Isolation affects not only homeless individuals. It also impacts students, families in emergency housing, or people living alone, often without anyone noticing. "When you ask a person in precarity, a homeless person what they need most, 52% of them will say they need to talk, to have a conversation." To address this need, Entourage offers a meeting and exchange application, as well as a program to rebuild a professional network.
The organization also supports companies that want to engage their employees. Cooking workshops, sports activities, outreach, or meetings are all excuses to bring together people who sometimes share the same space without ever speaking. Because while companies want to get involved, taking action remains challenging. "Everyone wants to get involved, but very few actually do,” notes Claire de La Roncière. Since its inception, Entourage has raised awareness and enabled over 19,000 people to take action.
The goal is also to change behaviors over time, both at work and in daily life. And it can start with a simple gesture: "Tomorrow morning, the person you pass by every day in front of your office, in front of your bakery, on your way to work, smile at them if you haven't been, or even ask them their name, it's a small gesture, but it really changes the world," concludes Claire de La Roncière.
