Social and Employment
Place
Saint-Sébastien, France
Sponsor
Olivier Relotius
Grant(s)
€20,000 to the Selection Committee at 2005/02/08
Project leader
Pin de Vie la Traversière
« I met Mr Jail, the director of the Association. The Pin de Vie project corresponds exactly to the spirit of the Veolia foundation. It is robust, well managed and long-lasting: already 15 years old! »
Olivier Relotius
The Pin de Vie la Traversière Association at Saint-Sébastien in the south of the Isère region was founded in 1989 and provides shelter and training to a group of people with a series of problems: multiple drug addictions, delinquency, long-term unemployment and vagrancy. In fact, they may never had held down a job.
Pin de Vie la Traversière is an authorised organisation to provide assistance in reintegrating such people into society.
The Association combines environmental protection — it has responsibility for forest maintenance and the upkeep of the banks of rivers and streams — with the re-employment of highly disadvantaged individuals. The people who are accepted learn once again the satisfaction of a job well done, respect for timetables and the works code and they gradually reacquire a balance of physical and mental health. They are offered training and devise a job plan.
Their personal and occupational progress is monitored by a supervisor who understands the issues around reintegrating into society and the workplace.
Self-financing investments in three years
Hearty horses from Franche-Comté, perfectly suited to mountainous terrain, are part of the team.
Pin de Vie needed a shot in the arm in order to expand its work, make safe the jobs of permanent employees and increase its intake capability, ultimately creating 19 jobs under the French CES contract for employment solidarity. There were several goals: bringing equipment up to standard, improved housing conditions and purchase of a vehicle for the many staff journeys to and from worksites. A three-year budget slated the self-financing of investments in the third year.
The grant of €20,000 from the Veolia foundation enabled the Association to replace an old tractor used for worksite haulage and no longer in compliance with staff safety standards.