The story of "La Bourguette" could be told like a fairy tale with witches and fairies but this would deny the existence and persistance of the pervasive disorders of autism.
These pages would be very quickly written if we had to enumerate all the moments of crisis and dispair. An Association that is constantly fighting is not a cure for autism. At the best it is a means for all of us to make life triumph. Our role as founders and managers is to give the professionnals the means to do their work and to guarantee our real and exacting support.

 

Mr. Soleilhet 's project included two essential points :

 

- To be part of the village life and benefit from the structuring rules of the local community
- To allow each child to build his path towards reality slowly and at his own pace and to achieve this, help him to discover and know the earth, water, plants and the everyday movement of time so that one day he might dare to enter reality and to live.

The farm at "La Bourguette" made this possible. Our work will always be summed up in two words : make possible.

Mr. Soleilhet pointed out that the project would make sense only if we could offer the children a relevant duration in time for them and a unique guarantee of continuity otherwise their world would remain chaotic. This imposed a residential offer.

 

In 1973, we created a  school including several groups of children boarding in small house units.

The school staff had to provide  maintenance of the infrastructure, administration, organisation of 4 house units (evenings, nights and week-ends), education, training and individual care etc.

At a very early stage we discovered that the rural option was the right one. The children were directly in contact with everyday things of life and even if they were not part of them, they could see them and look at their transformation.

We were under the impression that this message was given to everybody : life was possible.

(C.A.T: Centre d'Aide par le Travail. Providing supported employment service for handicapped persons).

Education could not be the only objective. We had to think in terms of profit earning capacity even if it was  nearly  an impossible goal to attain in agriculture considering our working conditions.
Without a profit earning capacity there was no salary possible and without salary no work possible at all.

 

Finally, in 1976, we searched for another location and found the "Grand Réal" property at "La Bastidonne". "Réal" means 'brook' in "Provençal" and as such this land was blessed since there was water.

Mr. Soleilhet was adapting his project, planning the working organisation, the salaries for working adults and the unavoidable consequences of this working life on the residential activities.
We knew that like the school, several residential units had to exist to offer a living circulation within the network. We knew as well that a real work proposition had to be given, a contract even if it seems totally utopian for these adults with autism. And reality will go beyond our expectations.

We declare that for these adults, it is essential to benefit from the same rights as any employee : relevant wages, access to training, National Health, Insurance and Retirement benefit just like anybody else. These rights are conditional to existence.

We can certify, after a number years of running the adult centre, that our initial intuitions were right. The law of employment, the law of respect of man's word are an unavoidable logic where even the more severely autistic adult can abide if it is presented clearly and truthfully.

- 4 -    The Auberge

The economic principle was interesting since we could use the farm products and this was a guarantee of quality and therefore clientele.

Since its beginning in 1981 , the Auberge has achieved its trading objectives. The social workers have improved the old fashioned "Provençal" recipes, the waiters are professional and they have built a base of regular customers.

The working adults live in small home units, in groups of 6 to 8 persons. The houses are far enough from each other to insure the autonomy of each group and the pleasure of common activities.

Life in the adult centre implied also the organisation of their leisure time - not simply a return to their families (where a family exists). We questioned the complusory return to the family at usual closing dates common to this type of centre. An adult and his family should meet when and as often as they wish. This has nothing to do with the closing dates of a centre. Keeping to our logic (and we know how important logic is to autistics) how could we explain on one hand that the «Grand Réal» was their home and on the other explain that they had to leave during five weeks because of administrative and budgetary constraints completely beyond their comprehension?

 

To answer this need we created a seperate association and we subcontract to this association the organisation of the sparetime activites.
The association organised winter holidays, trips to Spain and envisage the organisation of week-end activities.

 

 

In order to free some places at  «Grand Réal», we decided to create a small company to employ workers both from the school and «Grand Réal». Normal working hours were applied.

The company «Réal-Bois» prepares and sells fire-wood employing  4 persons : a director and three workers.
The Legal structure was of assistance since with a limited capital the company became entirely independent. Further there is absolutely no mention of charity or handicap making their integration in the local economy easier.
 

The company started in1985. There was 100 tonnes of wood to be cut and delivered, an old wood-cutting machine , a saw completed with all necessary securitiy devices, a warehouse, a small van and tons of energy. The work could start. After certain hesitations and difficulties where the adults had to leave the security of  «Grand Réal» the sales started to climb and indeed our success was such that  we had to subcontract some of the work to the «Grand Réal». There is a kind of bridge between the «Grand Réal» and the "Real Bois" allowing some adults to work for a few months at the "Real Bois" while keeping their supported work at the C.A.T. They can then move on to the company without too much trouble. The increasing market should allow one or two more job creations. One of the workers actually benefitted from a training course at the "Centre d'Apprentissage des Métiers de la Forêt".

 

In 1973, when we wrote the constitution, we included "Research for Autism" as part of the objectives of our association.  We had first to exist before we could start any kind of  research. Existence was the guarantee of real research derived from otherwise purely wishful thinking. We started research with a training programme of our staff based on the learning abilities and particular difficulties of children with autism. Research is particularly important  since as soon as we seem to get rid of some of the obstacles that confront our children, they seem to enjoy living again, then the disorders re-appear , more cruel and more pervasive, weighing heavily on the development however positive. We can never forget  the witch and her costumes, tricks and evil spells.

Faced with the adversity of the disease, the children taught us that we had to live by a strict code based on truth.
Our meetings with the children and our meetings within the association are all sharing  truth.
 

People suffering from autism can only have confidence if they feel surrounded by truth and security. Truth and honnesty implies that we should not be tempted to oversimplify and find illusory solutions. It is however the major risk of any human adventure where auto-satisfaction abounds. We have to constantly question our methods and our experience. This is why it is absolutly essential that we can share and compare our technical and scientific experience.

We know the effort this implies for all of us - it is a condition of any research. The association found the necessay finance, but will we be strong enough to question our certainties. We have to accept the constraints of sharing and of the written word.