Empowering Women through Creativity and Sustainable Development

"<< Background >>OTBT Project partners have applied for this project to empower and improve the employability of adult women (30+ years) who are at risk of losing or have lost their jobs and incomes due to the Covid-19 by exploring the cross innovation between tourism, sustainable development, and creativity. By building on informal learning and mentoring, OTBT Project has addressed the following needs: promoting networking; inspiring and fostering empathy among women of different backgrounds, ages, geographies and cultures; empowering and inspiring the most vulnerable and disadvantaged women through changemakers life and work in order to better face uncertainties about their future; motivating women in engaging in sustainable development through creativity, problem solving and resilience, along with enhanced digital competence; co-creating and further managing a digital forward-looking learning Academy, as a women community and hub of resources, information, tools and contacts for skilled females who commit and work together to other projects, including new social enterprises, to advance long-term goals and drive long-term change related to sustainable development and creative and inclusive urban regeneration of European destinations.<< Objectives >>OTBT challenges women to take up a transformative journey at their home and across Europe by investing in their empowerment and co-creating opportunities for their career and improving their life-work balance. Women involved have been encouraged to contribute to support local economies thanks to their ideas and sustainable choices through peer-mentoring, informal learning, and substantial deployment of digital tools helpful to foster communication, promotion, storytelling, and networking which have been achieved by defining an ad hoc project novel methodology, by assembling a facilitator handbook, by facilitating a microlearning programme in the different partner countries, by being inspired and inspiring by female changemakers, by building a self-assessment tool; by organizing mentoring circles. The main OTBT Project objective strives to achieve a long-term hub and community for women working in tourism and CCSs or interested to make a career in these fields, whether they want to access networking and learning opportunities, testing out a business idea to be further crowdfunded, or co-develop a new collaborative project by accessing EU/regional/national funds.<< Implementation >>OTBT project has implemented the following activities:PR1. 3 one-day virtual Focus groups including women, artists, creatives, tourism operators, and other relevant stakeholders at the local/national level, organized in November 2022 to validate improvements in the mentoring circle methodology.PR2. Local Mentoring Circles held in each partner’s country in April-May 2023, and an European Mentoring Circle (EMC) in Italy in November 2023, to explore ideas and share experiences. Out of 92 applicants,10 persons have been selected and completed the self-assessment tool while women Changemakers have been identified to support participants in their entrepreneurial ideas.In the EMC, recommendation for policymakers have been identified as the baseline of the ""Hack For Stay"" Hackathon held online on 13th December 2023.PR3. A dynamic and freely accessible online platform designed to foster a sense of community among women across Europe characterized by personal profiles, discussion forums, and national and international networking and information-sharing groups, has been carried out.Finally, multiplier events have been carried out in all the partner countries to show project results and gathering feedback to boost the project opportunities<< Results >>Major outcomes that OTBT strives to achieve is setting up a long-term hub for women working in tourism and CCSs or interested to make a career in these fields, whether they want to access networking and learning opportunities, testing out a business idea to be further crowdfunded, or co-develop a new collaborative project by accessing EU/regional/national funds. Partners will commit to the development of a business plan that will help them create a spin-off (association or a social enterprise) after the project ends and beyond the Erasmus+ financial contribution. The new organization shall be strategically and financially viable, attractive and worth the effort for women and funders, and sustainable in the mid to long run. OTBT aims at resulting in a transdisciplinary and participated approach to engaging disadvantaged women with some of the global challenges of our time, and develop their transversal and digital skills in a way that is enticing, inspiring and immersive."