Mende: a Solidarity Third Place to help isolated individuals

On 6 June, one of our first three Solidarity Third Place opened its doors in Mende. This digital solidarity training centre will encourage social and professional integration thanks to the "do it together" approach!

First Solidarity Third Place in the Occitanie Region

The town of Mende is the first in the Occitanie Region to benefit from such an establishment. Driven by the Lozère Department local mission, this Training Centre is located in the Antirouille premises, in which the "Maison des Jeunes et du Multimédia" (youth and multi-media centre) is also located. It is the fruit of a project shared between the Orange Foundation and the locally elected officials of the town of Mende and the Department, and all the other bodies active in the area (including "Maison de l’Emploi et de la Cohésion Sociale" - employment and social cohesion - and "Lozère Développement"). We provided funding of €90,000 for the Training Centre.

Locally based digital solidarity

In Mende, as in every Solidarity Training Centre supported by the Foundation, there is the equivalent of a Solidarity FabLab, a Women’s Digital Centre and a Digital School.

These places are equipped with digital educational content and hardware adapted to the needs of people in difficulty. Whatever their difficulties, anybody, no matter what their age, can at no cost try out digital manufacturing, and exchange experiences and skills in the co-working area. Or they can get involved in collaborative digital projects, learn the professions of tomorrow and express themselves in the forums… A formula that breaks social isolation, reveals the potential of digital technology and, over time, provides gateways to new jobs and new careers.

Already three Solidarity Third Place

To welcome young unemployed people who have dropped out of school, unskilled women and the disabled, we have teamed up with local government and associations to establish new solidarity training centres. Mende is one of the first three towns to benefit from such a centre. The two others are in Guéret (Creuse Department) and Fourmies (Nord Department). In 2018, we will be extending the programme to other isolated places in the regions.