To accelerate the consolidation of the digital mediation offer throughout the country and to ensure the coherence of territorial public policies in terms of digital inclusion, the Secretary of State for the Digital Sector and the Banque des Territoires have joined forces to create a dozen " France Connect Hubs", territorial hubs for inclusive digital technology.
This initiative is part of the National Strategy for a Connected France which aims to include all territories and citizens in the digital transition.
With an overall budget of €5 million, the call for projects should enable the launch of these new structures from the beginning of 2019.
What is a France Connect Hub?
It is a territorial support structure for digital inclusion and mediation actors, operating on the scale of several departments (between 2 and 5 departments).In a sector characterized by its diversity of actors, the France Connect Hubs are relevant territorial intermediary structures. Their purpose is to bring together public, private and associative actors on a territorial scale, to network them and to create new digital mediation offers. These offers, created from existing local initiatives, must be in line with the specificities and needs of each territory.
Can hubs improve digital mediation and inclusion actions?
The economic model of digital inclusion and mediation actors is based mainly on subsidies from local authorities, the use of volunteers, subsidized contracts and civic service workers who have little or no training in supporting people with digital difficulties. It is also a heterogeneous sector, which does not benefit from the coordination of programs and the pooling of expenses.The hubs are intended to help the development of actors at the local level and give them the possibility of having a territorial impact on a larger scale. They must allow the harmonization and consolidation of this sector, in particular by ensuring the pooling of resources and skills.
The objectives of the Hubs France Connectée
Actors in the digital inclusion and mediation sector can benefit from the creation of structures that reach a critical size and are able to develop their capacity for action. More specifically, the hubs will have 4 missions:- Identify, articulate and coordinate the actors of digital mediation in order to make projects converge towards territorial priorities defined with the communities;
- Raise funds and help mobilize all sources of financing (especially European) by setting up larger-scale projects;
- Pooling and providing value to field workers by creating shared service centers (pooling training courses for caregivers, sharing tools and human resources, etc.);
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the services provided in the territory and inform the communities and the national steering bodies.
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