Voisin Malin (Smart neighbour) – an intercultural social enterprise in disadvantaged neighbourhoods

VoisinMalin is a social project that aims to help people living in poor and disadvantaged areas. It gives residents the possibility to build a better future, and to deploy their abilities in order to improve their lives and the neighbourhood’s conditions. This project was born in October 2010 and now runs in ten cities in the greater Paris area. The project’s philosophy stresses the fact that inhabitants of disadvantaged areas have abilities and competences, which are not sufficiently recognised by the city and other organisations. The organisation VoisinMalin offers a peer-to-peer network of trained citizens whose aim is to help their new neighbours throughout the social integration process, and help create interpersonal connections.

The “Voisins”, or “neighbours” are selected for their communication and language skills, trained and remunerated. They have different cultural backgrounds and ethnic origins and many speak several languages, making it easy to approach recent migrants with limited knowledge of French. They work by knocking on doors, trying to reach everyone in the neighbourhood to give out information about various projects and services, and raise awareness about residents’ rights and opportunities. They provide information about housing, transport, recycling, access to education, social benefits, health, and cultural activities. At the same time, they enquire about people’s needs and feed back to the different agencies and companies in order to help adapt the services to the needs.