Grande-Synthe, in the North, at the end of 2020. For the first time, using a voice assistant, volunteer caregivers converse in Sudanese Arabic with migrant patients who cannot read or write. At the origin of this experiment, Aaliatalk, a translation tool dedicated to health existing in seventy-nine languages, ten of which are already well developed. “In an emergency, interpreters are not always available,” explains Samah Ghalloussi, an entrepreneur who had the idea for this invention to deal with the language barrier encountered by many practitioners. ” In our translations, we also try to integrate a cultural dimension. For example, to find out if Vietnamese patients eat too much salt, doctors ask them if they eat a lot of fish sauce,” she details. An engineer, this data scientist is one of the fifty laureates to have benefited from the support of 21, the social innovation accelerator of the French Red Cross.
Created in May 2019, this resource center is both the laboratory for ideas, advice and experimentation in the social field of the humanitarian association. He also took shape over 1,000 m2 at the heart of its campus in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine), where its head office is also located. As soon as it was launched, its initiators had to show adaptability in the face of the emergency of the pandemic. “21 remained open and very quickly became a major psychological support call centre”, testifies Jean-Christophe Combe, director general of the French Red Cross. Concerned about the social isolation which affects nearly 5.6 million people in France, the leader specifies: “On this occasion, we also developed home deliveries, which we had never done before. »
As the health protocol eased, social entrepreneurs (fifteen structures in all) took over this comfortable place – natural wood furniture, floors made from recycled materials – to do coworking. They now come across volunteers, Red Cross employees and creators from the private sector who have come to be accompanied to develop their projects. “Here it’s a bit like the Station F of the social”, summarizes the former Secretary of State for digital Axelle Lemaire, brand new general manager of 21, in reference to the Parisian start-up incubator. “Given the current context, setting up co-constructions between the public and the private sector, associating large groups and entrepreneurs, volunteers, employees, is essential to invent the solutions of tomorrow and create a systemic social impact”, she underlines while a new call for projects has just been launched.
“The role of 21 is to identify innovations, support them and test them with our business experts within the Red Cross house”, according to Axelle Lemaire, CEO of 21
Because if the health crisis has multiplied the challenges, other trends have already weakened the social model of the organization. “The context has continued to become more complex”, confirms Grégoire Ducret, founder of 21 and predecessor of Axelle Lemaire. Firstly, “15% of the French population now lives below the poverty line, and 2 million people are in a situation of very great poverty”, and on the other hand, we are witnessing “a scarcity of public money and greater volatility in the commitment of volunteers”.
In this environment, social innovation aims to provide, according to its promoters, new solutions to poorly or unsatisfied social needs by involving the players in the field as an integral part of the solution. To this end, the Red Cross relies on the experience of its approximately 60,000 volunteers and 17,000 employees working, among other places, in nursing homes, hospitals, places of early childhood. “The actors in the field, to which are added external project leaders, are the first to be confronted with the reality of the problems, analysis Axelle Lemaire, and therefore to know how to imagine solutions to meet the challenges encountered. The role of 21 is to identify these innovations, support them and test them with our business experts within the Maison Croix-Rouge and the one hundred and twenty activities it carries out on a daily basis. »
Among these varied profiles, there is a collaborator of the Red Cross, at the origin of Backpack, an application which accompanies patients suffering from chronic low back pain; volunteers who came up with the idea of MeHandYou, an exchange solution to promote the autonomy or professional integration of people with disabilities; an HEC graduate at the initiative of Tous mes aides, a platform allowing individuals to identify the support to which they are entitled. “There are more than 6,000 in France, however the non-use of benefits and social rights is estimated at between 40 and 70%”, sums up Cyprien Boutard-Geze, president of this start-up and Red Cross volunteer.
With at least 13 million people affected by the digital divide, support remains one of the challenges of this change. “Our goal from the start has been to achieve social inclusion through digital and not digital for digital’s sake”, insists Grégoire Ducret, aware that the initiative he has launched will call for more vigilance. In particular, in terms of the security of health data on which some start-ups are working. “We had never operated on health data before, concedes the former managing director, we have therefore learned about this, on which we are assisted, beyond our legal affairs department, by a data protection officer and a law firms specializeds in order to better regulate their use. »
Big ambitions
A reflection is also underway on the legal status of 21. For the time being, the accelerator is carried by an SAS with a capital of 833,300 euros, a subsidiary of the Croix-Rouge Group, 60% owned by the association Croix-Rouge. Rouge Française and 40% by Nexem, an association of the social and medico-social sector. But this scheme could evolve, as could the field of activities: “We could imagine a non-commercial form, or even the creation of an investment tool”, says Axelle Lemaire.
Today the revenue model is split between sponsorship (73%), coworking (17%) and services such as events and consulting (10%). While the accelerator has partners involved in both project creation and sponsorship. Like AG2R, Accenture or the Roche Foundation. This year, the ambition is to reach a budget of 190,000 euros, compared to 167,229 in 2021. “However, the criterion of success is not the growth of 21 per se, but rather that of the innovative products or services that have successfully scaled up in this way, says the general manager. That said, when 21 grows, all social innovation in France grows because we do not distribute any dividends to shareholders. »
In terms of development, the issues revolve around the replicability of the solution in other socio-economic contexts. “In this sense, we are working on the creation of a 21 branch in Mombasa with the Kenyan Red Cross”, she adds. And there are other projects. For example, in France, to federate a network of actors with a view to detecting future “unicorns” of social innovation.