The fifth session of the «National Cohesion and Citizenship» seminar was held in Lyon over five days, from 11 October to 29 November.
Organised thanks to sponsorship from Lafarge and EDF, the seminar brought together 21 trainees from the military, institutions, schools and associations in the Lyon region, to discuss the theme of «youth commitment».
The participants, all of whom work with young people at risk of marginalisation, formed two committees to discuss issues of citizenship, inclusion and integration. Faced with similar local issues and drawing on the diversity of their backgrounds, they had the opportunity to put their approaches to supporting young people in difficulty into perspective.
Their reflections were fuelled by a series of conferences. The following topics were discussed:
- What remains of ancient citizenship? by Claudia MOATTI, Professor of Roman History at the University of Paris 8; ;
- Citizenship 2.0«, by Stéphane GRUMBACH, Director of Research at the Institut de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRA); ;
- France, its school and its army«, by Mr Tristan LECOQ, Inspector General of the French Ministry of Education; ;
- Potential obstacles to young people's involvement«, by Fabien Lafay, Director of the local university centre at Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University; ;
- The perception of defence by young people«, by Ms Corine BOUTEILLE, Head of the Spirit of Defence and Security Department of the High Official for Defence and Security (HFDS) at the Ministry of Education; ;
- The Army as a factor of national cohesion«, by General Benoit ROYAL, Commandant of the Draguignan Artillery School, former Deputy Director of Recruitment for the French Army.
The seminar programme was rounded off by a visit to the EPIDE (Etablissement public d'insertion de la Défense) centre in Lyon-Meyzieu.
On the final day, 29 November, the participants presented their recommendations for strengthening young people's sense of citizenship to an audience of local authority representatives.
Guy RUPIED, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cercle des partenaires de l'IHEDN, then gave the closing speech for this session in Lyon before presenting the trainees with a certificate for their participation.
