On October 10, the first Cross-Border Event of the SOFIGREEN project’s training program will take place in Messina. The event, which can also be attended online, will be held in an area once occupied by one of the city’s historic shantytowns, which the Fondazione MeSSInA has redeveloped into a Community Hub built with eco-friendly materials and surrounded by a garden. Within this space, there are five single-story housing units, forming a kind of solidarity condominium, along with a social library and a family space where educational and cultural projects are developed for the local families.

For Social Green Enterprises

The event will involve the 96 social economy enterprises selected by the project partners in Italy, France, and Spain and marks the third event in the project’s training calendar, which includes a total of 44 hours of training, divided into 10 sessions from September to January 2025. Through this program, SOFIGREEN supports social green enterprises in drafting investment plans for their environmental and social transition and then assists them in presenting these plans to potential investors. The ultimate goal is to facilitate access to funding for participants. Additionally, those who attend at least 80% of the sessions will be eligible to apply for a grant ranging from €6,000 to €9,000.

The Cross-Border Event will last four hours, starting at 9:30 AM, and will be structured into three main segments.

The Plenary Session: Speeches and Best Practices

The opening session will be conducted by experts Valentina Radetic and Alice Casiraghi. Valentina Radetic has worked with Up2You since its inception. Up2You provides consulting services and develops technologies to help businesses become autonomous on their path to sustainability. Alice Casiraghi, co-founder of Forest Valley, an organization that facilitates sustainable innovation through systemic design and eco-design, brings extensive experience in guiding companies towards circular and sustainable business models.

This will be followed by the presentation of three best practices—one from Italy, one from France, and one from Spain—featuring social economy enterprises that have successfully transitioned to “green” business models. For Italy, for example, the story of Ecos-Med was chosen. This social cooperative focused on employment inclusion is launching a new branch of activities with the creation of a factory to produce new, fully green bioplastics from beer production waste, benefiting from the LIFE RESTART project, co-financed by the EU under the LIFE program and coordinated by Fondazione MeSSInA.

Group Activities

The Cross-Border Event will conclude with group activities divided by nationality: participants will discuss the topics and insights from the presentations and develop practical exercises based on them.

Interpretation services will be available during the event to facilitate understanding of the presentations and dialogue among participants of different nationalities.

Following the Italian event, the next Cross-Border Event will take place on October 29 and will be organized in Spain by the partner FAECTA. During this second event, the focus will be on fundraising, especially through the design of European project proposals.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.