Life Project 4 Youth (LP4Y) sets up training centers for disadvantaged young people

Life Project 4 Youth (LP4Y), an association dedicated to the professional and social integration of young adults aged 18 to 24, relies on entrepreneurship to help its target populations. LP4Y has developed incubators for entrepreneurial micro-projects, known as "Life Projects Centers", close to shantytowns. These structures offer the young people in serious difficulty (single mothers, school dropouts, the disabled, ex-prisoners, etc.) a tailored coaching program: "Professional Training for Entrepreneurs".

12 months of training and coaching

The program is based on a 12-month commitment by young people. Five days a week, they must follow a precise weekly rhythm: two and a half days are devoted to developing and managing the micro-economic activity of their choice; one and a half days are devoted to getting back up to speed academically; finally, one day of personal coaching enables them to learn how to manage their personal emotions and verbalize their life project.

For the duration of this "Professional Training for Entrepreneurs" (PTE), the young people receive a weekly allowance, the "Life Project Money", to help them become self-sufficient. This funding - a real investment in helping young people out of exclusion - is a key feature of LP4Y's pedagogical approach. The allowance is double the poverty line (€1.5), while remaining below the local minimum wage so as not to demotivate young people in their job search. It enables them to escape poverty as soon as they arrive at the Center, and to train for a year while supporting themselves. Coaching is provided to ensure that the Life Project Money is put to the best possible use.

More and more Life Project Centers

In 2015, the association multiplied its efforts by opening four centers in India: two in New Delhi and two others in Calcutta. As of 2017, LP4Y is also expanding its activities in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and the rural area near Raipur.

The Veolia Foundation renews its support to open a Life Project Center in the Chetla slum, south of the city of Calcutta. The young Indians who are welcomed there follow a program that has already proved its worth in centers in South-East Asia. They are accompanied both inside and outside the center, as they gain their first professional experience, right through to the realization of their life project: integration into a company, creation of an economic activity or continuation of their studies.

In 2016, the Veolia Foundation supported the renovation of the Pahar Ganj center in New Delhi, to improve conditions for the young people supervised by LP4Y trainers. Two years later, the renewed support has enabled the "Life Project Money" of several teams of learners.

Each center must be able to accommodate two to three programs of fifteen to seventeen young people each, with the idea that the income generated by the micro-economic activities will contribute to the financial equilibrium of the program, and enable the opening of new centers. LP4Y's approach is ambitious, but based on proven experience and proven success. The young people work in a wide variety of fields: office clerks, pharmacy assistants, cell phone salesmen, in the opera, in a local bakery...

2023: programs for young women in India and Indonesia

Capitalizing on its 13 years of experience in the field and its presence in 8 countries (India, Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Egypt, Myanmar), LP4Y is launching a new program in 2023. Supported by the Veolia Foundation, it will focus on supporting young women in India and Indonesia. The program will continue to focus on vocational training and personal development (skills identification, projection into the future).

In Kalai, Ranihati, a rural area two hours from the metropolis of Calcutta, the association is opening a Green Village West Bengal (India) to welcome women from the various rural areas of the region and the slums of Calcutta.In Jakarta, Indonesia, a Training and Development Center (TDC) has been set up in the Cilincing slum. The micro-activity developed to mobilize women learners revolves around water management. The women learn how to operate water purification units and organize water distribution and management.

At these two new centers, LP4Y is developing a new program called "Stars Club". What does it involve? At the end of the training course, each young woman has the opportunity to join the program's alumni network. This network is managed by the participants themselves, enabling them to continue their involvement in the project as trainers and recruiters. They act as mentors for other young women and play a key role in the development of the local ecosystem (contact with local authorities, recruitment, advocacy and development of local partnerships). The Stars Club could also prove to be a tool for monitoring the integration of young people.