Plaza de voluntariado en Lorient, Francia

The association is an accredited non-profit association founded under the French law 1901.  with a board of 22 people, made up of residents, councilors, local associations, public bodies such as the community of municipalities, the City council of Lorient.
– A score of around 20 volunteers who regularly are and help in the various activities
– Nearly 280 families (from very different social and cultural backgrounds) are active members.
The association of the Social Center of Bois du Château was created in 1989 and has the following objectives :
– to develop a local cultural and social action with and for the inhabitants of the quarter.
– to promote and facilitate the access to educational activities and projects (street workshops, artistic activities, carnival, European exchanges, sports, theatre, music workshops, video, internet…).
– fight against all discriminations (French learning lessons, free access to Internet, school lessons for children…)
– reinforce the parent’s role in the education of their children.
– to give to the population, to the young persons as to the adults the possibility of becoming aware of their aptitude, developing their personality and of getting ready to become active citizens and representative for a living community. The association is also aimed at reinforcing the solidarity of the inhabitants and the mind of mutual understanding by guaranteeing the equal access of the men and the women, of young persons and the adults, in the ruling authorities of the association. In order to realize these objectives, the association gets a financial support from the town, the district and the State Social Aid: our association is recognized and supported by the local institutions.
The activities are divided in 3 sectors: childhood, youth and adults. In each sector, we coordinate and offer adapted activities These leisure activities for children, young people and adults are organized by a permanent staff of 6 people (3 coordinators and 3 socio-educational instructors specialized in childhood and youth) reinforced by seasonal instructors, depending on what is needed.
Besides these various activities in the Social Center (percussions, creativity, knitting, cooking, informatics, conversations in foreign languages and in French…), the association offers a support to the associations (18), a sector about social economy and, animations to create interactivity between the inhabitants of the area,.
The Social Center has to contribute to the social cohesion of this popular area, organizing friendly evenings, week-ends out of the town, and other events on various themes.
The financial contribution from the inhabitants to participate to these actions is adapted to their family income and should not be a brake to their involvement. So inhabitants can participate to activities and also become member of the board of the association, we try to promote an active way of participating in the quarter and in the association.
The team is composed with a director, a secretary, three coordinators, and a team of animators. All the workers have specialized degrees for their functions.
Inhabitants are roughly 5000, including 35% under 25 years old. There are 780 families, including 300 single mothers. Diversity is represented with many people from different countries (Africa, Turkey, Asia, eastern European countries…), the quarter is part of the main targeted areas that are the priority of the government, regarding social, cultural and educational needs.

The Social Center of Bois du Château is an association involved for 20 years in Youth Exchanges. Partner with 8 countries, this association allowed more than 150 young people to travel abroad and to discover european exchanges. With the previous european project called «Draw me a future», the Social Center was delivered a special price called «euro citizen’s city» price. The city of Lorient was pride to be represented by this association. From now on, the social center would like to host a european volontary service to give another european standing to the association. It would confirm and reinforce our local strategy to spread the european dimension to the quarter of Bois du Château and make it more international. Mobility is the key to succeed in life, especially for the inhabitants of the quarter, it provides new experiences, it wides youth’s horizons and it allows people to create and develop their own identity, social and cultural. That’s what is precisely missing to the inhabitants of the quarter: the lack of cultural and symbolical mobility, it keeps them from being someone else and to become aware of their own identity. The social center has a permanent attention to create links beetween people in order to live better together and to promote new ideas, so a european volontary service is a good way to be an ambassador of this mobility, a symbole of the travel and the incultural meeting.

Lorient is a city of 59 830 inhabitants, she’s the 2nd French fish harbor city and the 1st trade harbor of Brittany. Lorient and its suburbs are the 3rd biggest in Brittany after RENNES and BREST. Near the sea and in the Morbihan department, Lorient is 1h40 from Rennes and Brest, and 5h from Paris. The three universities gather 11 000 students. Lorient has a rich and dynamical cultural activity. With the biggest Celtic festival in Europe, she counts 5 concert and festival rooms, 1 cinema, 3 multimedia libraries, 2 art galleries, 1 school of music and academy of art.
The bus services link the 19 local towns and also the sea buses drive to the nearest islands. Since a few years Lorient has developed the nautical industry and touristic activities as an economic strategy (nautical centers, sea museum, and touristic submarine base). Low cost apartments are available for students and new young workers, and the youth Hostel is located in the center.
Lorient counts 4 social centers located in the main quarters of the city, the one of Bois du Château is the association of the Social center of Bois du Château, that’s where the European volunteer will do the service. The association has convention with the city of Lorient and gets publics funds. In the quarter of the Bois du Château, there are a lot of equipments: 1 secondary school, 1 primary school, 2 nursery schools, 1 theatre, a child and youth dedicated space, a preventive and educative street workers team, 1 commercial center, 1 football stadium…
The European Service will take place in the equipment of the association, and outside the equipment to be the closer to the inhabitants. The quarter is a 15 minutes to the center by bus.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

