"The project ""Young Caritas Europa network"" intends the cross-linking of the previously existing national ""Young Caritas"" -departments from Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany, and two regional / local ""Young Caritas"" - departments from South Tyrol (in representation of Caritas Italy) and Vienna (the first ""Young Caritas"" - departments in Europe at all). The ""Young Caritas"" concept is new and wants to invite young people to commit themselves in a creative, innovative way, with their own views for the society, for the benefit of people in precarious situations (with disability, in poverty, refugees, on the road ...) and in favor of issues of equity and sustainability (consumption, energy, environment, recycling, ...). A Europe-wide network corresponds to the desire of Young Caritas to promote solidarity and humanity in Europe, which includes the disadvantaged people and in which the young people want to invest voluntarily their energy.The project has the following objectives: 1 bring the committed young people from partner countries into contact with each other2 bring the professional full-time staff from the partner countries into contact with each other3 work out common themes that can be passed and used in the partner countries and in all Caritas organizations as a contribution to a better world 4 exchange and apply new types of activities and methods of voluntary work with young people 5 offer joint European actions (eg European Young Caritas days to a topic, European meeting of young people, ...) 6 formalize and intensify the already initiated efforts (eg the first european Young-Caritas-day on the subject of refuge and migration on 25th September 2014, the European Youth Exchanges YOUropean in Montenegro, Luxembourg and Germany (Berlin), the European Volunteering Service EVS,...) The project is requested for 2 years, so fixed contacts, solid processes and structures and common online platforms (website, Facebook group and page, Youtube channel, ..) can be established in favor of the sustainability of the network even after the expiry of the project. The linchpin of the dynamics of the network are on the one hand three transnational meetings at which representatives of the professionals and the young people come together, share and define the broad lines. On the other hand, young people from the partner countries should get to know each other in a Multiplier event in order to continue working together on the network.The impact of the ""Young-Caritas Europa network"" should be felt as well on all Young-Caritas-departments (local, regional, national) as on the Caritas groups and associations, on Caritas Europa and the civil society. The last and ultimate goal remains to offer opportunities to the young people to develop their social and human skills in the service of disadvantaged people and to provide these skills for a Europe which is based on solidarity, cultural wealth and the common social and human objectives of people."

"A vision of Europe - How do we want to live together in the future?Young Caritas is a concept of volunteering in social space: young people express their own worldview in a creative way and make their world more humane, more just, where they think it is necessary. The spectrum ranges from sustainability issues to personal encounters with people in precarious situations. This consciously refers to Europe: living European cohesion, being open to refugees and migrants, caring for people in poverty, preventing any form of exclusion, building a socially just and solidary Europe.The thematic focus of the Strategic Partnership is strongly oriented towards current socio-political developments and the interests of our target group. The topic of ""sustainability"", in all its facets and its comprehensive ecological, economic and especially social influence on us as a society and its possible visions for Europe. Young people have become a mouthpiece for our planet at the latest since Greta Thunberg, and socio-political commitment is on the agenda. At the same time, this creates awareness that nothing exists independently and that change requires visonary thinking and courageous action. Young people play an important role here. This vision of a Europe of the future in all its diversity is what we want to address in this partnership.Our aim is to give young people from different backgrounds the opportunity to work on a common, innovative vision for Europe. We want to promote active citizenship, peace, social inclusion and justice, environmental sustainability and solidarity, and give young people the opportunity to think innovatively and visionarily. It is not enough to dream of a Europe of the future. Dreams are expectations of the future and are important. They open new horizons, ideas and technologies. However, it is also important that we think about how these goals can be achieved and how our ideas can be realised. Young people will play an essential role in this process and must be strengthened to be able to play this role!Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, also said in her speech at the opening of the plenary session of the European Parliament that the pioneers of Europe have contributed with their visions, to a more united and just Europe (see: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/hu/speech_19_4230) As she continued, that today ""wir wieder kämpfen müssen und aufstehen müssen für unser Europa. Die ganze Welt ist herausgefordert, mit disruptiven Entwicklungen umzugehen, die auch an Europa nicht vorbeigehen. Der demografische Wandel, die Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft, die rasante Digitalisierung unserer Arbeitswelt und natürlich der Klimawandel"" (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/hu/speech_19_4230)."

