Big players in the region have founded the Brainport Eindhoven Partner Fund.
This new fund will be used to improve people living in the region’s loves in a sustainable way. It is the joint effort of ASML, Jumbo Supermarkets, High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Philips, the VDL Group, and PSV. These five big companies became PSV premium partners a year ago.
The Brainport Eindhoven Partner Fund intends to connect the right people. They’ll jointly address several urgent social problems in Eindhoven and its surrounding area. These include poverty, unemployment, opportunities for children, and social cohesion.
‘Successful region’
“The Eindhoven Brainport region is successful,” says VDL Group president, Willem van der Leegte. “Companies, the authorities, and knowledge institutions work together. They do so intensively and constructively towards a better future.
We make complex machines and innovative products. These make the world more sustainable, better, and healthier. Yet there are people in our region who are struggling socially. People who don’t always feel connected to our region.
“They don’t benefit, while their environment is changing. This Partner Fund’s meant for them. Brainport must be from and for everyone because everyone is Brainport. That’s what we are committed to,” Van der Leegte says.
First up: debt
The first social task that the Partner Fund will focus on is debt. Debts are often the start of a chain reaction to problems in households, such as poverty. For example, in just Eindhoven alone, there are about 3,500 impoverished people. These people are in financial trouble too.
“According to planning agencies, the number of people living in poverty will grow by more than a quarter until 2035,” reads a High Tech Campus press release. The economic contraction caused by the corona crisis adds to this.
This new fund’s chaired by former Eindhoven councillor, Staf Depla. He’ll also be the face of the fund. “Working together pays off, with each other and for each other,” he says. “That’s the strength of this region. Everyone should be able to benefit from that strength.”
Source: High Tech Campus
Translator: Melinda Walraven
