The EU participatory Forum on poverty and social exclusion held on 19-20 October 2010 in Brussels offered an excellent opportunity to raise awareness on EFC members’ work in the areas of poverty and social exclusion and to put on the agenda issues of interest such as child poverty and how to work in partnership to promote social inclusion.

Read more about the outcomes of sessions organised by EFC members and download the presentations:

• Open session on child poverty. EFC Members King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) and Bernard van Leer Foundation conveyed this session aimed at identifying and exchanging experiences on innovative methods to combat child and youth poverty. Different approaches developed by foundations to tackle child poverty were presented including the project PING "Poverty is not a game" developed by a consortium of European foundations, which aims to enhance societal debate on poverty by using computer games at school. Read more
• Open session on bringing social inclusion to the spotlight through partnerships. Organised by Fundación Luis Vives, this session aimed to look at the role of partnership as a key tool to work on social inclusion and how to make from cooperation a successful experience. The experiences and lessons learned from the Fundación Luis Vives project "Promoting Social Inclusion, integrACTING", which aims to promote social inclusion strategies at regional and local level, as well as other initiatives based on partnership, the Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme (YEPP) and the Roma Education Fund (REF) will be the starting point of the discussion.

EFC information stand: showcasing EFC members’ work

Forum participants could learn more about foundations’ role in the areas of poverty and social exclusion and in relation to the 2010 European Year at EFC’s information stand at the Forum’s interactive fair.

In addition to EFC’s resources on foundations’ action in these fields, the following EFC members and partners sent information for the interactive stand: Barrow Cadbury Trust, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo, Jacobs Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, King Baudouin Foundation, Fundación Luis Vives, Fundación ONCE, New Eurasia Foundation, Open Society Institute, Roma Education Fund, Universal Education Foundation and Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme (YEPP).

EFC members interested in obtaining further information are invited to contact EFC secretariat at eu@efc.be