Created in 2010, the civic service commitment offers young people aged 16 to 25 the opportunity to commit themselves for a period of 6 to 12 months to the service of the general interest and to give their time to others and to the community, without the requirement of a diploma. In 2019, the civic service welcomed 140,000 young volunteers: 490,000, in total, young volunteers since its creation in 2010.
A growing number of young volunteers are now entrusted with missions related to digital technology: whether it is to train people who are far from the digital world, to lead media education workshops (in libraries) or to develop digital projects within the structures that employ them.
Assistance with administrative procedures
Local authorities, primary health insurance funds, family allowance funds, pension funds, Pôle Emploi, public service centers (MSAP), and prefectures now rely heavily on young civic service volunteers to assist the public with administrative procedures.
Pole Emploi had opened its doors as early as 2015 to civic service volunteers to accompany job seekers of the in the use of new digital tools: 1,800 young people in 2015, 2,200 in 2016 and 2017, 3,200 in 2018. "In the agency, the volunteer helps job seekers to get to grips with the digital tools and to familiarize them. He or she helps enter information on the screen and navigate to register via the internet or to consult job search assistance services."
In order to accompany the dematerialization of identity card, passport, driver's license and vehicle registration applications, "digital reception points" have been opened in 320 prefectures and sub-prefectures. " Initially designed to help the public who are furthest from using digital technology for technological, geographical or cultural reasons, this service offers simple access to online procedures (a computer, printer and scanner) for users who are not self-sufficient or who have technical difficulties. These digital points are run by a mediator (most often a civic service volunteer) whose mission is to assist the user as needed," states the Ministry of the Interior.
In the pension funds, the self-service areas dedicated to consulting online services and administrative procedures are now largely run by young volunteers. According to the Cour des ComptesAccording to the Cour des Comptes, "the functioning of the self-service areas in the Caisses de Retraite remains too dependent on the presence of civic service volunteers to run them".
According to the Defender of Rights (in the report he devoted in 2018 to the dematerialization of public services in 2019), "if a reasonable recourse to young people in civic service to meet the needs of accompaniment can be legitimate, the accompaniment should be done in the first place by agents, trained, experienced, and called to occupy their functions durably, from the services that proceed to dematerialization operations, in order to maintain the quality of the service rendered and to bring complete and concrete answers to the users." The Human Rights Defender recommended "training civic service volunteers in the reception of vulnerable groups and mobilizing these volunteers not to replace the reception agents but to complement the mobilization of the agents of the organization that dematerializes procedures".
Références :
More than 3,100 digital mediator and coach positions offered to civic service volunteers at the end of 2019
The search engine on the Agence du service civique website allows volunteers to identify the missions and positions that interest them before submitting their application.
At the beginning of December, the Agence du service civique website proposed 1,239 missions (5% of the total number of proposals) and 3,158 positions (out of a total of 71,923, or 4.4%) with a digital focus: the term digital is explicitly mentioned in the mission title.
These are mainly missions and positions (an organization can call upon several volunteers for a mission) in the fields of accompaniment, mediation, training or digital initiation.
The verbs that appear most often in the description of the mission are "accompany" (68% of missions), "facilitate" (66%) and "guide" (26%)
Unis Cité (an association that acts as an intermediary between the young volunteers it employs and the local authorities with which they perform their civic service), is the main recruiter of young volunteers for civic service (with 389 missions and 614 positions), ahead of Pôle Emploi.
Media and Information Ambassadors" in libraries
The "open more, open better" Library Plan announced by the Ministry of Culture in 2018 plans to evolve the skills of staff in the field of media literacy to raise awareness of the reliability of information, good practices on social networks and to adopt a citizen practice of the media.
Information education and fake news awareness workshops will be offered "in at least three libraries per department and at least one library per city of 100,000 inhabitants".
For these new missions, libraries can call on civic service volunteers. In 2018, a partnership between Unis-Cité, AFEV and the Ministry of Culture resulted in the implementation of the "Media and Information Ambassadors" program.
In 2018, during the program's development phase, 148 youth were mobilized in 11 territories and 68 libraries. As of February 2019, this program is mobilizing 190 full-time youth for 6 months in 91 libraries in 64 cities.
The mission of these ambassadors is to raise public awareness, through workshops, of the "information factory", the role and independence of the press, the deciphering of the media and social networks, as well as the detection of "infox" (fake news).
The Service du Livre et de la Lecture and the Association des Bibliothécaires de France, in partnership with the Agence du service civique, have produced a guide to assist local authorities in the construction of civic service missions. The guide provides general information on civic service in libraries and the conditions for its organization, standard missions that can be used as examples to help institutions build their projects, feedback on missions implemented in several public libraries, and useful links.
Références :
1500 volunteers in 2019 to welcome refugees under the Volont'R program
In partnership with the Civic Service Agency, the Interministerial Delegation for the Reception and Integration of Refugees (DiAir) has designed the Volont'R program, which aims to "promote the integration of people who have arrived in France".
