Supporting entrepreneurial projects by people of foreign origin. ESS – Social and solidarity economy
The social economy: an alternative and complementary approach to traditional socio-professional integration (SPI) programs
Some traditional ISP measures for migrants are proving to be limited and inflexible in practice. For example, within the European Union, the employment rate among the working-age population in 2020 was significantly higher for EU citizens (73.3%) than for citizens from non-EU countries (57.6%).
Migrants cannot be considered as ordinary job seekers: it would be wrong to believe that once their residence status has been regularized, new arrivals can enter the labor market without a specific ISP approach beforehand, both in terms of methods and content. This “preparatory” career guidance is in fact more a matter of social action than professional action: addressing intercultural codes in the workplace, work permit issues, understanding the market, etc. (« Shake well with employment. From activating employment policies to shaking up the unemployed », Jean-François Orianne, Laura Beuker, ULiège, 2019). Alternative pathways to employment, such as the social and solidarity economy (ESS), must therefore be explored (our European project AMIF Union Migrant Net has explored these approaches in Europe, plus d’infos ici)
The CESE exploratory opinion on “The role of the social economy in job creation and the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights” (April 8, 2021, INT/925 – EESC-2020-05266-00-00-AS-TRA (IT) 1/1212) highlights this link between ESS initiatives and job creation: “Social economy organizations play a prominent role in creating or safeguarding jobs, as they provide more than 13.6 million jobs, corresponding to some 6.3% of the working population of the 28 EU Member States with the number of members of cooperatives, mutual societies, and similar structures exceeds 232 million, and the number of enterprises and organizations involved exceeds 2.8 million. Of these workers, around 2.6 million are employed by social enterprises that meet the criteria set out in the 2011 Social Business Initiative. These data are taken from the CESE report entitled “Recent developments in the social economy in the European Union,” which is available at https://www.eesc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/files/qe-04-17-875-fr-n.pdf.”
To respond to this reality in Liège, Le Monde des Possibles is an accredited social economy operator, mainly for its social interpreting project, Univerbal. This accreditation makes it possible to support this project by hiring interpreters through the CPAS (public social welfare centers).
Découvrez notre service d’interprétation sociale Univerbal
Mission and objectives
Supporting socioeconomic empowerment by promoting the languages spoken at Le Monde des Possibles.
Since its creation in 2001, Le Monde des Possibles has been receiving requests for language support from partners and associations in Liège and the surrounding area who work on the front line with migrants and/or people with little or no knowledge of French. These requests are often relatively urgent, for individual meetings with social workers, administrative follow-up, school enrollment, parent-teacher conferences, moving into new housing, etc.
A survey conducted among interns at Le Monde des Possibles identified 200 langues parlées among the 48 nationalities represented. Little by little, Le Monde des Possibles began to respond to requests for language support by training interpreters in both language skills and social economy entrepreneurship.
Thanks to support from the FSE AMIF and the Walloon Region in 2015/2016, an initial training cycle was launched with the aim of recognizing Le Monde des Possibles (MDP) trainees as professional interpreters with language skills adapted to the lexical and semantic fields of justice, social law, and health, as well as the ethics, accuracy, and impartiality required by the profession.
This confirms that interpreters play a socially useful role by reminding partner institutions of their obligations in terms of accessibility to their services through an understanding of their specific characteristics. Whether it is access to a court of law, a social service, or an obstetrics service, non-French-speaking migrants have the same rights as French speakers to understand the systems/measures that apply to them. It is a question of equality and equity in access to public services.
In conjunction with SETIS Wallon à Namur, Univerbal, today there are 50 interpreters working in 23 languages (see the latest statistics report here).
“Our mission is to promote the professional empowerment of interpreters through continuing education (supported by the FSE AMIF), UMons certification, and structured jobs in the social and solidarity economy. (ESS).”
Together with partners in the sector, we are committed to professionalizing the social interpreting profession in order to establish recognized norms and standards. This process includes regular evaluations, continuing education, and support for skills certification. In addition to supporting the certification of their interpreting skills, interpreters can complete their training at l’Université de Mons, enabling them to obtain a diploma and certify their experience.
