After having worked a long time as a financial director of the group “Le Bon Marché” in Paris, Francoise Courvalin realized that none of the personnel was working in a position appropriate to him or her: over-qualification, under-qualification, technical ignorance, misuse of human potential. This situation disturbed her and she established CAPS AVENIRS France. She is the mother of professional reconversion and return to employment, and of skill assessment, in France. Designer for the ANPE (France’s largest employment agency) of large projects of support and accompaniment, for business people, and creators of innovating projects, Françoise is also part of the commission of the European Development Fund
Françoise Courvalin coached and accompanied Sophie Reverdi, since day 1, and is the unquestioned godmother of SMART AND LIGHT.
Open letter to my friend Sophie Reverdi
“Do we speak about Camille Claudel’s chisel when we admire her sculptures?Do we think of the schoolbook and the inkpot when one reads Colette?
Do we imagine the test-tubes when we look at Marie Curie’s work?
Is there a thought for Alexandra David Neel’s donkey when we recall her travels?
NO.
Well, for me, speaking about Caps Avenirs and my work, during the genesis of Sophie Reverdi’s project, falls under a similar approach: I was only a facilitating element, a catalyst and carrier of thoughts and comments to centre the project and to give it more and more chances to exist.
So, is it necessary to bring Caps Avenir and Francoise Courvalin to the fore, when one looks at the long road traveled by Sophie Reverdi, and the realization of her project?
She is like these women full of ideas, ideals, projects, enthusiasm, fervour, who are certain that they will bring to others “a little something” which will make life more liveable.
Sophie knows, now that she has arrived at the phase of concretization, that, among the many projects which have lived inside her when she came to find me, almost 2 years ago, SMART AND LIGHT was the good one. The gestation period was not plain sailing, and how many doubts cropped up!!!
The way was not easy; the merit is hers, and hers alone. This incredible adventure of the “little idea of a mere slip of a woman” takes shape today, and I am proud to have been the “chisel, ink, and test-tube…”
It is her pugnacity, her persuasion, her quiet softness and her indomitable willpower which made SMART AND LIGHT the innovating concept of better quality of life, full of hope for a great number of men, women, and especially children.
So, if Caps AvenirCounseils and Francoise Courvalin stay in the shadows, it is intentional: the éminencegrise is always happier when she looks at the opening chrysalis from afar.
My presence and my past action do not have more importance than the ink that will publish this e-mail.
But one thing is clear: it is that I am proud of Sophie, and that she will always be able tocount on me for the continued existence of her project. Today, SMART AND LIGHT is born, the project is viable.
But, it will be soon be necessary to give it its full radiance, in terms of employment, distribution, and training. It will need a team, means, and anticipation. Thank you TUNISIA for having welcomed this project.
SMART AND LIGHT, precursor in its field: obesity will make our civilization and our society aware that to be obese is not an inevitable fate, nor a handicap.
For all those that will gain new hope: THANK YOU SOPHIE.”