If our WWoW accessories are assembled by women in professional integration, it is because we believe in the potential of each one and we wish to see them flourish.

For this, the basis on which everything else is built is work. Work that restores confidence. Work that allows you to be part of society. The work that fits everyone. Work that emphasizes one’s strenghts. Work that develops the axis of progression.

In France, a system was established in the 1970s to give back autonomy to people suffering from the rise in mass unemployment, and thus combat social and professional exclusion. Today, integration through economic activity is a social and professional springboard. It enables almost one in every two people to find a stable job or to shift towards a qualifying training.

The Law

In the french texts, the Single Insertion Contract (CUI) is declined in two forms according to the nature of the sector:

• The Employment Accompaniment Contract for the Non-Market Sector (CUI-CAE)
• The Employment Initiative Contract for the market sector (CUI-CIE)

The financial aid allocated by the State differs depending on the sector, as does the employer’s training obligation (which is a possibility under a CUI-CIE). For the rest, the principle is the same and the maximum length is 2 years.

Employees with a CUI-CAE are thus full-fledged employees. They benefit from the same working conditions as other employees of the company and from all of the company’s collective agreements and conventions.

The Beneficiaries

Whether it is a CAE or an CIE, the beneficiaries are people who encounter particular difficulties in accessing employment, and are recognised as such by the State.

The possible beneficiaries are therefore:

• Long-term unemployed
• Seniors
• Disabled workers
• Beneficiaries of social minima: Active Solidarity Income (RSA), Specific Solidarity Allowance (ASS), Allowance for Disabled Adults (AAH)

With the aim of facilitating the hiring of employees, employees with a CUI benefit from professional support, tutoring by an experienced employee of the structure, and training and validation of acquired knowledge. They can also benefit from periods of professionalisation, which combines theoretical and practical courses.

The Workshop Femmes A.C.T.I.V.E.S. (French for BUSY Women)

Our heart workshop, with which we have been working since the beginning, is located in Saint-Denis (93) and has named the site “Fer et Refaire” (French pun for Iron and Remake). The name is very appropriate for this workshop which makes and remakes the confidence of everyone. To the desire to do well and to the attention to detail is added, as the work is being done, the pleasure of regaining one’s abilities and going every week to a second family.

Because the workshop is not just a place of work and training. As employees are all coming from different backgrounds and origins, a real multicultural exchange takes place every day. At turn, each one thus brings in a typical dish, that everyone then shares during gourmet and friendly breaks. As you enter this workshop you are transported inside the Tower of Babel, with the language of communication (in addition to French) being a feminine solidarity and human empathy in all hardship. Everyone is enthusiastic about the progress of the others and offers help whenever possible.

Every time I go into the workshop, I take a breath of resilience. I know that every employee has come here after a period of unemployment, doubt or distress. But they don’t let it show and always offer me a coffee, tea or candy as if nothing had happened.

Wonder Women you said?