CEMEA Pays de la Loire

description of organisation

THE CEMEA, A NETWORK OF POPULAR EDUCATION AND YOUTH ASSOCIATIONS

The Ceméa (Centres d'Entraînement aux Méthodes d'Éducation Active) are a national network of regional associations of popular education and youth, recognised as being of public utility and complementary to the school. Created in 1937, the CEMEA are mainly recognised for their training in voluntary work (BAFA, BAFD), professional work (BPJEPS, DEJEPS, DESJEPS) and social work.

But the association is also a space for social and collective experimentation which defends praxis, i.e. a constant back and forth between theory and practice.

THE CEMEA, A MOVEMENT FOR RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTION

The Ceméa is made up of teachers, volunteer facilitators and professionals, educators, social workers, nurses, psychologists and researchers in educational science, who together gather observations and produce political, educational and pedagogical responses. The educational output is disseminated and promoted in our journals (three national publications: VST, VEN, Les cahiers de l'animation), on the Yakamedia educational resources website (https://yakamedia.cemea.asso.fr/) and within the Cafard publishing house.

INTERCULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES AT THE HEART OF THE CEMEA PAYS DE LA LOIRE

At the regional level, the Ceméa Pdll is an independent association with about 50 employees, volunteers and trainees and more than 200 activists. The association is organised into several sectors of activity (Animation, Early childhood, Media, School, Territory, Gender and sexuality, Environmental education and International/Intercultural). The inter (international and intercultural) field was created in 2007 and functions thanks to a team of 5 employees, including a coordinator, who are specifically involved in international projects and actions.

We think of international mobility in a transversal way within the association; as a means of improving practices, opening up to the world and developing European and world citizenship. For 10 years, the Ceméa Pays de la Loire has been supporting the mobility of volunteers, groups of young people, trainees, practising professionals, trainers in the fields of animation, social and medico-social work, and job seekers.

Since 2007 and the structuring of the inter-field, the Ceméa Pdll has enabled :
- the sending of 500 trainees and 50 trainers on 5-day mobilities
- the sending of 60 people on professional training courses

and the support of :
- 15 local authorities in the development of international projects
- 10 structures in the development of volunteer projects (EVS) and youth exchanges,
- 3 training centres in Palestine, Tunisia and Senegal.
THE ACTIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SECTOR ARE BASED ON 4 AXES

- training (intercultural training, training in leading intercultural exchanges and stays abroad, training on international civic service, etc.)
- Supporting structures in youth projects with an international dimension: youth exchanges, volunteering, mobility of youth actors;
- The organisation of seminars, youth exchanges, the reception and sending of volunteers;
- Educational experiments (opening of a day centre for young exiles, Espace TAMO; project to support young Roma people in civic service in the area).

AN ASSOCIATION AT THE HEART OF LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS

At both regional and national level, the Ceméa has joined various international and European networks, including France Volontaires (whose offices are located at 102 Espace Inter), FICEMEA, Solidar, Solidarité Laïque, etc.
At the local level, we are at the initiative of the creation of the "102 espace inter" in Nantes - together with France Volontaires and Parcours le Monde Grand Ouest - which is a centre dedicated to interculturality and to the support of international mobility projects.

At the regional level, the Ceméa is a member of the CRAJEP (Comité Régional des Associations de Jeunesse et d'Éducation Populaire) which promotes popular education associations in the region and develops expertise in the international field, particularly through the international working group, which specialises in these issues.

The registration and participation in these networks and collectives allows the Ceméa to permanently pool and reflect on our international/intercultural practices and those of its partners. The international projects of the Ceméa Pays de la Loire are conceived within the framework of long-lasting, solid partnerships with associations chosen on the basis of shared values and practices. We are developing actions in Germany, Italy, Palestine, Tunisia and Senegal.