Aaldert de Jong from Emmen knows what it is like to live with benefits, debts and uncertainty. With its own platform for social security Emmen, this bucket of Don Quixote people with a small fair gives a voice.
De Jong joined the Participation Client Council about eight years ago. An advisory board that represents the interests of residents on benefits or a low income. De Jong is an ‘experience expert’ in that area as he indicates.
He himself ended up in benefits and debt counseling. “I worked as a mechanic at the AVEBE factory in Ter Apelkanaal. Later I started for myself, but at some point I got bothered by my back. A hernia, it turned out. I have been lying under the knife a number of times.
He receives benefits, but he is unable to keep his head above water. “Less comes in than it goes out. Rent and care in particular pressed heavily on my budget. At some point you don’t open any any more envelope.” When a clearing threatened, De Jong decided to turn to municipal debt counseling. “It did very well, because I got all over it.”
He has some ideas about that and he decides to join the Client Council Participation Act. Because of his own experiences, he knows what it is like to be in a financially oppressive situation.
As a new -baked member, De Jong examines a number of improvement proposals, among other things about debt counseling. “You must have social genes to take that step,” he laughs. But after a few years at the council, the frustration uses. “If we were asked for advice by the municipality, then everything was already nice in jugs and jugs. I did not feel that we had much room to add anything. We were tolerated, that was my experience.”
Moreover, the conceived policy of the municipality sometimes puts quite complex together. It is beyond the knowledge of the occupants of the client council. “So in my opinion it also had to be overhauled. More room for experts, for example.”
In addition, the council was regularly confronted with a change of guard with regard to their official point of contact. “He had to master the matter. And that takes time again.” All in all, De Jong saw no more salvation and decided to step up.
Out of frustration, De Jong has decided to take matters into his own hands. Under the name Platform Existence Security Emmen, he wants to give a voice to people, to anyone who is not broad: beneficiaries, people with debts and seniors with a narrow stock exchange. His conclusion: the existing system is too distant, too log, and reaches the people who really are doing.
That is why he started his own initiative, an independent platform that bundles people’s stories and experiences. With a few critical notes towards the municipality, placed on a simple website and shared via Facebook. “The platform is still under construction and there is no tightly defined plan.” I mainly want to collect signals. What is there? What do people encounter? And how can we translate that sound into advice to the municipality? “
The founder sees himself a bit like a Don Quixote, the wandering knight who symbolizes the struggle of the ideal towards the harsh reality. “Someone who tries to set up something that shouldn’t exist. Taking decisions about others without understanding what they are going through: that just doesn’t work.”