A partnership has recently been set up between La Poste, the French national postal service and La Fabrique de l’emploi, a cooperative (SCIC) based in Loos in the North of France, for the opening of an SSE La Poste (Social and Solidarity Economy). Based in the postal service points, La Fabrique de l’emploi provides services to the inhabitants through work integration schemes.
Committed to digital inclusion and access to postal services, the La Poste group, a company “à missions” (1), has included in its policy extra-financial, environmental and social governance criteria. It is in this context that the new postal service point La Poste appears, it is thus run by employees of La Fabrique de l’emploi which works in recycling, organic farming, employment ethics and public utility for the territory of Loos and Tourcoing.
Based in the postal service point, located at the annex town hall, La Fabrique de l’emploi (2) works for the service to the inhabitants and for work integration with its credo “Territories with Zero Long-Term Unemployed” by creating its own permanent contracts (called CDI in French). Part of the traditional know-how of the Cooperative is represented within the postal service point, with a corner dedicated to the sales of the productions of its market gardeners, seamstresses and carpenters, placed opposite the La Poste counter.
The La Fabrique de l’emploi team has been specially trained to carry out postal operations and to use the digital service point. “What we appreciate, in addition to being actors in the fight against digital exclusion and acting to maintain the postal presence in our municipality, are the results on the diversity of our clientele, today composed of residents of the district, but also students, and companies thanks to the postal services” explains Saâlla Kitar, head of the neighbourhood life division of La Fabrique de l’emploi.
A local service provided to the inhabitants
Ourdia, Hanane, Samir and Emily, employees of La Fabrique de l’emploi in charge of the La Poste ESS service point, feel invested in their new mission and take turns from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6.30pm with their customers. Working at La Poste provides them with new experience, which can be used as part of their professional career. In Hauts-de-France (North of France), in 2021 and the first half of 2022: 17 new SSE partnerships have been initiated.
“The postal services we offer give us concrete visibility, thanks to the external signage on the one hand, and on the other hand because the inhabitants of the neighborhood, students and surrounding businesses, have discovered our presence thanks to the new services we provide on behalf of La Poste.Samir explains.We have been trained in the various postal operations (excluding financial services), and we are proud to be able to provide this local service to residents, to see that they are happy to find social life in the neighborhood. We listen to customers, and we try to adapt better to their needs and requests“.
The La Poste group is involved alongside social and solidarity economy players in the Alliance Dynamique programme. The Alliance Dynamique was born in 2014 from a desire shared by La Poste, the national postal service, and some fifty federations and structures of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) to cooperate and act together to fight against territorial, social and environmental divides. It brings together SSE partners committed to La Poste for a positive impact in the territories. Seven years of progress have made it possible to develop the Alliance Dynamique thanks to the co-construction of numerous partnerships carrying values for the territories and the citizens who live there (500 partnerships at the national level).
Notes:
1) New status established by the PACTE law (May 22, 2019), the company “à mission” allows companies to reconcile, in a proactive way, economic performance and general interest, through several social and environmental objectives.
2) The Fabrique de l’Emploi is a component of the “Territoires Zéro Chômeur de Longue Durée’ (Territories with Zero Long-Term Unemployed) project that we discussed in the section “October resources of socioeco.org“(in French).
