Coca‑Cola HBC Romania Selected its Non-Governmental Partner, which will Coordinate and Implement the ‘Youth Empowered Program

The Social Incubator Association is the non-governmental partner of Coca‑Cola HBC Romania, selected by the company to coordinate and implement the new social responsibility program, ‘Youth Empowered. The organization was awarded the project following a project contest launched in April.

The main objective of the ‘Youth Empowered’ program is to increase the chances of young people, ages 18 to 25, in NEET category (Not Employed, in Education or Training), to become active on the Romanian labour market.

The Social Incubator is one of the most active non-governmental organizations in Romania, working for the benefit of underprivileged young people, by enabling their social-economic integration. The organization was created by a group of professionals who wanted to generate the proper context and framework in which young people at a crossroads regarding their future are able to find the support they need to identify certain paths to increasing their chances of finding a job and having their lives changed for the better.

"Youth Empowered" is a local program, part of the #YouthEmpowered initiative launched by the Coca‑Cola HBC Group. The initiative focuses on the development of professional and personal skills, which contribute to improving the lives of young people, by increasing their chances of becoming employed, as well as by stimulating their capacity to make decisions with positive impact on their future. 

23% of all the young people in Romania, ages 18 to 25, i.e. approximately 440,000 young people*, are not active on the labour market, are not enlisted in any educational institution or any personal development program, according to the Eurostat data. ** Based on this percentage, Romania ranks 4th in Europe, in terms of the unemployment of NEET young people (Not Employed, in Education or Training). 

About The Social Incubator Association

The Social Incubator Association is a non-profit organization, created in 2014 by a group of professionals and friends who wanted to create a platform for the initiatives with significant social impact on the lives of people in difficulty, whether they are young people in institutional care, elders, and women in risk situations or other economically or socially marginalized categories. The mission of the organization is social and professional integration of the people in difficulty, through training workshops and innovative entrepreneurship solutions. The initiatives of the organization follow four guidelines: the social impact must be direct, sustainable, nationally scalable and obtained through new, creative solutions. 

About Coca‑Cola HBC Romania

Coca‑Cola HBC is one of the largest bottling companies of the Coca‑Cola Company, with sales of over 2 billion units. The company operates in an extended geographic area, with activities in 28 countries, covering a population of approximately 590 million people. Coca‑Cola HBC provides a wide range of soft drinks, including carbonated drinks, juices, water, energizers, tea and coffee. Coca‑Cola HBS promotes a durable development, generating value for its business and for the society in which it operates. To this end, the company provides soft drinks which meet the various needs of the consumers, while encouraging an open work environment and developing its activity in a responsible manner, in order to protect the environment and maintain it unchanged, while contributing to the social and economic development of the local communities. 

Coca‑Cola HBC is leader of the beverage industry, in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (both at global and at European level) and it is included in the FTSE4Good Index. In Romania, as well as in all the countries where it operates, Coca‑Cola owns and operates a proprietary system, including all the links required for the production and distribution of products to the consumers. In Romania, the system includes Coca‑Cola Romania (branch of the Coca‑Cola Company, owner of the trademarks) and its partner, Coca‑Cola Hellenic, named Coca‑Cola HBC Romania, which bottles and distributes the Coca‑Cola products, under the Coca‑Cola Company trademark in Romania. For more information about the company, please visit www.coca-colahellenic.ro and www.thecoca-colacompany.com. 

Sources: Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union), fonduri-ue.ro

* http://www.fonduri-ue.ro/acord-parteneriat (2014)

** http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/7590616/3-11082016-AP-EN.pdf/c0393ef3-2ea1-455a-ab64-2271c41fd9d4 (August 2016)