For the young civic service volunteers, "the actions will focus primarily on the collective animation of a reception center or temporary accommodation: workshops for learning French, accompaniment in libraries or film screenings followed by debates".
Another part of their mission is to help with administrative procedures: "informing residents of their rights, accompanying them physically during procedures, facilitating the opening of a bank account... The volunteers will also help train refugees in computer tools, in particular to enable them to carry out administrative procedures online.
For its first year, Volont'R is offering missions to 1,500 young French people and 500 young refugees. By 2022, 5,000 people will be able to join.
Référence :
Young volunteers contribute to the appropriation of digital technology by associations
The National Institute for Youth and Popular Education (INJEP) and the Civic Service Agency have commissioned a study to "understand how associations use civic service and to measure the effects of civic service on associative structures.
The way volunteers are selected is often inspired by the world of salaried work, the authors of the survey observe, "distancing itself in some respects from the institutional principles governing the use of the system.
The recruitment of young volunteers with a digital culture allows associations to implement a digital project or the deployment of new activities for their users. In a number of cases, the managers of certain host structures use the civic service system as a lever to innovate and test new activities.
According to the survey, there are few situations in which the missions of a young person in civic service replace the missions usually assigned to employees or volunteers. However, the survey highlights the recurrent nature of the use of "civic services" for missions that are, in fact, long-term. Digital mediation missions are thus entrusted, in some associations, sometimes for several years, to young people in civic service, to meet permanent human resources needs.
What the volunteer can do ... or cannot do
"In the field of solidarity, a volunteer in Civic Service constitutes an additional link between the host organizations and the beneficiaries. The volunteer can be in a position to :
Helping with: helping beneficiaries with their administrative procedures and travel needs.
Orienting: directing the public to administrations or personal assistance services.
Listening to people: encouraging them to speak up during a convivial moment.
Leading different types of workshops with the beneficiaries, groups during cultural or festive outings. Ensure the smooth running of activities organized in a living environment.
To welcome the public when they come through the door of the facilities for the first time. Reassure and guide people in their efforts.
A volunteer is not intended to replace a social worker or mediator or a home care aide.
It cannot make decisions that could lead to serious consequences in case of an error of assessment
He must never be alone in situations that could be dangerous for him or for the accompanied public".
Young Civic Service volunteers on the front line in supporting people who are far from the digital world
Created in 2010, the civic service commitment offers young people aged 16 to 25 the opportunity to commit themselves for a period of 6 to 12 months to the service of the general interest and to give their time to others and to the community, without the requirement of a diploma. In 2019, the civic service welcomed 140,000 young volunteers: 490,000, in total, young volunteers since its creation in 2010.
A growing number of young volunteers are now entrusted with missions related to digital technology: whether it is to train people who are far from the digital world, to lead media education workshops (in libraries) or to develop digital projects within the structures that employ them.
Assistance with administrative procedures
Local authorities, primary health insurance funds, family allowance funds, pension funds, Pôle Emploi, public service centers (MSAP), and prefectures now rely heavily on young civic service volunteers to assist the public with administrative procedures.
Pole Emploi had opened its doors as early as 2015 to civic service volunteers to accompany job seekers of the in the use of new digital tools: 1,800 young people in 2015, 2,200 in 2016 and 2017, 3,200 in 2018. "In the agency, the volunteer helps job seekers to get to grips with the digital tools and to familiarize them. He or she helps enter information on the screen and navigate to register via the internet or to consult job search assistance services."
In order to accompany the dematerialization of identity card, passport, driver's license and vehicle registration applications, "digital reception points" have been opened in 320 prefectures and sub-prefectures. " Initially designed to help the public who are furthest from using digital technology for technological, geographical or cultural reasons, this service offers simple access to online procedures (a computer, printer and scanner) for users who are not self-sufficient or who have technical difficulties. These digital points are run by a mediator (most often a civic service volunteer) whose mission is to assist the user as needed," states the Ministry of the Interior.
In the pension funds, the self-service areas dedicated to consulting online services and administrative procedures are now largely run by young volunteers. According to the Cour des ComptesAccording to the Cour des Comptes, "the functioning of the self-service areas in the Caisses de Retraite remains too dependent on the presence of civic service volunteers to run them".
According to the Defender of Rights (in the report he devoted in 2018 to the dematerialization of public services in 2019), "if a reasonable recourse to young people in civic service to meet the needs of accompaniment can be legitimate, the accompaniment should be done in the first place by agents, trained, experienced, and called to occupy their functions durably, from the services that proceed to dematerialization operations, in order to maintain the quality of the service rendered and to bring complete and concrete answers to the users." The Human Rights Defender recommended "training civic service volunteers in the reception of vulnerable groups and mobilizing these volunteers not to replace the reception agents but to complement the mobilization of the agents of the organization that dematerializes procedures".
