On 11 May 2017, two members of the Urban Poverty Partnership, Aleksandra Olejnik (from the City of Łódź) and Beverly Bernard (from Belgium and also coordinator of the Partnership), presented the goals, scope and direction of the Partnership’s work to a delegation from the Pomorskie region of Poland. They focused their attention on the priorities of the Partnership,  namely child poverty and the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods, identifying the obstacles faced by the local level to access funding and evoking the opportunity of a Child Guarantee as a fundamental tool to tackle urban poverty and to guarantee children’s rights.

This presentation was organised in the wider context of a two-day study visit by representatives from the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship (Department of Regional Programs, Department of European Social Fund and Department of Regional and Spatial Development) on the “Urban dimension of the Cohesion Policy and sustainable urban development”. The programme was developed by the Pomorskie Regional EU Office in Brussels with the aim of learning more on key EU policy issues that have direct implications for local urban authorities. Such issues range from EU funding and initiatives that support urban areas in the EU, the urban dimension of the Cohesion Policy, green and efficient solutions for cities, and the fight against poverty and social exclusion. For example, the agenda also included a presentation about funding opportunities of Erasmus+ programmes for social inclusion projects (a presentation by Erik Ballhausen from the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)).