Accelerating Change for Social Inclusion project. Call for Proven Innovations addressed to Children at Risk of Exclusion. Definition of the key elements of the social problem and the solutions.

1. Challenge Brief
Maximizing opportunities for children at risk
of exclusion
October 2016
ATHENS
BARCELONA
LISBON
ROTTERDAM
STOCKHOLM
ACCELERATING
CHANGE
FOR SOCIAL
INCLUSION

2. ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI
ATHENS / BARCELONA / LISBON / ROTTERDAM / STOCKHOLM
October 2016
Challenge Brief
Maximizing opportunities for children at risk of exclusion
1. Description
The rising of inequality, the impact of the crisis and people’s movements has raised the risk of poverty
and marginalisation among children in Europe. According to UNICEF1
and the European Union2
the
percentage of children and youth at risk of exclusion has risen during the last years to alarming figures.
Children at risk are persons under 18 who experience an intense and/or chronic risk factor, or a
combination of risk factors in personal, environmental and/or relational domains that prevent them from
pursuing and fulfilling their potential3
. An at-risk youth is a child who is less likely to transition
successfully into adulthood.4
Factors influencing the risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) are:
§ The types of household: single parents with dependent children (48.3 %) and single persons
(33.7 %) and two adults with three or more dependent children (32.5 %) had the highest AROPE
rates.
§ Monetary poverty: more than 74.7 % of low to very low work intensity households with
dependent children were at risk of poverty.
§ Level of education: 50.5 % of children whose parents’ highest level of education was low were
at risk of poverty compared with 8.0 % of children whose parents’ highest level of education was
high.
§ Migrant background: children with a migrant or refugee background were at a greater risk of
poverty than children whose parents were native born.
§ Living conditions: 19.1 % of single-parent households were severely materially deprived
compared with 9.8 % of households with dependent children.
§ Given the lack of results in traditional policies and programs, it is necessary to address the
challenges posed by the risk of excluding children looking up to social innovation to find
innovative, effective and lasting solutions. Some local governments, third sector organizations
and entrepreneurial initiatives have begun to experiment and test innovative alternative solutions.
2. Key data and considerations about children at risk of exclusion
§ Almost 27 million children in Europe are at risk of poverty or social exclusion5
. This corresponds
to 27.8% (2014) of children in the EU-28. The table below shows the figures in the five
1
https://www.unicef-irc.org/
2
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Children_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion
3
https://www.lausanne.org/content/statement/children-at-risk-missional-definition
4
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-at-risk-youth-definition-statistics.html
5
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/rights-child/index_en.htm

3. ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI
ATHENS / BARCELONA / LISBON / ROTTERDAM / STOCKHOLM
participating countries: the lowest figure corresponds to Sweden with 17% and the highest to
Greece with 37%.
Greece 36.7%
Spain 35.8%
Portugal 31.4%
Netherlands 17.1%
Sweden 16.7%
Children (0-17) at risk of poverty or social exclusion, Eurostat 2014
§ Early childhood education and care6
: One of the essential opportunities for children and
families in risk of social exclusion is Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Most
European countries have committed themselves to providing an ECEC place for all children, but
among the five participating countries, only Sweden guarantees a legal right for each child soon
after their birth. In all countries but Sweden, the demand for ECEC places is higher than supply,
especially for younger children. ECEC participation has a stronger positive effect on the reading
scores of disadvantaged children than on the results of their better off peers. The most common
additional support given to migrant and refugee children or those from ethnic minorities is
language support.
§ Early school leavers and early abandonment: Early school leaving is linked to unemployment,
social exclusion, and poverty. In 2012, 40.1% of early school leavers were unemployed; of whom,
it is reported that approximately 70% would like to work. Existing studies show however that an
additional year of schooling can increase individual lifetime earnings by between 4% and 10%,
depending on the circumstances.
§ Child participation, empowerment and engagement: Finally, the opportunities to participate
and engage in social life are a key determinant of inclusion and their personal development.
Children’s active citizenship is generally poorly explored in research. But evidence suggests that
children’s participation contributes to different aspects of their development, enabling them to
acquire knowledge, skills and positive attitudes, expand their interests and aspirations and gain
confidence in their own capacities. Data from the EUYouPart survey (2005) show very low levels
of participation of adolescents in social, political or even school dynamics.
3. Target groups
Children at risk, with multiple problems
Children at risk of exclusion have many faces and multiple problems. The project will focus on generally
6
Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe, Eurydice and Eurostat Report, 2014 Edition:
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/key_data_series/166EN.pdf

4. ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI
ATHENS / BARCELONA / LISBON / ROTTERDAM / STOCKHOLM
all excluded children and children at risk of social exclusion. These might be migrant or refugee children,
or belonging to some excluded minorities, or children in care, children in gangs, those in conflict with the
law, or children with psychological and intellectual issues or with addictions.
Dark numbers: children that are not registered in the municipal registration system
The project will pay special attention to migrant children, refugees and minorities such as Roma who
often cannot benefit from support programmes because they are not registered in the public systems of
care. In 2015, 95,000 children who sought asylum in Europe were not accompanied by an adult, adding
that this vastly underestimated the number who arrived as many children avoided registering with the
authorities from fear of being detained.
4. Levers of change
This project will be looking specifically at four areas of action to maximize opportunities for children at
risk of exclusion:
Prevention
§ Access to good quality integrated Early Childhood Education and Care, including innovative
solutions to promote their education engagement and success. It will look into initiatives that lay
the foundations for later success in life in terms of education, well-being, employability, and social
participation.
§ Relevant and flexible education pathways.
§ Facilitating smooth transitions between educational levels and in processes of integration of
children with diverse degrees of preparation and backgrounds.
§ Processes of participation and promotion citizenship in local communities.
§ Mentoring and personalised supporting systems for children with special needs.
Intervention
§ Effective and evidence-based early-warning systems.
§ Mentoring and personalised supporting systems for children in exclusion.
§ Interventions that engage and capitalise on latent resources within local communities to support
most disadvantaged children.
§ Family-focused and community-focused interventions to support excluded children or children at
risk.
§ Empowering initiatives for children and families in risk.
Compensation to re-engage
§ Accessible and relevant second chance quality education and participation.
§ Distinctive flexible learning experiences.
§ Teacher and parenting support and training.
§ Alternative pathway to re-engage with education, gain qualifications, and develop relevant skills
for the labour market.

5. ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI
ATHENS / BARCELONA / LISBON / ROTTERDAM / STOCKHOLM
Technology approach
The ICT opens up interesting possibilities in the provision of social services, the use of idle or latent
resources in the cities, and in the prevention and mitigation of impacts of social exclusion. Also helps to
scale up initiatives that operate in a short range.
5. Research criteria of innovative solutions
§ Evidence of impact: Innovations that provide a model that positively affects the expected results,
which have generated sufficient evidence of results and are minimally evaluated.
§ Scale: Innovations that have been implemented in more than one location or are prepared for
replication in new contexts because they have a projection model or transfer to other agents.
§ Sustainability model: Innovations with diversified revenue model, optimization of resources or
use of community resources, so that they cannot depend on regular subsidies to sustain their
operations available.
§ Adaptability: Innovations that are not context-specific, but adaptable to different cultural, social
and economic backgrounds. Ideally, these innovations might have been packaged and
implemented outside its original location.
§ ROI: Innovations that generate social impact and a good return of the investment.
§ Worldwide research: Innovations from all over the world, since our proper context (Europe and
North America) until very different context (as Africa, Latin America or Asia).
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI
Catalysing the transfer of successful innovations among European cities.
Project implemented by UpSocial in collaboration with Partner Cities, and with the generous support of
the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and “la Caixa” Foundation.
PARTNER CITIES
Athens, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Stockholm.
More information: www.upsocial.org