2017 EESC Civil Society Prize - Award Ceremony

Video of the winners


5 organisations are awarded the 2017 EESC Civil Society Prize

The EESC is pleased to announce the five winners of the 9th edition of the Civil Society Prize, which rewards initiatives which aim at the labour market integration of newcomers and all the people who are distant from the labour market and require specific support.

An evaluation panel composed of ten experts chose the winners among the 111 applications received from 25 Member States. The work of the panel was very challenging and rewarding, considering the high level and quality of the applications.

The prize awards ceremony took place on 7 December 2017 during the EESC plenary session.

The first prize, of a value of 14.000 EUR, went to Discovering hands (Germany), a project which trains blind and visually impaired women, using their superior tactile sense to enhance early breast cancer detection.

The other prizes, of a value of 9.000 EUR each, went to:

REvive Greece, which helps refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to integrate into the receiving countries by teaching them computer programming and connecting them with young European entrepreneurs.

DUO for a JOB (Belgium), an intergenerational and intercultural mentoring programme which offers a free 6-month individual service for young migrant job seekers with people over 50 years of age who have professional experience in a similar field to theirs;

Progetto Quid (Italy), an ethical fashion brand which helps vulnerable and disadvantaged groups such as asylum seekers, victims of slavery, prostitution and domestic violence to enter the labour market;

Institute of Robotics for Dependency (IRD) (Spain) with its project Laundry ID aimed at creating jobs for people with disabilities in a laundry service technologically redesigned and adapted to their needs.