ESC: Empowering Marginalized Groups for Active Democratic Participation

Since its creation in Roubaix in 1999, the “Association pour le Développement des Initiatives Citoyennes et Européennes” (ADICE) has been promoting equal opportunity by enabling those with fewer opportunities to experience living abroad, through various French and European mobility programs. ADICE works for the social and vocational promotion of people by enabling everyone to experience living abroad, taking each person’s abilities and aspirations into account, based on the concept of promotion and fostering a lifelong dynamic. ADICE works primarily on behalf of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who have encountered problems in gaining access to employment; often they are also experiencing social and/or economic problems and may be discriminated against in hiring because of their ethnic origin or some other factors. ADICE offers them a chance to participate in European and international mobility programs, which will enable them to develop social skills (open-mindedness, independence, critical thinking, solidarity, self-confidence), vocational skills (teamwork, technical and language skills) and intercultural skills (learning about a new country, a new environment, accepting differences, getting rid of stereotypes, sharing this experience back home, being open to other lifestyles). ADICE’s objective is to make mobility a tool, a means of improving the employability of young people. ADICE believes that mobility is an opportunity to learn and grow that will enrich participants’ values and resources and enable them to acquire useful skills for implementing their personal and career plans. From this standpoint, mobility is an advantage in accessing employment: independence, initiative, responsibility, a sense of organization, open-mindedness, etc., are all important general and multidisciplinary skills in employers’ eyes. Mobility also draws upon essential values like commitment, solidarity, trust and cooperation. These values are becoming increasingly important in our constantly evolving service economies. ADICE supports every year around 250 people in all stages of their mobility project: project construction, preparation for departure, support during mobility, capitalization of skills acquired upon return. To this end, ADICE has developed numerous tools to offer the best possible support and thus maximize the impact of mobility: the online "Mobility Passport", specialized training courses, the portfolio for those in charge project of the association, the database, etc.