ESC: Community hosting & development for tackling societal challenges

The Impact Hub Vienna is a space and a community that inspires, connects and empowers people working for positive societal change and development. The 500+ members of the Impact Hub Vienna work on creative solutions for social, ecological, and cultural challenges across Europe and beyond. The mission of the Impact Hub Vienna is to support those people in realizing their entrepreneurial ideas for sustainable impact locally & globally. The Impact Hub Vienna is an active part of a global network of 100+ Hubs worldwide and plays an important role in supporting other social entrepreneurs and other Impact Hubs in Central, Eastern and South East Europe. Apart from the creative coworking space we have in the 7th district of Vienna, we run a number of incubation programs for social entrepreneurs across Central and Easter Europe, as well as our annual flagship event Impact Days (impactdays.at), which brings together stakeholders (NGO, government, corporate, social enterprise) around the topic of impact. Our activities, as well as the activities of the global Impact Hub network are highly aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our community events are themed around these topics and we map out our community members according to their contribution to the different SDG areas. Through this we also raise awareness about the SDGs locally and internationally. In the upcoming years our aim is to 1) Support more people to take the path of social entrepreneurship and to accompany them on this journey, 2) Be an inclusive, safe space, driven by solidarity, for creatives, entrepreneurs & the wider public in order to unite people who want to change the world for the better, 3) Raise awareness about the topics related to Sustainable Development Goals through events, communication, partnerships, and by serving as a best-case practice organisation, , 4) Build sub-communities around the SDGs in order to create more focus and better exchange around specific topic areas, 5) Serve as a community & connecting point between various organisations (NGOs, corporate, governmental, etc) who are interested in taking actions towards impact. We believe that everyone can make a difference, but it's important to work together in order to make a lasting change.