©Photo Rebecca Bowring
The Foyer Arabelle and its Crèche
For more than half a century, the Arabelle home and its crèche have been involved with great love and kindness, for women and children in difficulty, living with domestic violence. In an active and benevolent listening, the association brings this accompaniment and this invaluable support towards the path of motivation, to manage to gently transform this suffering of the past into hope for the future. Everything is adapted to the needs of these women, whether it be the projects, support, activities, therapies, AEMV (Educational Support in the Middle of Life), the SES (External Support Service), the crèche and the therapists. for kids.
Regardless of nationality, age, number of children or their backgrounds, there is no difference. The help and support needed for a gradual reconstruction is most important. The nursery, present together with the home, is an integral part of the structure, and it is a precious help to the women in their journey at Arabelle. She also receives children from the town. The educational teams, both early childhood and specialized, are the mainstay.
The change of life: between security and constraint
Arriving at Arabelle, the women find both safety and restraint.
There are so many different profiles and stories that each time it’s different. For younger women who already have a lot of investment experience, Arabelle is one more place with constraints. For women who come out of a very frightening, very distressing and extremely anxiety-provoking home, they almost hide in their rooms when they find their little cocoon and safety. Everything is slowly getting back on track and these women are rather reassured. The educational team makes sure that it is the least violent and the most benevolent possible for them. It is a safe place without aggression from the outside.
Creation of a bond of trust
The educational team also takes time to create a link with them, at their own pace, and this will be very different depending on the person. Some take a long time to create this bond with the educators and others will do it as soon as they arrive.
The goal is for them to come on their own, but the adaptation time is important so that they open up gently. There are a thousand stories and a thousand different ways of dealing with these women and the team adapts to each person. Their children also play a big role. If they arrive with babies, with newborns or with adults (who have lots of questions and need answers too), this arrival needs to be taken care of just as much. These children ask a lot, because they too are in pain, they sometimes express more than the mothers. For these children this passage is also complicated. There is no longer their dad and at the same time, there is no more violence and it is both comforting and destabilizing.
On average, the length of stay is one year, sometimes a little more. The stay at Arabelle has a cost and some finance it, because they work. Others are on social assistance or unemployed, and are therefore financed by third parties.
A journey towards integration
Today, Arabelle welcomes women between the ages of 16 and 45. For women over 40, insertion is more complicated. They present all the constraints of being a single mother and of having children who still need help. Then at 40, either they have a difficult background or they have to start all over once more.
The language barrier undeniably plays an important role. For some, you have to start all over once more and for others, professional integration is not even an option.
This path comes in a second time, because the psychological aspect has an important place and takes precedence over everything. At the beginning, it is a return on oneself and the children. The educational team works a lot with the Geneva social network, which presents targeted measures related to the period in which they are and their evolution. Depending on the course, there are needs, such as the gradual upgrading of French-math courses (2 x 2 hours / week), apprenticeship, very concrete and very practical training, the financing of which is provided by the State, for those who are more likely to find a job immediately. A collaboration with Camarada, which offers complete training, for example, is essential. Some return directly to the job market because they already had a small network. The level of each is therefore totally different and variable in relation to professional reintegration.
All the work done with them prior to professional integration or reintegration contributes to their development also in this direction. Workshops centered on women (socio-beautician, photo, massage, reflexology), for example, are essential stages and contribute to their reconstruction, before committing themselves professionally. Each woman has her particularities and her background. Professional reintegration will therefore depend on so many different factors that there is no guideline.
Professional integration
Professionally, there are all configurations. Some are working, others are unemployed, have had to interrupt their training for various reasons or have no training and have never worked. Each case is unique. The educational team accompanies them at the educational and social level, in all this construction or reconstruction upstream, before managing to launch themselves professionally. Then, it guides them, but is also the link with structures that correspond to them the most or adapted measures that will accompany them in this professional path (Hospice, associations, etc.). Social workers remain a pillar in this support on the professional path.
