Bellevue Secondary School in Albi was granted EUR 116 000 to take part in the Erasmus+ project ‘Fighting the scourge of high-risk behaviour!’, alongside three schools in Spain, Greece and Portugal. Together, they put on workshops on cyberbullying, responsible screen use and sleep. The project received a ‘good practice’ label.

Every year, the Jardins de La Landelle in Palleville host a workshop designed to help over 40 people who are vulnerable or facing precarity integrate socially and professionally by giving them a paid job in organic market gardening, landscaping or working in a kitchen. Between 2005 and 2020, the EU contributed over EUR 870 300 (40% of the total cost) to the project.

A new shopping centre was built in 2017 in an effort to boost Albi’s priority neighbourhood of Cantepau, providing inhabitants with local shops and medical services. The project received an EU grant of close to EUR 830 000 (50% of the total cost) so that the new retailers could be offered lower rents.

The Castres-Mazamet science park is involved in the ‘Links Up’ project (budget: EUR 1 million, 75% EU-financed), which aims to establish links between start-ups and economic players in the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion, and to support their growth by accelerating market access for their products and facilitating access to financing.

In Albi, a new healthcare training institute has opened on the Champollion campus, thanks to a contribution of EUR 1.26 million from the EU (one third of the total cost). It is an amalgamation of two existing nurse-training institutes and welcomes 600 students in a town in which the health sector is the primary employer.

The new Borde-Basse campus building opened its doors at the start of the 2019 academic year, after receiving EUR 1.28 million in EU funding (40% of the total cost). It houses a documentation centre, a ‘fab lab’, collaborative workspaces, and social and relaxation areas for the roughly 900 students in Castres.