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PROGRESS: review / evaluation

Progress, the community program for work and social solidarity, is an initiative of the European Commission – Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities – following on from the community action program on the fight against social exclusion.

It aims to establish and develop European social policy in employment, equal opportunities and to fight against poverty and social exclusion.

In particular, this program enables certain projects in these fields to be financed, based as they are on a synergy involving various partners within the European Union. In this framework, the project introduced by Dynamo International and the International Network of Street Workers on the theme “Streetwork in Europe, because the street exists !” was retained and has therefore been able to benefit from funding for the 2008-2009 period.

Through this opportunity, and also thanks to the remarkable job done by all the members of our network over the past two years, significant progress has been made :

• Development, extension and enhancement of the International Network of Street Workers, mainly at the European level.
• Publication of the “International Guide on the Methodology of street work throughout the world”; an essential pedagogical tool which really reflects the concrete circumstances experienced on the ground, drafted through a bottom-up process; that is, emanating directly from street workers and the situations they encounter.
• Organization of two international meetings on street work, in Norway (April 2008) and Portugal (November 2008).
• Organisation of a training for social street work trainers, in Belgium (October 2009).
• Development of our network’s website : towards enhanced exchanges that are more flexible.
• Drafting of a social street work training curriculum.
• Drafting and production of concrete recommendations on policies and programs for young people’s integration.

In light of what has been accomplished under the Progress program, one of our greatest sources of satisfaction is noting that the actors on the ground have finally been able to contribute to improving the recognition given to street work, and this particularly through the “International Guide on the methodology of street work throughout the world.”

The big challenge now will to be conserved and maintain this dynamic, so that street workers on the ground can participate to a greater extent in the bodies of reflection and decision-making which concern them. Indeed, they are the direct and privileged witnesses of the disastrous effects of poverty and social exclusion within our societies. Our role therefore consists of relaying street workers’ observations to the political decision-makers, in order to help build real, lasting and structural responses, for better equality and social justice…in a nutshell, this is our objective for 2010 and beyond !

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