On February 25, 2021, a videoconference with stakeholders involved in the DAT (Territorial Action Fund) of Romans-sur-Isère allowed territories considering this approach to ask all their questions about the DAT. This alliance against youth poverty brings together local authorities, businesses, and associations in a single area to scale up this fight.

On this occasion, Gilles Monteil, Administrative and Financial Director of Refresco, and Alice Tabard, Territorial Manager of the Proxité association, shared their commitment to the DAT of Romans-sur-Isère, while Karen Hernandez, the technician responsible for deploying the DAT, answered questions concerning the local authority.

Addressing the causes of poverty to prevent social determinism among youth

Denis Metzger, founder of the Break Poverty Foundation, began by reminding attendees that young people are the most affected by poverty and that it is crucial to act swiftly to support disadvantaged youth to ensure their integration into professional life : “A young person who leaves school without a diploma has a high chance of remaining unemployed and untrained (NEET).”

The Foundation’s actions are based on two convictions : businesses have a role to play because the fight against poverty requires mobilizing actors and resources beyond just the public sector, and the solution must be territorialized because it is at this scale that alliances can best address local poverty issues. To this end, it has created the Territorial Action Fund, “a simple and effective method to facilitate business engagement in favor of youth in their territory,” which has already proven effective in Romans-sur-Isère, where six association projects are supported by local businesses.

The city of Romans-sur-Isère particularly valued the innovative nature of the scheme, which helps develop business solidarity towards youth. “Today, more than 850 beneficiaries have been supported […] and according to surveys, there is over 85% satisfaction, meaning positive developments for these young people,” says Marie-Hélène Thoraval, Mayor of Romans-sur-Isère (find the full transcript of her speech here). Projects addressing issues identified during the territorial diagnosis have been proposed to local businesses to support the youth in the area. Six associations have thus received funding to scale up their efforts.

Gilles Monteil, Administrative and Financial Director of Refresco, chose to engage in the DAT of Romans-sur-Isère from the outset. He was impressed by “the package offered by Break Poverty and the dynamism of the town hall in uniting all stakeholders around this project.”

What convinced him was the ambition of the shared project, as well as the “analytical, objective approach, with proposed solutions to be very concretely active in a territory, together.”

Asked about the current context and the impact of the Covid crisis, Gilles Monteil assured that “there is no link with the health crisis; it is a long-term commitment,” and “what remains solid in this project for us is being engaged but not being engaged alone. […] The role of the town hall is extremely important in this coordination, […] we are together with the associations and the municipality to act.

On the associations’ side, Alice Tabard from Proxité praised the integration into the DAT, which “provides a connection with other associative actors, helps us understand our complementarity to better address the needs of young people and to complement each other’s actions.” She also highlighted the strong link established with the employees of the companies supporting Proxité through the DAT, and emphasized the importance of this collaboration for the youth : “It can save a school year.”

All territories that share our ambition and wish to mobilize their local businesses are invited to join us. Supported by the National Poverty Reduction Strategy, Break Poverty indeed offers territories the opportunity to adopt the scheme by providing ongoing support throughout the process and making available all the tools developed to facilitate deployment.

“I train and support, free of charge as part of our social mission, all structures such as town halls, departmental councils, business clubs, and incubators that wish to adopt the scheme in the region,” explains Maïlys Feron, Regional Delegate for Break Poverty based in Lyon.

Photo credit : Break Poverty’s team