The Volunteer will get a free bike and will have the possibility to find a cheap room to live during the service in Lorient in a special place for students or at the youth hostel. His meals can be at the youth hostel or at the FJT. Another possibility to find a room is to participate to the project ‘one roof two generations», from this , the volunteer lives in a house with a single person, older than 60 years, and gets a free bed in exchange of company and small services. This project can provide the volunteer a good opportunity to discover the French culture and to live as close as possible as the French habits. This service is only 70€, and it provides a very productive form of immersion to discover French culture and socialize with others. This voluntary option allows the meeting and allows feeling the welcome. In this form of accommodation, the volunteer would take his meals with the senior and would get used with the language and could also present its own culture. He could get benefit from the network of family and friends to enrich his social and cultural life.
The volunteer will receive free French classes offered by a team of volunteers for the people and thus contribute actively to its integration into the local community. Within the structure, he may make his meals for lunch and enjoy an office with the leadership team and will have access to working equipment (PCs, internet connections, copiers, materials, etc …). A tutor will be appointed to facilitate the integration of the volunteer, to accompany him in his daily tasks and evaluate the success of voluntary service. The volunteer can also at the beginning of his service participate in the choir of the Château du Bois, allowing it to learn and deepen their mastery of the French language, it will also explore the region with the walking group that travels the Morbihan every Tuesday afternoon. He will also participate in convivial moments set up by the BIJ and the City of Lorient to come and hear testimony of other young people who have returned from a European voluntary service or an internship abroad.

Missions: 

– participate in the project of the Social Center and take part into the activities for and with the inhabitants, children, youth, adults and families
– promote the EVS action
– contribute to the intercultural opening process project of the Social Center
Functions :
-develop animations for all people in link with European culture
– take part into children, youth, adults or families’ leisures
-create the link and network between the different communities of the neighborhood through arts workshops and sports

The volunteer can take part in various activities organized at Centre Social:
-child care at the Leisure Centre and the Local Youth (sports activities, homework, etc …)
-participation in different activities and workshops with adolescents and adults
-participation in leisure activities and holidays of residents
-from his experience and observations, the volunteer can build a specific project in the direction of a specific public
-participation in team meetings and accompanying the tutor at all meetings or professional meeting of center Social network that may provide additional knowledge of the job community worker
-develop its own weekly activity
The Social Center is open daily from Monday to Friday from 9am to 12am and from 2pm.to 7pm, so the volunteer will work on a basis of 35 hours per week with hours that can be adapted depending on projects (work in the evening and Saturday sometimes)

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process

Our association would like to host a (e) major volunteer who’s interested in children or adults relation, especially with a particular interested for the population with fewer opportunities. French language bases of the volunteer would be appropriated, but are not compulsory. Motivation and desire to work as a team are vital factors for the success of its European service project. The announcement of our candidature as host organization will be through the network of European Programme Youth in Action and our European network of exchange partners or training. Recruitment will be by selection based on motivation and desire to be a volunteer. Telephone contact will also verify the information and pass a «interview» call to confirm the choice of selections.

Risk prevention, protection and safety

The volunteer will be followed by a tutor who will be responsible for ensuring respect rate and working conditions that will be regulated as a part of the collective agreement governing SNAECSO our association and the laws of Youth and Sports. The volunteer will also be in relationship with other team members who all have a professional degree of sociocultural who can handle risk situations. A risk assessment form will be prepared early in the service to prevent any situations that may put either the voluntary or the public with whom he worked in danger or insecurity. Just as we lay the laws or laws prior to any educational activity, the volunteer will be based on educational projects for children and youth sectors to identify in terms of regulations and «good practices»
The volunteer will be given a phone number of someone from the association in the need arises during the time spent out of work.

Selection process

For the selection of the volunteers we will need:
– Europass CV with picture (made in the last month)

– Motivational letter, writing that your sending organisation will be “Building Bridges”. We ask all candidates to send a specific letter of motivation – why they want to volunteer with us rather than just a general EVS one.

Remember to write in the motivation letter that your sending institution is “Asociación Building Bridges”.

All documents written in english you can send to: asociacionbb@gmail.com with subject “EVS Lorient Francia” .