Poverty is a social problem affecting many European cities and neighbourhoods; especially in so-called ghetto neighbourhoods (Wilson, 2010) affecting with special emphasis the most disadvantaged groups, among them young people from cultural minorities and low-educated (Atkinson & Da Voudi, 2000; Sordé, Flecha & Alexiu, 2013). For instance, the proportion of Roma children aged 7 to 15 who are not in education reaches the 35 % in some regions of Europe (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2012). Furthermore, despite the important differences between national contexts, in some countries in Southern Europe only about 1 out of 10 Roma aged 20 to 64 is reported as being in paid employment. Departing from this social challenge, this paper presents some of the main contributions of the project of the Spanish RTD Project "Social and educational actions to overcome poverty" (Valls, 2012 -2014) which aims: 1) to identify socio-educational actions that have provided evidences to contribute to overcoming poverty in highly deprived areas and, 2) based on the identified actions, to provide guidance in the development of public policies that contribute to overcoming poverty. Within the framework of this project, the aim of the present paper is to provide socio-educational actions that are overcoming the exclusion of young residents in one of the most disadvantaged area of Spain. Young participants in this case study meet the following characteristics: (a) they belong to cultural minority groups –mainly Roma– (b) they have faced persisting situations of unemployment and (c) they are early school-leavers.

The strategy Europe 2020 (European Commission, 2010) highlights education as one of the strategic areas to break the poverty circles and obtain a sustainable and inclusive growth. Develop the potential of education implies facing some educational challenges, such as the persistence of early school leaving in most European countries (Brunello & De Paola, 2013). Thus,empirical evidence shows there is a strong relationship between unemployment and early school leaving: the unemployment rate of the early school leavers was 40.1% as opposed to 23.2% of the youth unemployment rate in Europe (European Commission, 2013). Furthermore, schools and education can provide preventive effects against poverty, not only among children but also among young school leavers when exclusion has already occurred (Gruenewald, 2003). This depends to a great extent of the capacity of schools to break down the structural, organizational and cultural barriers that prevent vulnerable groups to engage in schools and education (Carreón, Drake & Barton, 2005).  

Some studies have analysed the implication of urban schools and other educational agents in integrative strategies oriented to respond to the multidimensional nature of poverty (Frankenberg & Orfield, 2007). In this regard, current research show success stories on such integrative actions. Croke & Thompson (2011) have highlighted the Youth Transition Demonstration Project (YTD), an initiative developed by a group of researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) in the Bronx (New York), aimed to improve the preparation of students with disabilities to increase their employment opportunities and reduce social exclusion. The INCLUD-ED Project (Flecha, 2015) has identified successful actions across Europe that enhance the potential of the community in school settings, regardless of the socio-economic and contextual characteristics of participants. Among these strategies, educative and decisive participation has been reported to have the greatest impact on improving disadvantaged youth and social cohesion.

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