First, a meeting..

All started back in 2013, when Janez came over from Ljubljana on a pleasure trip of Paris mixed with ’business’ affairs (if bike-love can be called “business”). His idea was to visit Paris which he always loved, and make contacts with the bicycle Parisian world, being a keen cyclist and an active member of the Ljubljana Cycling network (Ljubljanska kolesarska mreža). He stayed with the Stendhal squatting collective and the Cyclofficine de Paris Est’ volunteers and employees, both organisations running self-repair bike workshops, and members of the Heureux Cyclage network of French participative and socially responsible bicycle workshops.

The partners

This was the seed that lead him to recommend the Heureux Cyclage as potential partner when theInstitute Karo thought of planning an exchange between youth members of European bike workshops. In a few words,Institute Karo’s project »Karocikel« is a bicycle shop and service aiming at promoting social responsibility within successful business, together with getting old bikes like new. Slovenia suffering a high unemployment rate, getting people having difficulties to get a job closer to being self-sufficient is high on the agenda, as well as in France nowadays for that matter. In this context, sharing and promoting socially responsible businesses’ practices is a must.

The project

Today Institute Karo and the Heureux Cylage network are putting forward a proposal to the European Union funding programme for youth and education called Erasmus+. The plan is to organise an exchange between 11 young members of 3 workshops in France (L’Etincelle in Bordeaux, Solicycle in Clichy la Garenne,Cyclofficine de Paris Est) and Karo in Slovenia, in order to share good practices in bike self-repair and recycling, knowledge about socially responsible enterprises, and the bicycle work sector. Above all, the idea is to get international ! The cost of travelling and implementing this plan being funded mostly by Erasmus+, we are crossing fingers till April hoping for a positive EU’s answer. Keep posted !

Amélie Dumoulin, pour l’Heureux Cyclage
Nadja Sarkić, pour Institute Karo

NB : an article on Karo’s project in Nordic Labour Journal : Europe looking for new ways of creating new jobs