CARMEN MATHIJSSEN & DANNY WILDEMEERSCH 11. LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES IN COMMUNITY SERVICES IN FLANDERS1 Community Services in Flanders: Their Aspirations This chapter is about how community services are learning to deal with conflicting options. The research presented has tried to surface and name conflicting options within the context of the debate on the future orientations of these community services. For this reason, the ‘democratic practices as learning opportunities’ described in this contribution are mainly situated at the organizational level of the community services in Flanders. Community services are an emergent practice of activation of the long-term unemployed. This new initiative in the social economy sector is rapidly growing and offers a wide variety of services ranging from social restaurants, to aid for senior citizens, and even projects for the maintenance of green spaces. There are two different forms of community services: neighborhood services and proximity services. Neighborhood services focus on the needs of people in poverty on a local base, expecting to improve the viability of disadvantaged neighborhoods. Proximity services are not linked to a specific neighborhood, but deliver services to the wider community. The six community services discussed here are located in the province of West- Vlaanderen, in the rural context of a region called ‘the Westhoek’ (the area of the battlefields of the First World War). The municipalities involved are Nieuwpoort, Poperinge, Wervik, Loker, and Ieper. One service covers the four villages of Poperinge, Vleteren, Alveringem and Lo-Reninge. These six community services regularly organize an ‘exchange table’. At these occasions they try to reinforce each other, by exchanging experiences, discussing policy developments, asking each other questions, and jointly engaging in (lobbying) activities. All preliminary analyses were discussed with all six community services during their exchange tables. The limited length of this chapter only allows us to mention Mobiel@elier and Buurtdiensten ‘t Park as illustrations. Mobiel@elier is a proximity service that started in March 2002 and provides diverse services: shredding wood pruning’s, producing picnic tables, and multiple forms of cooperation with the municipality of Heuvelland. For example, they build playgrounds and skating ramps.2 With their van and mobile work unit, they operate as a mobile workshop.3 The services are provided by youngsters, who engage in part-time training. They go part-time to school and they work part-time in Mobiel@elier. The project is linked to Huize Godtschalck, an institution for special youth care. These youngsters are taken away from their family environment R. van der Veen et al. (eds.), Democratic Practices as Learning Opportunities, 125–136. © 2007 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. CARMEN MATHIJSSEN & DANNY WILDEMEERSCH because of serious threats to their physical and/or psychosocial development.4 Mobiel@elier provides employment for a maximum of five people. Buurtdiensten ‘t Park is a neighborhood service in the disadvantaged neighborhood ‘t Park in Wervik that started in October 2002. First, there is a cafeteria where people can find information (about other social actors), and can meet each other. They can enjoy each other’s company with a cup of coffee, play a board game, read the newspaper, or talk about local events. In this cafeteria, a major element of contact is the sale of garbage bags. People who live on a tight budget often have difficulty buying a whole set of bags. Therefore they have the opportunity to buy just one bag. Secondly, each month there is a social, cultural and/or educational daytrip, and a hobby-club with handicrafts. These activities are organized by volunteers. Third, there is the ‘neighborhood watch’. Attention is paid to vandalism, dog dirt, and cars that are parked in the wrong places. Last but not least, there is the waste prevention program.. An employee of the service keeps the neighborhood clean by removing street litter and illegal garbage. The people responsible for the neighborhood watch and the waste prevention also function as contact persons for the local inhabitants. Nowadays in ‘t Park there are twelve volunteers and twenty-three employees, of which eleven work in a P.W.A.-system. They receive social security benefits, but can supplement this with forty hours of paid work each month. The client (in this particular case the municipality of Wervik) pays 6.70 Euro per hour. The community service receives not only this 6.70 Euro from the client, but also 14.30 Euro per hour from the government.5 Community services claim to combine three functions: services, employment, and participation. These functions were recognized in the policy texts on community services by the Flemish Minister of Social Economy (Van Brempt, 2004), and were inspired by the advice of the umbrella organization of community services (Koning Boudewijnstichting, 2003). First, they stress the importance of the delivered services. Community services develop their activities on a local base. They aim at meeting particular individual and collective needs which were not acknowledged before. The services often begin with a participatory process identifying those needs. The second function they hope to achieve is the creation of employment. At least 50% of the employees are recruited from a particular group of long-term unemployed. Community services try to develop sustainable employment in line with the experiences and competencies of people living in disadvantaged conditions. They stress the importance of taking the available human potential as a point of departure. Third, they want to accomplish the two above-mentioned functions by working in a participatory way. Community services try to take into account the needs and wants of different stakeholders, such as employees, volunteers, clients, people who live nearby, and other local (social) actors. The ambition is to let them all participate in the start up and further development of the community service. Permanent feedback is considered necessary to make sure the service can be improved and adjusted to fit the ever-changing life circumstances of the disadvantaged people involved. 126 .