Digital Entrepreneurship Through Empathy (DESTEM)
Information
Project Name: Digital Entrepreneurship Through Empathy (DESTEM)
Project Number: 2023-1-PL01-KA153-YOU-000115705
Duration of the program: 01/08/2023 – 31/07/2024, duration 12 months
Duration of the activity: 6th to 13th of May 2024 including travelling days
Activity: Training in Poland of 36 youth workers (4 youth workers from each organization)
Accommodation: BOLKO OSRODEK TURYSTYCZNY, Kotlina Kłodzka, Area of Klodzko, https://osrodekbolko.pl/
Applicant Organisation: Stowarzyszenie "OPEN SOUL" (Poland). Contact person: Agata Lech, email: agata@lemach.pl, Magdalena Szewczyk: m.szewczyk@salez-wroc.pl
Coordinating Organisation: Active Cypriot Programs and European Learning Into Acceptance, ACPELIA, email: acpeliacy@gmail.com, www.acpelia.org
Management team: Nikolas Nikolaou: nicckolas44@gmail.com, Evangelia Nikolaou email: evangelia.nikolaou@outlook.com.
Trainers: Kyriakos Stouppas, Evangelia Nikolaou

Description of the Project DIGETEM
"Digital EnterpreneurShip Through EMpathy (DESTEM)" is an initiative that focuses on digital enterprise, empathy, innovation, and social inclusion. According to Ronald Alston (2016), empathy is the most important factor for digital transformation as it is directly related to increasing the user experience. Therefore, we incorporate the element of empathy into all our activities to encourage young adults to be more innovative, empathetic, and critical while working with digital tools. Participants will learn how to put themselves in the shoes of their potential consumers through exercises such as the empathy map, recognizing that digital transformation begins with digital entrepreneurship.
Objectives of the Project:
Our project's major objectives are the education and skill-building of youth workers, young people and partners' local societies and countries on Digital Entrepreneurship and humanitarian values. In particular, this project is an attempt to accomplish the following objectives:
- Evaluate the ways by which we understand and empathize with others.
- Examine how empathy is directly linked to confidence and self-understanding.
- Encourage people to base their evaluation of others on empathetic understanding.
- Upskilling Paths in Digital Entrepreneurship.
- Develop digital competencies.
- Determine the extent to which empathy plays a role in the consumer experience.
Needs of the Project:
Around ten years ago, digital transformation and the Human-Centered Workplace began to interact. They have gradually become entangled in a symbiotic embrace, and the world of work will never be the same. Due to Covid-19, the digital workspace has risen to prominence, and as time passes, an increasing number of skills are required. Regrettably, Covid 19, along with the strengthening of the digital workspace, hurt everyone's mental health. IPC measures such as isolation and lockdown have impacted people directly through distress and anxiety but also indirectly through debt, unemployment, and impoverishment.
Individuals should learn to cope not only through advanced digital skills but also through empathy and humanities in general. Considering all the above, we address the following core needs:
- There is a need to increase digital skills and enterprise.
- Young adults must learn to empathise with others, starting by being empathetic to themselves.