Zabrze

Zabrze is a city in southern Poland with 194,000 inhabitants. Zabrze is part of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union (with 2.2 million inhabitants). In the 19th century Zabrze became an important site of the mining industry and some sites of this important past are nowadays developed for tourism. Since 1989, Zabrze has undergone tremendous social and economic change, accompanied by the emigration of qualified young people. In spite of the fast growing economy, the unemployment rate remains at 12.4 % which is still above theregional average. Long-term unemployment is developing among people who can not cope with economic and cultural change.

The Zabrze Local Support Group developes a cooperation to improve the situation in Biskupice and to develop a project for women, where vocational training and labour market actions are combined.

The target area Biskupice is a poor district to the north of the city not well conected with the centre. It is characterised by historic development since the late Middle Ages and 19th century housing estates for mining workers. The unemploymet rate there is at 38 €.