A supportive garage

Summary

In a disadvantaged Nancy neighborhood, L'Atelier is turning a car into a vehicle for finding a job. With three service bays, a vehicle lift and all the necessary tools, this community garage has been allowing low-income people to save money on maintaining their vehicles and keeping them up to the standards for three years. Better yet, L'Atelier offers job seekers the possibility of learning automobile mechanics and becoming qualified in that work. Now, the organization is expanding: it is acquiring and repairing 10 second-hand vehicles to make it easier for the disadvantaged to travel and, therefore, return to the workforce. These people will be able to rent a vehicle for a few months at the preferential rate of €35 a week at first, and then, when their new job becomes permanent, they can buy it.
The association is recognized for its value to the community, but its work is just as beneficial for the environment because it encourages the neighborhood's residents to use the appropriate recovery systems rather than illegally dump motor oil and reduces the temptation to abandon vehicles in the countryside.

Rentals at a price everyone can afford

The association expanded its activities in 2005 while remaining faithful to its values of service, training and work-skills development. With the support of the Veolia foundation and local municipalities, it acquired ten second-hand vehicles and repaired them to enable the jobseekers needing transportation to prospect more effectively. L'Atelier first rents the vehicle to thel for a few months at the preferential rate of 35 euros per week, and then, when their new job becomes permanent, they can buy it.
With this original new project, L'Atelier is making its model of a garage where everyone is welcome even more economically and socially pertinent. It has been hailed by the media and is likely to serve as an example. The association is recognized for its value to the community,and has received the support of elected representatives under the "contrat de ville" mechanism, but its work is just as beneficial for the environment because it encourages the neighborhood's residents to use the appropriate recovery systems rather than illegally dump their motor oil; it also reduces the temptation to abandon vehicles in the countryside.

Progress report

Three persons hired

L'Atelier finally succeeded in providing 11 vehicles to mobility impaired job seekers. This enabled three persons to land jobs in the course of 2006. The association also added to the tools it owns for its repair and maintenance activity. And flushed with success, it now plans to further expand the range of its operations.