Justin Rognon takes up the challenge: social inclusion of street people
Montreuil (93)
Francis Cymbler, who has been an actor for the past 20 years, decided eight years ago to help distribute meals to street people. He joined the association Lumière Dans la Rue (located at the gare du Nord), where he discovered the world of street life and its population of socially excluded individuals by serving them meals. He was dissatisfied with the way the association was run, so he left it with other voluntary workers to set up a new association, L'un et l'autre, which also distributes meals during the still not very popular weekend period.
Francis also encountered the Collectif des Morts de la Rue ("Dead Street People's Collective"), which organises the funerals of street people. There, too, he became a voluntary worker. As this collective also runs a newspaper entitled Aux 4 coins de la rue ("At the 4 corners of the street"), Francis has his hands full.
The work of the two associations is based on the joint action of voluntary workers and those who benefit from it: in the case of L'un et l'autre, homeless individuals are actively involved in distributing meals and have also recently begun to help with their preparation; the collective runs a weekly workshop that brings together the association's voluntary workers with street people and enables them to think up ways of celebrating funerals. Francis meets and establishes contacts with street people and uses the distribution of meals as an opportunity to sit down at table with them. He says he is the only one to do this at the moment, but has not lost hope that this will change. L'un et l'autre has recently been able to employ two staff under assisted-employment contracts, a mother of 57 and a young man, both of whom were in serious difficulties.
As he had always lived a hand-to-mouth existence on temporary show-business contracts, his situation became even worse when he began to receive the minimum integration income (RMI). It was then that he began to look for a way out in the very essence of his profession: with the wealth of knowledge he had gained from his meetings with street people and from the moments he had experienced in the various associations with which he had been involved and, imbued with the spirit of the street, he created his own character: Justin Rognon, the stereotype of a homeless person.
This character, who has accompanied Francis for almost eight years now, was initially a clown and presented shows on various themes, with the subject of street life naturally by far the most popular: Justin Rognon became a "street clown". Then, eighteen months ago, he discarded his red nose to become Justin Rognon the Homeless in the show Sur La Route ("On the Road").
Encounter with the street: the early stages
Francis presented a 15-minute outline of his show in the context of a contribution by the Collectif des Morts de la Rue at a seminar on the subject of street life held at the Ecole des Mines in 2005. At that event, he met Elisabeth Bourguignat, from the association Accomplir, who asked him to contribute to an event organised by the Les Halles Residents' Association with the aim of establishing a left-luggage service for the homeless people living in the district. Francis was asked to prepare an entire evening on the basis of the 15 minutes already produced. This was the trigger that enabled him to develop his show and his project, which he now calls Rencontre avec la rue ("Encounter with the Street").
The show
The evening is centred on five elements: the welcoming of the audience, the show, the debate, the soup and the newspaper. The audience is welcomed with the help of the partner associations. For the first presentation, Accomplir enlisted the assistance of other local associations to moderate and participate in the evening: the Collectif des Morts de la Rue handled the welcoming of the audience with the presentation of a patchwork created for a funeral celebration, Accomplir moderated the debate, the Cerise cultural centre lent its premises for the rehearsals and helped with the organisation, and L'un et l'autre prepared the soup. The composition of the partnership is a key aspect of the "Encounter with the Street" evening. At each performance, the elements of the show vary according to which partners are present. The idea of an encounter with street life is fundamental: the audience is always very heterogeneous in terms of the degree of economic vulnerability so as to create a real encounter and a real debate ? and a genuine human relationship.
The 50-minute show is intended for all audiences over 15 years of age. "It's not just entertainment", Francis says. Introduced by a humorous sequence, the main body of the show deals with the real problems of street people and enables their own voices to be heard ? voices that are sometimes hard to hear and may be violent or even racist but nevertheless "have a right to be heard". According to Elisabeth Bourguignat, "His discourse is puzzling. It is true that he sometimes presents the homeless individual as a stigmatised person, but it is to his credit that he does not leave the audience indifferent and that he initiates a debate".
Creation of a professional project, ideas for establishing contacts
Francis Cymbler is planning his future show. As "Encounter with the Street" originated from his own personal situation, he is continuing to pursue his professional project by varying what he does: apart from staging the entertainment evening, he is planning other activities relating to the social inclusion of street people, training professional social workers and raising public awareness.
Planned workshop for vagrants. Moderated by Francis and by Catherine Gendron (both trained in art therapy), the workshop would be held over a period varying from several weeks to one year and comprise work through written expression and a theatrical production based on the life history of these individuals. For Francis, understanding and expressing one's break with society is a key element in the reintegration process.
The main objectives of the workshop are to:
- recreate the social bond around vagrant people;
- enable personal stories to be told and fictionalised;
- rediscover values of reciprocity and solidarity through collective creation;
- revisit and become aware of one's life history in order to understand one's break with society;
- make difficult experiences seem less dramatic by means of theatre;
- become part of a social integration project and enable the focus to be placed on the appropriate schemes.
A theatrical performance is planned at the end of the workshop. Going on the stage enables socially excluded individuals to be heard and observed in a way that is perfectly legitimate.
Francis was able to test this proposal for the first time at an "Encounter with the Street" production at the Le Hublot theatre in Colombes on 20 January 2007. Before that, he worked for a month with street people on self-expression through the written or spoken word or song. This exercise enabled them to go on stage and express themselves before an audience. The audience were able to listen to these people's touching stories through a text on happiness, a rap song describing their life, an impromptu speech or a discourse in the form of an interview.
Project of an awareness campaign for schools (for 15-year-olds and over) or as part of the show.
About half a day's work would be devoted to the activities of the Collectif des Morts de la Rue and L'Un et l'Autre and accompanied by the distribution of the newspaper, a shorter version of the show and a participatory workshop.
Project of a 3-day training course for professional social workers entitled "In search of one's own potential"
Here, the participants would work through writing and theatre on the character of a "socially excluded person", the objective being for them to become aware of the social exclusion phenomenon and gain a better understanding of those confronted with it.
The course would be introduced by Francis's show and combine creative work, discussions and analyses, with the participants creating their character, putting it on stage and acting it. This artistic work would be punctuated by discussions and analyses in order to ensure a constructive approach.
Another training course that Francis envisages devising (this is still at the preliminary draft stage) would be aimed at voluntary workers and be set up as a role play exercise to learn the right behaviour towards street people, some of whom could conceivably join the team of moderators.
Events are not only prepared by Francis. When he has received a request, he emphasises the need for the participation of several local players to create the link to the neighbourhood, its inhabitants and its homeless people, to raise awareness and to persuade the public to come along. "I can't do everything on my own. We have to work together. I'm not a magician", Francis humbly explains, "I sow seeds to give people a little help".
Aware that he cannot work any miracles, he welcomes the opportunity to have the street people express their views by trying to create activities that seem to be simply entertaining but in fact convey a genuine reflection on their problems, a reflection that may be the key to their social reintegration.
