In 2019, Asylum Protection Center (APC) launched a social entrepreneurship initiative called “Utočište”, aiming to promote refugees and host communities’ social cohesion and economic empowerment in Serbia. The idea is to provide vulnerable mothers, women, and youth with the opportunities to learn more about refugees and the local environment’s cultures, gain employment skills, and simultaneously integrate into country’s workforce and wider local community. “Utočište” also assists, that broader community learns about refugees in general and also about how host community and refugees can work together and achieve enterpreneurship’s success. Next step is to involve even more local businesses within the value chain of ,,Utočište’’, so earlier can make profit and overal contribute to the long-term development of social entrepreneurship in Serbia.

Since the launch of ‘’Utočište’’, later helped number of refugees and members of host community to acquire skills in food preparation, dessert making, bakery/pastry shop’s organization, sales and overall finding a job in hospitality, starting food production businesses, or either securing an employment within “Utočište”. Domestic or local companies have also gained contracts to supply pastries ingredients to “Utočište,” thereby through our social enterprenurship’s work, we are happy to say, that we are assisting broader local economy development and refugees’ integration within it.

After 5 years of ‘’Utočište’’ operations, APC can now say that our social entrepreneurship business model has passed market tests and that it is now slowly becoming sustainable. We built up on our excellent capabilities and now can deliver trainings, introduce both refugees and host community’s members to the production, sales and other areas of work within our business. Overall, APC learned how to set production and manage its social enterprise. Our business idea is to develop partnerships with restaurants, hotels, businesses, while sharing our experiences with local communities and also supporting similar initiatives across the Western Balkans. We would like to achieve wider social impact, share our acquired ‘’know-how’’ skills, replicate our social enterpreneurship model and assist financial sustainability of local organizations, assisting refugees’ integrations within Serbia, region and beyond.

“Bakery can help refugees to integrate, socialize with colleagues form Serbia and earlier also provides an opportunity for refugees to learn business and to start thinking about launching their own enterprises.” – Young refugee from Syria employed in ‘’Utočište’’ social bakery.

Although, we plan to share acquired knowledge and experience mainly in Serbia, we exchanged skill sets and work experience and with the organization from the Africa’s continent. Through the exchange of the best practices, trainings, APC would like to contribute to the built up of technical and social skills mainly in Serbia and on the local level, enabling this way refugees’ acquisition of necessary job skills and integration within local communities. Obtaining technical and social skills, along with development of the local economy, conditions any type of successful refugees’ integration and inclusion. APC remains committed to supporting refugees and local communities’ employment through social entrepreneurship development. Profit of “Utočište” is being invested into the projects, that contribute to the refugees vulnerable groups’ empowerment, employment, self-employment, integration, social inclusion and overall advancements of refugees’ rights.