FEDERATION DES OEUVRES LAIQUES DU JURA

description of organisation

Founded in 1866, our association, the ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’, aims at:
- Encouraging the access to sport and cultural activities to all citizens, this being seen as a way to actively contribute to the society;
- Strengthen the associative field, this being a place where citizenship and participatory democracy can be performed.

To reach these objectives, the ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ focuses on:
- Be a long-lasting and valuable partner of public schools, through projects and activities targeting teachers, students and all relevant educational stakeholders;
- Acting with inhabitants in their everyday environment;
- Striving for recognizing and supporting cultural diversity as well as an active citizenship at various levels;
- Promoting secularism, core principle of the French Constitution.

The ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ is established in France at various levels: 102 federations operate at the local/department level, gathered in regional unions. In addition, the association is represented at the national level. All the federations fall under the scope of action of the latter while being autonomous in the activities developed and carried out.

Through a wide range of actions, the association aims at targeting the following groups and stakeholders:
- Young people aged 6-30 through different means and types of action:
1. Sports activities inside and outside school, these activities aiming at encouraging physical activities as a tool to foster mutual respect, solidarity, cohesion and sense of belonging to a group and community;
2. A project focusing on reading: volunteers aged above 60 read books on a weekly basis to a small group of children. This activity (‘Lire et faire lire’), carried out for 20 years, seeks the development of intergenerational links as well as increasing young people interest in literature, knowledge and culture.
3. An inclusive project (‘Jouons la carte de la fraternité’) targeting students aged 6-18: this consists in sending a message to an unknown recipient while focusing on fighting discriminations, calling for tolerance and promoting social and cultural diversity. Each postcard displays a photograph that illustrates one of these themes. Besides analyzing the picture, reflecting on these values and writing the message, the participants also invite the recipients to answer them – therefore supporting social cohesion at local level.
4. The development of the French volunteering mechanism called ‘Service Civique’: targeting young people aged 16-25 (up to 30 for people with fewer opportunities), this mechanism consists in engaging in a voluntary mission for a duration of 6-12 months in a non-profit organisation. The ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ encourages the implementation of this mechanism among the local associations and relevant partners and offers its support in implementing missions. In addition, the ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ carries out, on a regular basis, trainings that are mandatory for the volunteers involved as well as for their tutors. These two-days trainings offers people a chance to gather, to exchange and to reflect on fundamental values such as living together, respecting differences and being active members of the society.
5. Other punctual projects such as a travelling exhibition established in partnership with the Anne Frank House and led throughout 2020: with the support of a guided tour, the visitors (especially students but also inhabitants and other relevant publics) have had the opportunity to reflect on antisemitism, racism and other forms of discriminations occurred in the past, with the purpose of preventing and fighting them in today’s society.
- Cultural, sport-related and educative structures: since its beginning, the ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ is a long-lasting partner of public schools, thanks to the development of constructive cooperation with the French Ministry of National Education, public schools and other educative structures. In addition, cultural and sport-related organisations lie among its partners since many of its activities revolve around these fields. Public libraries, cultural associations, sports clubs are therefore valuable partners.
- The authorities at various levels: acting in priority at the local level, the ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ aims at being a valuable interlocutor for the local and department policy-makers. Ensuring a continuous dialogue and spirit of cooperation is considered a necessary step to support the sustainability and consistency of our actions.
- Local inhabitants: as described above, while young people are the main target group of the ‘Ligue de l’enseignement’ scope of actions, a wider category of population benefit from our activities (volunteers-readers involved in ‘Lire et faire lire’, visitors of the exhibition relating to Anne Frank’s history, recipients of the project ‘Jouons la carte de la fraternité’ and, among others, people being involved in some of the sports activities proposed).