EPIC National Hackathons: Empowering youth through social entrepreneurship

Between December 2025 and January 2026, the EPIC project (Entrepreneurial Citizenship for Social Change) successfully concluded a series of three dynamic National Hackathons across Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Kosovo. These intensive two-day events served as incubators for innovative social business ideas designed to tackle local community challenges.

The primary mission of the hackathons was to inspire and empower young people to think and act as social entrepreneurs. Key objectives included:

• Encouraging youth to identify pressing local social issues.
• Equipping participants with practical skills in Design Thinking, business modeling, and pitching.
• Developing innovative, feasible, and sustainable solutions with a measurable social impact.

The Hackathon events were implemented in:

• Tirana, Albania: 12-13 December 2025, hosted by People in Focus (PIF) at Europe House.
• Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina: 20-21 December 2025, hosted by Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures (SMOC).
• Pristina, Kosovo: 10-11 January 2026, hosted by Peer Educators Network (PEN).

The initiative successfully engaged over 100 stakeholders across the three countries, including a total of 90 young participants, 9 youth workers/educators and approximately 19 expert mentors and jury members from various sectors like academia, ministries, and private businesses.

Each hackathon followed a structured, hands-on programme. Day 1 of the Hackathons was for “Ideation & Foundation”. Participants engaged in workshops on social entrepreneurship basics, stakeholder mapping, and problem identification. Day 2 was for “Refinement & Pitching”. Teams worked closely with mentors to develop Business Model Canvases, plan budgets, and refine their "micro-solutions" before pitching to a professional jury.

A total of 24 teams were formed regionally, resulting in a wide array of social enterprise concepts. Winning teams from each country were selected to receive further mentoring and the opportunity to present at the EPIC Final Conference.

• Albania: Winner PIKA, an accessibility platform for the visually impaired.
• Bosnia & Herzegovina: Winner Inner Peace, a holistic mental health support concept.
• Kosovo: Equal winners RECLAIM (circular food waste model) and RE-TECH (AI-driven e-waste repair).

Beyond skill-building, the hackathons served as a powerful catalyst for youth empowerment, effectively transforming initial self-doubt into entrepreneurial confidence. Participants achieved significant growth in core competencies, most notably in teamwork, analytical thinking, and creative problem-solving.

Evaluations of the events reflected exceptionally high satisfaction rates across the region, with the quality of expert mentorship identified by participants as a standout feature in both Bosnia & Herzegovina and in Kosovo.

The project concluded that while youth are highly motivated to create social change, there is a strong regional demand for ongoing incubation and mentorship beyond the initial events to help turn these prototypes into real-world sustainable businesses.