In Castres, the Lameilhé social life space has regained its place in the neighbourhood.

When there is (space) for life… there is hope, as the saying goes. This is the case for the Lamelhe area in Castres. However, the rapid departure of the facilitators from the Tarn Family Allowance Fund, which was provided for the Lamelhe Social Life Space (EVS), as part of the partnership with the city in the management of the structure, has caused unrest among the population. who felt marginalized or even abandoned.

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“A good dialogue with the CAF director made it possible to find a solution,” said the city's mayor, Pascal Bogis, last March. In fact, CAF gave its approval to pay compensation assistance in order to continue the activity of Lameilhé EVS on condition that the city is responsible for recruiting “motivated and qualified staff”, as the mayor specified. Implemented! The team is now complete and consists of a coordinator, a manager/facilitator and a receptionist.

Place of life and proximity

Today, the social life space of Lamelhe has regained its place in the neighborhood. After a small cleaning and sorting of various and for some obsolete objects, the 700 square meter building is now shared with the multi-reception and equipped, among other things, with leisure spaces, a large activity room with kitchen area and a multimedia room ready to welcome its members all year round.

“The idea is that this EVS is a place of life, of proximity, of intergenerational welcome, a space that residents can frequent and where they can design projects. There will not necessarily be supervised activities, but rather independent workshops or led by external speakers,” explained Catherine Faring, deputy delegate for social affairs and solidarity. “We also have a 3,000 square metre green space, which is interesting and we can also think of different projects according to the needs of the neighbourhood, but for now, nothing is fixed,” added the elected official.

“Quality” programming.

Sports activities, cultural outings, unified events, workshops… “The place must live and people will be active in this space by putting their knowledge and skills to good use. It is up to us to support them in this process now,” added Laurent Daniel, director of CCAS and EVS Lameilhé reference.

Initially, the EVS team focused on the summer and back-to-school program. “Deadlines and difficulties did not make it possible to offer as rich activities as in previous years. However, the programs are of high quality and are organized around different morning and afternoon activities with the desire to have something for everyone,” explains Laurent Daniel.

For the start of the school year, after being closed from July 31 to August 16, the building will reopen on August 19. New activities will enrich existing ones (sewing, paper library, cooking, etc.) such as health and digital workshops, thematic weeks and health prevention. “We are also waiting for proposals from the neighborhood residents to enrich the program, we will be very attentive to this and give ourselves the freedom to respond to needs,” concluded the director of CCAS.