Centre de jeunesse du quartier de l'Ouest

The youth centre of the west district - La Baraka is a non profit organisation which aim is to favor emancipation and fulfillment of individuals while turning them into critics, responsible, active and solidaire citizens. La Baraka is accompanying mostly young people between 6 and 26 years old but also proposes activities to older people. It uses active pedagogy and lifelong learning processes based upon: - interculturality and inclusion: take into account and valorize diversity and mixity in a broad sense (intergenerational, of gender, at the economical level and so on) - commitment to local and societal environment - co-building of skills and knowledges - artistic creation, individual and collective expression, and cultural awakening More concretely, La Baraka is formed by 4 entities which are deeply interconnected: 1. L'Ecole des Devoirs, proposing activities to children and young people after school, and also accompanying daily the children for their homeworks. 2. A Youth House, where young people from 12 to 26 years old can go after school or during weekends and holiday. The Youth House offers sport activities (boxing, dance, introduction to different sports...), cultural activities (trips, exhibitions...)... encouraging a peaceful coexistence 3. A Centre of Expression and Creativity, with several artistic activities: theatre, dance, singing, video editing, film making... And other interdisciplinary activities in which the process takes predecence over the result. 4. Classes of French for people coming from abroad for children from 10 to 18 years old and young people until 35 years old. For this quality label, most of the activities of the volunteers will take place in the Ecole des Devoirs (EDD) through tutoring and activities. The EDD opens after normal school hours every weekday and wednesdays afternoon and proposes 1. School tutoring: EDD welcome children from primary (6 to 11 years old) and secondary (12 to 17 years old) schools. The kids in primary school are divided into group of three working with a local volunteer while the secondary school young people mostly work alone or with someone specialised in a specific topic (math, science, and so on). The objective of the school tutoring is to develop the taste to learn and develop the curiosity among the young people by using funnier and alternative methods, by valorising the young people and using other ressources and methods than those used at school. If volunteers and young people come upon something unknown to them, it is an opportunity to look for the answer with the youth and think together where and how to find the answers. 2. Activities. These activities are very varied and depends on the ideas given by the volunteers, the staff and the yound people in attendance. It can be games, creative workshops, cooking, visiting an exhibition, ice skating... Another example could be to have a thematic throughout the year, such as food and its circuit by visiting educational farms, discovering how honey, bread or butter are made, and so on. The activities take place on Wednesdays and are also organised parallely to the school tutoring for the kids who don't have homeworks to do. As mentioned previously, these activities can be varied, as long as they are in line with the objectives to encourage the collaboration, coexistence, solidarity and expression among the young people