Wanted Community: more than Facebook groups

Our team had the pleasure of interviewing Jérémie Ballarin, co-founder of Wanted Community and Wanted Café. Known primarily for its discussion, support, sales and sharing groups on Facebook, this community has some great values that we share. Many of you are members of Wanted groups on Facebook, talking, buying or selling second-hand items between individuals, but Wanted is much more than that! This article is an opportunity to discover a wonderful story of solidarity that is being written both online and offline.

Where does Wanted stand today? Between your online communities and your venue projects, what is the general dynamic?

The communities are as active as ever. We have over 80 groups in France and abroad, and the two most active communities are still Paris (over 500,000 members) and Bordeaux (over 170,000 members). Other cities such as Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille and others are also beginning to expand their communities. Alongside this, within the groups, there are always lots of very different things going on, from the little day-to-day helpers to the wonderful stories of people in difficulty. Someone recently found his father, whom he hadn't seen for twenty years, and it was the members of the community who helped him find him. That's just one example among many!

The Bordeaux community is also pretty lively. During the lockdown, several members of the group came to Wanted café because we decided to stay open! We don't do takeaways, because our menu isn't suited to that, but we have decided to cook dishes. We make 50 dishes a day, 5 times a week, which adds up to 1,000 meals a month. To do this, we invite people from the community to come along, including chefs, and these dishes are redistributed by associations (who are also members of the Wanted community) to people on the street! We've been doing this for 3 months and it's keeping the place going.

We're also planning to open Wanted Café 2 in Paris this year, and we've already got a few locations in mind! But this Wanted Café will have a more special dimension, because we're offering members of the community the chance to invest in it and have shares so that they can build the project with us. To do this, we're currently raising funds through what's called participatory financing. We're doing this on a platform(LITA) that specialises in investment. Over the last month, in terms of investment intentions, we've exceeded €300,000, so that's great, especially for a place that doesn't yet exist, and we've got over 350 investors! And the great thing is that some people have given up to €15,000, and some of them aren't even in Paris!

Is your mission still the same? Has it changed as a result of the health crisis?

Our mission has changed, in a way yes, because the venue is no longer open to the public. We had to close during the first lockdown because the Wanted café was new, so I don't think we were ready yet. But for us it was out of the question to do nothing during the second lockdown. The people who are in a situation of great isolation during this period, it's even more complicated for them because these are people who are either on the street, or who have a roof over their heads, but who are already isolated when there's activity.

So we provide food, in particular through our venues, but in fact it's all a pretext, it's about creating links, it's so that these people aren't alone. That's why we've changed the way we work a bit. Normally we'd prepare these dishes in the Wanted café on Sunday evenings and welcome people. They would come as if to a restaurant, homeless people, refugees, people on their own, and now, for a change, it's the food that goes to them via the associations that have been partners with Wanted for a very long time. So things have changed a bit, but our vocation and mission have only strengthened!

What is the state of solidarity in the era of the coronavirus? Do you still have stories and testimonials that are as moving as they were before the crisis? What are volunteers doing to move things forward?

People who are isolated and living in precarious conditions have been doing so for a very long time. Covid is not the specific cause. I think it's something that's been highlighted today, over the past year, because people can see that it's complicated. But we've always worked with people who are isolated, who aren't doing well or who are on the streets, and so we'd say that the health crisis has highlighted a situation that has existed for a long time, and so much the better!

We've never had so many volunteers come and help us at the café. At the café, just to give you an idea, we need about a hundred people every month to prepare the dishes. Alongside the chefs and the assistants, who are people from the trade, so that everything runs smoothly. We do it in the community, but we also do it in another Facebook group to make it easier to organise. At the beginning of the month, we do a doodle, we propose a team of 5 people per day and it's sorted in half an hour! In half an hour, 120 people signed up to come in the evening and make the dishes.

You now enjoy a national reputation. What does that mean to you? Do you feel a certain responsibility?

Yes, a little. For us, the big issue is that we all feel united on this planet, in this house, and that we can save it. But if we're all back to back, if we don't talk to each other and if we don't pay attention to those who are the weakest, it's complicated. What's more, we're not at all in a 'helping' or 'defending' mode, telling ourselves that there are people who aren't well and that we need to help them, no. We want people to feel that they're in a better place, that they've got a better future. We want people to feel good about themselves, and that's what we've always been about.

In our café, at the same time, there could be a homeless person eating and a company director having a business meeting. And that's something you don't necessarily find everywhere, and it's a symbol! Today we can create new activities, because we're not an association, we're a business. Wanted café is a business, and we can undertake and create projects of any kind. But for us, what we want to develop would be activities that bring everyone together and restore dignity to some and importance to others. So this is our vision and we hope, in our modest way, that it will influence others.

When we first opened the café we were told "you're a non-profit café, it's normal for you to do that" but no, we're a company, we pay employees and we pay corporation tax like everyone else. But we're showing that we can have a socially and socially responsible business.

How did you live through 2020 and what are your expectations for 2021?

At Wanted, 2020 was a very special year because it was the year we were supposed to launch the café in Paris. Of course, it's a café-restaurant-bar, and with the health situation it was quite complicated because it was impossible for us to visit the premises.

2020 was also the year in which our partnership with Facebook came to an end. We were supposed to have used up the funds they had given us and we found ourselves in a year that could have put us in a bit of a bind, but in the end it really strengthened us, because what we stand for has never been as important as it is now! We've never had such a need to stick together, to get together, to be together and to move forward together. 2020 has been a year of upheaval and turmoil, but one that has given us strength! And for us, 2021, the fact that we'll soon be able to open the venue in Paris, the fact that we're thinking about other spaces, that's the next step in the adventure.

