30 candles! That's how many we get to blow out this year.

30 candles! That’s how many we get to blow out this year.

EVA bxl is 30 years old! A period of transition is winding down. Slowly it is becoming apparent where we are going and what we want to mean for the next 30 years.
Over the next few months, we would like to look back with you at the fine achievements and innovative approaches of our predecessors. “Reculer pour mieux sauter,” in preparation for a new policy plan 26-30.

Bricoteam > 2009

Good living is a basic right. It is with this challenge that EVA bxl sets to work! Bricoteam saw the light in 2009. As a handyman, they specialize in home modifications for the elderly in Brussels. Their employees also take on a signaling function, directing the elderly to local service centers. Today, they are there for all Brussels residents. Fair prices are applied, linked to income, so that good housing remains affordable for everyone. Bricoteam became independent in 2023, giving way to LD³’s Ou(t)ils chore service and entering into a personal union with 3 other non-profit organizations (LD³, Cosmos asbl and Buurtwerk Noordwijk asbl) in the personal union Poutrel. Bricoteam now handles Poutrel’s facility and building management, in addition to its handyman and renovation services for Brussels residents.

Valorize everyone’s talent! This is EVA bxl’s vision and common thread within its initiatives. A work and training program is therefore an approach that is integrated into many initiatives. Also within Bricoteam. This is a social inclusion enterprise. Job seekers are engaged on the shop floor and trained as handymen. In doing so, they are framed by an instructor and a job coach.
Brictoteam is mandated for 18 temporary employees and carries out about 400 construction sites per year, large and small with Brussels residents and Brussels organizations.

👉 Read more about the Bricoteam initiative or check out their website.

CSZA > 2016 – 2021

How do we ensure inclusive home care for the elderly in Brussels? Especially when today one in three older people has a migrant background and home care organizations have difficulty reaching them. EVA bxl’s answer: via a bridge figure, namely the culturally sensitive care ambassador. EVA bxl tested with a multitude of partners how Brussels job-seeking residents, with non-EU nationality, can valorize their caregiving experience through a co-creative training program to become a care ambassador. The research project ran from 2016 to 2021 and now serves as inspiration for the new initiative diverssensitive palliative care.

EVA bxl is fully committed to its methodology of outreach work in which older people are addressed in the places where they move around on a daily basis. The initiative wins the Care Story of the Year award.

Meet the healthcare ambassadors in this video.

MAISON BILOBA HOUSE > 2009

Finding affordable housing in Brussels, we already wrote about that. This is not easy, and certainly not for older Brussels residents who do not have access to the regular housing market. In 2009, one of EVA bxl’s biggest projects will start: MAISON BILOBA HUIS in the Brabant neighborhood of Schaarbeek.

This unique bilingual house becomes a social co-living project for seniors with 15 apartments, a recognized day center for seniors, a neighborhood network for assistance and care for seniors and their caregivers. Thanks to an intense participatory process involving residents, neighbors, civil society, such as Aksent asbl and Maison Médicale du Nord, and competent authorities, this will be a success and the cooperative company E.MM.A. will be created.

Some residents share their experiences in Maison Biloba House in this video.

CALICO > 2018

Finding decent and affordable housing in Brussels is no mean feat, especially for the most vulnerable groups. EVA bxl is co-founding CALICO – CAreand LIving COmmunity, in Forest, in 2018.

This co-housing of 34 homes, based on Community Land Trust principles, was realized by a strong partnership and will open in 2021. EVA bxl worked with future residents and neighborhood to figure out how the collective space could be a connecting place for residents and neighborhood. A beautiful mosaic depicts the power of collaboration and inclusive housing policy. Intercultural solidarity across generations and shared care is at the heart of CALICO, where Pass-ages also opens 2 apartments as a birthplace and house of end-of-life. Residents there become volunteers.

EVA bxl is founded in 1995

EVA bxl is 30 years old! A period of transition is winding down. Slowly it is becoming apparent where we are going and what we want to mean for the next 30 years.

The number 30 symbolizes harmony, wisdom and inner strength. The number 3 encourages communication, self-expression, expansion and creativity. The number 0 represents eternity, infinity, unity, wholeness . So time to take a look back this year with thanks for the wonderful legacy and the solid image EVA bxl has built over the past few years. 

Since 1995, innovative ideas have been transformed into 10 social enterprises that have advanced the lives and well-being of many Brussels residents. In 3 large research projects we brought together knowledge, developed practices and applied methodologies in the field of diverse sensitive action. Today we are working on 5 active initiatives to further spread the EVA bxl DNA of social innovation, inclusion, co-creation.

Back