Labour market activation and empowerment of the homeless in Poland

Abstract

This chapter is about activation and empowerment of the homeless in Wroclaw, Poland. Known as ‘Assistance from A to Z’, it concerns a programme intended to equip homeless individuals with competencies and skills to improve self-sufficiency and access the labour market. It is a local project but related to national and EU active inclusion policy and funded through the European Social Fund. An important innovative element is the use of ‘accompaniment’, an idea for intensive individual support that comes from France. In the Polish context, the combined use of a wide range of social and professional support was also innovative. The activation and empowerment of a group of such extremely excluded people as the homeless is demanding and requires intensive, individualised interventions adapted to the needs and capabilities of the beneficiaries. Economic evaluation of this case suggests that it was successful in bringing positive results and was a productive expenditure.