A zero long-term unemployment districts project (TZCLD) in Val-d'Oise

To put an end to long-term unemployment, public and private stakeholders have come together to operate the “zero long-term unemployment districts” programme (TZCLD). After an experiment started in 2017 involving ten districts, the programme was extended by the public authorities at the end of 2020.

One of the candidates for TZCLD classification is the district of Bouffémont-Attainville-Moisselles (9,400 inhabitants), located north of Paris in the Val d'Oise.

A carpentry and a resource centre

As early as 2019, an employment-oriented business (EBE) was set up there to explore potential activities. Market gardening activity has been initiated on an 800 m² plot of land provided by Bouffémont Municipal Council, a carpentry business has been created and the establishment of a citizen concierge is planned, always with the support of the Veolia Foundation.

Finding the right balance in a given district between real needs, activities abandoned by the private sector and economic sustainability is a difficult equation. Through its cost reallocation mechanism, the TZCLD zero long-term unemployment district programme provides solutions. In Bouffémont, Attainville and Moisselles, the objective is to employ more than 350 long-term unemployed people.

Achieving full memberships of the TZCLD programme

After the exploratory phase of testing activities and setting up organisational structures in cooperation with a team of highly motivated volunteers, the objective is also and above all for the Bouffémont-Attainville-Moisselles district to be selected by the Territorial Experimentation Fund Against Long-term Unemployment (ETCLD) to fully enter the TZCLD programme. The process could be completed by the end of 2021.

By focusing on a fragile population living in extreme poverty, the “zero long-term unemployment districts” programme targets a section of the population that is difficult to engage with, aiming for a particularly ambitious objective of economic and professional integration. To achieve this in a specific district, it relies on all possible public and private stakeholders. This is undoubtedly a key approach to tackling large-scale social exclusion