EPSA Foundation

EPSA Foundation

Launched in October 2019, EPSA Foundation’s purpose is to support and develop any public interest work or project of a social nature that collectively contributes to supporting vulnerable people in accessing or remaining in employment, with a view to fostering their personal development, autonomy and social (re)integration. In addition, the fund will support philanthropic, educational and humanitarian projects, as well as projects that contribute to the defense of the natural environment by working with our ecosystem to achieve a successful ecological transition, and more generally, any project of general interest that is in line with the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

EPSA Foundation wishes to contribute to a world built on human values by acting with the youth for a world more respectful of the environment, and, later, by accompanying the most fragile members of society in finding or reintegrating the job market. Thus, this endowment fund allows the group to have an impact on the up-and-coming generation in order to better prepare for tomorrow. Today, EPSA Foundation is one of the pillars of the “EPSA for Good” ambition which looks to lead the group towards its social and environmental transformation, while continuing to be a source of performance and sustainable growth for our clients.

Our ambition Article 1 Engagés La cravate solidaire 100 000 entrepreneurs

Accompanying vulnerable people in accessing or maintaining employment, in order to promote their personal development, their autonomy and their social (re)integration. As a service company, our human capital is our driving force – it therefore makes sense that EPSA be committed towards total equality of opportunity in the job market.

EPSA, via EPSA Foundation, launched in 2019, its first partnership for the integration of young people from working-class backgrounds, with the association Article 1.

Article 1 accompanies high school and university students (85% of whom are on scholarships), with the conviction that all talents in France must grow in order to renew the faces and vision of success, regardless of social, economic, territorial or cultural origin.

Today, more than 50 EPSA volunteers in Paris, Lisses, Lyon, Toulouse and Sophia-Antipolis are committed to volunteering their skills in two formats:

Mentoring: Accompanying a student from 2 to 3 hours per month for 1 year, towards academic success (Bac+1 to Bac+5) and professional integration. Support him/her, share his/her professional experience, open doors…
Group workshop leader: During 2 hours, holding collective workshops in high schools (1st, Terminale, Prépa, BTS and DUT classes), on a relevant theme for young people and thus contribute to lifting their self-censorship and to prepare them in their school courses and thus their professional integration.

Engagés is a Shared Time Work Enterprise (ETTP) that is part of the Territoires Zéro Chômeur de Longue Durée experiment.

The Territoire Zéro Chômeur de Longue Durée project was launched in 2016 as an experimentation law. The Saint-Jean district of Villeurbanne was selected along with a dozen other territories in France with the aim of eradicating long-term unemployment with an innovative approach.

The Goal

The objective is to redirect the costs of job deprivation to finance new jobs that meet needs that are not covered in the territory, for the benefit of long-term unemployed people who thus become full employees of an “Enterprise for Employment Purposes” (EBE).

A word from Engagés

“When the idea of creating a company dedicated to the provision of employment emerged more than two years ago, EPSA Foundation immediately responded by offering to finance part of the feasibility study launched in January 2021. The investment in the newly created structure is the logical continuation of this long-standing partnership, as well as the mark of a real commitment to helping vulnerable people return to work.

Baptiste Costantini, Director of Engagés

EPSA, more than ever a creator and producer of sustainable performance

“Launched in October 2019, EPSA Foundation acts to support vulnerable people in accessing or remaining in employment. This unique partnership demonstrates the depth of our convictions on this social issue. The EPSA Group is proud to affirm its role and contribution as a responsible company, well beyond our sponsorship policy. This is a social innovation that is almost unique in France, since it is an endowment fund (EPSA Foundation) that has taken a stake in the capital of a for-profit company! The commitment alongside other companies in the Lyon area, and within the framework of a unique national experiment, allows us to continue to prove that sustainable performance is possible.”

Cédric Laroyenne, EPSA Group Commitment Director – EPSA Foundation Executive Officer

EPSA Foundation and La Cravate Solidaire are partners in supporting professional integration, and together they create a link with the other associations supported on this cause.

La Cravate Solidaire fights against social and appearance-related discrimination during job interviews for people in professional integration or reintegration. The association is open to all and offers support to any person actively seeking employment. Placed at the end of the integration chain, La Cravate Solidaire works in synergy with integration structures such as Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée or equal opportunity programs such as Article 1. Each year, more than 3,000 beneficiaries are accompanied, with a 70% success rate at interviews.

