Anne-Karine Stocchetti
Anne-Karine Stocchetti was born and raised in Paris and has three children. She first studied film, worked in film production companies and wrote scripts. Anne-Karine dreamed of becoming a film director but kept running into fundraising problems. She later became a stock trader but grew increasingly uneasy trying to balance work and family life. In 1991, she left her job and moved out of Paris to a small town where she created a childcare agency, quickly discovering the difficulties faced by parents working non-traditional hours. Their needs neither corresponded to the hours offered by childcare services nor the prices they could afford. Bolstered by this realization, Anne-Karine created Optimomes in 1996.
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- Optimomes
- Model
- Hybrid Social Enterprise
- Sectors
- Social Innovation
- Headquarters
- France
- Areas of Impact
- Europe, France
Optimomes
Optimomes is a provider of childcare offering staggered hours for parents who work early in the morning, late in the evening, and at weekends or public holidays. Anne-Karine Stocchetti created Optimomes to address conflicts between the professional and family lives of parents who work, particularly those working complicated schedules who have young children.
Optimomes' success has been the result of placing families and their needs at the centre of its model. After a four-year pilot stage, Anne-Karine successfully applied for the European Union programme Equal to replicate the Optimomes model on a greater scale. To do so, she created Optimomes Development and launched the GEPETTO network of childcare centres in the Brittany and Rhône areas of France.
Since its launch in 2003, GEPETTO has benefited over 1,200 families and 1,800 children. Of those families, 60% are single-parent households, the majority headed by women, and 65% earn less than 1,000 euros per month. GEPETTO’s impact has been assessed by external evaluators, and indicates significant stability for children and better performances in school. Parents enjoy greater peace of mind, dramatic reductions in absenteeism and higher work productivity, which benefits their employers as well.
Today, GEPETTO has developed a new concept called "la crêche solidaire." During the day children are welcomed in small nurseries located in apartments specially designed for their needs. During early morning, late nights, week-ends or holidays GEPPETTO intervenes directly at the children's homes. Special personnel are employed and all activities coordinated to assure the biological rhythms of children are reserved.
awardees
Our awardees
Sasha Chanoff
Gary White
