Getting to Work

While tourists flock to some of its magnificent little communes - Veules les Roses, Saint-Valéry en Caux - the Caux country nevertheless displays a less fortunate aspect: having been part of the old textile industry centers in Normandy, it has not yet succeeded in attracting enough businesses to replace the textile activity, virtually disappeared today. In the hinterland of the Côte d'Albâtre, many families still have several family members without jobs.

Promoting the Return to Work

Based in Yerville, the Maison de l'Emploi du Pays de Caux Maritime was founded by the municipalities grouped in the Caux Plateau country to find solutions to this situation. Having been approved by the social cohesion plan in December 2005, it includes five communities of communes. It has a simple, although vast mission: to strive to promote the return to work of the largest possible number of persons.

Since March 2007, the Maison de l'Emploi du Pays de Caux Maritime has been working for example in connection with a partnership with a training body dedicated to the building and public works trades. At Yvetot, the persons that it accompanies receive basic training, and at Étouteville, they reinforce their qualifications - for example, operating worksite machines.

Helping Persons to Recover Mobility

Very often, however, these persons do not have individual means of locomotion. The Maison de l'Emploi du Pays de Caux Maritime has therefore devised an original system, and has applied to the Veolia foundation to help set it up. Thanks to the funds collected, it will buy a small "fleet" of scooters and no-license-needed cars, which it will provide to the persons it accompanies for a token payment. Most of the money will be set aside and reinvested after the lease contract to help the person buy a private vehicle. If necessary, it is already planned to resort to microcredit to facilitate this first purchase. The ultimate goal is to help former jobless persons to be sufficiently mobile to find a job.