New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Project category

Identify the award category for which this project is being submitted
Prioritising the places and people that need it the most

Email user
nerdzis@gmail.com

Basic information
Project title
Muharem Berbics Friends Club

Full Project Title
Muharem Berbics Friends Club in Kakanj Municipality

Please provide a short, catchy description of your project to be used in communication towards the public.
Muharem Berbics Friends Club in Kakanj Municipality is a project of the Foundation Muharem Berbic which adapted and preserved industrial cultural heritage, built in 1936, with the aim of establishing a social business where people with disabilities get the opportunity to work. This is a socially inclusive project which promotes equality, equity, and anti-discrimination. This project is in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region first of this type. Currently, there are employed 5 people.

What was the geographical scope of your project?
Local

Where was your project implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Bosnia and Herzegovina

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Kakanj Municipality; Zenica-Doboj Canton

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?
It addresses urban-rural linkages

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your project benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your project won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Is your project fully completed
Yes

Please indicate a date (mm/yy)
2022-10-15

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): Foundation Muharem Berbic
  Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation
  First name of representative: Nerdzis
  Last name of representative: Caplja
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Function: Project Manager
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Nikole Kasikovica 7
  Town: Sarajevo
  Postal code: 71000
  Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Direct Tel: +387 63 123 412
  E-mail: nerdzis@gmail.com
  Website: https://fmb.foundation/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://hr-hr.facebook.com/FondacijaMuharemBerbic/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #klubprijateljaFMB #fondacijamuharemberbic
- Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #fondacijamuharemberbic #klubprijateljafmb
In case my project is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my project in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
friend shared me an information

Description of the project
Please provide a summary of your project.
The project is about enabling people with disabilities (PwD) to work and to be socially included in their society. Also, the project is about the preservation of the industrial heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina into social business. Through this project, during the past 3 years, we adapted an old industrial building from 1936 into the space of a coffee shop, multi-functional hall, and workshop area. We employed 5 people from Kakanj Municipality, and we established connections with local government bodies, organizations - NGOs, and businesses. We implemented social business models into our business, and now we have good cooperation with women from rural areas who are making catering and cookies for our Club which we buy and then sell for another price. In that, we way we are promoting the models of circular economy and sustainability. During the past year, 2022, we started the program role of people with disabilities as Ambassadors of protected areas and through that program, we developed the way how people with disabilities could help to protect the environment and how they could be enrolled in promoting eco-friendly behavior. Currently, we are creating a new program for PwD for their leadership in local communities in terms of establishing and leading their businesses in the field of culture and creativity.

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words.
preservation of cultural-industrial heritage

