…of the activities of the municipality of “Le Mans”

With more than 140,000 inhabitants, the city of Le Mans is the biggest city in the department! Famous for its sport competitions, Le Mans also conceals heritage treasures and offers major cultural events. The city, which has preserved its natural side, is perfectly accessible by different types of transport. The city of Le Mans applies for the inclusion of the medieval defense wall as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In this lovely city we are offering two different ESC projects within municipal services: one in the child and youth service, and the other one in the event and external relations service.

The first mission is a mix with two services of the city, the Childhood Youth and Sport Service, and the Education Service.

The volunteer will be on mission on 2 distinct structures but we will keep the same use of the time. In the morning at Education, and in the afternoon at EJS during school term. There will therefore be mainly 2 people in direct link with the volunteer’s missions and another person who can be the relay in each of the services. The 2 main tutors will be in regular contact and will endeavor to respect a year-round schedule so that the young person has a global vision and the possibility of anticipating your holidays. And, there will also be a shorter-term schedule and regular meetings between the 2 tutors and the volunteer to ensure that their missions are clear and understood, particularly in the event of any changes. Together we will define a roadmap, concerning the missions that are achievable throughout the year and not directly related to the animation.

The Childhood Youth and Sports Service (EJS) of the City of Le Mans is made up of 3 departments, Youth, Childhood and Sport, and has 200 employees. Within this large service, it is the youth center made up of 25 agents, who will physically welcome the volunteer.

Three main axes on which the volunteer will be involved guide the work of the service:

• 1 – Youth highlights: major events that have become unmissable for 13–30-year-olds are offered by the Youth center of the City of Le Mans. These events are prepared in direct connection with the young people themselves who are involved in the construction of the projects.
• 2 – Youth activities: the Childhood, Youth and Sports department offers sports and cultural activities to to be as close as possible to the expectations of young people. It promotes their practices while transmitting the positive values of cohesion and solidarity of each discipline.
• 3 – Youth initiatives: the Childhood, Youth and Sports department supports and accompanies projects and initiatives young people. He values their resources and develops autonomy and the spirit of initiative by considering them as fully-fledged actors in their lives and their territory.

The Education department of the City of Le Mans operates with 950 people. All its activities are offered during the 36 weeks of school, and during school holidays. On average each year, schools in the city of Le Mans educate 11,155 students.

It will be proposed to the volunteer to act alongside the municipal agents but also to intervene with the young public in as part of the following municipal activities:

1 – During extracurricular times: before and after school, the City of Le Mans offers to welcome children, families can use this service on an ad hoc or regular basis. On average, 1,700 children attend after-school care every day.

2 – Wednesday afternoons: the leisure centers welcome 3–15-year-olds on Wednesdays during the school term. The children take part in educational, sporting, and cultural activities. On average, 800 children attend leisure centers every Wednesday afternoon.

The second mission is in the Protocol-External Relations-Events services of the city.

The Protocol-External Relations-Events department, attached to the Cabinet of the Mayor of the City of Le Mans is composed of 4 poles and has 15 agents:

• protocol, public relations, and events (contributing to the promotion of the City of Le Mans and Le Mans Metropolis by setting up, coordinating, and monitoring various actions and events);
• international relations;
• tourism development;
• physical (City Hall and Condorcet) and telephone reception.

The objectives of our service are:

• organize and participate in patriotic ceremonies,
• ensure the administrative and logistical management of events of all kinds (Parade of the 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers, Christmas market, Read, Le Mans Sonore, Puls’art, 4-day fair, Youth Forum, Night of Chimeras, market Young Creators, City tour of new Manceaux, Tour Vibration, etc.),
• organize and participate in various receptions,
• update protocol lists, create and send invitations for all events,
• manage international relations, continuation, and development of existing links with twin towns and cities friends of Le Mans,
• bring out new tourist offers and build a real strategy to develop the attractiveness of the territory,
• finally, through physical and telephone reception, we guide users as quickly as possible in order to best respond to their request.

The ambition of the new municipal team, elected in June 2020, is to develop actions around relations international organizations, in particular a wish for a new twinning with a Spanish city, but also to promote the existing twinning and the attractiveness of the city, to create synergies between the events organized by the city and the tourist offers offered to the target audiences in order to develop better visibility and the attractiveness of the City of Le Mans and its Metropolis.

The volunteers will be physically welcomed within the first and second pole. These services already have experience in welcoming volunteers in civic service but also trainees. Our interest in the European volunteering is directly linked to the desire to open our city to Europe and the world.

MISSION
The volunteer will be involved in the activities of the town, according to the mission:

In the child and youth service:

• Your role will be to propose after-school-activities to the children of primary schools.
• You will be in contact with teachers and students in secondary schools to promote the European Union, solidarity and mobility programs.
• You will help to organize youth activities, events and festivals taking place during weekends (about art and music) or school holidays (organization of sport courses, photo-press-radio sessions, and other).
• You can contribute to inform and organize your own activities for young people (exhibitions, language exchanges, video contests…) in the Youth Information Point of the city and you will invite to share about your experience as European voluntee

In the event and external relations service:

• Your role will be to assist the team in the creation of communication tools aiming to welcome new residents and tourists.
• You would be in close contact with the «center of attractiveness» which aims to boost tourism.
• You will support the development of twinning between the city of Le Mans and its partners (in Germany, UK, Russia, Greece, Japan, China …)
• You will work on the development of new partnerships with future twinning.