ESC: Youth Activities and Community Building

The Regional Youth Information Centre of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (the biggest region in France, South West) is an association with three different offices in three different cities : Bordeaux (head office), Limoges and Poitiers. The association is called “CRIJ” in French. It aims at providing general information to young people (around 15-34 years old), parents or youth workers on all subjects that may concern them (job, internship, guidance, health, holidays, daily life, housing, international mobility, leisure...). It wishes to promote the autonomy of young people by offering them useful information on their personal, professional and educational backgrounds, by accompanying them in their administrative procedures and by directing them to the competent organisations (if necessary). The functioning of the CRIJ is based on the principles of the European Youth Information Charter adopted by ERYICA, the European Youth Information network. The information given to the public must be reliable, updated and objective. On one hand, the different offices of the CRIJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine ensure the animation of a local youth information centre for young people and general public in their respective territory. In its buildings open to the public, the territorial teams also offer various services, such as a reception area, self-service computers with Internet access, an ads service and thematic documentation areas. In function of their expertise, the youth workers are available to young people, parents of professionals to provide information during individual interviews. They also organise or participate, with local partners, in different events (job or volunteering forums, linguistic clubs, thematic workshops...). On the other hand, the CRIJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine ensures the regional animation of the network of local Youth Information offices in its territory. Network facilitators are designated on the three offices to be as close as possible to the Youth Information structures. At the Nouvelle-Aquitaine level, the association develops regional thematic documentation (housing, job, international mobility, no-formal education certifications...) which is distributed to the local network, partners, young people and the public. Thus, the team works both on local projects in their respective territory and on regional projects for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The CRIJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine has financial support from the European Commission, the French Ministry of Education and Youth, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, and other national local public authorities and partners.