Commitments

SolidarCity, social cohesion in action

A society which moves forward must not be a society which excludes. On the basis of this principle, PPR founded in 2001, a non-profit organisation called SolidarCity.  Its mission: to centralise and support different actions put forward by PPR employees; actions which contribute to the development of the city suburbs, the Group and the individual.  In particular, improving the living conditions in our cities, promoting diversity, equal opportunity and the social integration of people in difficulty, as well as helping the most deprived to regain dignity.
PPR offers SolidarCity the infrastructure of a big business, under the leadership of committed people, allowing the emergence of initiatives.
The SolidarCité model mobilises the resources of the PPR group, links up institutional partners and individuals, and enables employees who wish to do so to get together and take action. This is an innovative principle which conveys the pleasure of joint commitment for supportive projects, which are a source of pride.

There are many such initiatives, but all are centred on the theme of social integration:

• Bringing together 2,000 people including 158 volunteers in 2005, the Kermesse SolidarCity project, which recurs each year, made it possible to collect 45,000 euros (after SolidarCity's additional contribution), donated to 6 associations: Aide Écoute Familles Professionnelles (Dr TITRAN association), ABC D'ailleurs (Educational project in Mali), Espoir (social integration association in Roubaix - ironing/sewing), Les Enfants d'Ambotolampy (Children of Madagascar), Les Clowns de l'Espoir (the clowns of hope) and Les Amis des Enfants du Monde (friends of the children of the world).

• On 15 May 2004, during the Journée de l'Espoir at La Redoute, the work of 650 volunteer employees on the logistic site of La Martinoire (Northern France) made it possible to collect 30,000 euros, donated to the Mascotte non-profit organisation dedicated to autistic and mentally handicapped children.

• The initiative called "un jour, un collégien, un métier" (one day, one adolescent, one job) enables adolescents from a secondary school in a priority education area in France to have a day to discover a job previously chosen after contact with one of our employees, and benefit from a tutor that day. In 2005, 136 adolescents discovered our business as well as the job they had chosen to explore.

• Tutoring: this is part of the "Social Lift" measure initiated by the PPR Group in 2001 – a project which aims to enable the public boarding school to play its role as a social ladder for motivated adolescents stemming from deprived social or family backgrounds. The tutoring programme within the company is implemented alongside the scholarship system set up by PPR with the French Department of Education. It consists in the tutoring of the young boarders by a volunteer employee to help them with their development and social integration. The tutoring programme within the company was set up with the André Canivez de Douai secondary school.

• Within the scope of the partnership with the group of "Vitamine T" integration enterprises: ironing and sewing via the Espoir non-profit organisation, focusing on socio-professional integration in France; the "Bouchons d'amour" operation, involving the collection of plastic caps to finance the purchase of wheelchairs for handicapped children; support with school work.
  

Our brands have also developed specific partnerships.

• Daxon with Handisport;

• La Redoute with SOS Village d’Enfants for "Baptist the bear", the shared product of the catalogue, and the ELA non-profit organisation;

• Vertbaudet with the Necker hospital in Paris;

• Redcats UK with a school located in a deprived area of Wakefield, near Leeds;

• Redcats Nordic with several local/regional associations (for disabled people, sport etc.); they also make charity donations and help other main foundations such as The Swedish Children's Cancer Foundation or Pink ribbon (Breast cancer foundation).