• The Foyer Notre-Dame des sans-abri has opened a new sales and repair workshop, the Bric à Bike, at 17, rue de Gerland (Lyon 7).

  • This workshop trains precarious people in the repair and sale of second-hand bicycles to help them find lasting employment.

  • Le Bric à Bike is already enjoying great success with individuals, businesses and communities.

Wheels, tires, forks, adjustable wrenches and smiling staff ready to straighten crooked handlebars… Le Bric à Bike reflects a joyous desire to tinker with bicycles.

This new workshop-sale at 17, rue de Gerland is an initiative of the Foyer Notre-Dame des sans-abri, which has been working for 70 years to combat insecurity.

"We offer solutions for reception and accommodation, social support and professional integration", details Dominique Delmas, president of the association, for whom "integration transmits the codes of the world of work, reweaves a social bond often broken, encourages self-confidence, allows financial resources ”.

The Bric à Bike is the perfect tool.

Sixteen people in professional integration

This solidarity workshop employs four employees in professional integration, under a fixed-term contract, and 12 AVA trainees, on an Adaptation to Active Life contract, who work 12 to 15 hours per week and receive half of the minimum wage.

"The objective is to teach them the mechanics of bicycles, sales, stock management, everything they can use to find a job later," explains Flora Sporer, technical integration supervisor.

In 2016, a first bicycle workshop opened on rue Chalopin, but it will be replaced by a real estate project.

These new premises, larger, better equipped, are also more professional: “For repairs, it is the mechanics who make the estimates, who ensure the follow-up and cash.

Here, the people in integration really learn the trade of cycle mechanic salesman.

"

All bikes sold here are used, repaired or assembled from salvage parts.

Average price: 80 euros.

“We marginally margin at that price!

»Concedes Vincent Chevallier, in charge of the Artillery, the site which sorts and revalorizes the objects given to the association.

“But it's part of the Foyer's philosophy, to equip people at a reasonable price, with repair costs 30% cheaper than in a traditional repair shop.

»These revenues make it possible to finance the social actions of the association.

“We would like to get out of a logic of dependence on subsidies, and if in the long term we can run the store and develop it further, we will be delighted.

"

Learn a booming profession

Delighted, Seda is already. This 41-year-old former Armenian soldier arrived in France in 2015 with her son, without being able to find work for lack of a permit. Until she arrives at Notre-Dame des sans-abri where she is on an integration contract at the workshop. “I am very happy to be here because I love the mechanics! », She rejoices. “In 11 months, I learned to dismantle, repair, reassemble any bike. Electric too, even if it's more complicated, you have to know all the wiring. "

The tasks turn to learn a little of everything: Charkane, a young employee of the workshop, is in charge of the tamper at the moment. “With that, I go to collect donations from shops or individuals, with a system of exchange of cases. Once filled with small items, I transport them to the Artillery site to be sorted and reused. It also teaches me the profession of delivery man, collector… ”

The enthusiasm of the teams and word of mouth have successfully launched the mechanics of Bric à Bike, in a sector with high demand.

Companies have already contacted them to entrust them with their fleet of cycles, and they won a call for tenders from the metropolis, consisting in lending 10,000 bicycles to young people in difficulty.

A great recognition for a workshop which "binds the virtuous elements", according to Laurent Barraud, director of professional integration: "The collections, the second hand are intended to be resold for the benefit of the missions carried out by the Foyer, in a dynamic which reconciles environment and employment.

»And to see the pride of Seda and the motivation of Charkane, it is not only the bikes that the Bric à Bike upgrades.

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  • Association

  • Solidarity

  • Bike

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