It is now widely accepted that households in poverty, and more generally households with the most precarious living conditions, are the hardest hit by the crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, due to their greater exposure to health risks and to the economic and social consequences of this crisis. In France, it has been mentioned that this multidimensional crisis could push a million more people, especially young people, women and families, into poverty. Yet, just one year after the start of the crisis and due to a lack of adequate and rapidly available data, some estimates reported in the media have still not been accurately measured, and the exact extent and nature of the impacts of this crisis on poverty are still largely unknown. This lack of knowledge constitutes a major obstacle to the implementation of policies capable of responding to this unprecedented crisis and limiting its impact on the most vulnerable populations. The DISPOVER project, through a partnership with Secours Catholique-Caritas France (SCCF), aims to fill the knowledge gap on the dynamics of poverty induced by the Covid-19 epidemic in France. Drawing on the information that the association collects in real time from the households it supports, the project aims to shed new light, both quantitatively and qualitatively, on the evolution of poverty profiles during the health crisis. It follows two objectives: (1) to analyse the impact of the crisis on the living conditions of poor households in the short and medium term, and (2) to describe the new poverty profiles generated by the crisis in the short and medium term. In order to achieve these objectives, the project plans to set up two data production systems. The first will be based on the capture, at three key periods - before the onset of the crisis, 1 year and 2 years after - of data contained in a representative sample of admission files that each household fills in when meeting one of the SCCF teams. Ten delegations, and thirty local teams spread across the country, will be involved in the project. This will ensure that the observations vary according to the environment in which the household lives (urban, peri-urban and rural) and the intensity of the epidemic. These data will enable a longitudinal and multivariate analysis of the profiles of households in a situation of poverty, and their budgetary situation, during the first two years of the crisis. The second system, funded by the association, will be based on a survey from a sample of beneficiaries of SCCF emergency food aid. This will enable us to analyse the profiles of households that have requested this aid during the crisis, and to compare them with those of the households that the association supports in normal times. These quantitative analyses will be enriched by a third source of information collected from the associative world. The SCCF, a leading association in the fight against poverty, has been involved for more than 20 years in the production of data and knowledge on precariousness. Its annual statistical report is recognised by all public, associative and academic actors involved in the fight against poverty as a valuable complement to official statistics. The association's fine territorial network and its access to precarious populations invisible in public statistics, contribute to the wealth of its data and make its statistical report a reference. Since 2016, the analyses and writing of the report have been carried out by a statistician and two economic researchers, all three of whom were at the origin of the DISPOVER project.

In Europe, the non-profit sector employs 28 million full-time workers engaged in education, research, housing, counselling, workforce training and other social activities. The sector remains underserved by the financial industry, making it challenging to obtain funding to undertake clean energy investments. SER brings together 8 organizations from 4 EU countries to maximise social impact by boosting clean energy investments in the nonprofit sector. SER intends to consolidate and implement an innovative hub that will offer full technical and financial assistance to TSOs in deploying clean energy projects, including a de-risking financing instrument (guarantee instrument) to support the projects. The SER HUB will advise TSO’s to be able to design, structure and coordinate the high impact execution of projects. It will be configured as one-stop-shop (establishing an ecosystem of partners providing modular and tailor-made solutions for specific project issues) where TSOs can find integrated solutions to all problems (technical and financial) referred to their energy transition projects, also identifying and improving their sustainability impact. Social enterprises gain access to affordable sustainable renovations, coupled with technical assistance, while investors gain access to secure, high impact investments aligned with ESG and impact investment criteria. SER is positioned to strengthen social enterprises and generate more than 500M in clean energy investments over the course of 5 years after the project, translating into nearly 9,000 jobs, 24,633 Co2 emissions saved per year and massive social impact involving energy poverty mitigation, improvements in social inequality, health, wellbeing, productivity, financial literacy, and overall social cohesion. The initial focus is on Italy, with further replication foreseen in Bulgaria and France, and exploratory efforts in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. SER Consortium represents an ideal mix of partners including a specialized lender, an ESCO, a financing and de-risking advisory, social impact experts, an energy agency and local replicators in Bulgaria and France. SER strengthens the non-profit sector – a key driver in achieving a just and fair clean energy transition and a post- COVID-19 recovery.

