00:01A program in Cyprus is following a fresh path to overcome poverty and social exclusion by focusing on close community
00:09contact.
00:30Here in Cyprus, the goal of their anti-poverty program is centered around three ideas.
00:35Prevention, personalization and proximity.
00:38And it's that last one, proximity, which is key to success.
00:42Let's see how it's done.
00:49Street by street, person to person, Andriy Nicolau keeps a close eye on her community.
00:55She used to have a desk job, but now she's one of the island's 34 neighborhood social workers, watching out
01:01for the most vulnerable people.
01:18Today, Andriy's checking in with single parent Emil Stefanov and his two daughters.
01:23When she heard about his case, she quickly stepped in with vouchers for food, reconnected his electricity, taught him to
01:30process paperwork and organized childcare, leaving Emil the time to find a job and start work.
01:52She believes in us, not only the vouchers and this stuff.
02:04Emil Stefanov is one of over 4,000 people in Cyprus to have received guidance, counseling or help through the
02:11country's neighborhood social worker program, which has a budget of 10.5 million euros, 6.3 million of which is
02:19from the European Social Fund Plus.
02:21The Cypriot government sees the program as a path to improve its welfare services.
02:26During meetings like this, the neighborhood social workers can feed back to local and national leaders about what works and
02:33why.
02:50The overhaul of social welfare in Cyprus comes as the EU launches its first ever anti-poverty strategy.
02:57There are over 93 million Europeans currently at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
03:03The EU aims to reduce that number by 15 million by 2030 and help eradicate poverty altogether by 2050.
03:12The challenge is that poverty is complicated.
03:15It's not just a matter of having a low income or not being able to access goods and services.
03:21It's also about structural inequalities and a lack of opportunities.
03:25So can the EU's anti-poverty strategy really make a difference?
03:34Here in Brussels, we met up with poverty expert Professor Olivier de Schutter,
03:39who welcomes the emphasis on combating the barriers and challenges that people in need often encounter when facing government administration.
03:47A very strong point of the anti-poverty strategy is that access to social services is at the focus of
03:55the attention.
03:55And that means welcoming people with a smile, helping them go through the procedures that will allow them to have
04:03access to the benefits they are entitled to,
04:06and reducing what we call the non-take-up of social benefits.
04:11Back in Cyprus, Anne Mariana Andreva is an example of someone who was struggling to access the benefits she had
04:18the right to claim.
04:19She came to Andrew because she had difficulty managing her adult son, who's autistic.
04:45Boasting confidence, managing administrative hurdles and helping people into work.
04:51All Important Aspects of Preventing Poverty and Overcoming Social Exclusion
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