VILLENEUVE-LÈS-AVIGNON The France services area is not just for rurality
On a tendency to imagine the France Services Houses, now France Services spaces, these places housing many public services, in the small remote villages where the post office had closed. The Villeneuvois case refutes this received idea.
Because in Villeneuve, we are not really in the countryside: a wealthy suburb of Avignon, the town has about 12,000 inhabitants. Close to the City of the Popes, it is no less distant from the capital of its department, Nîmes, and the public services found there. A public services house therefore opened in 2017 to meet demand, under the leadership of SIDSCAVAR, the Intercommunal Syndicate for the Social Development of the Cantons of Villeneuve and Roquemaure, since labeled Espace France Services.
The place, which led an open house operation last Friday, shines on the six municipalities of the union. “We have agents who accompany users in all the procedures, a request for accommodation, RSA, identity document or even registration card”, presents Fabienne Teyssier, director of the integration and employment division of SIDSCAVAR. In this context, many partners, twenty-seven to be exact, have regular hotlines. As for the space personnel, “He followed a specific training to have a competence in the orientation and the accompaniment of the users”, underlines the president of SIDSCAVAR Farès Orcet.
The emphasis is on digital support: more and more public services are only accessible online, exacerbating the digital divide. So SIDSCAVAR responded to a call for national projects to obtain a position of digital advisor. “He intervenes in a transversal way”, notes Fabienne Teyssier. “My mission is to support the public in the digital transition to take charge of the equipment, use the Internet, take the online steps for digital autonomy”, explains the advisor in question, Romain Jeanjean.
Self-service computer stations are also available for people who will not be installed. Useful, car “We estimate that 20% of people are not autonomous for administrative procedures, and this is not necessarily linked to their social level”, underlines the director of SIDSCAVAR Jean-Christophe Magnaud. Not considering “In the accompaniment there is a human aspect that the computer will never see”, added the mayor of Sauveterre, Jacques Demanse.
Since the start of the year, nearly 7,000 people have passed through the door of the France services space in Villeneuve, against just under 6,000 in 2020, a particular year if there is one.
Thierry allard
The France services space in Villeneuve is at 1, allée Pierre-Louis-Loisil, 04 90 15 97 00.