"There's work to be done." Luc Carvounas goes there free this Monday evening. The mayor of Alfortville receives at home on the barge MCA, on the quai de Seine. In the room, about twenty fellow mayors of Val-de-Marne or their representatives. In the front row, Marie Chavanon (PS, Fresnes), Imène Souid-Ben Cheikh (DVG, Orly), Métin Yavuz (LR, Valenton) but also in some rows Laurent Jeanne (Libres! Champigny) and Jean-Luc Laurent (MRC, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre).
But there is no question of talking about "politics or politicking". They are there for the creation of the Departmental Union (UD) of CCAS. The communal centres for social action are the main tool of the municipalities to organize social assistance for the benefit of the inhabitants most in difficulty of the municipality.
In 2020, the socialist had taken the presidency of UNCCAS, the national union, "the oldest association of elected officials after the association of mayors, which will celebrate its centenary in 2026, he recalls. This is a real French specificity. An association of doers, lobbyist in Parliament to influence laws, as was done for the pension reform. » The next projects: immigration law, housing plan or aging well. "Our CCAS hold 60% of the real estate assets of nursing homes and independent residences," he says.
But ironically, Val-de-Marne had no departmental union. That has now been done. The UD thus becomes the 74th in France. And according to the model of the Association of Mayors of Val-de-Marne, the presidency for three years will rotate, with a bureau composed of all political sensitivities.
Alfortville, June 5, 2023. Imène Souid (DVG), mayor of Orly and departmental councillor, becomes the first president of the Val-de-Marne Departmental Union of CCAS.
To start, the twenty municipalities represented joined the board of directors. "But others will return as they go along," according to the UNCCAS president, who wrote to all the mayors. And to assume the "historic" role of first president, he proposed to Imène Souid-Ben Cheikh: "A young mayor, elected to the department. This will allow for dialogue with President Olivier Capitanio."
"He sold me the thing," smiled the new mayor of Orly, this Monday evening. The social in his commune is "a primordial subject with a part of the population in great difficulty. Many actions are carried out by the CCAS. A powerful armed wing, composed of 54 agents, with a budget of 4.2 million euros. This new union seems useful to him to "draw inspiration from each other, good practices in a department, a precursor in terms of social actions".
Same feeling for the mayor of Valenton and departmental councilor, Métin Yavuz, who becomes treasurer of the UD. "We must be able to strengthen the work with the department which is the first community in the social field".
