Our programs are based on a single observation : it takes six generations to have any chance of overcoming poverty in France, which is all the more alarming when we consider that it takes just two in Denmark!
It’s high time we took action to avoid sacrificing another generation.
Break Poverty’s ambition is to prevent poverty among children and young adults in France: our mission is to combat social determinism which threatens the future of our disadvantaged youth.
By rolling out programs targeted to the specific needs of each region, we aim to offer everyone equal chances of success and help prevent poor children from becoming poor adults!
1OECD report “Growth and inequality”, 2018.
A solution combining proximity and impact assessment
We are strongly convinced that the principal challenge is to prevent poverty among the youngest generations. A preventive approach is essential if we are to bring about long-term change and eradicate poverty from early childhood.
To do this, we need to bridge the gap between children of poor families and those of wealthy families, from early childhood through to adulthood.
Break Poverty’s strategy is to support projects with a strong social impact and rally nonprofit organizations around the projects we finance. We accompany their development, by consolidating their economic model and strengthening their impact assessment capabilities.
Our key areas of action
An innovative measure to engage corporates : the local endowment fund against poverty
In order to identify and support field players involved in the most impactful projects, Break Poverty has set up a system of local partnerships between public, private and nonprofit organizations, to support highly vulnerable children and young adults.
This innovative initiative, known as the Local Endowment Fund Against Poverty, rallies these organizations around the common cause of preventing social inequality, through a system where local businesses can choose the nonprofit projects they wish to finance.
Following a successful testing phase in three municipalities in France (Romans-sur-Isère, Nantes et Béthune), we are now extending the Fund with the aim of covering 50 municipalities in three years and supporting 100,000 young people in need.
Click here to consult the Local Endowment Fund Against Poverty’s 2020 impact report (in French only).
Clicke here if you represent a local community, business or nonprofit organization and would like to participate in this initiative in your area.
A project to suit every need
To successfully fulfil our mission, projects are selected based on three criteria: their relevance, or their capacity to respond to local social needs; their impact for the local community and their capacity to rescale.
Break Poverty combats school dropout and the digital divide !
The health crisis has revealed the scale of digital exclusion among disadvantaged children and young adults, and the impact it has on their education and professional prospects.
One in four low-income parents in France consider that their IT equipment and internet access are insufficient to meet their children’s educational needs and in 2020, some 90,000 students (one in six) dropped out of school within the space of a year!
Faced with these tremendous needs, Break Poverty has been taking action since March 2020 to enable disadvantaged students and those at risk of dropping out of school to continue their education in a system where the use of a computer is essential. Without it, students have difficulty accessing the digital interfaces made available to them.
Click here to find out more about this operation.
SOS Infants in Need (Urgence Premiers Pas) : let children grow, not poverty.
For more than a year now, the crisis has forced some 100,000 infants in France into poverty!
These vulnerable babies now rely on food aid to survive, grow and achieve their full potential.
In partnership with the French State Secretary for Childhood and Family Affairs and the Agence du Don en Nature (agency for donations in kind), Break Poverty has responded by launching its Urgence Premiers Pas project.
The objective is to fulfil the basic needs of over 50,000 infants nationwide.
Click here to support us and provide infants with the essentials they need for healthy growth (milk, diapers, wipes and baby food).
Enfin
Photo credits: Andrew Ibrahim, Tosaylib, Unsplash and the Break Poverty team.
