Club pour l'UNESCO Jean LAURAIN- Metz

The Club pour l’UNESCO Jean Laurain–Metz is a popular education association, complementary to formal schooling, founded in 1991. Since its creation, it has been strongly oriented toward European exchanges. Initially focused on Franco-German reconciliation, the Club later used this experience as a model for fostering reconciliation between other peoples. Open for many years to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, it has multiplied exchanges and meetings with European partners on a wide range of topics aligned with UNESCO’s fields of action, including linguistic, scientific, artistic, environmental, and cultural issues. For several years, it also carried out initiatives within the framework of Francophonie, in partnership with Ukrainian schools offering French-language education. The Club organizes youth exchanges, exhibitions, cultural events, debates, seminars, and conferences, as well as exchanges between association leaders and professionals. It also develops partnerships with political and academic authorities. Actively involved in youth mobility, the Club has played a key role in promoting volunteering, particularly at the European level since the experimental phase initiated by Edith Cresson. In this context, it contributed to the organization of arrival and mid-term seminars in the Lorraine region. Through its activities, the Club promotes peace education, the complementarity between formal education and popular education, and the development of citizenship at the local, national, European, and global levels. It upholds humanistic, social, and solidarity-based values—especially in the area of international solidarity—as well as respect for the environment. In accordance with its statutes, one third of the members of its governing council are young people.