30 Aug 2024 Feedback on Béthune’s Dotation d’Action Territoriale (DAT)
On March 19, 2021, Break Poverty Organized a Video Conference Meeting to Allow Stakeholders Involved in the Béthune Territorial Action Grant to Share Their Experiences with Other Interested Territories
During this meeting, Hakim Elazouzi, Deputy Mayor of Béthune in charge of social affairs, Sabine Debacker, Project Manager at Simplon, and Frédéric Allard, CEO of IT2i, shared their experiences and commitment to the initiative.
Denis Metzger, President of Break Poverty Foundation, began by emphasizing the importance of acting preventively to combat poverty and to promote social mobility, ensuring that a poor child does not become a poor adult : “Our goal is to extend a hand to every young person living below the poverty line or facing specific family or school-related difficulties, and to help them break the cycle of poverty.”
Launched in Béthune in 2019 in partnership with the local authority, the Territorial Action Grant has already enabled five associations to benefit from the support of eight local businesses: “It was crucial to be able to mobilize the economic sector to contribute to the social revitalization efforts we are trying to implement in Béthune,” said Hakim Elazouzi, Deputy Mayor in charge of social affairs in Béthune.
For him, it was essential that the initiative be integrated into the city’s overall strategy, complementing and ensuring the sustainability of the partnership-building work between the local authority, associations, and businesses that had already been initiated by the city. He envisions long-term connections with existing programs: “The idea is to explore how we can involve businesses, through the Territorial Action Grant, in co-financing Urban Policy actions (…) this could potentially create a highly interesting leverage effect.
“The Territorial Action Grant allowed us to launch our ‘Artis – Culture and Digital Techniques’ training program in the Béthune area, which benefited 16 young people over 6 weeks.” During this training, the young participants explored digital professions, including through sessions with DAT partner companies like IT2i: “Today, 9 of these 16 young people have chosen to enroll in coding and web development training (…) and wish to pursue careers in digital professions.”
Finally, Frédéric Allard, founder of IT2i, expressed his enthusiasm for the program :
According to him, companies have much to gain by engaging with their local area: “We are part of high-demand sectors (…) we cannot complain about not finding labor if we do not commit to making young people interested in pursuing careers in these fields.” Asked about the future of his commitment during this crisis period, Frédéric Allard emphasized the growing relevance of the program in these challenging times: “The crisis only strengthens the commitment, as we really need to offer hope to young people in very difficult situations.”
Supported by the National Strategy for Combating Poverty, the Territorial Action Grant is aimed at all territories that share this ambition. Break Poverty invites territories to adopt the program by supporting them throughout the process and providing all the tools developed to facilitate deployment.
To learn more about the Territorial Action Grant, click here.
Photo Credit: Dylan Gilis, Unsplash.
