Golden Compass UNDP Special Prize goes to “First Chance” programme

July 8, 2022

At the 20th Golden Compass Award Ceremony, Louisa Vinton, UNDP Resident Representative in Türkiye, gave the UNDP Special Prize to Esas Sosyal and ARPR Communications Consulting for the “First Chance Programme with the Vision of Şevket Sabancı”.

At the 20th Golden Compass Awards, UNDP Special Prize was given to the “First Chance Programme with the Vision of Şevket Sabancı” implemented by Esas Sosyal to offer equal opportunities as a solution to educated youth unemployment

At the 20th Golden Compass Awards given by the Public Relations Association of Türkiye (TÜHİD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Special Prize being awarded 10th time this year was given to the “First Chance Programme with the Vision of Şevket Sabancı” proposing solutions to youth unemployment.

Awarded to projects that have broadest scope and strongest economic, social and environmental impact on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UNDP Special Prize was awarded this year to Esas Sosyal and ARPR Communications Consulting as a result of UNDP’s evaluation of 192 individual applications.

Functioning as the social investment unit of Esas Holding, Esas Sosyal focuses on youth employment and offers solutions to inequalities of opportunities during the transition from school to labour market faced by young people who have graduated from public universities less preferred by employers.

The programme provides new graduates with an opportunity of 12-month full-time paid work in the leading NGOs in Türkiye, and skills development at the First Chance Academy, as well as supports them in managing their school-to-work transition.

Launched in 2016, the First Chance Programme has to date touched the lives of 200 young people.

Emphasizing her happiness to award the UNDP Special Prize to Esas Sosyal, Louisa Vinton, UNDP Resident Representative in Türkiye, said, “First Chance is a well-designed programme that aims to solve the unemployment problem of educated youth, one of the most important challenges in Türkiye. Among 192 projects that applied to the 20th Golden Compass Awards, we chose Esas Sosyal as deserving the prize for its observance of diversity, inclusiveness and sustainability goals by its social impact, contribution to youth employment and development, and concurrent support to NGOs.”

Underlining that they were much happy to be rewarded by such a highly respected institution, Emine Sabancı Kamışlı, Deputy Chair of Esas Holding Executive Board, said, “It is a special honour to be awarded by UNDP which leads and guides the entire globe by its findings on and approaches to sustainability. We do our best to create awareness on the unemployment of educated youth as our central endeavour, and believe that the public is becoming aware of this. When we lend a hand to our youth, our supporters lend their hands to us, thereby we all make a strong ecosystem growing every day and aiming to provide more chances to more youth.”

Esas Sosyal mobilizes an ecosystem of 2,500 people including approximately 40 institutional supporters, mentors, human resources and sectoral professionals and trainers to create by its programmes collective impact and awareness on equal opportunities for youth employment, diversity and inclusiveness.

Esas Sosyal’s activities aim to contribute to achieving SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

The UNDP Special Prize in the set of Golden Compass Awards has since 2012 been awarded to honour enterprises with the best perspective on environmental and social impacts.