ThoseWork in Geneva –
The City offers 1,000 francs to young people to help them get a job
Christina Kitsos announced on Monday that she had set up financial assistance dedicated to the employability of 18-25 year olds.
Published today at 6:59 p.m.
Aid from the City of Geneva, decided as part of the new municipal youth policy, could benefit around 350 young adults.
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- The City of Geneva is launching financial assistance for young people who have lost their jobs.
- Each young person can receive one-off and annual assistance of 1000 francs. for essential purchases or training.
- A partnership with the Autonomia association will facilitate the submission of applications.
Of the 783 unemployed people under the age of 25 in the Canton of Geneva as of December 31, 2023, 236 were domiciled in the City’s territory, according to the latest figures from the State Secretariat for the Economy.
In order to encourage the employability of its young residents, the Municipality announced on Monday that it was putting in place a new measure. It now offers one-off financial assistance capped at 1000 francs. per year and per person.
A sum which should allow you to participate in essential purchases for looking for a job, such as computer equipment or clothes suitable for job interviews, registering for training, obtaining a driving license, or even a language stay.
According to the Haute École de gestion (HEG), which was mandated in 2022 by the authorities to conduct a study among a population aged between 18 and 25, 350 young people could benefit from this financial boost. To ensure this new offer, 400,000 francs were included in the 2024 budget by the administration.
To qualify for these 1,000 annual francs (renewable once, in principle), “the young person must not already be enrolled in a training course, must have a secondary II diploma at most and demonstrate a complicated financial situation,” explains Stéphanie Pédat , head of the Youth Department.
How to apply?
Concretely, the City has entered into a partnership with the Autonomia association. It is she who will be responsible for receiving young people’s requests, will support them in officially submitting their file and will be responsible for directing them more widely towards the competent services, according to their needs.
“Through this, we offer one-off financial assistance to help them find a job, but it is also a way to get in touch with young people who are experiencing serious disruptions,” underlines Christina Kitsos, administrative advisor in charge of the Department of social cohesion. Through the intervention of Autonomia, it will be possible to identify other issues concerning them, such as possible debts or addictions, for example, or benefits to which they should be entitled and to support them. It’s a way to capture an audience far from institutions.”
A form presenting this initiative, as well as the various eligibility criteria, will be available by the end of the month on the Youth Service website. If there is no obligation of result for the young people who will benefit from this aid, monitoring will be carried out to ensure that they follow the requested training, for example.
The City is counting on media coverage, but also on the cooperation of outside social workers, night correspondents and even neighborhood centers to make this new social benefit known to young people in difficulty.
In the study conducted by the HEG, financial issues appear to be the third obstacle to a professional project, according to the panel of young people surveyed. We find the following causes (in order of impact): educational background, health and well-being, finances, discrimination, behavior, migratory path, justice, family, health of a loved one , consumption (editor’s note: substances, medications or alcohol) and childcare.
Housing assistance
The announcement of this new financial aid came on Monday as part of a press conference by the Department of Social Cohesion, which presented its new youth policy in the form of ten concrete objects of intervention.
Among these, measures are planned in particular to promote access to affordable housing. “We want to increase the supply of temporary housing and that some of it is allocated to young people in difficulty. This is a project that will take several more years. We have already strengthened the link between social workers from the youth service and those from the social service. The aim is to facilitate the procedures for obtaining accommodation,” confides Christina Kitsos.
In the future, new attention will also be paid to a new target audience of 12-14 year olds, in order to provide them with increased support.
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