ESC: ANIMATION IN A CHILDREN'S HOME

The Association Missions Père Cestac was created in 2005. It manages 6 health, social and medico-social institutions resulting from the social works of Father Cestac and developed until 2005 by the Congregation of the Servants of Mary. The 6 institutions are grouped by 3 poles of activities: Childhood and family: - Nursery Pomme d’Api - 40 places - The Children's House with Social Character - MECS - 48 places - Family Accompaniment Service - SAF - 16 apartments Autonomy : - Retirement home Mariama - EHPAD - 95 places - Foyer de Vie François de Paule - 48 places Health: - St. Louis Buglose Care Home & Rehabilitation - 45 beds The 6 institutions managed by the secular association Missions Père Cestac are located in Anglet, a city of 38,000 inhabitants in the southwest of France, at the domain "Notre-Dame du Refuge" of the congregation of the Servants of Mary. In 2km distance to the Atlantic Ocean this domain of 15 hectares of pine forest and cornfields (bought by Father Cestac in 1838) is today a rural enclave within the agglomeration of Anglet-Biarritz-Bayonne. The Children's Home with Social Character - MECS - receives children who are entrusted to it by the Juvenile Judge or the Social Assistance for Children. It contributes to the child protection by offering a living environment in the form of an educational boarding school. The children are accompanied in their school and social evolution, by rehabilitation and therapy if necessary. The goal is to prepare the conditions to return to their family environment whenever the evolution of the situation allows it. The Children's Home hosts 48 youngsters aged 6 to 18 and divided into 4 groups. Five educators per group provide childcare. Each group lives in a different building. The institution has also recently hosted young refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or Sudan, who arrived unaccompanied in France. The missions of the Children's House are: to help the child to reconstruct psychologically, to propose a secure living environment by giving him benchmarks and encouraging its empowerment. The MECS Cestac hosts since 2012 European volunteers in order to introduce European diversity in its activities. The Foyer de Vie hosts adults with mental disabilities, who have a relative autonomy in the acts of daily life but insufficient, for a long time or temporarily, to exercise a professional activity. The Foyer de Vie possesses private spaces and gardens, including a vegetable garden. The multidisciplinary team of professionals organizes daily activities with the aim of improving the residents' living conditions and promoting their social integration. The EHPAD MARIAMA is a retirement home for elderly people, initially only for nuns. It became the retirement home called EHPAD MARIAMA with the commitment to host residents with loss of autonomy. This institution is entitled to social welfare and currently hosts men and women alongside retired nuns of the congregation of the servants of Mary. The EHPAD Mariama welcomes 95 persons who, because of their age or their health, wanted to join an environment that offers them greater security. The pole Autonomy, consisting of the Foyer de Vie François de Paule and the EHPAD MARIAMA, hosts already Italian trainees from a Highschool in the socio-sanitary sector and wishes to host from 2019 on also European volunteers. The hosting of European volunteers is coordinated by Pistes-Solidaires, who is responsible of the external tutoring and the administrative follow-up. The volunteers are in contact with other European volunteers staying in the region Pyrénées-Atlantiques.