More help for staff with financial problems, extra guidance for the homeless and more people over 50 who can be helped into a job. These are some of the results of the ‘Brainport for Each Other’ fund, which was launched a year ago to close the gap between rich and poor in the region.
During the New Year’s meeting ‘The New Horizon’ in the Evoluon, Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem shared the first results of the social fund on Tuesday, which is fed with knowledge and budgets from companies, knowledge institutions and municipalities in the Eindhoven region.
According to Dijsselbloem, ‘Brainport for Each Other’ is gaining more and more content and scope. “Almost 2,700 volunteers from various companies have worked for social organisations in the region over the past year,” said the mayor. “More and more municipalities, companies, educational institutions and organisations are joining.”
Downside of prosperity
The launch of the fund a year ago did not come out of the blue. Due to the rapid growth of the high-tech region, some of the residents are in danger of not being able to participate in the success story. “We should not go the way of San Francisco,” the mayor said earlier. The specter of Silicon Valley, which has become an unaffordable place due to prosperity, ensures that municipalities, in collaboration with companies in the Brainport region, want to do everything they can to include the underclass in prosperity.
Alliance
To ensure this, the ‘Brainport for Each Other’ fund has been set up. In a year of ‘building and testing’, the parties involved decided to convert the fund into an association. “A broad, regional, democratic alliance with the objective of a region where everyone can participate, has opportunities and benefits from growth. The group now consists of about sixty participants and is growing,” Dijsselbloem said in his speech on Tuesday.
According to the mayor, some good results have already been achieved in the past year. For example, he mentions the ‘financial fitness’ program, in which 24 companies in the region have rolled out a ‘customised approach’ to help employees with financial concerns. “The companies have made the subject part of their policy. They have seen a significant decrease in the number of wage garnishments. That is a win-win situation for the company and the employees.”
According to Dijsselbloem, another success story is the partnership between chip machine manufacturer ASML and shelter organisation Springplank040. “I understood that help from ASML one day a week saves around 6,500 euros per month on ICT contracts at Springplank040. Thanks to these savings, they can assist four additional homeless people every month.”
BuddyWorks doubled
BuddyWork also received compliments from the mayor. “Next year we will scale up from 170 to 300 buddies throughout the region. In this way, we connect more job-seeking people over 50 in the region with buddies from the business community. They open up their network and help in the search for a new job.”
Steps were also taken to tackle low literacy and digital skills. “We have started a program aimed at low literacy and digital skills at 10 companies with 45 employees. We use the contacts with companies to track down their employees who have low literacy and offer them a tailor-made offer in the workplace,” says Dijsselbloem. .
Separate initiatives
The parties affiliated with the association want to ensure that prosperity benefits all residents of the region. “Our success depends on the success of the entire community. And it helps enormously that we become one association, and not a collaboration of separate initiatives,” Dijsselbloem concludes.
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
