Increase civic engagement opportunities for youth (FR0062)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? This commitment will help instil civic values in young people by incorporating these values into support and community service programmes, by giving young people across France an opportunity to get involved in their communities, by helping them gain social and work experience, and by combatting discrimination and bullying at school.

What is the commitment? This commitment involves the following actions: 1. Develop a civic engagement pathway for all French citizens, starting at a young age, through the General National Service 2. Develop and support civic engagement through the Civic Service 3. Develop and facilitate civic engagement from a young age through the Civic Reserve 4. Promote and support educational initiatives that allow young people to get involved in causes and work with civil society organisations 5. Strengthen anti-bullying measures in schools 6. Expand the programme of “eco-delegates” (class representatives responsible for sustainable 47 development issues) to meet the need for student engagement on environmental issues 7. Introduce the E3D certification programme for sustainable institutions in collaboration with committees for education on health, citizenship and the environment (CESCEs)

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The General National Service programme will help improve young people’s access to different forms of volunteer work, ensure mixing among age groups with people from different regions and social backgrounds, give young people better guidance and support in finding their life and career paths, promote France’s regions, their assets and their cultural and natural heritage, familiarise youth with career opportunities in the armed forces, and strengthen the relationship between volunteers and the organisations overseeing their experience. The aim of France’s Civic Service programme is to give people age 16 to 24 (and up to age 30 for disabled people) the opportunity to get involved and donate their time to community service initiatives. It is an opportunity to have a formative, educational and rewarding experience, with a choice of numerous assignments in a wide variety of fields. It offers a way to address the social and societal issues of our time. The Civic Service programme also aims to promote social diversity and cohesion across the country. Under the “1 Young Person, 1 Solution” scheme, an additional 100,000 Civic Service volunteers are to be recruited by the end of 2021.  The goal of the Civic Reserve is to help develop an engaged, inclusive and united society and to encourage civic engagement at a young age. This commitment will involve the Civic Reserve and its website, jeveuxaider.gouv.fr.  Another goal of this commitment is to develop a mentorship programme for ambitious young people in order to address the pressing issue of inequality of opportunity, which affects the most 48 vulnerable members of society (low-income families, those without access to quality education, etc.).  Over two years, the anti-bullying initiative will help significantly reduce bullying in schools, which is an issue faced by all educational institutions that takes a variety of forms (including online bullying) and negatively impacts the learning environment.  The eco-delegate programme will help meet the need for student engagement on environmental issues (e.g. climate marches) and designate sustainability ambassadors to help raise awareness among students.  The E3D certification scheme will help put schools on the sustainability track and make sustainability part of the learning experience for the youngest students.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? The General National Service, announced by President Macron in 2018 and launched in a pilot phase in 2019, is an educational empowerment and accountability programme designed to get young people involved in their communities and encourage interactions between people from all walks of life. Designed to instil a sense of civic engagement in younger generations, the General National Service is for people age 15 to 17 and benefits both participants and the country. It helps develop autonomy and foster a shared vision for the future and the individual contributions that everyone can make. Expanding France’s Civic Service is relevant to OGP values in numerous ways:  The non-profit sector (non-profits, federations and unions), which is key to the structure and character of civil society, accounts for 82% of the 10,500 participating organisations and 63% of volunteers.  Civic Service assignments, which by definition serve the general public or specific populations 49 (e.g. youth, seniors, disabled individuals, people living in rural communities or residents of priority urban neighbourhoods), promote awareness, learning and civic engagement on a wide variety of public interest issues (education, health, green transition, solidarity, culture and recreation, sport, remembrance and citizenship, emergency response, international development and humanitarian aid).  The Civic Service programme celebrates the initiative of its volunteers: treated as a real partner of the organisation they are matched with, they are encouraged to create, propose and execute ideas in line with their assignment.  The programme also requires participants to undergo a civic training course (two days of classroom instruction and a first-aid training course), governed by a national framework based on the French national motto “liberty, equality and fraternity” and allowing for volunteers to be placed in groups that, based on guidelines for socio-cultural education (éducation populaire), are conducive to learning and understanding the collective and individual issues of community life.  Each participant is monitored and guided by an advisor, in a relationship different from a school or work setting, which offers a unique experience of joining a community that is working towards a strong social purpose.  The volunteer commitment of a Civic Service assignment is a unique and transformative experience of social diversity (via extensive contact with the community they are serving, the people they are working alongside at the organisation and their fellow volunteers), fostering social cohesion and citizenship.  At the end of their assignment volunteers are given an assessment and support for a future project, which promotes accountability, understanding and confidence about their role in society. 50 With the support of regional partners, the expansion of the Civic Reserve will help address the following operational issues: building user loyalty, diversifying volunteer assignments, expanding territorial coverage and fine-tuning the website. Anonymised user data from the http://www.1jeune1mentor.fr website will be used to better adapt and improve the rollout of the new public policy measure on youth mentoring, the results of which will be published. The anti-bullying programme is a comprehensive prevention and intervention strategy involving all members of the school community. Primary and middle schools involved in the programme will: o sign a charter committing them to implement the programme for two years o form a five-person team in charge of enforcing the protocol (these representatives will receive training from the education authority) o formalise a protocol, to be presented to the CESCE, approved by the school board or board of directors, and presented to families, students, staff and middle school student councils o put together a team of middle school student ambassadors (minimum 10 students) o hold information workshops for families and parents o participate in programme events (antibullying day, safer internet day, antibullying contest) o organise 10 hours of lessons every year for students in primary year 1 through secondary year 3 (roughly between ages 6 and 15) Eco-delegates play an important role in teaching about sustainability, involving both lessons and hands-on educational projects. The work of eco-delegates is 51 based on the Sustainable Development Goals and results in projects combining multiple topics such as ecology and solidarity. E3D certification is both an opportunity and a means of recognising the hard work of members of the education community (teachers, students, ecodelegates, teaching staff, principals, management and administrative staff, healthcare and social workers, technical staff, parents), non-profits and other partners, working closely with local and regional authorities and stakeholders involved in operating the school or institution.

