France
Get in touch with the IECD team in France
Address:
Business school
rue Joseph Biaggi
13003 Marseille
France
Contact: Thomas Behaghel
E-mail: thomas.behaghel@iecd.org
‘Working with IECD has enabled ACCES JOB to professionalise its approach. Their support has made it easier to analyse our challenges and implement appropriate solutions, while clarifying our mission to help people with disabilities find employment. Thanks to their support, we have been able to structure our monitoring of beneficiaries and assess our impact. Today, the association supports more than 40 people and our team has grown from 3 to 5 employment advisers,’ Stéphanie Roland Gosselin, Director of ACCES JOB.
Since September 2021, IECD has been operating in France with the aim of supporting the socio-professional integration of vulnerable groups.
In response to the challenges of school dropout, career guidance and professional integration, IECD provides support at three levels to:
- Associations. The French non-profit ecosystem includes many organisations with strong potential, yet they often face barriers that limit their impact and sustainability. Drawing on its international experience, IECD in France strengthens its partner organisations and works with them towards a threefold impact objective: improving the quality of their activities, increasing the number of people supported, and consolidating and sustaining their organisations.
- Professionals supporting integration. Improving the quality of support also relies on strengthening the professionals working in the integration sector. In this perspective, IECD and its partners have developed several initiatives in Marseille aimed at creating spaces for exchange, reflection and collective learning among professionals. These initiatives encourage the sharing of practices and the strengthening of professional approaches. They also foster stronger connections between local stakeholders, streamline beneficiaries’ pathways and help reduce turnover in these demanding professions.
- Young people in vulnerable situations. IECD has created a dedicated space for young people in Argenteuil, where hands-on activities in manual trades and crafts, combined with self-discovery — exploring one’s motivations and skills — enable each young person to build a chosen career path and achieve sustainable integration.
Particular attention is given to young people with DYS disorders or ADHD.
The IECD currently supports five organisations between Marseille and Paris:
- ACCES JOB, which helps people with intellectual disabilities find their way into the mainstream workplace.
- Appel d’Aire, a training centre that helps young people who have dropped out of school and/or been placed under house arrest to get back into the world of work through carpentry and metalwork workshops.
- Massajobs, which takes in and supports people in vulnerable situations, enabling them to become active players in their own lives and in society through work.
- L’Outil en Main, which introduces young people from the age of 9 to manual trades, crafts and heritage by volunteers who are retired professionals.
- Wake up Café, which helps people in or leaving prison to return to work.
The IECD encourages the exchange of practices and capacity building.
The IECD’s objectives are to “take care of those who take care ’ and to encourage networking and the emergence of synergies, to the benefit of the people it supports. Some forty social inclusion organisations from the Marseilles ecosystem are invited to take part in the discussions through :
- themed breakfasts to encourage support professionals to think together about cross-cutting issues.
- Monthly meetings between the directors of the organisations supported by the IECD to support them in their missions and develop a spirit of cooperation.
- Professional practice analysis sessions, bringing together integration professionals from around ten different organisations.
IECD launches the project “Excellence Within Everyone’s Reach” in Argenteuil.
In partnership with the City of Argenteuil, L’Outil en Main and DYS CARE, IECD has been implementing since March 2026 a series of programmes for young people in Argenteuil aged 9 to 25, aimed at supporting them in developing self-awareness, building a chosen educational pathway and achieving sustainable integration into society and the workforce.
These programmes, in which the young person is placed at the heart of the process, are built around three pillars:
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Hands-on activities: discovering and mastering practical skills, creating, exploring vocational pathways and training opportunities, and building confidence through practical experience.
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Development of psychosocial skills: motivation, autonomy, self-confidence, cooperation, and the management of emotions and stress.
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Individual support: attentive listening and the co-construction of an educational and/or career pathway.
This laboratory of educational and human excellence operates in close collaboration with all stakeholders across the local area.
The results in 2024:
