3rd year of implementation (February – December 2026)
For the third consecutive year, the “Bridging the Gap” program continues, reaffirming the strong partnership between SolidarityNow and Alpha Bank, with the aim of supporting women living under conditions of social exclusion in accessing the labor market.
Building on the experience and results of previous years, the program further strengthens its support and empowerment services, while also expanding its geographical reach through its launch in Thessaloniki, at the Solidarity Center.
Services framework
Participants are supported by a specialized Employment Counsellor and have access to a holistic range of services aimed at:
- Developing job-search skills through personalised employment counselling
- Connecting them with suitable job opportunities through SolidarityNow’s network of partner companies
- Referring them to partner training providers to strengthen their professional skills
- Facilitating the resolution of administrative barriers that limit their access to employment.
The program continues to target women facing multiple barriers, such as mental health challenges or other medical conditions, single parenthood, experiences of gender-based violence, long-term unemployment, limited connection to education or the labor market, as well as migrant and refugee women.
At the same time, collaboration with companies and organizations is being strengthened in order to create employment opportunities within environments that promote equality, diversity and inclusion. “Bridging the Gap” remains an important tool for the social inclusion and professional empowerment of women who are marginalized from the labor market.
2nd year of implementation (January – December 2025)
The 2nd year of implementation of the program has been completed, with a more targeted and exclusive focus on empowering vulnerable women to enter the labor market, achieve autonomy and strengthen their employment resilience.
Results
During the second implementation period, “Bridging the Gap” supported 163 women from 35 different countries. These women faced increased support needs, as 43% were single parents with dependents, 24% were living with a disability, 19% were survivors of gender-based violence, while 13% faced multiple vulnerabilities.
Through the program’s support, 39 women successfully entered the labor market, securing both skilled and unskilled positions across productive sectors of the economy.
The program was implemented at the Athens Solidarity Center and the women supported by the specialised Employment Counsellor had access to:
- Individualized job counselling and professional orientation
- Job placement counselling
- Referral to partner training institutions
- Participation in skills development workshops and empowerment groups.
The focus of the initiative was on providing support to women from vulnerable groups, such as:
- Women with mental health issues or other medical conditions
- Single-parent families
- Survivors of gender-based violence
- Long-term unemployed
- Young women who are neither working nor studying, and
- Migrant and refugee women.
1st year of implementation (October 2023 – October 2024)
The “Bridging the Gap” initiative aimed to support and empower people who do not have equal opportunities to access the job market, with a particular focus on unemployed women from socially vulnerable backgrounds (e.g. women with mental health problems, medical conditions, single-parent families, survivors of gender-based violence, long-term unemployed, young women who are neither working nor studying, migrants/refugees), in order to join the labour market through the development of a network of employers throughout Greece.
The main goal of the program was to bridge the needs of the private sector and the needs for employment of people coming from specific social groups. In addition to the direct beneficiaries, the dependent members of the unemployed women were benefited as well through the program.
Results
- 100 companies committed to working conditions based on equality, diversity, and inclusion joined the project network.
The majority of the companies in the network developed are from the tourism and food service, manufacturing, cleaning, construction, customer service and other technical sectors.
Given that most of the beneficiaries of “Bridging the Gap” either do not speak Greek or are relatively newcomers to the Greek labour market, they can respond to low-skilled positions.
- 333 participants received personalised job counselling services and were linked to job vacancies in the network’s companies.
- 103 unemployed women finally found a job.
Job Fair implementation
During the implementation of the program, the Employability Services in Athens and Thessaloniki organised two job fairs.
Athens | +Ergasia: Co-organized with Odyssea | 16-17 February 2023 at Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens.
- 22 participating companies
- 850 participants
- 2000 on-site interviews
- 350 people received job offers
Thessaloniki | Job Fair, 13 March at the Blue Refugee Center
- 279 participants (refugees and migrants)
- 15 prospective employers from a variety of business sectors
- 230+ job on offer
- 770 on-site interviews
Awareness-raising actions
- Conducting an Interactive Seminar on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in the Workplace (D.E.I.), in the framework of +Ergasia.
- Regular participation in the Employability Working Group of Thessaloniki and the corresponding Athens Coordination Center for Migrant & Refugee issues (ACCMR).
- Signing of four Memorandums of Understanding with enterprises belonging to the network.
The program is implemented with the support of Alpha Bank.
