Sheltering and Reintegration of Distressed Adolescents

Context

Statement

In some neighborhoods, children grow up in an environment remote from the functional symbols expected by society. It's the "street smart survivor system" that prevails. Shrewdness, juvenile delinquency and organized criminality coexist and are almost legitimized by the silence that protects them.

Unemployment is omnipresent; single-parent families, fathers less present than mothers, school failure, precarious economical situations and boredom, all of these are causes of many criminal acts.

It is sometimes said that families «give up», however our experience is of torn, broken, fragmented, even lost families. Those are families filled with doubts and questions over their capacity to grant « successful » education to their children, more specifically, education that can avoid the traps of delinquency.

Many children would need positive models of adults in their day-to-day life in order to uplift the environmental dullness with some strokes of color, to learn that « belief and hope » can make projects really happen; to be able to imagine oneself tomorrow rather than watch the march of « yesterday, today and tomorrow » like on a TV screen. Indeed, if adults at hand have little hope themselves, if they are no more the custodians of the minimal rules one needs to respect, then how can children integrate in society?

Project Objectives

The Egarande farm aims at being all of the following:

- a shelter allowing children to live and share experiences in a family environment; this can be achieved through the creation of a stable and secure environment, integrated and naturally opened to the outside world, with care and attention given to each individual child.

- a place of shelter and care where the notion of time is only addressed when, initially defining the individual project, taking into account the specificity of each youngster.

- a place of listening to facilitate restoring their own balance.

- a place of social, family, school and/or professional integration.

- a place capable of setting limits without excluding.

Location

At about 45 min. away from Saint Etienne (Loire), in the hamlet of Egarande, municipality of Estivareilles , the shelter is an old farm of Forez of a total surface of 600 m² . Renovation works have been conducted in 1997 with special attention to preserve the character and history of the farm, contributing in the making of this place a warm and convivial home. Each child has an individual room so that he/she can have a private and personal space while living in a community.

Beneficiaries

The Farm of Egarande can welcome up to 8 children aged 10 to 18 years who present important psycho-socio-affective difficulties, often related to deep and durable family shortcomings. Some children may have engaged in criminal acts and for the most part find themselves in a situation of school failure.

The children sheltered are sent by Aide Sociale à l'Enfance of the Loire Department for temporary stays lasting several weeks (« rupture » stays) to several months or years. The duration of stay is studied case by case, depending on the objective sought by the institution initiating the placement and on the child's progress as well.

Local Parters

- Services of Aide Sociale à l'Enfance of the Loire Department

- Regional schools that can admit children candidates to school reinsertion

- Regional businesses that could potentially take those children for training periods or professional training courses.

Project Duration

From 1997 to the present.

Financing

In January 2001, Egarande shelter has been officially recognized as "a home for 10 to 18 year-old adolescents in a crisis situation and/or in danger" by the Comité Régional de l'Organisation Sanitaire et Sociale (CROSS, Regional Health and Social Organization Committee) of the Rhône-Alpes region, of which the Department of the Loire is a part.

Owing to this official recognition, Enfants&Développement gets reimbursement of the daily costs from Conseil Général de la Loire. About 90% of the resources needed for the running of the center are thus granted annually by the social services upon evaluation of the budget submitted. Enfants&Développement has to find the other 10% as well as funds for additional investments ( see V. Financing needs of the farm).

Staff

The team of employees of Enfants&Développement present at the farm comprises:

• A director with a long standing experience of educator
• Three full-time educators
• One part-time educator
• One educator in training performing regular training courses
• One sport instructor employed as "emploi jeune" (job created for a young unemployed person)