Creating Bonds Between Generations

How does Colette, your intergenerational cohabitation offer, contribute to greater social cohesion?

In 2020, we launched Colette with one goal in mind: to solve real social problems. Our initial observation was that many seniors find themselves alone in retirement or when their children leave the family home, leaving an empty house. To remind you, 1 in 5 seniors says they have no friends! At Colette, we want to enable them to (re)create connections to stay mentally, cognitively, and physically healthy. At the same time, we also observed the difficulties students face in finding housing in major cities where the real estate market is very tight. According to Le Parisien, in 2022, the average price of an empty studio in Paris was €826/month, compared to €530/month with Colette.

Our mission is to foster exchanges between the young and the elderly. By developing this platform that creates intergenerational cohabitation pairs, we aim to combat loneliness, isolation, and financial insecurity, for both the young and the elderly.

Why connect seniors and younger generations today?

From a purely economic standpoint, there are nearly 100,000 available rooms in seniors’ homes in Paris, contrasted with very high demand in the housing market. Ecologically, seniors often live in large, empty apartments with central heating. Socially and fraternally, our main mission is to contribute to the “well-aging of seniors” by enabling them to live better, longer, and in the best conditions, ideally at home. We want to prepare society for the challenges related to an aging population by integrating seniors and offering them an environment conducive to an active life. These cohabitations allow us to reinvent a fraternal and supportive model by establishing social, economic, and cultural links between generations.

And it works. Since our beginnings three years ago, we have formed 1,300 intergenerational pairs. Our presence is mainly limited to Paris and Île-de-France for now. The average age of the hosts, i.e., the seniors who welcome the young, is 64 years, which corresponds to recently retired individuals. On average, these cohabitations last about six months, whether for an internship or a university semester. We have beautiful stories, like that of Bernard and Constance, who have been living together for over two years despite their 50-year age difference. They regularly share dinners with Constance’s vegan friends, which intrigues Bernard a lot. These numbers and testimonies illustrate the social and supportive impact of Colette.

As a private company, a catalyst for solidarity, and an urban actor, who do you work with to extend the reach of your impact, and how do you leverage this triple role?

We collaborate with several stakeholders to extend the reach of our impact. Firstly, we are in regular contact with district town halls, the City of Paris, and neighboring towns, within the scope of our presence in Île-de-France. Secondly, we develop partnerships with numerous universities and schools in the Paris region to offer Colette’s service to their students, such as Sciences Po, EMLyon, ESCP, and IconoClass, to name a few. We also seek to create synergies with other Silver Economy actors to raise awareness of Colette among seniors, as well as with private companies whose interns and work-study students we house, such as Big Mama and BackMarket.

How do you integrate social utility and positive impact, typically associated with non-profit organizations, into the core of your business model?

Our business model is based on a 15% commission on rents that go through our platform. As a private company, we have managed to integrate social utility and positive impact into our business model by fostering the creation of social bonds between generations and fighting against loneliness and isolation. We consider this social dimension to be at the heart of our activity and just as important as our economic aspect.