Is it time to prune our plants and shrubs? Then it’s time to call in the ViTeS gardening service. Do we need to fill dozens of goodie bags for an event? We call on ViTeS for that too. ViTeS is a social employment organisation that we are happy to entrust with assignments. Not only to assume our social responsibility, but also because they deliver affordable and quality work. We are happy to introduce them to you.

“The production workshop and green services used to be called VZW Mivavil. Since the beginning of this year, however, following official completion of the merger with a number of other workshops and Kringwinkel thrift stores, we now work together under the name VZW ViTeS," explains Ingrid De Roo, communications and marketing manager at ViTeS, "But the mission is more than ever: to provide full and sustainable employment to people alienated from the regular labour market while guaranteeing quality services for our customers. We are doing everything we can to continue to combine these two goals.”

Along with Ingrid, work leader and counsellor Kristel De Pauw is also a key figure in putting this mission into practice. “Kristel looks at whether an assignment can be performed by their people and within what time frame. Based on that, a quotation is prepared," says Ingrid: “Sometimes people are shocked that the amount is higher than they expected. ‘Surely we are doing you a favour by giving you this job, so why do we have to pay so much for it?' Then we patiently explain to them that we pay our workers a decent wage, plus meal vouchers and hospitalisation insurance. We are usually cheaper than a commercial service provider because we are an NPO. We don't have to make a profit, we don't have shareholders to satisfy. But the pay for our people is more than just financial compensation, it is also a contribution to their self-confidence and their feeling that they also matter. For our people, working means having a purpose in their lives, a social network. So much more than just money at the end of the month.”    

Kristel has many years of experience in developing customer expectations into specific, understandable assignments for each employee on this project: “This does sometimes present a challenge, for example when you have to take into consideration that some of them cannot count. But we have creative solutions for that. For example, if ten products need to be prepared, we make a sheet with ten boxes, and ask them to put one product in each box. So we are always finding ways to keep everyone active.” The merger, by the way, allows even more scope to keep everyone employable. “We haven't had a single day of technical unemployment," Ingrid says with great satisfaction.

Because each project is fully broken down into measurable tasks, ViTeS can also always make clear agreements and arrangements concerning timing and cost. “We have missed very few deadlines, and when that happens, it is always due to circumstances beyond our control. Agreements made are kept," Kristel observes. That transparency and reliability makes ViTeS not only a socially responsible but also an attractive partner.        

Would you also like to take advantage of these quality services from a socially-minded organisation? Or would you first like to know more about how they work? Then be sure to check out www.vites.be or contact Kristel or Ingrid at [email protected]