Socio-economic integration through sustainable development: creating well-being at every level
Département des Hauts-de-Seine (92)
Espaces is an association for integration through nature-related trades that applies a different type of management to natural urban spaces in the Seine Valley.
Established at Meudon in Hauts-de-Seine, Espaces was born of the idea of several people living in the Seine Valley to found an association linking the ecological and the social. It began in 1994 with its first team of eco-roadmen (with employment support contracts) on sites on the banks of the Seine at Issy-les-Moulineaux, Meudon and Sèvres, with the twofold objective of rehabilitating the river banks which had become neglected industrial wasteland and giving the former workmen and homeless living by the river the opportunity to work again.
The issue is to create a socially supportive economic process
The sites the association has worked on include the following abandoned areas: the banks of the Seine; the SNCF and T2 railway embankments in the northern Seine Valley; the Petite Ceinture railway line in Auteuil; Saint-Cloud national park (the wooded part); sites that the Hauts-de-Seine General Council considers threatened natural areas (in the Seine Valley); pieces of wasteland that are now gardens.
Espaces is involved in a multitude of actions for the well-being of people and the environment, but two projects stand out for the strong socially supportive links they forge in their respective districts: Le Jardin Solidaire and Les Jardins de l'Espoir.
Le Jardin Solidaire in Clamart: cultivating recognition and the social link
In the form of a workshop and integration site (WIS), Espaces has established a true garden of links in the heart of Clamart.
WISs are government-approved integration through economic activity measures whose objective is to recruit unemployed people with special social and vocational problems. The people have a genuine employment contact (contract for the future or employment assistance contract), while the WIS receives various forms of aid, one of which is specific to assistance.
In addition to integration through economic activity and the development of urban ecology, the two prime objectives, the garden forges numerous social links among local people, associations, volunteers, social action workers and integration employees, and gives the last of these real recognition.
Five employees recruited under renewable six-month contracts cultivate and maintain the garden using organic methods that completely respect the environment: collection of rain water, natural compost, organic seeds, no chemicals, respect for the rhythm of the seasons and rotations of crops are some of the fundamental principles.
One day of training per week and follow-up by a team of professionals support the objective of a return to a sustainable and stable job. The contact with the earth and plants and the experience gained open up new opportunities.
Feeling useful to society: a key factor in well-being
According to Isabelle Trinité, who runs the garden, when the employees arrive, they are in a poor psychological state; it is extremely difficult to establish a relationship of trust with them, but doing so is essential if the work is to run smoothly and if their employment projects are to be successful.
Intimidated and lacking in self-confidence, their development follows the rhythm of their apprenticeship: when they arrive they try to avoid all contact with visitors but, as they learn, they acquire an assurance that enables them to take part in the activities run for the public: going towards the public, answering their questions, giving them information, even giving them gardening advice; demonstrating their work to children. This gives them real recognition and gives them back their dignity and a feeling of being of use to society, essential elements of the integration process.
Other types of support are given at the garden:
- a retired teacher comes to give the employees French lessons, which, in particular, help them to improve their communication skills;
- an art therapist runs a pottery workshop with the aim of opening up dialogue;
- the employees themselves are supportive of each other: they remain attached, not only to the place, of which they are very proud, but also to their friends, whom they come back to visit after the end of the end of their contract in order to encourage them and give them confidence in their future.
Divided into four parts (a kitchen garden, an orchard, a herb garden and flowerbeds), the garden is open to visitors (mainly people from the neighbourhood) and offers introduction to gardening activities for kindergartens, schools and clubs. Isabelle Trinité, assisted by her employees, receives and supervises visitors and runs the activities.
The activities offered are based on the lifecycle of plants: the children can follow their development from seeds to harvest and learn ecological cultivation methods. Knowledge is automatically transmitted to parents, who are also invited to learn and given a few tips such as the plants that are ideal partners: leeks and strawberries or carrots and radishes grow better when they are planted side-by-side.
The inhabitants of the neighbourhood also come spontaneously to work voluntarily and usually leave with a little basket of fruit and vegetables.
Gardening is very beneficial for children who are a little unruly and enables their energy to be channelled; some of them even say their school marks improve. In any case, they are all very respectful: they look after their own rubbish and see that the place is clean.
The meetings and activities make the garden an ideal place for all sorts of gatherings: neighbourhood parties and meals are regularly held there.
Despite the undoubted success, the garden nonetheless has some problems: communication with the outside in order to make itself known to the general public and the financial problem, although it is subsidised by various public bodies. The solution is perhaps to be found in the commercial activity the garden is trying to develop: the conservation of seeds and plants for sale to local people (at a token price) and the sale of baskets of vegetables. Also the money from membership and participation in competitions: all this could help to finance all or some of the activities.
Les Jardins de l'Espoir (social integration garden) at Meudon
On the initiative of Espaces and with funding from the Ile-de-France Regional Council and the active participation of the Orphelins Apprentis in Auteuil, an unused piece of land in the middle of housing estates in Meudon became Les Jardins de l'Espoir in June 2000.
This is a social integration garden but, unlike the gardens involved in integration through economic activity, its primary aim is social reintegration.
Funded by the Regional Council, it takes people in precarious situations or who are isolated or in difficulty: people receiving the RMI (minimum integration income), elderly people living alone, migrants ? some of whom are illegal ?, asylum-seekers etc.
Work in the garden is voluntary. The people who come are free to work or not. For those who are in financial difficulty, working in the garden, although unpaid, enables them to leave with a basket of vegetables and have a hot midday meal.
Anyone can of course visit the garden; visitors include clubs who come to the 1,700m2 of kitchen and flower gardens whose cultivation is 100% organic and which are equipped with solar panels and a windmill.
A great many parties and shared meals are organised by the management team or volunteers, as well as cultural events: a mosaic workshop, sculpture and photographic exhibitions, concerts, etc.
People in situations of exclusion are given integration support by the management team, which directs them to the appropriate social services and encourages them to take themselves in hand. For some of them this has been a veritable lifeline.
André was in a difficult situation following an accident at work: he was living on the minimum integration income, had physical and psychological disabilities and believed he could no longer work. His arrival at the Jardins de l'Espoir worked miracles: he regained his self-confidence and was so motivated by the work that after a few months as a volunteer he was given an integration contract in the garden where for two years now he has had an open-ended contract for maintenance and supervision: his responsibilities include activities for young people from clubs.
Another example is a young Franco-Chilean who arrived in France with no money or home and unable to speak French. He was taken in hand by the team, which directed him to the appropriate services: he learned the language, regularised his administrative situation and, after a short period of integration in the garden, found a permanent job in the park maintenance field.
The ambition goes beyond the local or even the national context: Claude Bonvarlet, who is in contact with the associations in New York that pioneered the system of town gardens, wants to take the garden's volunteers there for an exchange project.
Despite all of this, it is still difficult to mobilise the public but the local people, who were reticent at first, are beginning to come and discover this special place where links are forged.
