ESC: Volunteering in Brittany, France

The Ligue de l'Enseignement, fédération des Côtes d'Armor is the departmental organisation of the Ligue de l’Enseignement (League of Education) and unites nowadays 232 associations and 12738 subscribers in the department of Côtes d’Armor. It’s a federation for non-formal education. Its set of activities is managed by three poles (stays and trainigs, federal actions and educational activities)working for the subscribers of its network and more widely for the citizens of all ages and of all social and geographic origine.Through its set of actions, the federation, in alignment with the new status of the Ligue del ’Enseignement devotes itself to the mission of being a movement of non-religious education,respecting social and cultural diversity. It stands up for the republican values of democracy,progress, humanism, peace, equality and citizenship. It extends its missions to the European Union,and to the international cooperation through its partnership with organisations sharing the sameobjectives and values.With its activities organised in different services (culture, leisure sports, school sports, professional training, international relations- Europe service, education) the Ligue 22 does an actual transversework, facilitating the redistribution of complementary competences in the case of every project. Anexample for this is the action led by the International Relations- Europe service in the organisation ofworkshops and trainings held abroad for younsters who left the educational system. The integration of the “Europe, youth actions” module in the workshops and trainings with all its related contents(linguistic approach, emphasis on the intercultural aspect, conflict and divergence management,organising everyday life in a multi-national community abroad etc.) is another example.The volunteers will more particularly participate in the activities of one services at the Ligue22 : the“International Relations- Europe” service but will also be involved in other sector of the organisation.The “International Relations- Europe” service is composed of different sectors: European Voluntary Service hosting, sending and coordinating, the Mobility Training sector and the Europe project sector(Youth Exchange and working camps).The European Voluntary Service sector hosts international volunteers, acts as a sending organisation for local young people. The European project sector develops international actions, often youth encounters during which young people of various countries can meet and get to know each other while realising a collective or individual project. The mobility training sector means the organisation of training for young people coming back from mobility or beneficiaries of mobility.The daily presence of the association in Côtes d’Armor places it right in the core of all matters concerning education. Nowadays everyone measures the possibility of developing on community or intercommunity level educative projects, uniting the whole set of the educative body: the elected representatives, associations, families, teachers, instructors, animators...In the last few years, an enormous progress was made on the field of international youth projects,and many local communities, aware of the stakes of globalization, initiated, prepared, and supported international actions for young people.