Downloadable version of the draft programme is available here.
Participants will collect their badge in the lobby. The badge will be valid for all the days of the event.
Please don't forget to sign the participation list.
Hear the latest developments in the fight against poverty. This meeting will cover the EU Anti-Poverty Package, discuss the current state of play of the next EU budget, and explore upcoming activities and opportunities for Eurocities members to engage and contribute.
Room: Plenary
Room: Plenary
Room: Plenary
Manchester is developing locally led anti-poverty networks that connect community organisations, residents and public services. In this inspiration session, representatives from the city and the voluntary sector will share how these partnerships improve access to support and ensure local responses reflect people’s needs and lived experience. The session will explore how collaboration, shared priorities and joint decision-making can help these networks thrive and contribute to the city’s wider Anti-Poverty plans.
As the conclusion of their learning cycle and preparation for the second phase, selected cities from the EaSI Training Modules Programme will present their action plans on social housing and homelessness. Every 30 minutes, participants will move to a new discussion table to exchange experiences, share insights, and reflect on how approaches can be adapted to their own local contexts.
Discussion topics:
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Vilnius: The challenge is to increase the supply of social and municipal housing in a context where rising housing prices, limited funding, and inefficient asset mobilisation mechanisms constrain the city's ability to meet demand through a new PPP framework.
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Lodz: Lack of a clear long term financed exit housing-led pathway from training apartments to permanent housing.
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Turku: Lack of a practical tool to measure housing affordability based on household's income which limit the city's ability to identify homelessness risk.
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Zagreb: How can the City of Zagreb develop a Supported Social Rental model that will provide people experiencing homelessness and severe housing exclusion with access to stable housing, while simultaneously reducing their dependence on crisis forms of accommodation?
Room: Plenary
This optional meeting for directors will provide a space to exchange on the future development of the community of experts, while also looking ahead to the two upcoming sessions in Brussels; the ESF+ funding event (2 December) and the Launch of the Pulpe report (26 January).
Room: Blue Breakout Room
Get together with fellow participants after a busy day of productive discussions to enjoy a delightful meal accompanied by a glass of Greek wine at one of the restaurants in the city center.
For your convenience, we prepared a List of Restaurants located in the city center of Athens.
Please don't forget to sign the participation list.
In this interactive session, participants will learn how The Hague developed Schuldenlab070, a public-private-civil innovation platform that brings together municipal services, businesses, creditors, housing organisations, educational institutions, researchers, community organisations and people with lived experience. Drawing on ten years of practice, the session explores how cross-sector partnerships can move beyond isolated projects and create a shared infrastructure for social innovation. Participants will gain insights into governance, collaboration, trust-building and scaling innovative solutions that strengthen financial security, and social resilience.
Room: Plenary
Participants will be able to join only one of the following parallel sessions.
Participants will work together in three parallel workshops to co-design solutions to real cases of complex urban social challenges. Through situation-based group work, they will explore each challenge and develop actionable solutions. City experts will then provide feedback and, together with participants, develop an action plan to pilot new policies or projects.
This interactive co-creation workshop will present the City of Athens' Energy Poverty Alleviation Office (EPAO) and its integrated approach to supporting energy-vulnerable households through targeted energy advice, technical guidance and social support measures.
The challenge: How can cities effectively identify, reach and engage energy-vulnerable households that are often difficult to reach through mainstream services, and build the trust needed for them to access available support?
Following a short introduction to the EPAO and its experience in Athens, participants will work together on this practical challenge. They will explore how cities can overcome barriers such as lack of information, limited trust in institutions, social exclusion and difficulties in identifying households most in need, while ensuring that support reaches those who may not actively seek assistance.
Through facilitated working groups, participants will exchange experiences from their cities, identify common barriers and successful approaches, and co-develop practical and transferable solutions for improving outreach, citizen engagement and access to energy-poverty support.
The session will conclude with a plenary discussion in which groups will present their proposed solutions and reflect on how the approaches discussed could be adapted to different local contexts.
