Fighting digital vulnerability with Emmaüs Connect
In 2019, 40% of French people said they had problems with digital technology, and 7% said they had no digital access whatsoever. Convinced that access to Information Technology, and in particular mobile technology, has become crucial to social and professional integration, the Emmaüs Connect charity association provides vulnerable people with access to digital devices and customised support.
Charlotte Bougenaux, Deputy Head of this charity association, joined Emmaüs Connect almost three years ago, initially as Head of Operations for the Nord region of France, seeking to refocus her career on the social solidarity economy. Invited to talk about her experience on the Group’s Le Plateau premises, she reminded those present that Emmaüs Connect, founded in 2013, was set up because of a simple observation: if social insecurity is compounded with digital exclusion, it becomes impossible to find a way out of the situation: “Emmaüs Connect is a project resulting from integration work by Emmaüs Défi, a charity association that helps employees in integration schemes and people in very precarious situations. The aim was to help them back into the job market with regard to the social and professional aspects. The charity’s helpers realised that the cost of digital access was enormous for these people, compared with what you and I can afford to spend each month on our mobile subscriptions. The idea came from the fact that Internet and telephone access is vital and, for these people, having a phone is about survival”.
Beyond homeless people, for whom mobile phones have indeed become a crucial tool, digital exclusion impacts everyday life on many levels: indeed employment (almost all job centre procedures are now paperless, as are companies’ job offers), access to welfare and utilities (water, electricity, gas, tax forms, etc.) become impossible. For all these reasons, in 2012 the United Nations declared Internet access to be a basic right, and this was written into French law in 2016 — people now have a right to continue enjoying Internet access when they haven’t paid a bill.
On the topic of digital vulnerability, Charlotte Bougenaux has identified three distinct population categories for which the solutions differ:
● At one extreme, those who are excluded: “These people face insurmountable hurdles. They will never be able to use digital technology by themselves and will need to be helped with procedures. This may be because they are disabled or because they are psychologically or financially unable to use such technology”.
● At the other extreme, those who are “close to digital”: they have the ability but are scared of using it. “They just need a helping hand via informal support between citizens or with family or friends”.
● In the middle, those who have access to but are unfamiliar with digital technology, the largest of these three groups: according to Charlotte Bougenaux, there are 13 million French people in this category. “These people need training. They may have a digital device, but they need help with their dealings with the job centre or health insurance organisation”.
Emmaüs Connect is thus involved in training initiatives: “When a vulnerable person contacts Emmaüs Connect, we undertake a social and digital diagnosis of their skills, practices and needs in order to recommend solutions. Firstly, there’s the sale of reconditioned devices. We also act as mediators between those who have not been able to pay their bills and the operators. Lastly, we provide support to those who aren’t sure how to use digital equipment: we encounter people who don’t know how to use a mouse, for example. There is specific support for each person and each issue”.
To ensure this support, Emmaüs Connect has just finalised a campaign that has enabled an additional 300 volunteers to be recruited. “These new helpers have to be integrated and invited to information meetings. We’ll tell them about all the various missions they can undertake at Emmaüs Connect: welcoming and accompanying people, registration appointments, involvement in the association’s life via communication actions, regarding its newsletters for example. The volunteers also help collect equipment. Lastly, there are recruitment and communication actions at the charity association’s head offices”.
Since its creation, Emmaüs Connect has helped 40,000 people. Each of these is sent a questionnaire at the end of the process to assess their degree of autonomy, on a declaratory basis. Over 90% of those who received assistance responded positively! However, Charlotte Bougenaux says there is a lot more to do: “We were pioneers regarding an issue whose extent is being demonstrated every day. In 2013, the founders’ work was to persuade people that we’re facing a major challenge in terms of digital accessibility, and today we have achieved this. Our project is henceforth to get citizens more and more involved in order to expand the number of actions, because e-citizenship will increasingly become a significant issue. Many new topics will emerge, and these will need to be tackled”.
The full meeting is available on YouTube (in french) :
#LePlateau is a third place dedicated to Open Innovation within Societe Generale. It’s a 1,000m² space that hosts, under one roof and for periods of up to 6 months, Societe Generale teams and ecosystem start-ups. Each resident works on their own disruptive or innovative project in large open spaces where teams commingle. #LePlateau provides an environment enabling this work to be undertaken in a single place, but also and more importantly methodological support to accelerate projects, the organising of the residents and premises to enable them to exchange and share their expertise and experience.
