VOLUNTEER MISSIONS WITH UTOPIA 56

In Paris…

Utopia 56 invites you to come help refugees in the vicinity of the Paris Nord reception centre, run by Emmaüs Solidarité, as well as elsewhere in Paris. Around the centre, 25 volunteers working in shifts are needed 7 days a week, with both a day and a night team supporting the Utopia 56 coordinators! Joining us is easy: log on to the site and sign up for one or more shifts between 9am and midnight. We do not offer accommodation.

• In front of the reception centre and around it, volunteers can help distribute breakfasts and other meals, and accompany refugees to hospitals, as well as take part in rounds in the streets to clean the living spaces of the refugees and identify their needs in terms of clothing, blankets or medical care. In addition, there is the sorting of donations and clothes on rue Coustou in Paris.
• Elsewhere in Paris, you can help manage Utopia 56 collection points (see list of collection points in Paris), and partake in or organize/partake in “leisure” activities for the refugees (outings in Paris, guitar, French lessons, playing football etc.)
• November 2017: Massive need for more volunteers between 7PM and midnight, from Monday to Sunday, to accompany refugees to their citizen accommodation for the night and to distribute tents and blankets.

Since October 2017, we are no longer involved in the humanitarian centre. But we are active in the streets close by. We always welcome new volunteers.

>>> Join the association by clicking here, then join us in Paris by clicking here.

In Calais …
Utopia 56 proposes you to come helping refugees, by supervising you and offering you an accommodation. The association continues to intervene, even after the dismantling of the jungle. Join us by enrolling in our registration form for a day, a week, a month or more and come helping the long-term team ! In the program : help in the warehouse of the Auberge des Migrants, Help Refugees and RCK, and make some social outreaching during the day and the night to provide assistance to the refugees your meet (distribution of meals, tea, blankets, clothes). We offer accommodation for volunteers in a camping, next to Calais, for 5 euros per night.
>>> Join the association by clicking here, then join us in Calais by clicking here.

With the juvenile refugees …
Utopia 56 protects unaccompanied foreign minors by accompanying them in their administrative procedures, working on the recovery of identity documents from relatives who have remained in the country and protecting them while the French justice system gives verdict. Would you like to finance a hotel night for a refugee teenager? With 20 €, you allow Utopia 56 to get him out of the street for one night. This funding allows us to have the time to find solutions in the inhabitant or to hold until the Provisional Placement Ordinance.
>>> To make a donation, click here.

Elsewhere in France …
Utopia 56 guides you to participate or organize gatherings or events, to help the associations mobilized in reception to the CADs (Centers of Reception and Orientation), and supports you in your initiatives and projects. Utopia 56 is also a citizen watch association: legal action, conference organization, etc.
>>> Contact Adriana at to bring material donations.
>>> Learn more about the Utopia56 groups by clicking here.

OUR EXPERIENCE : A HUMANITARIAN CAMP OF 800 TO 1 500 REFUGEES

Utopia 56 insured the management of the first humanitarian camp of France, from March 7th to May 7th during the two first months after it opened, in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk, following Mayor Damien Carême’s wishes. The camp was built by DWB and the city council of Grande-Synthe. 3 000 volunteers worked day and night to prevent the camp from closing, contribute to its acknowledgement by the State, organize its daily life, make it more humane (welcoming refugees round the clock, building community kitchens, leaving a laundry opened round the clock, providing shuttles, blankets, clothes, washing items, dental treatments, French and English lessons, etc).
Utopia56 organized 10 000 volunteering days in that camp (about 60 volunteers a day). Then, the State announced their intention to close the camp, decreed welcoming criteria (camp opened only to families with children) and started to destroy some shelters. We were powerless facing those bad decisions that were to lead to disastrous consequences, whether humanely or in terms of safety. We left the camp on August 30th, only a small team stayed until the 30th.

We are an organization created by citizens from Lorient (Brittany) in January 2016. We aim to gather and coordinate volunteers so as to help refugees in northern France. We work with all the other existing organizations up there and willing to collaborate. We can organize 2700 volunteering days a month and we are 3000 members.

 Our word is free and we respect the plans for the future of the refugees.