‘People used to say to me, “What if we just didn’t do housing?” or “Let’s forget about getting them into work,” Professor Dame Carol Black told DDN earlier this year (February, page 14). ‘But you’ve got to do all of it – you can’t pick and choose.’
Getting, or keeping, paid employment when struggling with substance issues can be far from easy, however. ‘The simple facets of employment – such as conduct and time-keeping – could be herculean struggles for people who use drugs,’ wrote Exchange Supplies’ Andrew Preston last year (DDN, November 2024, page 17). But they could be made ‘so much easier with a bit of compassion, understanding and flexibility’, he said. A recent EUDA webinar, Low-threshold employment programmes — can they be social reintegration gateways? heard from three schemes adopting just that approach.
TAPAJ (Travail Alternatif Payé À la Journée – literally, ‘alternative work paid by the day’) is a French programme for 16-25-year-olds that provides ‘an alternative to unstable environments by allowing them to work, earn money legally and get support for their personal challenges’, its director Jean-Hugues Morales told the webinar. Aimed at people who were ‘homeless, socially disconnected, struggling with addiction’, it gave them ‘immediate and flexible’ work opportunities. Many lived on the streets and so couldn’t access traditional services, he added.
Based in Bordeaux, TAPAJ now operates across 70 locations in France and collaborates with more than 300 companies and organisations, including local authorities and big names like Renault, SNCF, JCDecaux and Ikea. ‘It’s designed to be flexible, immediate and to build trust,’ said Morales. ‘It’s not just about work – it’s a holistic programme.’
SIMPLE STEPS
TAPAJ firmly adopted a harm-reduction approach, he stated, with no requirement for participants to ‘stop their substance use or change their life.’ The programme had ‘three simple steps’, he explained. The first was immediate work access – allowing people to not only start working the next day but also get paid the same day, providing ‘immediate impact’. Next came tailored support plans covering people’s health, social, administrative, housing and justice needs. ‘During this phase we increase the working hours and expand the network of partners,’ he said, supporting a ‘shift in life trajectory’. In the third phase, the support became even more targeted – including care pathways and accommodation searches – continuing the move towards stability and self-sufficiency.
It was an approach that made it easy for young people to enter the programme ‘without pressure, while we’re gradually helping them to improve their situation,’ he said – including better access to mental health and drug and alcohol services. It had been evaluated through multiple studies over the last decade in France and Quebec, where it also operates, with all finding that the programme had a ‘significant positive impact’.
STREET INVOLVED
There was a ‘rich history of getting people back into work’ in Ireland, said CEO of the Dublin-based Ana Liffey Drug Project, Tony Duffin. His organisation worked with over-18s who were ‘street involved’ – experiencing various forms of homelessness – and who often had a history of trauma. Co-production and co-design of services with the people who used them was central to Ana Liffey’s ethos, he said, as was making sure they were paid for their time. ‘That reduces stigma and validates people’s contributions, which is really important. We’re working with people with multiple complex needs, who have very often given up on themselves and perhaps don’t see themselves as worthy of looking for employment.’
High levels of structural and systemic unemployment, particularly affecting young people, were a perennial problem for Spain, said Oriol Esculies of the Spanish NGO Proyecto Hombre. An ongoing project for the organisation was Programa INSOLA+, he said, which was designed to help people who were ‘at risk of social exclusion’ because of their drug problems.
Job reintegration was a key part of the recovery process, his colleague Manuel de la Cruz Rodríguez told the webinar, and one main objective was to develop personalised plans that boosted employability and promoted ‘integration in all areas of their lives’. The project had four phases – motivation, orientation, skills development and training, and finally more specialised guidance such as preparation for interviews, with the aim of providing ‘full autonomy,’ he stated.
It was a ‘huge project’, with a budget of €29m over six years, he said, including from the EU’s European Social Fund. But the impact was also huge – for every euro invested, there was a ‘social return’ of €5.19. ‘There’s value for the clients, their families, the public administrations. But there’s also an impact that we can’t measure – someone recovering their life.’
BUILDING TRUST
When it came to lessons learned so far, among the main challenges for projects such as these was building trust, said Morales. ‘Many young people in these situations don’t trust institutions or programmes’, which meant it was vital to ‘meet people where they are’ and support them as they moved forward at their own pace. Trust also had to be built with the partner organisations, of course, ‘so we keep the process simple’, he said. Securing funding for TAPAJ was an inevitable challenge, with money coming variously from businesses, local authorities, NGOs and European programmes.
‘The important thing is that things are achieved – so professionals mustn’t let people down,’ Duffin stressed. ‘One of our peers was explaining to me how they’d recently lost a friend and had gone in on themselves, removed themselves from the outside world. But this work was bringing them back out, and they were feeling valued. It’s small steps – I’m talking about paying people for a day or two, not full-time employment – but it’s really important.’ Crucially it also diverted people away from ‘high-risk strategies’ for getting money, whether sex work or drug dealing, he said.
‘In an ideal world companies would come to us offering the jobs our people need,’ said Esculies. ‘But it’s not the case, so we must go to them and convince them that they have a social responsibility – but also that they’ll gain from this.’ This meant having a proactive strategy that required time, resources and the ability to properly engage with companies – a task for which Proyecto Hombre had now created a specific post.
LONG-TERM PROJECTS
Any project of this size required a huge amount of administrative work, he continued. This was particularly the case when accessing EU funding streams, and the fact that much of that money could arrive long after the work had been completed inevitably favoured larger, credit-worthy organisations that could absorb ‘cash-flow tensions’. So sustainable long-term projects would need either strong organisations or strong networks, he stated.
Low-threshold employment schemes, however, were flexible models that were always adaptable to the economic and social systems of other countries, said Morales. ‘But you have to maintain a harm reduction principle. Start with a strong pilot project, and after that you can focus on flexibility and scalability.’
Getting more businesses on board meant investing in ‘educating employers and the public in terms of campaigns that challenge stigma,’ said Duffin. ‘Co-production is not unique to Ana Liffey – there are models across Europe and further afield – it’s just that it’s difficult to get it right.’ While sustainable funding for long-term project development was again a challenge, involving and paying people who use drugs was ‘creating healthier and safer communities – because people are engaging in a pro-social way’, he said
COMMUNITY OPPOSITION
There was also the significant issue of managing negative reactions from the community, delegates heard. ‘People who use drugs face stigma every day and are portrayed as criminals in the media – of course you have people who don’t want to work alongside them,’ said Duffin. ‘That’s not true of everybody, but it is a challenge. And the way to deal with that is to engage with people, that’s how you move things along. Being good neighbours and good work colleagues are all very important.’ If any municipalities were concerned that initiatives like TAPAJ would ‘attract more people in precarious situations to their area’, the best way of addressing this was always through open communication and demonstrating the long-term benefits, Morales added.
It was vital to recognise not just the value that someone brought to a job, but also the ‘profound impact it has on the person,’ said Duffin. ‘Their wider life, their family life, their housing situation, just reducing risks in their life. Employers, policymakers and communities need to invest and listen. Low-threshold employment is essential – for people who use drugs, people who are stable, and people in recovery.’
‘So let’s make it happen,’ said Morales.