November 9 was our 1st foundation anniversary. When we look back, what we have fit in 1 year. Despite the limited resources and the pandemic, what can be done whenever he wants …
Symbiosis Activity, ‘Symbiosis Activity’, as Turkey’s first social entrepreneurship center in Bursa was founded on November 9, 2019.
To summarize the main activities performed by the Symbiosis Activity:
-Social entrepreneurship ecosystem and capacity building activities,
-To increase the number of volunteer programs by establishing a volunteer commission
– Networking with national and international organizations to better understand and collaborate on social entrepreneurship
– Networking with universities, municipalities and other associations and foundations to create a local ecosystem
– Networking with other associations to cooperate in mentally disabled youth activities
In this context, if we open each subject,
1-Trainer and mentor training program for social entrepreneurship,
23 social entrepreneur trainers and mentors were trained in our region with the technical support project provided by BEBKA (Bursa Eskişehir Bilecik Development Agency) and the cooperation of Bursa Technical University.
2-Recreational activities of mentally disabled youth,
Workshop on orff music methodologies with university students and secondary schools with mental disabilities, barbecue party, New Year party, trade center bazaar with products made by disabled young people and their parents
3-Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) game nights “Play With Your Future”,
A board game tool was designed by Symbiosis Activity Center managers and volunteers to better understand the SKA goals with their sub goals. In this game, the players are divided into teams and each team receives a card and discusses local issues related to each SKA. Selects a solution card, defines its impact and its KPI to measure this effect. He develops his ideas in collaboration with other teams and internalizes social inclusion during the game.
4-ITU Çekirdek incubee (prestigious venture incubation for seed-level initiatives organized by Istanbul Technical University), a comprehensive benchmark study was carried out to network with angel investors and start work with mentors.
5- Participation in international online hackathons and mentoring support was provided in Coronathon, Hack the Crisis, EUsVersusVirus, Hack the Break and Covid-19 Hackathon organized by different social program owners.
6- Training was given on SKA and social entrepreneurship at the “Bambu Online Summer Festival”.
Bamboo Volunteer Education Platform is an educational platform that provides live, one-on-one and free education support to students whose socioeconomic status is not suitable. As Symbiosis Activity, we provided free social entrepreneurship and SKA awareness training to young people between the ages of 14-17 at the online summer festival held on the Bamboo Volunteer Training Platform.
7-Social entrepreneurship talks on social media
create awareness about social entrepreneurship and to motivate the audience to be part of the social initiatives of my instagram with 20 social entrepreneurs from all over Turkey and Symbiosis Activity We conducted interviews in 20 different YouTube channel.
8-Design-oriented thinking training and Hackathon about home problems experienced during the quarantine process due to Covid-19
Design Thinking training was given on the first day of the 3-day training and hackathon. The teams trained on the 2nd day worked with their projects related to the problems they experienced at home during the pandemic process and received mentoring services. Presentations were made and an award ceremony was held on the last day. A total of 1 instructor, 5 mentors and 16 students, social entrepreneurs and disabled families attended.
9- Disability Week webinar series focusing on the different problems faced by mentally disabled children and their parents on the Youtube channel. / Different experts from the university, associations became speakers
10-Healtech Health Innovation Digital Platform Mentoring
We have formed partnerships with Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul Aydın University and Metropolis Health Sciences University on the Innovation in Health Program and Digital Platform. The first event was a hackathon and we mentored 4 teams and rewarded 5 teams in the final jury to become our incubation entrepreneurs in our social online incubation program.
11-Musicist Nature Festival Sponsorship
We bring mentally disabled young people and their parents together at the Nature Music Festival organized by the Musicians Association and collaborated to increase their visibility on social media.
12-Knitting workshop with rural women
In cooperation with 19 women’s empowerment associations, 65 women from different rural villages of Bursa were trained in our Symbiosis Activity Center on the production and export of dolls.
13-We organized a textile workshop with the R&D staff of the institution and mentally disabled young people in cooperation with a large textile industry company to develop corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Bursa.
14- We provided project management training to university students with the Sea Star Project, the Organization for Supporting Contemporary Life.
