CONCORDIA Auvergne

CONCORDIA seeks to contribute to the social life of communities through the bringing together of volunteers from different countries/regions and walks of life. These volunteers carry out tasks which are useful to the community as a whole. The association seeks to facilitate European and international mobility and the exchange of ideas, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and peace. There is a strong emphasis on active citizenship, participation and solidarity. CONCORDIA is a national organisation with its headquarters in Paris and eight regional delegations. Each of them aims to manage regionaly the activities proposed by the association : short and long term volunteerings in international projects, as workcamps, EVS, trainings.. Furthermore delegations can also develop their own specific projects following their local identities and opportunities.
The association counts 200 active members involved in its non-formal education project. They take part all year long to actions such as trainings, short workcamps, meetings on various subjects (North/South exchanges, international solidarity, sustainable development, environment education, … ). Concordia is also member of the Alliance of Voluntary Service Organisations, and of the Coordinating Comittee for International Voluntary Services (CCIVS).
In Auvergne, 2 permanent employees as well as a variable number of volunteers are composing the regional team. Some 30 persons are member of Concordia in a regular basis. The main activities in Auvergne are :
- Organisation of international work camps.
- Organisation of volunteering within the framework of the EVS, since the delegation is sending, hosting as well as a contact point structure.
- Organisation of other volunteering programs, such as the Civic Service (french long term volunteering program).
Concordia, and particularly Concordia Auvergne, work with the EVS action since its very beginning. By this way we are used to act as sending, coordinating and hosting organisation since many years. Concordia Auvergne has less experience with Youth Exchanges, but at a national level the organisation counts many projects that successfully occured, and each regional team plus the headquarter use to work closely together.