Social and Employment
Place
Pays salonais, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Sponsor
Fanny Butruille
Grant
17,000 euro to the Selection Committee at 2005/12/06
Project leader
Transport Mobilité Solidarité
Transport Mobilité Solidarité (Transport Mobility Solidarity) was set up in 1997 at the initiative of players active in employment in the area around Salon-de-Provence, who realized that lack of mobility was one of the factors leading to exclusion. Many rural or semi-rural communes in this northern part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department are not particularly well served by public transport and are still very isolated from regional economic hubs. For unemployed people with no means of transport, looking for a job can be a very complicated task - it can be difficult for them even to attend a job interview, let alone accept a job in a company not on a public transport route or that requires non-standard working hours.
TMS has developed a three-fold global response to this problem: road safety, individual counseling and geographical mobility. Thanks to collective transport systems and provision of mopeds and cars, it supports the social and professional integration of young people and adults.
Replacing and replenishing the vehicle fleet
The non-profit organization's fleet consisted of 24 mopeds, some of which were over 15 years old, and seven cars on long-term leasing contracts. To put its action on a more solid footing, TMS needed to acquire new vehicles. The Veolia foundation approved a €17,000 grant to help buy another 10 mopeds equipped with crash helmets and locks and a car. This service, developed with the main beneficiaries, is a useful adjunct to the collective transport facilities already in place in the department.
A complementary service to conventional urban transport
Thirteen new mopeds were finally purchased by TMS with part of the funds granted by the Veolia foundation, and the remainder was added to the total budget to buy a Clio for a longer distance travel. For TMS, demand is not slackening, far to the contrary. By enabling the most disadvantaged persons to become autonomous in terms of transportation, the association supplies a long standing local need. It also participates in the meetings of the "Pole Provence" Urban Travel Plan. And Fanny Butrille, its sponsor and an employee of Veolia Transport, finds that it "supplies an additional service to the conventional urban transportation that we provide, and does not compete with the services that we offer". A genuine asset for the whole region.