Room: Green Breakout Room
Poverty cannot be divided into separate compartments such as income, housing, debt... And yet, the social support systems are frequently fragmented into specialised services and organisations, each with their own responsibilities, procedures and rules. In stead of reducing the administrative burden, we only create new forms, checklists, and procedures. As a result both parties lose: on the one hand, a person in need only receives help after navigating a complex administrative maze. On the other hand, professionals spent valuable time and energy on navigating administrative requirements rather than on direct support and meaningful contact with clients.
In the last couple of years, Mechelen took steps that brought services closer to people in need by adapting a new organisation model. This model enables the city to provide support more quickly and helps clients navigate the administrative maze that often stands between them and the assistance they need. From the professional’s perspective, the problem remains. While they are generally better equipped to deal with bureaucracy, and while some administrative procedures are necessary, the burden remains a significant challenge.
Room: Yellow Breakout Room
In the field of early childhood education, Leipzig faces the challenge of reliably and proactively reaching families in socially disadvantaged circumstances with educational, childcare, and support services. This is particularly relevant for neighborhoods with high rates of child poverty, as well as for families with migration or refugee backgrounds, language barriers, or limited access to institutional services.
Addressing this challenge requires a committed network within the local community. Families themselves are at the heart of this effort: whether services actually reach them depends largely on trust, clarity, and practical suitability for everyday life. Daycare centers, child and family centers, daycare-based social work services, voluntary agencies, counseling centers, and local community stakeholders play a crucial role, as they can engage families through low-threshold outreach, provide support, and facilitate access to further services.
At the center of the analysis stands the question, how families in need of support can be integrated in our early childhood education system?
Leipzig aims to share experiences from the socio-spatial development of early childhood education and family support services during the workshop.
Room: Blue Breakout Room
Exchange with city-representatives about the challenges presented during the three parallel co-creation workshops.
Room: Plenary
Old-age poverty rarely starts in retirement. It can reflect inequalities that accumulate over the life course, shaped by access to housing, employment, care and essential services, and by the places people live. Drawing on OECD work on inclusive growth and age inclusive cities, this session will explore practical ways cities can act earlier and use the levers available to them to fight the accumulation of disadvantage and strengthen economic security and well-being at every age.
Room: Plenary
This interactive session will explore how civil society organisations and people with lived experience can work alongside cities to design more inclusive and effective responses to urban poverty and social exclusion. Through practical examples, participatory exercises, and direct exchanges with NGO practitioners and community members, participants will reflect on what meaningful participation looks like in practice, how it can strengthen local policies and services, and how cities can learn from NGOs' expertise in engaging and empowering communities facing poverty and social exclusion.
Hosted by Athens-based NGOs DCI Greece, EAPN Greece, and Melissa Network, the session will showcase different approaches to engaging people who are often excluded from decision-making processes, including migrants and refugees, children and young people, and people experiencing socio-economic vulnerability.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in role-playing exercises, restorative and participatory methods, moving into interactive activities that explore participation, access to services, discrimination, and policy influence and discussions on how cities can create safe spaces for meaningful engagement.
The session will address topics such as:
- Meaningful participation and co-creation: moving beyond tokenistic consultation and creating genuine opportunities for people to shape policies and services.
- Lived experience in policymaking: ensuring that community knowledge and first-hand experiences inform decision-making.
- Access to services and rights: understanding barriers faced by migrants and refugees, children and young people, and people experiencing poverty, and identifying pathways to more inclusive support systems.
- Children and young people's participation: practical approaches to involving children and young people in ways that are safe, empowering, and impactful.
- Intersectionality and discrimination: recognising how multiple forms of discrimination and exclusion can intersect, and identifying ways to make policies and services more inclusive.
Through dialogue, reflection, and hands-on activities, participants will gain practical ideas and tools for strengthening collaboration between cities, people with lived experience, and civil society organisations.
Participants will be able to choose which thematic group they would like to join, allowing for deeper discussions and exchanges on the topics most relevant to their work and interests.
