The actors of the social and solidarity economy (ESS) know the mechanism by heart: a community, the Departmental Council for example, identifies a need and launches a call for projects, and the different structures each apply on their own, in a logic competitive.
Soon, it will exist in Gard “a complementary alternative model”asks the vice-president of the Department delegated to the ESS Hélène Meunier, this Tuesday at the Pont du Gard at the end of the ESS Month. This model is the call to common(s), which functions as “a reverse call for projects”she presents. Thus, the Department sets a framework, governed by four themes such as the pooling of existing initiatives to give them a departmental scope, but “does not define the projectexplains Hélène Meunier. We ask those on the ground to come together and cooperate to meet needs. » They need at least three to get started.
This is a “paradigm shift”she says: “we start from the field, taking advantage of the experience and expertise of local stakeholders”. Also a way for the Departmental Council to establish proximity “consistent with other schemes”understand how the departmental ESS policy coincides with that of Social Action, Regional Planning or even Sport. This idea of a call for commonality also comes from the field, since it was suggested by ESS actors during the development of the Single Solidarity Scheme.
What is ESS?
This is, according to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance,“a set of companies organized in the form of cooperatives, mutuals, associations, or foundations, whose internal functioning and activities are based on a principle of solidarity and social utility. » In Gard, nearly 12% of salaried employment is in the ESS, or 24,000 people in 2,300 structures. At the regional level, regional advisor Monique Novaretti recalls that the ESS “that’s 231,000 employees spread across 21,400 establishments”i.e., here too, 12% of total salaried employment, “with annual growth of 4% per year”she adds.
However, decades of practice cannot be changed with the snap of a finger. “We need to get away from a logic of competition, and therefore become acculturated to this notion, it’s another way of doing politics, a revolution in everyone’s practices”believes Hélène Meunier. And it's for tomorrow, since the call for common project(s) is in its phase of configuring the tool for a start next spring on an experimental basis. 250,000 euros annually will be allocated by the Department.
However, the Department does not throw the traditional calls for projects in the trash. “There will still be some, the common call(s) is an alternative, which should allow us to reach more diverse stakeholders, with more room for the smallest”says the vice-president of the Department. And to encourage cooperation and sharing, a Gard ESS network was also launched on Tuesday, co-hosted by the House of Social and Solidarity Economy Initiatives.
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