VoisinMalin is a social project that aims to help people living in poor and disadvantaged areas. It gives residents the possibility to build a better future, and to deploy their abilities in order to improve their lives and the neighbourhood’s conditions. This project was born in October 2010 and now runs in ten cities in the greater Paris area. The project’s philosophy stresses the fact that inhabitants of disadvantaged areas have abilities and competences, which are not sufficiently recognised by the city and other organisations.
The organisation VoisinMalin offers a peer-to-peer network of trained citizens whose aim is to help their new neighbours throughout the social integration process, and help create interpersonal connections. The “Voisins”, or “neighbours” are selected for their communication and language skills, trained and remunerated. They have different cultural backgrounds and ethnic origins and many speak several languages, making it easy to approach recent migrants with limited knowledge of French. They work by knocking on doors, trying to reach everyone in the neighbourhood to give out information about various projects and services, and raise awareness about residents’ rights and opportunities. They provide information about housing, transport, recycling, access to education, social benefits, health, and cultural activities. At the same time, they enquire about people’s needs and feed back to the different agencies and companies in order to help adapt the services to the needs.
For example, one of the missions is to enhance the cooperation with the city of Ris-Orangis. Here, Voisins malins encourage people to use the free cultural facilities, such as the media library and the cultural centre. Another mission is to spread information about the discounts of the “solidarity transportation pass”. This pass has improved people’s mobility in their daily life. Yet another mission is to help people understand and use the complex energy saving systems coming with the new social housing.
VoisinMalin aims to connect citizens and local services by using the local social and linguistic capital of residents themselves. The project encourages people to change perspective and to abandon the feeling of being second rate citizens; on the contrary, it helps people to rebuild trust in themselves, in their neighbourhood and in the institutions.
Since the beginning, VoisinMalin has launched 6 branches in 9 underprivileged neighbourhoods in Paris region and Lille. In 2014, 25 door-to-door missions were conducted on key issues for inhabitants: fuel poverty, living expenses and financial vulnerability, housing and neighbourhood environment, health, education, access to social rights, use of proximity services, etc. Nineteen operating partners helped us building those door-to-door missions, among which: social housing companies, utilities companies and local authorities. 10 000 households (about 30 000 people) were met at their homes over the past 4 years; 4 500 households only in 2014. Currently, VoisinMalin is at a turning point in its development. In the coming years they aim to:
- Operate in 20 underprivileged neighborhoods in the 6 main French urban regions.
- Put Smart Neighbors in a position to meet the 20% of the 4.5 million people who live in French underprivileged neighborhoods.
- Open 150.000 doors in the next 5 years (500.000 in 10 years).
- The business model of the project is a guarantee of sustainability – the Voisins Malin are mostly funded by the commercial or social organisations offering services to the neighborhoods.
The main challenge is to be present in the 20% of the popular districts in order to have the legitimacy to weigh in the debates (concerning political issues in the popular districts) and also to operate new innovations that would strengthen the action of VoisinMalin on a local level. However, in order to achieve these goals, financial support is needed.
Lastly, VoisinMalin project is not only improving “new” neighbours’ lives, it is also enhancing VoisinMalins’. In fact, this project appears to be of great benefit on people’s life both on a social level and on a professional level. On a social level, people can foster their social and intercultural skills, meeting new people and learning about their culture. These interactions foster intercultural and multi-lingual skills, which will benefit their professional career.
This project is an example of Diversity in Action, where inhabitants themselves build a new dynamic that creates links between the neighbourhoods and the services. Results are visible and tangible.