Room: Plenary
Please don't forget to sign the participation lists.
Participants will be able to join only one of the proposed site visit. Each site visit will be followed by a discussion exploring synergies with other Eurocities Forums (Environment, Digital, Mobility), focusing on how different policy areas can contribute to more integrated approaches to tackling urban poverty. Please note that your chosen side visit determines the cross-forum exchange you will attend.
This site visit will showcase the Energy Poverty Alleviation Office (EPAO)’s integrated policy approach to ensuring a fair and inclusive energy transition, linking climate action with social cohesion and energy justice. Drawing on the experience of the EU-funded POWERPOOR project, participants will explore innovative, transferable solutions to address energy poverty and empower energy-vulnerable households. Recognised as a best practice at both national and European levels, EPAO's multi-stakeholder governance model demonstrates how cross-sector collaboration can support local implementation of the European Green Deal and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
This site visit will offer participants an overview of EPAO's role, policies, and initiatives in promoting social inclusion and energy transition. The programme includes a presentation and analysis of EPAO's key actions, policies, and projects, a showcase of its measures and benefits, meetings with stakeholders and beneficiaries, and interactive discussions to encourage knowledge exchange, peer learning, and participant engagement.
Exploring synergies with the Environment Forum.
How can cities ensure that migrants and refugees can effectively access essential services, exercise their rights and participate in local life? The City of Athens has developed a multi-actor approach that brings together municipal services and civil society organisations to support integration and address the complex and interconnected needs of migrant and refugee communities.
The site visit will take place at the Migrant Integration Centre (KEM) in Maizonos Street, which hosts front-desk services and a range of integration activities, with the participation of the Athens Coordination Centre for Migrants and Refugees Issues (ACCMR). Participants will have the opportunity to visit the facilities and explore how the two structures contribute to a coordinated local approach to migrant inclusion.
A particular focus will be placed on the cooperation between the City of Athens and civil society organisations, and on how this partnership is translated into concrete integration measures for third-country nationals. The visit will showcase the methodologies, services and practical tools used to bring support closer to people, improve access to information and services, and create pathways towards social inclusion and participation.
It will provide an opportunity to discuss how cities can move beyond fragmented service provision and develop more integrated, accessible and people-centred local support ecosystems, particularly for people facing multiple barriers to accessing essential services and social rights.
Exploring synergies with the Migration and Digital Forum.
The Municipal Multidisciplinary Health Centres of the City of Athens provide an integrated, community-based model of primary healthcare and social support, with a particular focus on ensuring access to essential services for vulnerable and socially excluded groups.
The centres provide free primary healthcare and preventive health services, alongside psychosocial support, social counselling, legal and employment advice, information on social benefits, and referrals to other public services and civil society organisations. This integrated approach aims to address not only people’s immediate health needs, but also the wider social and economic factors that can contribute to poverty, exclusion and inequalities in access to essential services.
This approach is particularly relevant when considering children and families experiencing vulnerability, as health inequalities can be closely interconnected with wider social and economic challenges affecting the household. By bringing healthcare, psychosocial support and links to social services closer to residents, municipal structures can contribute to earlier identification of needs and to more coordinated pathways of support for vulnerable individuals and families.
The site visit will provide participants with the opportunity to explore how a city can bring health and social services closer to residents through local, accessible and people-centred structures. It will showcase the experience of Athens in addressing barriers to healthcare and social support, particularly for vulnerable groups, and in connecting medical care with wider social services and pathways to support.
The visit will include a presentation of the Municipal Multidisciplinary Health Centres, a tour of the facilities (at the 3rd Multipurpose Center | Municipal Clinic | Petralona, Pireos 108, Athens 118 54) and an exchange with health and social care professionals on how the centres identify local needs, provide integrated support and connect residents with other services. The visit will offer an opportunity to discuss how municipalities can strengthen inclusive access to essential services, address health and social inequalities at neighbourhood level, and develop integrated, family- and community-centred responses to poverty and social exclusion.
Exploring synergies with the Mobility Forum.
