Our Project

Please note that this project ended after the Development Phase.

To tackle the difficulties that certain young people are suffering, especially since the beginning of the present economic crisis, the InteGROW thematic network aims at developing integrated strategies for the inclusion of young people at risk of exclusion, through activation and employment.

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The InteGROW city-partners have been working for several years in the fields of social inclusion and employment of young people. We all view the InteGROW project as an opportunity to address these issues more effectively and in depth, the need to do so being all the more sharpened at present by the impact of the economic crisis.

In order to facilitate the labour market activation of young people at risk of exclusion; our objective is to identify and design effective, sustainable strategies and tools responding to the practical needs of European cities and urban agglomerations.

Topic

Challenges

The InteGROW partners share common characteristics that gather them together into the InteGROW project to fight against the exclusion of young people because of:

  • social origins (e.g. working class populations),
  • ethnic origins (e.g. immigration, Roma populations),
  • failure at school,
  • low qualifications,
  • the economic recession and/or a structural lack of access to work and entrepreneurial opportunities.

These circumstances lead to the following consequences for the young people targeted:

  • High unemployment rates,
  • Low levels of productive activities,
  • Low levels of education,
  • Failure in key life transitions (school to employment, inactivity to initiative, retraining to a return to employment, dependence to personal autonomy, and so on),
  • Segregation.

The main challenges the InteGROW partners want to address through the thematic network are the following:

  • Designing integrated strategies of social inclusion that will succeed where MAINSTREAM PUBLIC POLICIES usually fail or produce insufficient effect.
  • WORKING DIRECTLY WITH YOUTH to reinforce their self-esteem, create strong commitment, a positive attitude and change of mentality in young people at risk of exclusion by including them in a pro-active inclusion process
  • Integrate young people through the development of INNOVATIVE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES, putting youth at the heart of local economic development.

To deal with these fundamental challenges, the InteGROW partners have identified a need for integrated approaches, because strategies for the social insertion of the young are usually too sectorised.

Key point of focus

In the context of the present economic crisis, the InteGROW project intends specifically to deal with the issue of labour inclusion of young people at risk of exclusion.

The fight against social exclusion of young people depends keenly on the integration of people furthest from the LABOUR MARKET. The persistence of large numbers of young people at risk of poverty and excluded from the labour market represents a fundamental challenge to the objective of social cohesion enshrined in the European Union treaty. The goals of both Gothenburg and renewed Lisbon strategies cannot be realised if we do not make the best use of the potential human resources present in our societies.

A word from the lead partner

What motivates you to be part of the URBACT adventure ?

For more than 10 years of joint work, the Consortium Red Local has carried out a great number of projects in the framework of European initiatives and programmes (ADAPT, EMPLOYMENT, EQUAL, LEONARDO DA VINCI). Thanks to these projects, the Consortium has improved the local policies especially in the fields of socially responsible employment, vocational integration into the labour market, and regional development. The URBACT programme is an opportunity to deepen the work in these issues and to exchange and interact specifically with other urban local authorities that want to tackle the same challenges.

Who would you like to benefit from the work achieved in your project?

The first beneficiary of our project is obviously the YOUTH and especially those who have to deal with major difficulties to find their place and their role in our society.

By leading the InteGROW URBACT network, we wish to create and bring expertise and new ways of action in the field of inclusion of disadvantaged youth in urban areas in Europe. We also would like to share ideas, discover experiences and learn from other cities and other policies.