31

After a ten-year pilot project in the French city of Lille, an ATD Quart monde field team puts into words the actual conditions of the participation of people living in poverty: dignified, constructive, beyond the “first contact” that does not always reveal a person’s expertise concerning their own lives, their values, their strengths, and their needs. This approach is necessary not only because it strips away the illusion that the conditions under which everyone can participate are easy, but also because it acts on the lives of families and the actions of professionals, for the benefit of society as a whole.