The possibility and potential that Pula has as a city in its philanthropic story goes beyond those basic socially responsible and charitable notions. Pula has a great philanthropic story that has big cultural and tourist potential. This potential can be used to raise funds and raise awareness of the importance of charity and solidarity, but through its philanthropic story, creates a foundation for future generations for socially responsible behavior and living.

The Virtual school of social innovation gathered 33 registered persons assembled into teams of 3 people. Teams developed a business model of a new social enterprise with the help of mentors – experts in the field of social entrepreneurship, marketing and branding, history, and storytelling. It was an ideal opportunity to gain experience and collaborate with leading experts in these fields.

The Virtual school of social innovations ended with the final presentations of the elaborated ideas – 5 in total. The ideas were scored by the commission composed of the following experts: Teo Petričević (ACT Grupa), Muamer Mujević (Iconis Agency), Kristina Afrić-Rakitovac (FET Dr. Mijo Mirković), Manuela Hrvatin (Interpret Europe), Sanja Cinkopan Korotaj (Tourist Office Pula), Andrej Bader (historian), Ranko Rajović (NTC) and Helga Možé (The Foundation Istria).

The best idea named„Feel good house” were elaborated by Sandra Domijanić Dravec, Darija ČelićTrajčeski, Aleksandra Paić, and Marko Bolković. Sandra, Darija, Aleksandra andMarko are individuals, experts in different fields with different backgroundsthat did not know each other until the participation at the Virtual school. Their idea is to create a multimediaexhibition of the history of Philanthropy in Pula, open a shop, coffee bar,start storytelling tours, launch 3D projections in philanthropic locations, andmuch more that you will know about soon. The next step is to realize the ideawith the help of the winning team members. Stay tuned!

The Regional Centre for Social Innovations – ReCeD’Istria is a pilot project implemented as part of the + Resilient project, Interreg Mediterranean program 2014 – 2020, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and co-financed by the Office of the Republic of Croatia – Office for Cooperation with the NGOs. 8 Mediterranean countries and 14 partners are participating in the project.