Maison d'Accueil Spécialisée Marc Toussaint

MAS Marc Toussaint is a non-profit organization which lodges and accompanies disable people having a physical handicap with an intellectual deficiency for all the habits of the everyday life (toilets, meals, dressing, etc…). The organization, which has the possibility to host 34 inners, 6 outsiders and 4 temporaries, also proposes activities in a aim of wellbeing. Those activities are various: kitchen workshop, memory games, shows, snoezelen, balneotherapy, poetry, mosaics, etc… The volunteers will evolve in a support role and in the proposition of activities and not in health care or professional tasks. The purpose of the host is to reinforce the socialization of the disabled people host in the organization and struggle their marginalization. There is a real societal need to provide these disable people with a extra support in order to reinforce their active citizenship. The volunteer can support them with a specific attention and also go with them for some daily activities or outings. To accomplish its objectives, MAS Marc Toussaint employs 45 employees including a coordinator, medical and psychological professionals, practical nurses, etc… It is important for the future volunteer, to precise that the persons who are hosted in MAS Marc Toussaint are adults, most of them are dependent for the everyday life movements. Some of them can easily communicate, other communicate in a non-verbal way. Their physical situation and their way to move or communicate can be impressive and even frightening for those who are not used working with people facing such physical difficulties. However, there is still the possibility to communicate by a look or a gesture. It is also important to precise that none of those persons have mental handicap but they have a motor disability accompanied by a light or a medium intellectual deficiency. Thus the cases can be very different. For instance, some of those people have a tracheotomy but do not have any intellectual problem. The first contact is always hard, but the knowledge of those persons makes possible fulfilling and interesting exchanges. However we warn the young people who wants to apply, none of the volunteers stopped because of the difficulties of the handicaps. The support of the team helps them to learn how to react and how to lead an activity with the residents.