EPSA Foundation contributes, notably through clothing collection campaigns, to providing the association’s beneficiaries with appropriate clothing for a job interview. It also reflects the commitment of employees to individual support workshops: “Coup de pouce”.

Because EPSA Group has been an entrepreneurial adventure for more than 20 years, EPSA Foundation is a partner of 100 000 Entrepreneurs. This alliance, initiated several years ago within the framework of the PAQTE, forms with other associations, a complete chain in favor of equal opportunities.

100,000 Entrepreneurs, which has an agreement with the French Ministry of Education, has a clear mission: to transmit the culture and desire for entrepreneurship to young people between the ages of 13 and 25 in metropolitan and overseas France, thanks to the testimonies of entrepreneurs/intrapreneurs (company managers, project leaders within a group) in schools and extracurricular establishments (second chance schools, local missions, etc.).

Since 2007, more than 600,000 young people have been made aware of the issue and EPSA is involved by hiring some 20 associate employees throughout France and throughout the year (Mois des Quartiers, women’s entrepreneurship, etc.). This commitment marks the desire to transmit the common denominator of corporate leadership: entrepreneurship.

Great cause EPSA 2023 – 2025

Our ambition Sport dans la Ville Boxer Inside

Sport and Youth is the “Great Cause” of the 2023-2025 group, chosen by EPSA employees.

With the Rugby World Cup (France 2023) and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024, the next few years promise to be rich in sports news.

Accompanying Sport dans la Ville and Boxer Inside will allow the group to be part of this sport dynamic, and to make this practice a lever of integration, social link, culture, quality of life for a whole youth who will live the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with an incredible enthusiasm. It is also an internal ambition, federating EPSA’s employees around sport, its impact on society, its values of performance and cohesion, but also of teamwork.

Because it is necessary to support the structures that act on the ground in the long term, EPSA Foundation supports 2 associative structures for a period of 3 years with the desire to participate in their development and change of scale. Following a call for projects launched at the end of 2022, these winners will benefit from financial sponsorship and volunteer skills. Selected by the group’s employees, these projects will provide a complementary response to the challenges of professional integration and the transmission of values through sport.

Great Cause 2020-2022

Since 1998, Sport dans la Ville has been active in many priority neighborhoods in France. Through its programs and actions, such as Job dans la Ville, L dans la Ville, Entrepreneur dans la ville, the association wishes to transmit to each young person it welcomes, the values of self-confidence, commitment, teamwork and entrepreneurship, which should lead each one to the path to success. Through the Great Cause Sport and Youth, EPSA wishes to support Sport dans la Ville by committing its employees for 3 years, sharing their experience and skills with the young people of the association.

Created in 2011 by Sarah Ourahmoune, Olympic boxing vice-champion, and Francky Dénis, former professional boxer, Boxer Inside works for a society where sport and civic commitment can lead to academic and professional success.

Through the practice of boxing, Boxer Inside aims to democratize sport, to make it accessible to all and to create links with EPSA employees who will participate in workshops, but also with society, for those who are far from it.

Ourcommitments

As an extension of these actions EPSA has been a signatory of Paqte Avec les Quartiers pour Toutes les Entreprises, since 2018.

An initiative of the French Ministry of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities, propelled by IMPACT partners and Bpifrance, PAQTE commits EPSA and EPSA Foundation to work towards better economic inclusion of these territories and their inhabitants. EPSA and EPSA Foundation are working on 4 axes (Training, Awareness, Recruiting and Purchasing) to implement concrete actions for a real impact.

More specifically, EPSA is a partner of the Impacting Purchasing Tour (IPT), alongside IMPACT, the GESAT network and the Les Echos-Le Parisien Group. The aim of the TAI is to support entrepreneurs from the QPVs and disabled-friendly companies in their promotion to French contractors. The aim of the meetings is to give concrete expression to solidarity sourcing and to exchange on responsible purchasing practices.

At the end of 2020, EPSA Foundation signed, along with 30 other foundations and funds, the Manifesto of French Foundations and Endowments to fight against climate change.

Mobilization for the climate is still too modest. It is urgent to accelerate the involvement of foundations and endowments on this central issue of climate change. To this end, the French Coalition of Climate Foundations (CFFC) is committed to mobilizing the entire philanthropic sector around this priority issue.

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