Baden association takes over post office in Bern’s Matte district

After running a bed and breakfast for a year and a half, the Charôtel association is starting a new project this spring. He wants to make it easier for the unemployed to return to work.

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Those who have been unemployed for a long time find it difficult to find their way back into professional life. This is particularly difficult for people over 50. Sven Fäh is annoyed by this fact. The 46-year-old from Biel lived in Baden for a long time and founded the Charôtel association there. The aim of the non-profit association is to enable the long-term unemployed to return to work.

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“People who haven’t worked for a long time have very few opportunities to reintegrate,” says Fäh on the phone. Those who have worked for more than 50 years are falling out of the grid due to the increasing changes in job descriptions. “And that’s because they bring experience instead of social media skills,” says Fäh. “I think that’s wrong.” He is therefore committed to getting the unemployed involved in everyday working life and thus giving them the opportunity to regain the ability to connect.

So in 2015, Fäh created the Charôtel association with the intention of taking over a bed and breakfast. Unemployed people should be hired for the company so that after a long period without a job they can pursue regular employment again. At the same time, the bed and breakfast should offer people on a tight budget a place to stay. However, the search for a suitable property was unsuccessful for a long time. Until Fäh’s partner finally came across a Facebook post. There it was said that the former owners of a bed and breakfast in Bern wanted to sell. “We quickly got into conversation with them, were able to buy the furniture from them and take over the temporary lease,” says Fäh.

The entry fee for the association and for the purchase of the furniture came from Fäh’s fundraising company Glücksfäh. “Because I successfully set up my own business, this donation enabled me to secure start-up financing,” he says. After that, the project is self-supporting through the income from the operation, which in turn flows into the association’s coffers.

From the beginning of May, the association will take over a post office

In 2019 and 2020, the association ran the bed and breakfast “Im Klee” in Bern. Today, Fäh describes the project as a “casual story” and says:

“Thanks to us, five people were able to find work again.”

However, the bed and breakfast is now closed because the premises are being renovated. The Charôtel association will soon start a new project for this.

At the beginning of April he will take over a post office in Bern’s Matte district. This was closed at the end of the year and is currently being renovated. “For the residents of the district on the Aare, this meant a major restriction, because from that point on they had to go up into the city to send parcels,” says Fäh. “The post office is sorely missed.” The post office knows this too – and therefore looked for new operators so that the offer in the Matte district can continue to exist. The request went to all residents, including Fäh’s partner and thus to himself.

This is how the Charôtel association finally came to the new premises. According to Fäh, the handover was “quick and painless”. From May onwards, his association will be doing business on behalf of the Post. For this, the members receive training from the client. At the same time, the association is selling the antique furniture of the former bed and breakfast on the premises. Fäh describes the project as “Matte-Post-Brocki”. And as a good chance for everyone.

Unemployed people are placed with the association by a specialist agency

Once the members of the association have settled in at the new location, long-term unemployed people will complete the team and ideally be employed on a small scale. “It’s important that we can offer them a well-structured situation,” says Fäh. Because many are only partially resilient. The people who work for the association are placed with him by the unemployment department of the city of Bern, the Competence Center for Work. An agreement is then drawn up in which the learning objectives are set.

“Actually, we offer them an internship,” says Fäh. “Once they gain experience with us and improve their skills, they usually find it easier to find another job.” Because then they would not only live on social assistance, but would have shown that they could still do something.

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