Fostering the entrepreneurial capacities of street-sellers in Palermo, Italy and promoting a sustainable business model through the collaboration with the public administrations: the journey of Artigianato Interculturale.

Aiming at addressing the working conditions of street sellers in Palermo, with a particular focus on the ones with a migrant background, Artigianato Interculturale promoted the renewal of their business model in a sustainable, ethical and legal perspective.

In line with the MoreThanAJob journey, the initiative supported an improvement in establishing and strengthening the capacity of social enterprises and in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. These are identified in the MoreThanAJob framework among the social schemes to be enhanced and promoted in order to foster the capacities of welfare services and initiatives in supporting the social and labour inclusion of all and, in particular, of the vulnerable groups.

At the basis of the Artigianato Interculturale initiative there has been the development of entrepreneurial and handcraft competences among street sellers and anyone who would like to approach this job as a way to foster the production of creative and original goods. Selling these type of products raises the quality of the street sellers’ merchandise and open ups the possibility of increasing profit.

Three main actions allowed to work towards the achievement of these objectives:

• Supporting the growth of social entrepreneurship through the setting up of an orientation desk that allowed anyone accessing the orientation desk to have more information on the requirements to open a social enterprise.
• Enhancing the craft skills of street sellers by combining traditional and digital techniques for the production of handicraft goods. Participants to the Artigianato Interculturale gained basic skills in the use of new technologies such as the laser cutting and the CNC machines.
• Fostering the collaboration with the public administrations for the establishment of a Monitoring Committee on street selling labour leading to the development of a multilanguage set of guidelines for the setting up and renew of a street-selling business.

What next?

• Five among the participants to the training course have been involved in more advanced courses for the use of new technologies in the craft sector. Through these courses, CRESM provides them the opportunity to further enhance their skills opening up new possibilities of employment for them.
• An orientation desk is available at NoZ in continuity with the one realised for Artigianato Interculturale. The orientation desk remained active also after the project as part of following initiatives to give continuity to the support provided to the local communities in the field of social entrepreneurship and employment.

Artigianato Interculturale is one of the two initiatives sub-granted by MoreThanAJob in Italy and coordinated by CRESM - Centro Ricerche Economiche e Sociali per il Meridione.

To know more about the MoreThanAJob activities in Italy, send an email to giulia.tarantino@cesie.org.

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