However, with dependent children, they cannot reintegrate professionally or into studies as they wish. The nursery adjacent to Arabelle is an added value for these women, and this childcare is a huge asset. Indeed, without childcare, they can do nothing, because in their context, they have no relay, nor family to help them. Arabelle represents a cocoon around the woman. Either they lose everyone they know, or they are the result of migration and the family is abroad. And that’s not counting the conflicting relationships with their own families. The support of the entourage for young children then becomes difficult.
Resources at different levels
There are women who come to Arabelle following a decision of a judge by warrants from the SPMI. These women have financial assistance to stay at Arabelle. Those who engage in a process of returning to work or training are generally ready to do so, otherwise they do not approach. But, so that the attempt at professional reintegration is not experienced as a new failure or as violence, the first steps are important as mentioned.
Some still have great courses and when it’s time, thanks to all this entourage and safety for the children, they are capable of a lot of things. These women have a lot of difficulties, but they also have a lot of unsuspected resources and the educational team relies on that. They are fighters! Some young women have worked with newborn babies and have succeeded in their apprenticeship working late into the night, because they wanted to. But age is also an important factor. Older women have other plans that are more focused on their needs and desires. These take a bit longer, but make a bit more sense for them as well.
The difficulties are also different when a woman has lost her job, often because of repeated absenteeism following violence suffered. It is an additional failure and the upstream path of reconstruction and recovery is all the more important.
The educational presence at Arabelle
Currently, several women work in cleaning and it is complicated, because they do not have the right to absenteeism. The educational team is in contact with the employers, to remind them of the laws, the difficulties present and their situation. And sometimes, it only takes a little in the mediation to help. It is a kind of buffer between the employer and these women which also shows that they are not alone. These women can undeniably be weakened in employment.
The majority of women who arrive at the shelter are unemployed. It’s slowly changing, but it’s still the majority. When they leave, and this is one of the objectives, they are either in training or employed. It is an integral part of rebuilding their lives. The goal is that when they leave home, they get back into something. Even if it is not yet in pure employment, they are almost all, either in French lessons, or in a refresher course, or in a measurement of the Hospice etc.. Support in the search for he job, the writing of cover letters, the preparation of interviews, is rather monitored by people from adapted measures, in a network with Camarada or other associations more specialized in professional reintegration.
The educational team does not accompany them to job interviews, on the one hand, because they would not want their presence and on the other hand, because when they start, it means that they are ready to go alone. Pure professional reintegration is done with the network that already exists, hence the redirection to the existing competent bodies.
A relationship to employment that depends on experience
The relationship that these women have with employment when returning to or starting a professional activity is very varied.
It all depends on the course lived because, for those who have undergone confinement for example, it will be very complicated even to project themselves into a job. For others, it will be difficult to respect a framework or a schedule. This famous upstream work is therefore very important, so that they can themselves open up to integrating a job. Remember that when they arrive at home, the job aspect is not a priority at all. The objectives set are adapted to their situation. The opening to a job or a training is done according to time and their evolution, and it is at this moment that this project can be set up. Eventually, most of the women housed in the home manage to project themselves into a professional future. Nevertheless, because of their personal situation, some women are not in a position to consider returning to work.
What remains complicated for most is to find a job compatible with the life of a single mom. This is a very present reality, because the employers open to these situations are minimal! It works as long as they are in focus. Afterwards, Arabelle finds relays for follow-up, as they leave in what are called “relay apartments”. It’s important so that they don’t lose their jobs once they leave Arabelle. The relay is represented by the social workers. The educational team can accompany them for another 6 months, once they have left the home. This allows them to stabilize all these novelties and not to plunge once more.
Bring back the drive and energy to build their futureArabelle’s motto.
From the same author :
Swiss dual training, a model of success
The voice of passion – from Educator to Integration Advisor / Job Coach
Does a job coach have the soul of an educator or does an educator have the soul of a job coach?
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Photo credit : ©Rebecca Bowring ; [email protected] via despositphoto.com
