The Houses of Social Renewal are neither conventional schools nor start-up hubs. They are hearths of social healing, halfway between a workshop and a sanctuary. People come not to escape the world but to re-enter it, from a deeper place within.
In a world flooded with information and technology, what we lack is not solutions but places where life can begin again — spaces where people, weary of fear or cynicism, rediscover the courage to act and to serve.
The Houses of Social Renewal are neither conventional schools nor start-up hubs.
They are hearths of social healing, halfway between a workshop and a sanctuary.
People come not to escape the world but to re-enter it, from a deeper place within.
Inspired by initiatives such as Sweden’s Youth Initiative Program and France’s early Foyers Michaël, each house helps participants turn a personal crisis into creative initiative.
Three stages shape the path:
About fifty participants share the year, mentored by an interdisciplinary team of guides: artisans, accountants, educators, artists, and cultural animators.
| Dimension | Function | Companions |
|---|---|---|
| Human / biographical | Help each person rediscover purpose | Therapists, pedagogues |
| Practical / entrepreneurial | Structure the project – accounting, governance | Social entrepreneurs, managers |
| Cultural / social | Root the project in community life | Artists, writers, local mediators |
Thus will, thought, and feeling work together again.
Each house functions as a social enterprise:
The aim: gradual financial autonomy while keeping culture and humanity at the center.
Belgium carries an inner geometry (to be reviewed):
A House in Wallonia would embody the heart, nourishing Flemish enterprise with culture and Brussels civics with warmth.
Society breathes not by punishing the rich or subsidizing the poor, but by re-opening circulation between them.
People visit cafés and shops not only to trade but to feel life move.
Each house makes this its economic art:
Every exchange becomes an act of relationship, not consumption.
Participants learn:
They leave with a viable project and a new grammar of life.
Success is measured not by GDP but by circulating trust:
employment after one year, local collaborations, regional money multiplier, community participation, and the inner sense of purpose restored.
These houses could form a European network of Living-Economy Incubators—places where capital, culture, and consciousness meet to heal the social fabric.
The first could arise in the Ardennes of Wallonia, land of forests, silence, and artisanship.
From there, a culture of possibility could radiate outward.