"“You are welcome - young ideas for a solidary world” „Young Caritas“ is a new concept of youth voluntary work in the social space: Adolescents should be enabled to express their own world view in a creative way and to make their world a fairer and more human place wherever they think it’s required. They are able to make the difference. The concept „Young Caritas“ supports the realization of social projects with innovative and creative approaches and makes it possible for the youth to face social challenges courageously and to find solutions for the issues. This ranges from sustainability issues to human encounters. New topics are prepared on transnational level before implementing them on local level by taking diversity issues into consideration. The project ""Young Caritas in Europe network"" consists of the national ""Young Caritas"" -departments from Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany, and two regional / local ""Young Caritas"" - departments from South Tyrol (in representation of Caritas Italy) and Vienna (the first ""Young Caritas"" - departments in Europe at all). This network has been consistently strenghtened thanks to a previous Startegic Partnership around the issue of involvment for refugees and migrants. Now two innovative new aspects will be realized: 1) Thematicly we want to break up all the clichés and strive for an open society for all, the disadvantaged and the well-being. ""You are welcome"" should apply to all: young and old, poor and rich, indigenous and stangers, for all. 2) Structurally, the 7 partners (6 of them submit this application, Switzerland submits towards their own National Agency) want to share their theme and their concept of participatory volunteering work with young people with the Caritas-youth from 19 other European countries, thus creating a Europe-wide network of the cooperative solidarity. About the issue: ""You are welcome""! With the projects by the „Young Caritas in Europe“- network it was already possible to arouse great interest all over Europe. Migration and the following responsibility of inclusion into our society has become a main topic of Europe in the last years. To face the social challenges concerning this issue on local level, but also in a European context, is first priority for young people. A solidary community is extremely important for adolescents who identify themselves as part of a European collective. About the opening for other interested countries: ""You are welcome""! - the current network wants to open itself to interested countries, welcome them and organize actions and events promoting an exchange and a better understanding for each other. This opening should be formalised with the following request. With this, exchange and social commitment for one of the most important and current topics will be made possible for thousands of young people. Becoming active together and preventing any form of exclusion shall be our contribution to strengthen a fair and solidary Europe. Our goals are: • To give young people the opportunity to work together in a spirit of solidarity, to get to know each other across national boundaries and to jointly take action at European level, giving them the opportunity to act politically. Through this we want to reach several thousand youngsters. • To share the experiences in the network ""Young Caritas in Europe"" to others and eto xpand and open us as a network • To contribute to a better cooperation in our societies and to an awareness of the European idea We want to achieve this by: • Two action meetings of volunteers where they jointly develop actions, which are then implemented locally in the partner countries and beyond, for instance within the framework of the annual Young Caritas Action Day (for these two meetings advanced preparation meetings are necessary) • Participation of volunteers and staff employees in two trainings in St. Malo (as a content input) • Work in and work on our network through strategic meetings of the staff professionals where amongst others the multiplier event is being prepared • Conducting the multiplier event, the European Young Caritas Conference, in which we exchange experiences with our stakeholders, discuss the issue and discuss our future co-operation • Preparation of material for schools, publication of our work and our experience (on the website) and production of advertising material"