15- We received a Technical Support Grant for the trainers and mentors training program of Bursa Eskişehir Bilecik Development Agency (BEBKA).
16-We partnered with Istanbul Development Agency (ISTKA), Healtech Health Innovation grant program.
17-İTÜ Çekirdek (prestigious venture incubation for seed level initiatives organized by Istanbul Technical University) express incubation entrepreneur.
18- Digital transformation, AR / VR, Arduino, mathlab, philosophy for children, philosophy for adults, volunteering, eco-printing, effective speaking techniques, maker movement, yoga, dance, intelligence games, orff music training, e-kpss preparation trainings, amigurimi , needle knitting baby workshops.
19- We established a library of 602 books with donations and created a loan system with software developed by our volunteers.
20- Signature day and interview with the author of Capitalism 2.0 and Social Entrepreneurship
21- We held regular reading activities with 2 separate group book club members before Covid 19, and our online book reading club continues to read and share.
We had interviews with a total of 300 people on social entrepreneurship, UN sustainability objectives, the disabled problem and architectural solutions during the entrepreneurship days at 8 universities in the eastern black sea for 2 weeks. We gave speeches on the same subjects in entrepreneurship chats at BTU twice. We spoke at events such as Uni4society, ENET, Bidestekol, GDG WTM, UÜ student societies, BEBKA Social Entrepreneurship webinar.
23- We gave social entrepreneurship training to 60 people in total for 2 weeks 3 times. We provided design-oriented thinking training to 35 people in total 3 times, and we gave project management cycle training to 20 people in total.
24- Our volunteer group supported mask production networks for healthcare workers in the pandemic with 3D printing; We produced a prosthetic arm with Robtel project for a 12-year-old girl who was born without two arms. We also produced aircraft wings for the technofest competition for university students and used our printer for their homework.
25- We provided 54 hours of entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, digital marketing, brand design, pitch desk, design-oriented thinking, strategic management, legal processes and business establishment training to our incubation entrepreneurs.
26- We gave applied mentoring training in 5 groups for 6 hours each to our 45-person incubation mentors.
27- We gave leadership training to UU students as an elective course.
28-BTÜ C-Arf autonomous arç group and our young people with special needs shared what they have realized mutually in a joint sharing event, and we realized an experience day.
29- We prepared a total of 15 social benefit-focused project files and applied to different institutions.
30- In the last two months, we have recruited 3 young people with special needs in total.
31- Through our Simbiyoz Store e-commerce site, we offered the products of institutions focused on social benefits.
32- We contributed to earning income by promoting the handicrafts of our volunteers by exhibiting them at Kermes.
33- We worked for Fongogo cansuyu project and for donations that will contribute to our association with virtual greeting cards for special occasions.
34- We recently implemented our “Healthy body, conscious sexuality” project with mentally disabled young people and their parents and university students in cooperation with the BTU Community Volunteers student community with voluntary psychotherapists, medical doctors and sexual therapists.
35- Within the scope of the global entrepreneurship week and within the scope of 25 November 12 December activism days, we realized many activities that address the issue of disability, volunteering and social entrepreneurship from different angles with our ecosystem stakeholders, volunteers and supporters.
In the new period
36- With the support of Turkish Employment Agency, we will work on a project that will create employment for individuals with special needs.
37- BursaTTO- Yıldırım Municipality and Symbiosis Activity are working jointly by including our partners from abroad to implement projects that will strengthen women in rural areas.
38- We will continue our sharing activities with our mentors every 15 days.
39- We design shared projects with the Mukhtars group.
40- We take part in working groups on women’s cooperatives with the employees of the women’s empowerment department of the provincial directorate of social services.
40- E-volunteer, BiDestekol, We Care, Open Joon, Pin Going, Pulsec, Iki Kitap Publishing House, International Social Benefit Association and social initiatives, and within the scope of the NDİ project, we will collaborate with local administrations and associations and Ulusem.
41- The feasibility studies and land search for the 1st phase of our Life Village Project, where our disabled youth will sustain their lives by being self-sufficient after their families pass away, continue.
41 times mashallah! We would like to thank our stakeholders, supporters, association members and volunteers who took part in all these studies. We are sprouting together!