The Approach
ACTA VISTA is an association founded in 2002 with a unique and innovative approach: using endangered built heritage as a lever for integration for individuals in precarious situations. To do this, ACTA VISTA develops back to work programmes in the field of ancient masonry on prestigious historical monuments restoration worksites, by hiring, training, and supporting people who experience barriers to access training opportunities and labor market.
This approach thus allows for the combination of training and transmission, socio-professional integration support while breathing new life into the heritage by:
* Entrusting the most prestigious supports to people far from employment, allowing them to regain confidence and pride
These are men and women of very diverse ages and backgrounds, all sharing significant difficulties in accessing employment and training. They are recruited on employment contracts for a pathway lasting a maximum of one year.
In total, more than 6 000 people have benefited from ACTA VISTA's integration programs and the socio-professional support offered.
* Providing qualifying training in a work situation, based on learning through gesture.
Thanks to the passionate and experienced teams (often from stonecutters companions) of its historical partner BAO Formation. Its pedagogy adapts to the widest audience to transmit the know-how and traditional techniques related to the trades of ancient building construction, alternating between theory (in educational workshops) and real-life situations on construction sites. The sites thus become veritable open-air schools. The training concludes at the end of the path with the taking of a professional certification in the field of construction and building (ancient masonry, building maintenance, roofing-plumbing, etc.) with a success rate of 80%.
Tailor-made and individualized supporting for back to work programmes participants to remove barriers to their return to employment (health, language, housing, etc.) and define their professional project (in construction or any other sector of activity) to regain stability at the end of the pathway.
* Restoring exceptional sites in the rules of art, bringing them back to life.ACTA VISTA works on edifices such as historical monuments or building of architectural or heritage interest.
In close connection with public authorities, we consider the restoration constraints of these types of edifices, respecting traditional techniques and materials as well as the environment (natural materials, waste management, reuse).
Restoration allows, in some cases, the initiation of the exploitation of significant heritage sites and to bring them to life. This is the case, for example, with Fort St Nicolas where, since 2021, the association La Citadelle de Marseille has been working to ensure that this emblematic site of Marseille, closed to the public for over 360 years, gradually opens its doors as an innovative cultural heritage hub.
* Raising awareness among young people (schoolchildren and young people in fragile situations) about the history of the sites, the professions deployed there, and the concepts of citizenship and solidarity.
In 20 years, ACTA VISTA has intervened on nearly 40 sites in France. For example, on a part of the famous National Estate of Chambord, one of the most visited monuments in France. Or the Fort St Nicolas: a 17th-century citadel of 5 hectares in the city center of Marseille, the 2nd largest city in France. Over 3 years, more than 8,500 young people have been sensitized.
The Impact
ACTA VISTA's integration projects create a real dynamic in their areas of intervention in terms of employment, training, and attractiveness:
For businesses, they contribute to the economic and social vitality of the territories by enabling the training and qualification of job seekers. After their time at ACTA VISTA, 50% of the trained individuals orient towards the construction sector, and 50% towards other sectors of activity (catering, security, cleaning, commerce, logistics...). ACTA VISTA establishes links with local businesses, thus supporting their recruitment needs and guiding employees in integration at the end of their path.
For job seekers, the projects constitute a real springboard to employment and more concretely, they offer to the job seekers of the territories:
* A work contract * Training accessible to all * A qualification * Social administrative support * The construction access to a professional project * Social link a strong human adventure * Belonging to a collective * Regaining self-confidence * Participation in the restoration of exceptional sites
For the ecological transition, on ACTA VISTA's projects, the work is carried out in an eco-construction approach using ancient building know-how (natural materials, reuse, sustainable and local purchases, rainwater harvesting, etc.) and modern eco-construction techniques:
* Installation of underfloor heating/cooling systems powered by heat pumps * Wall insulation and use of hemp for its energetic efficiency properties * Installation of low-energy LED lighting fixtures * Installation of insulated wood joinery and double glazing
National International Development
ACTA VISTA developed and adapted its project model during the first 15 years in the south of France and Corsica. Since 2016, supported by the Velux foundations and various national schemes, it has been spreading its actions nationally to offer new site owners this device combining integration, training, and heritage restoration, thus increasing our social impact.
It has established itself in two new regions – Chambord area and Lyon area – and continues its development at the national level (Pyrenean mountains area and Paris area).
But the association does not stop there and has also opened up to Europe, convinced that the challenges of inclusion in the labor market, vocational training, and heritage preservation are challenges faced by many countries in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. And the association is multiplying contacts and cooperations in this sense!
Thanks to the Erasmus+ program, ACTA VISTA organizes study visits to meet and exchange with pioneering structures in integration, training, and heritage restoration, including offering training to its employees in integration. This work can also take the form of the development of training methods adapted to people far from employment, integrating a dimension dedicated to eco-restoration and the environment. This is the case, for example, of the HERO project, which involves partners in Croatia (Dragodid),Greece (Boulouki) and Belgium (Pour la solidarité). ACTA VISTA also works with the public authorities of the city of Algiers to supervise the start-up of a school project for the restoration of a historic building in the Casbah of Algiers.
Ultimately, ACTA VISTA aims to develop a network of actors in Europe and the Mediterranean basin interested in integration, training, and heritage restoration. The quality of its work has been recompensed with the 2023 Grand Prix by the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra awarded 2023, in the “Education, training and competences”.