News

The “Association for Protection of Rights and Assistance to People with Disabilities “Open Hearts” NGO, which is implementing the project “Creating inclusive conditions for employment of young people with severe disabilities based on Social Workshops’ greenhouse business” in the framework of PLEDDG ’s SME Support Fund, have equipped a greenhouse in the territory of Social Workshops in Dorozhne village of Vinnytsia region.

The call for proposals for funding from PLEDDG SME Support Fund is now closed. All submitted proposals are now being processed. An update on the next grant cycle will be communicated through PLEDDG website and PLEDDG’s official pages on Facebook and Twitter.

On May 15, 2019, Kyiv hosted an annual PLEDDG Project Steering Committee Meeting. At the meeting a PLEDDG Project progress report for 2018-2019 was discussed and an Annual Work Plan for 2019-2020 was presented and approved.

On April 12, 2019, in Ivano-Frankivsk a studio of the Creative Women Start-up Accelerator was officially opened. The event was attended by partners and potential investors. Iryna Vandych, Regional Coordinator of PLEDDG in Ivano-Frankivsk, spoke on behalf of PLEDDG.

One of the PLEDDG objectives in the framework of the component “Support of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Development” is to promote commercialization of academia scientific research results by building partnerships with businesses. Academic entrepreneurship is a way to shape a contemporary model of university education and a mechanism of activation of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship development through transfer of innovations and technologies into various sectors of economy and public life.

On March 12-13th, 2019, as part of PLEDDG Project, the international conference “Ukraine’s Place in the World: Municipal Marketing and Branding” took place in Kyiv, Ukraine. In the course of the two-day’s conference, both theoretical and practical aspects of municipal marketing and branding were discussed. The conference brought together representatives of Ukrainian central executive bodies, local governance bodies, NGOs, and Ukrainian and foreign experts.

On February 19, 2019, PLEDDG Project and Ukrainian open online course provider, EdEra, launched an online course «Social Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness», which is a part of «The School of Competitiveness of Small Business». The abovementioned online course introduces students to social entrepreneurship, explains the main differences between social and traditional enterprises, deals with various social enterprise business models etc.

On February 8, 2019, Poltava hosted a kick-off meeting of social entrepreneurs from all over Ukraine. The event was organized by “Light of Hope” charity organization in cooperation with PLEDDG Project. The objective of the meeting was to join efforts of Ukrainian social enterprises for the sharing of experience, fundraising, and social entrepreneurship development in Ukraine.

On February 1-2, Vinnytsia welcomed the first kick-off meeting of the All-Ukrainian Platform “Women in Business”. The event was organized by Vinnytsia Club of Business People with financial support from PLEDDG Project in the framework of the PLEDDG Fund for Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises.

On January 26, 2019, Kyiv hosted a ceremony to award winners of the Crystal of the Year Budget Transparency Rating. It was the first ceremony in Ukraine to award the cities and amalgamated territorial communities that had shown the utmost budgeting process openness, transparency, and innovativeness rates.