Coronavirus: "Young people get involved because they have a strong need for meaning"

Since the beginning of the crisis, testimonies of voluntary commitment have multiplied. Among young people in particular, we claim not to be able to remain doing nothing in the face of the crisis.

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Health professionals were able to join the health reserve, between the start of the crisis and March 17, they were nearly 19,000 volunteers. For the others, the associations asked for reinforcements to distribute packed lunches to the most underprivileged, to make calls to the most isolated or even to make masks.

Edith Archambault is professor emeritus at Paris-1-Sorbonne University. Sociologist, she studies the associative world " for more than forty years ".

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LE FIGARO - How do you explain the excitement for current volunteer engagement?

Edith ARCHAMBAULT - This epidemic marks us all and obviously, everyone wonders what they can do. Many people are idle. The fact that young people are partially freed from school obligations, promotes this commitment, they wonder how to help. At the same time, there are many sports and cultural volunteers in France who can no longer work, which explains the transfers. This is a good thing because the confinement has deprived the associations of their oldest volunteers, who cannot go out because of the coronavirus.

Did we have to wait for the Coronavirus before the French, and in particular young people, were made aware of volunteering?

Retired people constitute the bulk of volunteering in France, but for several years there has been an indisputable increase in youth volunteering, especially in the social field.

This increase is linked to the 2008 crisis of course: we realized the precarious situations that surrounded us. Young people get involved because they don't want to stay idle. This coincides with a stronger need for meaning. Young people do not have the same values ​​as their parents.

Do you think this epidemic will mark a more lasting association commitment?

We cannot predict, but it is very likely that there will be people who will continue, and others who will stop. An economic crisis is emerging. If people have no more money, the first need will be to work more and therefore they will have less time to give to associations. But this epidemic and the confinement mark us all, especially the young, and it is quite possible that many of those who engaged during this crisis will continue. This was what had happened with civic service: many of those who engaged in it continued to have an associative commitment.

However, youth engagement is generally not sustainable. They change their family and professional situation, they move. A young woman who works with young children does not have time for volunteering, it is normal.

What lessons can be learned from volunteering and the voluntary sector from this crisis?

We realize that the State cannot tailor-make. That associations know how to do it. They know how to know the needs of an audience in a given territory, and give the appropriate response. They know what the labor needs are and what the availability is.

What happened with the health reserve clearly demonstrated this. This reserve was to allow for supernumeraries to supplement needs. But the insurmountable paperwork, the 8-day wait ... The reserve does not have the reactivity that we need. The State makes macrosocial, associations make microsocial. There is complementarity and it is a good thing. This crisis shows us that associations are essential.