In the mid-1990s, a research group at the Centre jeunesse de Montréal - University Institute, examined the situation of young single-parent women with children aged five and under, and noted the widespread failure of integration programs in employment with this clientele. These young mothers, when they come from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds, find themselves very often in precarious living situations and exclusion, with serious and costly consequences for themselves, their children and their immediate family. For mothers, poverty and exclusion from work often mean psychological distress, social isolation and loss of social identity (Gauthier and Mercier, 1994). For society, this leads to a net increase in social costs.