More ecological building and refurbishing in Ile-de-France

"By combining social action and sustainable construction, APIJ's activity fits in ideally with the sustainable development strategies of the players in urban planning. I'm especially excited because these projects remind me of my past experience in construction."

Eric Hestin

The nonprofit Association pour l'insertion des jeunes et des adultes en difficultés (APIJ), created in 1986, now has 30 employees, 25 of them working in the construction and building trade (including eco-building and woodframe building) and five on counseling and training.
It welcomes low-skilled or unskilled persons facing financial difficulties, socially, psychologically or medically vulnerable, having had problems with the law, seeking a place to live... To help them, it has developed complementary tools for reception, social counseling, training and integration through professional activity. The employees of APIJ, on back-to-work contracts, regain status, recognition, training and a professional future, as well as self-sufficiency derived from the wages they earn thanks to social as well as professional counseling. The nonprofit is developing proximity projects in the Cosmonautes District in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Saint-Blaise in Paris.

Sectors that are growing fast, and durably

For several years, the nonprofit has developed its activity around eco-building and woodframe building for environmental reasons (carbon footprint of wood, use of local systems, conservation of resources and limitation of waste by ecological deconstruction, indoor air quality, etc.) and social reasons (these sectors are more enhancing for the beneficiaries than the conventional building trade).

It thus contributes to local development while proposing valuable training in insulation, renewable energies, wood construction, ecological refurbishing of old buildings, and the construction of spaces with woodframes or post-beam construction. All these sectors are flourishing in an urban setting and will be for a long time to come.

Recruiting new teams to help more people in difficulty

To develop its eco-building activity, and make up for a slowdown in business in conventional construction since 2009, APIJ needs to recruit new teams so as to run several wood construction projects simultaneously (today, it cannot handlemore than two projects simultaneously with its present workforce). The orders are there for the asking, like the construction of five wooden houses at Aubervilliers, or several projects for private individuals for whom APIJ privileges non-industrial building systems, based chiefly on manual labor.

The aim is therefore to form training teams to welcome new recruits under back-to-work contracts, purchase a new van type vehicle with a roof rack and trailer hitch to pull a frame lift and specialized materials.