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
social inclusion

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
people with disabilities

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
local growth

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
social business

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Sustainability in the context of Foundation Muharem Berbic's Friends Club has been met in two ways: the first way is that we opened a social business through which we make a profit (coffee ship, multifunctional hall, workshop hall). We use the total profit for the salaries of our employed people with disabilities - currently, we have 5 people employed on contract, their needs for jobs, etc. Another way how we achieve sustainability is through the engagement of the community, especially women from the rural areas from which we are buying the products such as cakes, natural juices, catering food, and similar which are then served in our coffee shop for our customers. Our key objective is to be sustainable as much as we can, so in the future development of our Friends Club on a long-term path we are planning to provide also through ecological and energy efficiency levels.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Firstly, there is aesthetic value in the term of the preservation of industrial-cultural heritage from 1936. Secondly, in terms of quality of experience for people, there is the opportunity for the community to get to know their PwD and to be served by them. To see them in a whole new way as a capable part of their community. Also, there is value in the term of giving the hope and opportunity for PwD to dream and to realize their dreams into reality through the opportunity of working, and self-actualization.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
This project is wholly about social inclusion. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is about 300 000 PwD and we don't have well-established practices for employing them. So the Club is an ideal place where they have the opportunity to work and where they have the opportunity to grow. Also, because we have good cooperation with women from rural areas in terms of helping their economic stability by buying their products, we promote their social inclusion.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project
Benefits for citizens are multiple: firstly they have the opportunity to see that disabled people can be capable of work and procreation. The parents of people with disabilities have hope that their children will get the opportunity for social inclusion in their local communities and also for economic independence. there is also value in including women and other marginalized communities from Bosnia and Herzegovina in this concept and program of the Club. And last, but not least, there is the value of social business models and components that can be replicated into the other local communities.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the project. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was.
In this project, there are engaged Bosnia and Herzegovinian invested more than 150 000 EUR into the adaptation and sanation of the cultural heritage object. They are in their life businessmen/women who lead a different types of businesses in Europe and Asia. On national level, this object is gifted for use by Federal Ministry to the Municipality Kakanj, and Municipality Kakanj give it to us, to non-governmental organisation for management. Kakanj Municipality now is giving part of its annual budget to the implementation of the programs of the Club on a yearly level. The added value of their engagement is that they are informed about our good practices, that they have the opportunity to advise us, and that they can share these good practices with other communities through political campaigns.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your project. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was.
Cultural studies and cultural heritage studies - the value of the mentioned object - industrial heritage, or Old Mine Direction, couldn't be recognized without knowledge from these two fields.
Culture and gender - without knowledge from these fields we will never understand the importance of the social inclusion of people with disabilities, women, and the need for equity and equality in our society.
Social economy - knowledge from this field helped us to create our business model and to implement it in the Bosnian and Herzegovina cultural context.

Please give information on the results, outcomes and impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for. This includes also benefits from the project for direct and indirect beneficiaries
The main results are adapted cultural heritage - industrial heritage, or Old Mine Direction Building and its conversion into the social business which employed PwD. The main impact is multiple and we see that this building isn't demolished, but it is repaired and in that way protected for the next generations. So, cultural value is protected in that way. This is the first of this type of project in B&H and has an impact also on social inclusion, economic growth, and stability for a marginalized group of people, especially PwD, and environment protection.

Please provide documents showing the results, outcomes and impacts of your project
Both
PDF
- pdf-1-1728.pdf
Web link
- https://balkans.aljazeera.net/videos/2022/10/25/klub-prijatelja-u-kaknju-zaposljava-osobe-s-invaliditetom
Please highlight the innovative character of the project, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the project
Innovation is in the mainstreaming the business development by people with disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina context. That is something that doesn't exist in our community and the value plus is that business development is in the fields of the knowledge-based sector, cultural and creative industries, and IT sector. Value more is that all businesses that will be developed will pass Eco-friendly parameters that we developed with a team of professors for this occasion.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your project.
We've been using the BSC tool - developed Caplan version for data collection and for writing the project analysis. That tool provides us multi-perspective approach including the environmental perspective. BSC tool is a strategic management tool that is mostly used for creating strategic plans and programs, and we used this tool because we saw the opportunity for the development of this project in the future for at least the next 15 years. We know that in 2036 this object will be officially declared as an industrial heritage (for UNESCO parameters) so we plan to apply for UNESCO protection for this object. This tool provides us with information about opportunities for adding value to our project.

Please describe which elements of your project could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and context. This may involve for example aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings etc.
Every part of our project could be replicated and transferred to other local communities. Where ever we have industrial heritage, there is an opportunity for its re-innovation, as long as people with disabilities exist, there is the opportunity for creating job places for them for their inclusion, and where ever is a local community with other types of cultural and natural heritage, there is opportunity to include people with disabilities in process of protecting it.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addresses by providing local solutions
The global challenge is that people with disabilities are marginalized and that they represent one type of work power that is not used in our world. They are mostly excluded and social-economically dependent. Secondly, in the whole world, we have legacies of industrialization such as buildings, and material and non-material heritage. All of this could be in a creative way innovated and put into service of the people of the local communities. This is also an ecological way of caring for heritage.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images (or other types of visual representations, if images are not possible) to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the project and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their projects, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted project, is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes