Commitment that makes waves: ‘Heroes of the Homeland’ festival day for social entrepreneurship

How does a sense of home come about? For those taking part in the ‘Heroes of Upper Franconia’ festival day, the answer is: through people who take responsibility and play an active role in shaping their local community. In the Don Bosco circus tent run by the Bamberg Youth Organisation, numerous initiatives presented their projects and engaged in conversation with visitors.

The Adalbert Raps Foundation’s “Heroes of the Home” programme promotes civic engagement in Upper Franconia and highlights its social impact. Since 1948, the foundation has been supporting people and organisations that develop and implement ideas for their local communities. The awards were decided by a jury comprising Prof. Gisa Stich, Simone Famulla, Frank Kühne, Prof. Eva Jakob and Wolfgang Mehrer. In his welcoming address, entrepreneur Frank Kühne emphasised the importance of voluntary work for the region: “Home is what you feel. Commitment changes home. Here in this marquee, something new and unique is taking shape.”

There is a special link with the University of Bayreuth through the Junior Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship, which forms part of the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. The team led by Prof. Eva Jakob is responsible for the academic aspects of the project and supports the participating organisations through workshops, coaching sessions and the further development of their ideas. The ten selected ‘Hero’ teams were supported over a 10-month period, and three further teams were selected during the festival evening for a second funding phase. The aim is to strengthen social participation in Upper Franconia through entrepreneurial and innovative approaches and to achieve a lasting impact. The aim is to strengthen social participation in Upper Franconia and to achieve a lasting impact. “The ‘Helden’ projects demonstrate just how much innovative and practical drive there is in our region. Bringing together doers who tackle social challenges through their initiatives and try out new approaches to help these initiatives grow creates the conditions for good ideas to have a long-term impact,” said Prof. Eva Jakob.

Among the initiatives presented was the e-sports community, which has its roots at the University of Bayreuth. The group was founded in 2014 as a university society and has been organised as a registered association since 2021. Presented by Luisa Meinlschmidt and Anton Rupprecht, the project demonstrated how digital leisure activities can bring people together. With its focus on accessibility and community, the association helps to combat social isolation and creates low-threshold meeting spaces for a variety of target groups.

The jury selected the Bayreuth-based association Team Bananenflanke – which organises football activities for children and young people with intellectual disabilities – the ASB Coburg rescue dog unit, and the Geschwister-Gummi Foundation with its DoMiNo project, a mentoring programme for children of parents with mental health conditions, as the winning teams. The three winning teams will now receive a further year of intensive support from the Junior Professorship for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Bayreuth, as well as an unconditional ‘Heroes’ Grant’ of 15,000 euros each from the Adalbert Raps Foundation. This will enable them to further develop their projects and expand their social impact in Upper Franconia. The awards served as a striking demonstration of just how diverse and effective voluntary work is in the region.

Congratulations to the winning teams; we wish all participating initiatives continued success, and a heartfelt thank you to the Adalbert Raps Foundation for making this special programme possible.