Around sixty people who have taken part in one of the sessions of the «National Cohesion and Citizenship» seminar, organised since 2006 in Paris by the IHEDN and extended to the provinces since 2010 by the Cercle des partenaires de l'IHEDN, met on Thursday 9 July at the École militaire (Paris 7e) for the second inter-session day. The first took place on 19 June 2014.
The trainees, who came from various departments in the Paris region, as well as from Amiens, Le Havre, Lille, Lyon and Nantes, included local councillors, managers from the voluntary sector, the French education system, government departments and the armed forces, and provided a further opportunity for them to meet and, in some cases, reacquaint themselves.
This initiative, introduced last year, has helped to initiate exchanges that are as rich as they are convivial between these players in local life who are confronted with similar issues in areas that are far apart.
Guy RUPIED, President of the Cercle, and Prefect Joël BOUCHITÉ, Deputy Director of the IHEDN, gave the welcoming remarks before giving the floor to Yazid KHERFI, consultant in urban prevention, lecturer at the University of Paris X Nanterre and former prisoner. After presenting his background and the work he has been doing for young people for over 25 years, in particular through his nomadic mediation, he gave participants the opportunity to debate and exchange ideas in the best possible conditions.
The afternoon was devoted to a visit to the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration, where the permanent exhibition «Repères» has recently been renovated. Luc GRUSON, the museum's former director general, gave the group a guided tour of two centuries of immigration history, illustrating his remarks with comparisons with the key periods in France's history since the 19th century.