You benefit from a huge network effect thanks to your communities, particularly on Facebook. How do you make the most of this network on a day-to-day basis?

Today we communicate a lot more in the groups, whereas before it's true that we were a bit in the shadows and hid ourselves away. But we've done well, because that's how the community has grown and how people have really taken to the network! Normally, a project is set up and then a community is created around it. But for Wanted, the community existed before that.

From the outset, we've always given our members a place and a say, and for some time now we've been using the community to get everyone on board and to say that everyone, with their own vision, can take part. Whether it's for voluntary projects through an action, or by participating in the investment of the café. These communities carry the project forward, and that's important, because they show that our vision is supported at different levels, by 1 million people who are members of our groups!

Moreover, social networks are often demonised by the media, both in terms of lack of respect for privacy and harassment. What's your take on this, given that you've succeeded in creating caring spaces?

I think that social networks are a tool like any other, and it's the way in which that tool is used that matters. It's mainly a question of education and regulation of these tools. Networks like Facebook and Twitter have been around since the late 2000s. We all have very different ways of using them and it's complicated, especially for a system that is very pyramidal and in control, it's complicated to give everyone a place and a say. A few years ago, communication and the right to speak were reserved for the media, public bodies, brands... Today, anyone can speak!

Of course, social networks are full of excesses, but we want to focus on what's beautiful about them, and we see it every day in our communities and even on other platforms.

It reminds me of the debate when Twitter and other networks decided to close accounts, including Trump's, and it raises a question: can a private company like Twitter afford to cut off speech to some people and not to others? It is this concept of freedom of expression that is complex. However, it's just not possible to cut yourself off from social networks just because of the excesses they contain. These are tools that can be used for so many things, for links, projects, connections... to take them away.

Although you are partners in a huge company that is high up on the list of world technology leaders, your flagship projects are 'disconnected', like the Wanted Cafés. How do you explain this approach, which may seem paradoxical?

What made Facebook choose us as one of the world's most influential fan communities in 2018 was that we were going for something positive. It was saying that social networks can have an impact in real life. So we were very clear when we said that what we wanted to do was use these communities to develop physical spaces to do concrete things, and not just keep it 'online'.

We didn't need to convince them at all. That's one of the main reasons why Facebook decided to support us, is precisely because we decided to develop places. That's the future of Wanted for us, the communities are the foundation of course, but what's important to us after that is to be able to bring projects to fruition.

You are currently taking part in the La Fabrique by Aviva competition. Why are you taking part? How can I support you?

The La Fabrique par Aviva competition takes place every year and rewards projects that are local, useful and have a positive impact. Wanted was selected by Aviva to take part in this competition. The principle is quite simple: during the first part of the competition, projects must obtain a certain number of votes. The competition closes on 9 February and it is possible to vote for the projects you prefer, with a maximum of 10 votes each per project. At the end of this first stage, the projects with the highest number of votes will then move on to the second stage, where they will have to pitch in front of a panel of judges. Following this, there is a financial prize for the projects, allocated by geographical area. And it is only after they have passed before the juries that the best projects will be selected to go on to the final in Paris to win the final prize.

Of course, to answer the few people who might think that we've won 1 million dollars from Facebook and that we're still running competitions (although many of them understand), you should know that the money given to us by Facebook doesn't go directly into our pockets. It's really for developing our project, developing our venues, and an endowment like this would allow us to see things a bit more clearly in 2021. It would enable us to continue working on the project and then develop our business models and be able to pay ourselves!

So to help and support Wanted, I can only encourage you to vote for the project. All you have to do is go to the Wanted project page, create an account in just a few seconds and support us with 10 votes!

Anything you'd like to share for the New Year? A little exclusive?

For Paris, we've got a few places on the shortlist, and we're in the process of making the final adjustments to see which places are the most relevant. We've got some very interesting venues and we'll be positioning ourselves fairly quickly, but we don't even know which city we'll be in at the moment, so we can't say anything about that.

There are also other spaces that could be of interest, where we'd like to create a hybrid space based around links, catering, culture, permaculture... with a wide range of activities! And that's something we're very interested in, over the long term of course, but it's the step we'd like to take after our cafés.

How has Wanted changed your life?

It's changed her completely! First of all, because before starting the Wanted adventure, I'd set up my own business where I gave communications advice and I had a slightly more 'conventional' life with less awareness of the challenges of social networking. So yes, this project, with the encounters we've had, the projects we've embarked on, the people we've talked to... it's changed everything. Whether it's my vision of my job, my vision of the world, my day-to-day life... it's clearly changed my life on every level!

Wanted is also known for its Facebook groups, where offers and requests are pooled. Given the number of people and the ads that are grouped together, aren't you afraid that some scams could come out of it?

With the sheer volume of interactions we have across all our groups (18 million a year), some attempted scams do happen. But we have a strict charter (clear display of the price, contacting the seller by PM, etc.) and our moderators take great care to enforce it.

Wanted is also known for its Facebook groups, where offers and requests are pooled. Given the number of people and the ads that are grouped together, aren't you afraid that some scams could come out of it?

With the sheer volume of interactions we have across all our groups (18 million a year), some attempted scams do happen. But we have a strict charter (clear display of the price, contacting the seller by PM, etc.) and our moderators take great care to enforce it.

What advice would you give your community on how to buy and sell safely?

It is very important to make direct contact with the seller to get a concrete idea of their good faith. It is essential to conduct the sale in a place that is frequented and trusted. Of course, solutions like Obvy can make payment secure and cut short any attempts at scams.

Where to find you and how to contact you

On our Facebook groups, on our wanted.community website, on Place des Capucins in Bordeaux at Wanted Café and hopefully in 2021 at Wanted Café Paris.