Additional information General National Service:  The General National Service was introduced at the end of June 2019 with a preparatory phase for séjours de cohésion (a two-week volunteering trip) in 13 départements, before being gradually introduced nationwide. Due to the pandemic, the next step in its rollout planned for 2020 was put on hold. The goal is to get back on track in 2021, on a volunteer basis as in 2019, in all départements in both mainland and overseas France. Funding (programme 163) stands at €61m. This will allow 18,000 young volunteers to participate in volunteering trips and have the opportunity to carry out a community service assignment. They can then continue their voluntary national service by completing a service period of at least three months on an assignment in an area such as defence/security, personal assistance, heritage preservation or environmental protection. These different opportunities, whether civilian or military, will include existing forms of volunteering as well as proposals for new ones, including suggestions from young people themselves. Civic Service: 52  Expanding the Civic Service programme is part of the “1 Young Person, 1 Solution” scheme under the France Relance recovery plan and is a priority reform for the Ministry for Primary and Secondary Education, Youth Affairs and Sport.  It has funding of roughly €860m under the 2021 Initial Budget Act.  Its support for government and non-profit initiatives for the green transition and sustainable development is a major strategic priority for 2021.  Its contribution to highlighting the initiatives of local authorities, for instance in rural areas, and to connecting these initiatives to citizens, is also an important part of its objectives. Civic Reserve:  The budget for the programme and for the government startup developing the jeveuxaider.gouv.fr website is roughly €1m per year.  Its development supports a wide variety of government initiatives that rely on volunteers: vaccination campaigns, running polling stations for elections, food drives, etc. The mentoring scheme has a budget of €30m for 2021 and is in line with other youth support schemes, like the Cordées de la Réussite (a mentoring programme for access to higher education) and the Ministry for Labour’s mentoring programme. The anti-bullying programme (called “pHARe”) is fully in line with the plan to combat violence in schools introduced in September 2019 with three main areas of focus: 1. Protecting the school (students and staff) and securing school property and the surrounding area 53 2. Getting families involved 3. Managing students who are highly disruptive or frequently excluded The eco-delegate scheme is part of France’s 2030 Agenda for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. E3D certification is part of France’s Agenda 2030 for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also part of the Ministry’s climate action plan, France’s National Strategy for Biodiversity (SNB) and its National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC).

Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable Start date End date Develop a civic engagement pathway for all French citizens, starting at a young age, through the General National Service. Support regions and partners to create 30,000 public service assignments and foster increased activity in the regions. January 2022 Develop and support civic engagement through the Civic Service. Q3&4 2022: 245,000 volunteers having completed at least 1 day of assignments Q3&4 2023: 2,700,000 volunteers having completed at least 1 day of assignments Develop and facilitate civic engagement from a young age through the Civic Reserve Q4 2022: 100,000 citizens signed up for Civic Reserve assignments via jeveuxaider.gouv.fr Promote and support educational initiatives that allow young people to get involved in causes and Q3&4 2021: 2nd call for proposals on the 54 work with civil society stakeholders expansion of mentoring in France and 100,000 young people mentored End of 2022: 200,000 young people mentored Strengthen anti-bullying measures in schools Q3 2021: full rollout of the “pHARe” programme Q2 2023: results of the survey on the climate in schools Q3 2023: launch of the “pHARe2” programme Expand and promote the eco-delegate programme to meet the need for student engagement on environmental issues Q1 2022: create a website featuring eco-delegates’ projects Q3 2023: nationwide judging and awards for ecodelegates’ initiatives Introduce E3D certification for sustainable institutions in collaboration with CESCEs Q3 2022: report on the certification programme for the 2021–2022 academic year Q3 2023: report on the certification programme for the 2022-2023 academic year with a target of 10,000 certified schools and institutions

Action Plan Review

Commitment 12. Step up civic engagement by young people

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? No

● Potential for results: Unclear