HOW WE HELP
For people who have suffered brain damage it is important that they become socially integrated and get back to work. These initiatives must be part of an ongoing process of rehabilitation that starts during the first few days that the person is in hospital. The objective is for these people to become as independent as possible and to have a fulfilling life, with the support of bodies that help with integration and care. La Sandale du Pèlerin, in an annexe of the Moulin à Vent sheltered workshop in the Lyon suburb of Vénissieux, helps them to reach this objective.

Our craft leatherworking employment workshop can accommodate 14 workers. Here, brain-damaged people are able to get back into the world of work progressively and at their own pace, working either part time or full time.


OBJECTIVES

Social
Through its initiatives, the sheltered workshop helps disabled people who come to work in the workshop to develop socially, and it fulfils the state requirement for solidarity.

The status of being employed gives the person's independence a boost. This independence exists at different levels that are planned in advance, and it restores that person's quality of life.

Professional activities
The sheltered workshop provides disabled people who are unable to have a profession in the ordinary sector with access to a suitable professional life through a specialised workshop and specially adapted working conditions.

While not neglecting the requirements that are an integral part of commercial production, notably the vital concepts of thoroughness, quality and deadlines, the team has to take into account the individual projects and abilities of each of the workers.

As stipulated by law, type one support activities are provided. They are related directly to each person's individual project and are designed to promote as far as possible the person's professional and social independence.

Specialist support, which is essential, must be provided in three areas to allow the disabled person to progress, using the technical facilities at his or her disposal.

- Firstly, with regard to their 'productive' activities, through training, preparation for work, re-learning how to move and use different parts of the body, and getting back to work.
- Secondly, using the concepts of education and socialisation that are a regular part of daily life to shape the person's movements, their use of time and to form a definition of what their life is to consist of.
- Thirdly, more specifically a neuro-psychological, psychological and ergonomic assessment carried out by the Evaluation, Re-training and Socio-professional Orientation Unit (U.E.R.O.S.) of the Association for Social and Professional Re-integration of the Disabled, A.D.A.P.T.,in Lyon. In view of the annual budget allowance available, half of the staff can be seen every year.

With a maximum of 33 hours activity per week, it is obvious that the sheltered workshop
alone cannot satisfy all of these objectives, but it must strive to do so and facilitate anything that may help disabled people to develop in a positive way.

Providing they are able to do so, the disabled employees have the opportunity of being involved in several different areas of activity offered by the workshop:

- Manufacture of sandals and leather goods
- Shipment of packages
- Administrative work and computer data entry
- Stock management
- In-store sales

Depending on how they progress professionally, socially and medically, the workers are given the opportunity to join a sheltered workshop outside the centre, providing they have sufficient ability and motivation.

Admission
All admissions are subject to a decision by the Technical Committee for Orientation and Professional Re-categorisation (C.O.T.O.R.E.P.). Recommendations regarding permanent admission are made by the sheltered workshop to the C.O.T.O.R.E.P. following a six-month trial period designed to assess the person in a variety of situations:

- The current work tolerance and the potential of the disabled person.
- Their positive approach to a professional activity, by breaking down the work to reveal and highlight individual qualities, concentrating on successes rather than failures.
- Their basic social skills for evaluation and working as part of a team.

In exceptional cases the workshop can request a six month extension of the trial period. This is justified by a submission that explains why the sheltered workshop is not in a position to make a decision and states the specific methods that will be used to support the disabled person during the extension period.

The C.O.T.O.R.E.P. is sent an assessment one month before the end of the trial period or six months before the renewal or reorientation date.

The sheltered workshop is only one part of a complex arrangement between rehabilitation centres, residences, the U.E.R.O.S. (Evaluation, Re-training and Socio-professional Orientation Units), support services, other sheltered workshops, families and work in standard jobs. If a failure occurs, the sheltered workshop will, if necessary, support the person in becoming reoriented.

HOW WE DO BUSINESS

Production
This involves the production of hand-made sandals and small leather articles. Because it involves a wide range of tasks, this work has the advantage of being able to be broken down and adapted to ensure the workers make progress and can be set individual objectives. Three points must be taken into account:

- Appropriate supervision by high-quality staff must be provided.
- The raw material is precious and consequently expensive.
- A quality product necessarily involves the scrupulous application of strict manufacturing conditions.

Sales
One quarter of turnover is achieved through in-store sales. The sales staff are workers at the sheltered workshop. This enables them to promote the quality of the products that they make and ensures they gain a sense of responsibility vis-à-vis their customers. The rest of the sales are made by mail order, around 15% of which is abroad.

Conclusions
The strong points of La Sandale du Pèlerin, which ensure it has a solid reputation:

- The distinctiveness of leather sandals.
- The quality of the products, of which the public is made aware and which ensures we have a loyal client base, an essential production advantage.
- Our after-sales service, our made-to-measure products and our reactivity to the various requests made by our customers.
- Our stock and how we manage it.

Through this positive approach to work, which restores the value of hand-crafted goods, we are able to maintain high standards, producing a quality product in a process which benefits disabled people.

This is precisely the role of a sheltered workshop.


DEFINITIONS OF BRAIN-DAMAGED PEOPLE
People with an acquired and non-degenerative impairment of brain function resulting in a limitation of independence and problems with integration (people with head injuries, stroke victims and those who have suffered a ruptured aneurism).