Références :
More than 3,100 digital mediator and coach positions offered to civic service volunteers at the end of 2019
The search engine on the Agence du service civique website allows volunteers to identify the missions and positions that interest them before submitting their application.
At the beginning of December, the Agence du service civique website proposed 1,239 missions (5% of the total number of proposals) and 3,158 positions (out of a total of 71,923, or 4.4%) with a digital focus: the term digital is explicitly mentioned in the mission title.
These are mainly missions and positions (an organization can call upon several volunteers for a mission) in the fields of accompaniment, mediation, training or digital initiation.
The verbs that appear most often in the description of the mission are "accompany" (68% of missions), "facilitate" (66%) and "guide" (26%)
Unis Cité (an association that acts as an intermediary between the young volunteers it employs and the local authorities with which they perform their civic service), is the main recruiter of young volunteers for civic service (with 389 missions and 614 positions), ahead of Pôle Emploi.
Media and Information Ambassadors" in libraries
The "open more, open better" Library Plan announced by the Ministry of Culture in 2018 plans to evolve the skills of staff in the field of media literacy to raise awareness of the reliability of information, good practices on social networks and to adopt a citizen practice of the media.
Information education and fake news awareness workshops will be offered "in at least three libraries per department and at least one library per city of 100,000 inhabitants".
For these new missions, libraries can call on civic service volunteers. In 2018, a partnership between Unis-Cité, AFEV and the Ministry of Culture resulted in the implementation of the "Media and Information Ambassadors" program.
In 2018, during the program's development phase, 148 youth were mobilized in 11 territories and 68 libraries. As of February 2019, this program is mobilizing 190 full-time youth for 6 months in 91 libraries in 64 cities.
The mission of these ambassadors is to raise public awareness, through workshops, of the "information factory", the role and independence of the press, the deciphering of the media and social networks, as well as the detection of "infox" (fake news).
The Service du Livre et de la Lecture and the Association des Bibliothécaires de France, in partnership with the Agence du service civique, have produced a guide to assist local authorities in the construction of civic service missions. The guide provides general information on civic service in libraries and the conditions for its organization, standard missions that can be used as examples to help institutions build their projects, feedback on missions implemented in several public libraries, and useful links.
Références :
1500 volunteers in 2019 to welcome refugees under the Volont'R program
In partnership with the Civic Service Agency, the Interministerial Delegation for the Reception and Integration of Refugees (DiAir) has designed the Volont'R program, which aims to "promote the integration of people who have arrived in France".
For the young civic service volunteers, "the actions will focus primarily on the collective animation of a reception center or temporary accommodation: workshops for learning French, accompaniment in libraries or film screenings followed by debates".
Another part of their mission is to help with administrative procedures: "informing residents of their rights, accompanying them physically during procedures, facilitating the opening of a bank account... The volunteers will also help train refugees in computer tools, in particular to enable them to carry out administrative procedures online.
For its first year, Volont'R is offering missions to 1,500 young French people and 500 young refugees. By 2022, 5,000 people will be able to join.
Référence :
Young volunteers contribute to the appropriation of digital technology by associations
The National Institute for Youth and Popular Education (INJEP) and the Civic Service Agency have commissioned a study to "understand how associations use civic service and to measure the effects of civic service on associative structures.
The way volunteers are selected is often inspired by the world of salaried work, the authors of the survey observe, "distancing itself in some respects from the institutional principles governing the use of the system.
The recruitment of young volunteers with a digital culture allows associations to implement a digital project or the deployment of new activities for their users. In a number of cases, the managers of certain host structures use the civic service system as a lever to innovate and test new activities.
According to the survey, there are few situations in which the missions of a young person in civic service replace the missions usually assigned to employees or volunteers. However, the survey highlights the recurrent nature of the use of "civic services" for missions that are, in fact, long-term. Digital mediation missions are thus entrusted, in some associations, sometimes for several years, to young people in civic service, to meet permanent human resources needs.
What the volunteer can do ... or cannot do
"In the field of solidarity, a volunteer in Civic Service constitutes an additional link between the host organizations and the beneficiaries. The volunteer can be in a position to :
Helping with: helping beneficiaries with their administrative procedures and travel needs.
Orienting: directing the public to administrations or personal assistance services.
Listening to people: encouraging them to speak up during a convivial moment.
Leading different types of workshops with the beneficiaries, groups during cultural or festive outings. Ensure the smooth running of activities organized in a living environment.
To welcome the public when they come through the door of the facilities for the first time. Reassure and guide people in their efforts.
A volunteer is not intended to replace a social worker or mediator or a home care aide.
It cannot make decisions that could lead to serious consequences in case of an error of assessment
He must never be alone in situations that could be dangerous for him or for the accompanied public".