Café La Barque - Charity café located in Tours.

The charity "Au fil de l'eau" existed from 1996 to 2017. In May 1995, Georges Plaisantin, a Dominican priest and prison visitor, noticed that there was a lack of an intermediary place outside of traditional social structures in Tours where people in need could come and freely choose to talk and break their solitude.

Since April 2017, the charity " Au fil de l'eau" has been replaced by the charity "Barque to the future".

The main mission of Café La Barque is to provide a welcoming space for people in need.

The charity promotes values such as solidarity, sharing, and benevolence. The Café has different missions such as welcoming and accompanying people in need and in anonymity, providing a space for support, listening and orientation towards partner structures. At the same time, they provide essential goods, such as : a shared fridge, a computer & internet access, a thrift shop, books, board games, a landline telephone and most importantly, a hygiene space (hygiene products, clippers, washbasin, toilets).

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What if "Social Luggage Storage Room" was the next projet, 100% funded by Retreeb thanks to you ?

La Barque wishes to set up a social luggage storage room within their associative café so that individuals in precarious situations can store their belongings. For the construction, the café will call upon a local craftsman and cabinetmaker, himself from the charity world. The luggage store will have between 12 and 16 individual wooden lockers that can be closed with a padlock.

This project was born out of a realization that currently, individuals wishing to store their belongings in the association's office can do so by leaving them in a backroom, however, it takes up a lot of space and does not protect against theft. "Social Luggage Storage Room" is aimed at people who frequent La Barque. They are generally people in precarious situations, homeless and without a fixed address.

Retreeb's message

La Barque responds to a real, but often unknown need on a daily basis by working with people who need to be supported and accompanied in a non-discriminatory environment. These people are trying to cope as best they can, by interviewing for jobs or doing temporary work. But they are slowed down by the fact that they must constantly carry their few remaining belongings in bulky bags.

The charity has unsealed this problem thanks to these testimonies. The luggage storage appears as a solution to this problem. We think that this project can allow everyone to help locally individuals who are in need.

Do you wan to know more about "La Barque" ?

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