Creating sustainable impact through National Flagship Projects
JCI members all around the world are working hard in order to create true and sustainable impact. In fact, JCI is all about facilitating change by providing development opportunities, empowering young leaders and creating sustainable solutions. National Flagship Projects are projects that have sustainable solutions and positive impact at heart. This article takes a look at two European Flagship projects and the lasting impact they have created. By Nicole Borg
A National Flagship Project contributes to the JCI Mission and Vision, and involves JCI members and Local Organizations from across the National Organization. Through these projects JCI members are creating sustainable impact by finding targeted solutions to local issues that benefit our communities, our world and our future.
Friendly Business Awards, JCI Ireland
The Friendly Business Awards is a project that serves to honour businesses that demonstrate exceptional service across a wide range of categories including customer care, eco-friendliness and more. JCI Ireland 2020 National President - Ronan Neacy, explained that JCI Ireland opens up nominations for the public to submit a business to any category. Following this, a mystery shopping process is carried out to judge the nominees against specific criteria in each category. Local ceremonies are then hosted by the JCI Ireland branches to award the friendliest businesses in each area. Finally the local winners prevail to the national final where the top businesses in each category are awarded along with honouring "Ireland's Friendliest Business”. In contact with 500 businesses When asked why JCI Ireland felt the need to start such a project, Neacy explained how it was initiated by JCI Dublin as an opportunity for JCI Ireland to integrate into the Irish business community in a unique way. While the traditional business awards events generally honour innovation and entrepreneurship, the Friendly Business Awards recognises a crucial aspect of business: customer service. The Friendly Business Awards has been running yearly since 2007 and has so far helped JCI Ireland connect with around 500 different businesses throughout the years. Neacy explained how this project has helped JCI Ireland grow in a number of ways including in membership, partnerships, and in media exposure. “Firstly, our organization has grown in members through people joining from businesses and companies involved with this project. Secondly, our organization has increased its number of partners where partnerships have been formed with some of the nominated businesses and sponsors. The two largest banks in Ireland have sponsored the awards at different stages. Thirdly, this project has been featured extensively in both local and national media therefore increasing the exposure of JCI Ireland throughout the country. The awareness of what our organization does has enabled further growth,” remarked Neacy.
Digital Women at Work, JCI Turkey
Digital Women at Work is a project that targets women who want to become entrepreneurs by using social media. The purpose behind it is to inform women how to earn money digitally. The 2020 president of the turkish Local Organization JCI İzmir - Pınar Gürkan - explained how the goal is to inform and guide women with trainings on not only legal and economic aspects of starting a business, but also branding, marketing and social media usage. Their main aim is for women to achieve economic equality and improve themselves. When asked why such a project needed to be started in Turkey, Gürkan explained how labour and employment participation rates of women in Turkey are quite low. Therefore, they wanted to ensure that women were provided with an opportunity to become more equipped in the business world. She explained how they prepared Personal Branding and Digital Literacy training as a continuing education for women who have developed themselves in this field.
Six people have established a new business The project was started off in 2018. During its first round there were a total of 117 participants. In 2019, the project saw another 70 participants. Digital Women at Work has become the brand project of JCI Izmir. In just three years, they have collaborated with several stakeholders including Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Bornova Municipality, Ege University, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir Chamber of Commerce, Cromatica Adworks, and Elif Concept. Asked to measure the impact of the project, Gürkan said: “In 2018, 117 participants were accepted from 220 applications and 70 participants were accepted from 200 applications in 2019. A total of 5,000 people were reached through stakeholders, social media, press and organizations. The six participants that have followed the programme for two years have established their own business. We have gained more than 240 social media followers and six new active members.”
