Association A Tes Côtés

About Association A Tes Côtés

A Tes Côtés, a non-profit organization under the French law of 1901, manages facilities and services in Dunkerque, including 13 neighborhood centers, 1 village house, 7 daycare centers, 3 part-time childcare facilities, and a parent-child welcome center, as well as children's and youth leisure activities. The association upholds values of secularism, tolerance, citizenship, and solidarity through three fundamental missions: popular education, comprehensive social animation and local social development, and participatory democracy. Through its Popular Education mission, the association offers programs aimed at enabling every resident to understand and act individually and collectively on the world around them, fostering personal growth and emancipation. Via its social animation and local social development mission, the association organizes, co-animates, and hosts cultural and leisure activities, neighborhood and city celebrations, gatherings focused on neighborhood life, and exchanges with partners. It contributes technical and human support to collective projects for improving social life in neighborhoods, with a constant focus on sustainable development. To realize its commitment to participatory democracy, the Association, particularly through its neighborhood centers, encourages and develops resident participation in collective action and public life, also supporting emerging collective initiatives. These neighborhood centers are thus the fundamental element of local democracy in Dunkerque. Furthermore, through its mission to support associative life, A Tes Côtés, via its neighborhood centers and the Center for Associative Life, contributes to the territory's dynamism by fostering inter-associative cooperation and assisting each association in its creation, development, or projects. The Early Childhood structures are also involved in these missions, adapted to the specific context of early childhood care, considering the role of parents, family, and children in daily life, as well as through activities and governance (parent representation). The values underpinning the association's project are: development of autonomy, defense of secularism, tolerance, citizenship, solidarity, and popular education and citizenship. The association's goals are: individual and collective fulfillment, the ability of individuals and social groups to live together, the emancipation of people and collectives, political awareness, citizenship, social diversity, and the fight against discrimination, and strengthening the territory.