For nearly 60 years, ATD Quart Monde has been working to help extremely marginalised and deprived populations obtain rights. ATD Quart Monde has launched an experimental project that aims to tackle long-term unemployment. In France, almost 2.5 million people have been unemployed for more than a year. The movement is based on three principles: “Nobody is unemployable”, “The problem is not a lack of work”, “The problem is not a lack of funds”.

The idea is to tap into the skills and competencies of the unemployed, who can then carry out activities that respond to the needs of local areas, which remain unmet because they are not lucrative enough for the traditional market. These jobs, which are carried out on the basis of a permanent contract and paid the minimum wage, will eventually be financed (up to 70%) by the transfer of costs and income losses linked to sustained unemployment (RSA welfare, CMU universal health cover, etc.). At the beginning, the project is financed by the regional long-term unemployment experiment fund, backed by the French government and local authorities who opt into the scheme. The Eiffage Foundation is also providing financial support for this pilot scheme.

On 21 November 2016, ten urban and rural areas were selected to take part in the experiment. By January 2017, four of these areas had set up “job creation enterprises”: these structures support the long-term unemployed and have started taking on their first employees. 

The Eiffage Foundation is providing support to the Meurthe-et-Moselle enterprise; local support is also being provided by J. Delaine, regional manager at Eiffage Construction, business units in the East France region and the CREPI association based in Nancy. Eleven employees have already been recruited on permanent contracts by the Colombey les Belles job creation enterprise.