Support most vulnerable & fight against isolation

The association Comptoir de la Voûte, created in 2011 by Secours Catholique - Caritas France, is an organization working on integration of unemployed persons by economic activity using the textile collected at Secours Catholique headquarters, 106 rue du Bac in Paris.

The people who are welcomed, most of them women, are salaried in the form of subsidized contracts. They participate in the economic activity of the organization and receive socio-professional support aiming permanent employment in the traditional economic circuit for the workers.

Comptoir de la Voûte's field of activity is the recycling of second-hand clothing, namely the collection, sorting, washing, ironing and marketing of garments in its stores, open to all publics. BIS boutique solidaire thus allows people with small financial means to acquire quality clothing at a very cheap price.

The activity began in January 2012 with the opening of a sorting workshop in the 19th district of Paris, followed in March 2012 by the opening of the store BIS boutique solidaire, Temple Boulevard, in the 3rd district. A second BIS boutique opened in 2016, Lamartine Street in the 9th district.

BIS boutique solidaire's positioning consists in marketing, in a high-end space, an ultra qualitative textile offer - only focused on fashionable, upscale, luxury, couture and vintage items - at a low price (10% of the new price), for women, men and children. This concept is relatively unique in Paris and remains in 2018 without competition in terms of value for money.

Comptoir de la Voûte annually collects 350 tons of textile (1.1 million garments), from 7 associative partners including Secours Catholique-Caritas France (whose headquarters, in the wealthy 7th district, allows a collection of high quality clothes). 170,000 clothes were delivered to BIS boutiques in 2017 and 50,000 distributed free of charge to its associative partners (Secours Catholique of Seine St Denis, Les Petits Frères des Pauvres and Corot Entraide).

To date, Comptoir de la Voûte has a 26 full-time staff (including 8 permanent and 18 subsidized positions) and since 2012, more than 130 integration courses have been created.

Since the start of the project, an extreme attention has been paid to the support's quality. People recruited are systematically far from employment, both socially and professionally. Employees are only recruited according to their motivation, regardless their eventual decision to go for a project or professional experience in the textile industry. There are very few pre-requisites for hiring, other than the need to have a driver's license.

Comptoir de la Voûte proposes an innovative support for workers on integration compared to other equivalent SSE (social and solidarity economy) organizations in at least two aspects:

• an extremely professionalized approach regading the economic activity (management coming mainly from fashion, business concept, sorting and logistics methodology, reporting...) to generate significant revenues and dedicate significant resources to the workers' accompaniment,
• truly employee-centered courses with a systematic priority given to the workers integration rather than the workshop's production, with long periods devoted to training, enabling achievements in terms of re-employment above average nowadays.

Indeed, workers in integration can benefit, during their working hours, from individual support (social diagnosis / orientation and follow-up, drawing up a skills report, developing a professional project, training in job search techniques and assistance in this research), external refresher training or vocational training, or even qualifying, ranging from a few days to several months.

Initially created in the form of a Workshop - a legal form strongly subsidized by the State - the organization has since been transformed into an integration company because of the important revenues realized in the shops. The impact of this status change is far from being neutral, since in the context of an integration company, government's grant for the funding of subsidized contracts is much lower.

Despite a very important commercial success of the concept BIS - the revenues of the 3rd district's boutique has progressed of 20% during the last 4 years, without significant increase of the prices - the level of margin remains low. This can be explained in particular by the cost of Paris's rental charges, the large workforce needed to carry out the activities and the fact that Comptoir de la Voûte acquires most of the volumes of textiles treated, unlike other associations like Emmaus who collects a lot of clothing donations.

In order to sustain its activity and its integration offer, Comptoir de la Voûte has focused its thinking on an ambitious development plan for 2018-2019. This development plan is based on two main areas of work:

• the development of textile collection
• the opening of a third Parisian sales point BIS boutique solidaire.

About the textile collection, the goal is to collect 500 tons of textile (at least) in 2019, which is a necessary condition to open the third BIS boutique solidaire. To reach this major challenge, several tracks have already been launched:

• The development of new partnerships with textile collectors around the project. This is how the partnerships with 3 associations started in 2018. And new partnerships are being studied with 4 majors French associations.
• It is planned to install in Paris, thirty or so collection points BIS boutique solidaire in partnership with associations that will provide a small space in their premises. A communication plan, supported in particular by the City of Paris, is planned to ensure the launch of these collection points.
• Partnerships with Parisian stores that could accommodate BIS boutique solidarity containers are also planned.

