Maison de Quartier du Bois du Château

The association is an accredited non-profit association founded under the French law 1901.
with a board of 22 people, made up of residents, councilors, local associations, public bodies such as the community of municipalities, the City council of Lorient.
- A score of around 20 volunteers who regularly are and help in the various activities
- Nearly 280 families (from very different social and cultural backgrounds) are active members.
The association of the Social Center of Bois du Château was created in 1989 and has the following objectives :
- to develop a local cultural and social action with and for the inhabitants of the quarter.
- to promote and facilitate the access to educational activities and projects (street workshops, artistic activities, carnival, European exchanges, sports, theatre, music workshops, video, internet…).
- fight against all discriminations (French learning lessons, free access to Internet, school lessons for children…)
- reinforce the parent's role in the education of their children.
- to give to the population, to the young persons as to the adults the possibility of becoming aware of their aptitude, developing their personality and of getting ready to become active citizens and representative for a living community. The association is also aimed at reinforcing the solidarity of the inhabitants and the mind of mutual understanding by guaranteeing the equal access of the men and the women, of young persons and the adults, in the ruling authorities of the association. In order to realize these objectives, the association gets a financial support from the town, the district and the State Social Aid: our association is recognized and supported by the local institutions.
The activities are divided in 3 sectors: childhood, youth and adults. In each sector, we coordinate and offer adapted activities These leisure activities for children, young people and adults are organized by a permanent staff of 6
people (3 coordinators and 3 socio-educational instructors specialized in childhood and youth) reinforced by
seasonal instructors, depending on what is needed.
Besides these various activities in the Social Center (percussions, creativity, knitting, cooking, informatics, conversations in foreign languages and in French…), the association offers a support to the associations (18), a sector about social economy and, animations to create interactivity between the inhabitants of the area,.
The Social Center has to contribute to the social cohesion of this popular area, organizing friendly evenings, week-ends out of the town, and other events on various themes.
The financial contribution from the inhabitants to participate to these actions is adapted to their family income and should not be a brake to their involvement. So inhabitants can participate to activities and also become member of the board of the association, we try to promote an active way of participating in the quarter and in the association.
The team is composed with a director, a secretary, three coordinators, and a team of animators. All the workers have specialized degrees for their functions.
Inhabitants are roughly 5000, including 35% under 25 years old. There are 780 families, including 300 single mothers. Diversity is represented with many people from different countries (Africa, Turkey, Asia, eastern European countries…), the quarter is part of the main targeted areas that are the priority of the government, regarding social, cultural and educational needs.