I apologize for my delayed second post. As more time passed, I thought that waiting just one more day would be enough for me to find out what I need in order to create a “comprehensive” discovery report on social ventures and their ability to alleviate homelessness. However, by now I am convinced that these findings are not going to stop and that a comprehensive conclusion for France might not be reached until the end of my stay here. Therefore, I better start sharing each piece before they are too many to write down at once!
Homeless World Cup (HWC)
To continue from where I stopped last time, my meeting with the volunteers for the HWC was motivating – not only to learn more about the organization, but also to learn more French! The volunteers were given instructions and a presentation in the beautiful language of this land, of which I yet need to possess mastery. While I enjoyed attending the presentation, I needed separate explanations after the end of it. Luckily, a couple of the organizers and some of the volunteers helped me out with that.
What is impressive about the HWC is that it requires a lot of coordination and preparation. That should not be of surprise given the scale of the venture – teams from over 60 countries will be present in Paris at the end of August, and that requires country-specific preparations, local organization, fundraising, media outreach, and collective coordination.
A local committee is created in each host country for the event. The committee manages playground construction, team outreach, event coordination, accommodation settlement, etc. Volunteers play a huge role in this process. Typically, two volunteers would be responsible for one team’s stay in France. They would be with the group the majority of the time starting with their arrival and lasting until their departure. Some of the responsibilities would include airport pick-up and drop-off, escorting the team to their place of stay, ensuring the group goes to each daily event and competition on time, serving as a tour guide for the team and bringing the homeless to museums (free passes provided!), and making sure the team gets the most of this unique experience. Because of shortage of volunteers, now only one person has to manage the above mentioned tasks.
I cannot be more grateful that I will serve as one such volunteer! Not only will I have a chance to spend a significant amount of time with the homeless team and its coaches, but I will also be able to gain a perspective into what this experience means to the people. Additionally, I will be able to see how it ends for them, and where it leaves them in terms of their goals and motivation to change their lives. I will be responsible for the Hong Kong team. While the coaches will speak English, I hope that my Mandarin Chinese will also be able to help me communicate with the team. Although that is not the main type of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong, my discoveries have shown that most of the homeless people are usually not originally from the city they are in (more on that later).
Before the event at the end of August, there will be several more meetings for volunteers. I have now separately met with one of the organizers to learn more about the structure of the enterprise. This Sunday I am also going to attend a soccer practice of the French female team and talk to their coach! Hopefully (and definitely) this meeting will add to my discoveries about the process and preparation of the event, and its meaning to the people for whom it is designated.
Research
In the meantime, I have been doing research on what other social enterprises exist to help homeless people. What I find interesting is that unlike in many other countries where there are many small grassroots organizations, in France there are a few comparatively large ones. Most of the people in Paris know about them and readily talk about their work. Additionally, I was happy to observe that the media and people often talk about the homelessness problem. For instance, I keep on hearing about the main social organizations on the radio; I read news about them in the newspapers (yes, with google translate); I watched a documentary on national TV about homeless people (my host mom translated for me); and I see billboards in the metro about some of the organizations. It makes me feel like I am not alone with my project!
Some of the main organizations in the country are:
- The Emmaüs Movement (http://www.emmaus-france.org/) – the movement started in France and has now grown into 36 countries. The local organization sends teams of volunteers to “maraud” the streets and provide food to homeless people and to direct them to Emmaüs’ existing structures, such as shelters, job-finding bureaus, etc.
- SAMU Social (http://www.samusocial-75.fr/) – this organization is modeled after another organization providing medical help. Its teams go on the streets and find homeless people in social distress conditions in need of medical assistance. They provide free medical help for them and try to facilitate their recovery. This can be especially helpful in the winter when not a few homeless people die because of the harsh weather.
- The Children of Don Quichotte or Les Enfants de Don Quichotte (http://lesenfantsdedonquichotte.com/) – this is the organization I mentioned in my previous post. They were responsible for the massive distribution of bright-colored tents for homeless people a few years ago. This exposed the problem to thousands of people throughout the country and invigorated the dialogue about the problem. The organization is active in organizing public demonstrations and protests against housing policies or government spending cuts to programs that could improve the existing housing problem in the country, and especially in the capital.
There is a series of other government or community-led entities, such as homeless shelters or food providers. While shelters can provide temporary escape from the street, they are highly criticized. Most of them close as soon as winter is over. Additionally, when a majority of them operate they accommodate homeless people only for the night. The constant need to move in and out of the shelter and the attitude in these settlements have made many homeless people prefer the street to the shelter.
My initiative
Most organizations have limited staff or do not operate in the summer. This has made my communication with them slower. As I am not a person who can wait inactively, I came up with a plan to begin communicating with the homeless people. I invited one of the English-speaking volunteers for the HWC to walk in the streets with me and help me talk to the homeless. Luckily, he has agreed!
My hope with this initiative is to learn from the homeless people about their situation and to find out if they have already had any experience with existing social enterprises. If they have, why did it not work out (or did it) for them? If they have not, why did they make that decision? And if they are unaware about those organizations, I would like to provide them with information about the organizations. I also want to let as many homeless people as possible know that the Homeless World Cup will take place in August and that it is open to anyone! Hopefully, if some of them attend the championship, the success of people in a similar situation can motivate them to believe in a solution for themselves as well.
The first attempt my friend and I made was not so successful. We were in the “wrong place” where not too many homeless people “reside” in the summer. The few we got to talk to did not speak French or English. While this can be considered as a failure of our attempt, it is also a success in revealing that many (or at least some) of the homeless people are immigrants. As my sister said when discussing this issue, what could have forced those people to leave their countries and accept to be exposed to the possibility of homelessness? Hopefully I will be able to find out more about that question. Our next expedition will be soon.
Last Thoughts
In an effort not to make this post too long, I will stop writing in a few sentences. What I’ve come to realize about people like me interested in possible solutions to difficult problems is that it is really easy to despair. Walking in the streets of Paris I cannot put my mission in the back of my mind even when I go to the store to buy my food or when I have to take the metro. The homeless people are always there with me, around me. Their sheer number and my desire and inability to go and tell them that I care and I want to help sometimes depress me to a point where I question the possibilities of an effective solution. Nevertheless, I regain my determination when I see or hear about even a single successful case.
The effort to a solution cannot be one-sided. It takes many steps and many actors. As one social business leader in Maine told me, social entrepreneurship requires and provides a community-based approach. Each organization affects a certain community, and this community can be locally small or international. The combination of all of these efforts is what can lead to an overall improvement. I once thought that dedicating significant time to help just one person was not an efficient use of one’s time and energy. But now I more and I more start to realize that every life and every change matter, and that a targeted and successful effort can be as meaningful (or even more meaningful) than an unrealistic one, in which success cannot always be measured.
Thank you for being with me once again and feel free to comment. Bonne nuit!
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