The establishment of the third BIS boutique is planned in the 20th arrondissement of Paris in September 2019, in an eclectic neighbourhood. The commercial space will have a sales area of approximately 50 square meters on a high traffic location. The objective is to achieve, in a full year, a €500,000 revenue.

With this development plan, Comptoir de la Voûte hopes to absorb the fixed costs of the sorting workshop and considers a significant level of profitability by 2020 thanks to these scale economies, thus ensuring the sustainability of the organizations and their long-term integration offer.

The implementation of the 2018-2019 development plan should make it possible to significantly increase the supply of employment and integration. As of 2019, 10 additional positions will be created in all our activities, bringing the total number of structures to 36 full-time positions, including 24 subsidized contracts:
- 1 complementary position at the workshop to supervise pickup and logistics, which will become necessary with the increase in the number of collection points,
- 4 additional subsidized positions on driver functions and sorting agents,
- 2 additional store manager positions, made necessary for the opening of a third shop,
- 3 subsidized positions of additional sellers.

Over 3 years, more than 25 additional courses could be opened and with the creation of the new store, 25,000 additional sales per year, which will partly benefit people with low incomes.

The overall cost of the project is estimated at €270,000, distributed around the following axes:

• development of textile collection (purchase of storage and communication solutions),
• purchase of 2 commercial vehicles to cope with the huge increase in the number of collection points,
• Rental and development and opening of the third BIS shop and launching communication.

Secours Catholique supported the creation of Comptoir de La Voûte for € 220,000 in 2011. Today, Secours Catholique has decided to participate in this development project, in line with the partnership that has linked the 2 organizations from the beginning and will therefore provide a €100,000 financial support to Comptoir de la Voûte.

Links:

• Bis boutique solidaire's Facebook page
• Bis boutique solidaire's website

• Report in French (PDF)
  

The alternation of drought and flooding in the San Cristobal de las Casas region (Mexico) is 
confronting peasants to a state of growing impoverishment and food insecurity. For several 
years, Secours Catholique-Caritas France has been supporting communities in this region to 
strengthen food security. At the end of this project in March 2018, Secours Catholique-Caritas 
France commissioned (as usual) the evaluation of this project. Following the results of this 
evaluation, the participation of Secours Catholique in the continuation of this project could be 
validated. However, the interim reports provided since 2015 by our partner are very 
encouraging.



Context of the project
Mexico is bordered by the United States, Guatemala and Belize. The Mexican economy is very 
dependent on the United States, oil revenues and funds transferred by migrants. The country 
experiences very high inequalities and thus presents the characteristics of a developing country: 
- increased poverty, 
- institutional violence, 
- social and regional inequalities, 
- the importance of the informal economy, 
- inadequacy in the fields of education or health. 

Member of the OECD, Mexico is, after Brazil, the second largest economy in Latin America.

Chiapas is one of the 31 states of the Federal Republic of Mexico. Located south of the 
Yucatan Peninsula. Chiapas covers about 75,000 km² in the 2 million km² of Mexico and has 
4,823,243 inhabitants with a large indigenous population component. It is one of the 
country's richest in natural resources (oil, timber, mining, fertile land, water, biodiversity). 
Despite these strengths, it ranks last in the national standard of living with the highest 
unemployment, child mortality and malnutrition rates in the country.

Presentation of our partner 
The region of San Cristobal de las Casas covers half of the territory of the Federal State of 
Chiapas (mainly in the Highlands) and has 2,500 indigenous communities. 
Action Sociale Samuel Ruiz was created in 1994 to organize solidarity and provide 
comprehensive support to the displaced and victims of the internal conflict. This partner has 
developed since its inception an integrated approach to the development and strengthening of 
the most vulnerable communities living from agriculture and depend to a large extent on 
weather conditions (drought, storms and floods) in a period of adaptation to change climate.
In 2012, she received the Community Development Award from the Compartir Mexican Social 
Foundation, which recognizes Mexican institutions working for social advancement and the 
inclusion of the poorest.


Our project
Affected by climate change, Chiapas is in an area of high geographical and environmental risk
due to its location in one of the hurricane zones. Since 2009, peasants have particularly 
suffered from the alternation of weather phenomena "El Niño" (Pacific Ocean current that 
brings drought) and its current "La Niña" (which brings torrential rains). Farm families are 
facing a situation of chronic food insecurity. The beneficiary communities of the project are
located in the 13 municipalities of the regions of Los Altos and La Selva. They are among the
most affected by these repeated bad weather and are considered "corn granaries" in the state.