The social economy, as practiced by Le Monde des Possibles, is intrinsically linked to our association’s other areas of activity, in particular l’éducation permanente and l’insertion socioprofessionnelle.
Retrouvez plus d’informations sur le projet Univerbal directement sur le site Internet d’Univerbal
Target audience
Participant profiles
The Univerbal project from Le Monde des Possibles is aimed at bilingual individuals who have a B2 level of French and speak a minority mother tongue in Belgium, which is particularly sought after for interpreting in social settings. This program aims to integrate individuals who are motivated by the idea of investing in a collective social economy project, such as the Univerbal service, after their training. Participants must also have a keen interest in continuous learning, particularly in the fields of social work, international protection applications, medicine, and mental health. Finally, the training project supported by the European Social Fund (AMIF) is specifically aimed at people with a non-European residence permit.
Activities
Professional development
Participants can sign up for an Article 60 contract, which lets them get some real-world interpreting experience while learning new skills. The Article 60 contract is a program that “lets public social welfare centers offer jobs to people who are eligible for social integration or equivalent social assistance,” giving them a chance to get some valuable early experience.(En savoir plus on Article 60)
The Univerbal project is part of a continuing education initiative, with programs dedicated to enriching participants’ knowledge in key areas such as social issues, medical issues, and international protection requests. These training courses are designed to meet the specific needs of interpreters, while strengthening their ability to meet the requirements of public services and institutions.
If you are interested in the training, please visit the page « Informations pratiques » from the Univerbal website.
Funding
Resources to Support the Social Economy
Le Monde des Possibles is certified as a social economy initiative by the Walloon Region, which supports projects with a social purpose. This certification enables us to strengthen our mission by hiring workers through specific mechanisms such as Article 60 contracts.
These financing tools are essential for developing economic activities that support the socio-professional integration of low-skilled workers.
For more details on accreditation and its benefits, see the page dédiée
Regulatory framework
The principles of the social economy and their implementation.
The social economy is positioned as a driver of social transformation. In the Walloon Region, this sector is supported by the decree of November 20, 2008, which is based on four fundamental principles: service to the community, management autonomy, democratic decision-making, and the primacy of people over capital.
Social economy, within the meaning of this decree, refers to economic activities that produce goods or services, carried out by companies, mainly cooperatives and/or social enterprises, associations, mutual societies, or foundations, whose ethics are reflected in the following principles:
1° purpose of serving the community or members, rather than profit;
2° management autonomy;
3° democratic decision-making process;
4° Priority given to people and labor over capital in the distribution of income.
Source: Excerpt from the 2008 version of the decree
Le Monde des Possibles operates within this legal framework, defined by the decree of October 20, 2016, on the approval of social economy initiatives and by the Walloon Government order of May 24, 2017. See the legal texts on the official website of the Walloon Region.
Impact
A project with a strong social impact
The Univerbal project was the subject of a social impact assessment supported by a grant from the Social Economy Department of the SPW EER, Social Economy Directorate, and carried out by CAIPS.
Today, 50 interpreters are part of the project, offering their services in 23 languages. This linguistic diversity improves access to essential services for non-native speakers in Belgium.
Since 2018, Univerbal has experienced significant growth, increasing from 720 hours of services to more than 5,024 hours in 2023. See quantitative indicators here.
Partnerships
Building relationships of trust
The success of the Univerbal project relies heavily on partnerships established with various institutional operators. These partners, whether they use our services regularly or occasionally, play a key role in expanding our reach and continuously improving our services. Some of these partnerships go beyond simply ordering interpretation services; they also include collaborations for the training and evaluation of interpreters.
Among our trusted partners, we count institutions such as Savoir Être asbl, le CHU, Caritas, la Croix Rouge de Belgique, CINL, La Bobine, Tabane, SAM Asbl, and Fedasil.
Other social economy projects at Le Monde des Possibles.
An inspiring dynamic for the socioeconomic empowerment of people of foreign origin.
Univerbal is a source of inspiration that has led to the development of other social economy projects at Le Monde des Possibles (outside the ESS accreditation):
- WOW (Women knOW)
- European projects such as ABCD4Me, MiGreenDeal, iFly-Slow, etc.
- Coopér’actives
