00:01A program in Cyprus
00:03is following a fresh path
00:05to overcome poverty and social exclusion
00:07by focusing on close community contact.
00:30Here in Cyprus, the goal of their anti-poverty program
00:32is centered around three ideas.
00:35Prevention, personalization, and proximity.
00:38And it's that last one, proximity,
00:40which is key to success.
00:42Let's see how it's done.
00:49Street by street, person to person,
00:52Andriy Nicolau keeps a close eye on her community.
00:55She used to have a desk job,
00:57but now she's one of the island's 34-neighborhood social workers,
01:01watching out for the most vulnerable people.
01:18Today Andriy's checking in with single parent
01:21Emil Stefanov and his two daughters.
01:23When she heard about his case,
01:25she quickly stepped in with vouchers for food,
01:27reconnected his electricity,
01:29taught him to process paperwork
01:30and organize childcare,
01:32leaving Emil the time to find a job and start work.
01:52She believed in us, not only the vouchers and this stuff.
01:58And you know when somebody trusts in you,
02:00then you get power and continue to do things.
02:04Emil Stefanov is one of over 4,000 people in Cyprus
02:08to have received guidance, counseling or help
02:11through the country's neighborhood social worker program,
02:14which has a budget of 10.5 million euros,
02:176.3 million of which is from the European Social Fund Plus.
02:21The Cypriot government sees the program as a path
02:24to improve its welfare services.
02:26During meetings like this,
02:28the neighborhood social workers can feed back
02:30to local and national leaders about what works and why.
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
03:07and 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
03:42that 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
04:02that will allow them to have access 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
04:15who was struggling to access the benefits she had the right to claim.
04:19She came to Anne-Mariana Andreva because she had difficulty managing her adult son who is autistic.
04:24She had a decision and my hands were stuck and they didn't move.
04:33And when I was in the social work of the family,
04:39they helped me to move on to move on to move on to my difficulties.
04:45Boosting confidence, managing administrative hurdles and helping people into work.
04:51All important aspects of preventing poverty and overcoming social exclusion.
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