In this context, the response of Action Sociale Samuel Ruiz is on the one hand, to support 
farmers and their organizations to sustainably face recurring shortages of corn and seeds,
and on the other hand, improve production and preserve the culture of traditional "milpa".
This system combines corn-bean-pumpkin crops and can also be grown with coffee 
or banana with agroforestry techniques. In this region, the Mesoamerican "milpa" is the basis 
of peasant food self-reliance and rural family economies. It is at the center of a strategy aiming
at the management and the protection of biodiversity. For our partner, this component is part 
of a broader process of supporting and strengthening the most vulnerable communities that
live off agriculture and depend, to a large extent, on weather conditions (drought, storms and 
floods), in a period crucial to adaptation to climate change.

In addition, Social Action Samuel Ruiz faces a number of challenges: in the last elections in 
Mexico, political parties, to win votes, offered inputs and chemical pesticides to farmers, 
thus encouraging them to abandon corn and basic seeds prodcution for monocultures 
(avocado, African palm, peach and species for biodiesel production). In addition, in 2011, the 
Chiapas government signed an agreement with North American company Monsanto to 
cultivate 20,000 hectares of transgenic corn in the state. This agro-industrial model calls into 
question the small peasant model that today guarantees biodiversity and the preservation of 
communities through the transmission of their goods and know-how.

For 2015-2018, the project focused on 6 parishes in Chiapas. Following the evaluation of this 
last tranche of the project currently underway, a new project will be established in which the 
intervention area, the objectives, the number of beneficiaries and the budget will be refined.

Global objective :
To support the process of food sovereignty in the Ch'ol pastoral zone in Chiapas, with an 
approach of local capacity building, resilience and sustainable development.

Specific objectives :
- The diversity and quality of agricultural production (milpa and market gardening) of families
is improved by applying the principles of agroecology. 
- Rearing and production of farmyard animals is improved. 
- The conservation of natural resources and the regeneration of productive ecosystems is 
strengthened, they are more resistant to climate change. 
- The organizations of the strengthened peasant communities act for the sustainable
development and the defense of their territory.

 Beneficiaries :
- Direct beneficiaries: 624 families (3,313 beneficiaries including 1,648 men and 1,665 women)
- Indirect beneficiaries: 578 families (2,969 people) from 84 communities.


Our results :
Technical capacity building for ecological farming
- 379 families work the traditional Milpa agro-ecological way on 199 ha
- 12 varieties of maize are grown 
- 316 families grow vegetables
- 30 varieties of vegetables and local plants are grown (onions, tomatoes, parsley, beans, squash ...).

Experiments with "Milpa interposed with fruit crops" are conducted (lemons, oranges,
papaya, coconut, carambola, avocado ...) as well as with trees for the exploitation of wood. 
Collective learning and knowledge-sharing spaces are developing in 9 communities.

Strengthening dietary diversity through the practice of small livestock.
- 289 families are able to manufacture and use veterinary care products, and create breeding 
conditions for small livestock. The interest of families and community promoters in these 
techniques is growing.
- New practices such as the introduction of bananas and cassava into animal feed are developing.
- A specific method is applied for breeding: different groups take turns for small livestock 
breeding, transmitting the animals and their knowledge to another group every 2 years .
- 40 sheep distributed to 8 communities and 30 pigs to 6 other communities.

Recovery of local species and protection of biodiversity
After the biodiversity inventory carried out in the first year of the project, 7,360 plants of 
different species were distributed (cocoa, orange, lemon, mango, avocado ...) in the 29 
nurseries created in the first year. 37 communities (279 families) are involved in this 
component of the project. Some families are beginning to reap the benefits of their work
(oranges, lemons, cocoa, papaya ...) and diversify their diet
- 60 hives were installed on 3 plots managed by 3 groups
- Beekeeping and management training workshops (administration, accounting and marketing)
and 5 follow-up visits were conducted. The product of these hives is consumed or sold in the 
form of honey or processed products generating additional income.

the total amount spent by Secours Catholique on this project was 46 000€ in 2017 and 
129 000€ since 2015, date of the beginning of this program.

Secours Catholique should continue its support to improve the food security of these indigenous 
peasant families in the north-east of the Diocese of Chiapas. Agro-ecological production and 
resilient agriculture, the preservation of seeds and local biodiversity will continue to be 
strengthened, as will the structures of community organizations.

Links:

• Peasants in Chiapas

• Compte rendu projet securite alimentaire Mexique (PDF)