BRIDGE’s future is guaranteed with financing and new partners
The animation which was shown during the ‘BRIDGE Take off’ event on 1st October perfectly depicted BRIDGE’s state of affairs. The event was held to inform all partners involved with the project of what three years of BRIDGE has done for Rotterdam South. And that equates to a very significant yield, that much is evident from the presentations, videos and interviews on Theater Zuidplein’s stage. All this information was collected and turned into a toolkit which is now available online. This will allow other cities to also benefit from the enormous mountain of knowledge and experience we have acquired with BRIDGE.
The fact that BRIDGE has now firmly established itself in Rotterdam (and the surrounding area) isn’t just apparent from the long list of registrations for the final event (from Rotterdam, but also from other parts of the Netherlands), but also from the fact that two new partners have committed to the Career Start Guarantee (in Dutch: AanDeBak garantie). This practical and popular part of BRIDGE is a work guarantee which is exclusively intended for Rotterdam South’s young people. When they opt for a course in technology, healthcare, port or food, they will receive a work guarantee from one of the employers affiliated with BRIDGE at the start of their course.
The Rotterdam Rijnmond police force and ten Rotterdam childcare organisations together signed almost 150 AanDeBank guarantees during the ‘BRIDGE Take Off’ event. The Rotterdam healthcare sector also managed to increase the previously agreed number from 160 to 180. The Transport & Logistics Sector Institute will soon be added to this with 25 work guarantees. This will bring the total of AanDeBak guarantees to more than 700: more than one hundred above the initial target set when BRIDGE was first launched.
As the supply of guarantees has been properly arranged, it’s time to devote a little more time and attention to Rotterdam South’s young people taking up these offers. As this is still lagging a little behind the supply. But that’s no coincidence. We first need to make sure there is a sufficient supply to ensure young people are not going to miss out. Or as one of the speakers put it during the BRIDGE Take Off event: “The shop is now full, so it’s time to allow young people to make their way to the shop en masse. And they can empty out the entire shop for as far as I’m concerned.’’
You can find BRIDGE’s toolkit here.
You can watch the What is BRIDGE animation here:
You can watch the BRIDGE Take Off animation here:
Contact by e-mail at: c.stoppelenburg@mrdh.nl
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