A “Passport for Inclusive Success” to catalyze equal opportunities for the youth. France counts more than two million young people living in underprivileged neighborhoods. For them, financial barriers have come with social and educational obstacles. Together with L’Ascenseur, a group of non-profit organizations and social entrepreneurs for equal opportunities, BNP Paribas has the goal of making banking products and services more accessible and affordable for the most disadvantaged youngsters, especially to allow them to continue their studies and follow their career path. Furthermore, the aim of the project is to make the financial sector the primary non-public channel for the delivery of services enabling young people from underprivileged backgrounds to successfully complete tertiary education, supporting them from college to employment.
With a clear vision in mind, the project team was able to make the following achievements during their participation in the acceleration program:
- Improvement of the program approach and challenging of deployment plans
- Initiation of contact with banking peers to promote an industry wide initiative
- Recruitment of additional partners for “L’Ascenseur”
- Identification of key providers for each service to be developed as part of the offer for disadvantaged youth
Next steps of the project are to deploy an inclusive student loan that was launched during the acceleration, to expand the range of inclusive products and services, and to further engage in partnerships to create a community of enterprises that support underprivileged youth.
