Presentation of our association

La Ligue de l’enseignement is a confederation which gathers around 25,000 associations in 102 local and 22 regional federations with the common aim of training responsible citizens who will fulfill their duties, make full use of their rights and be active in society reinforcing its democratic, humanist and social character. These associations also work collectively against all inequalities in order to discuss and build a fairer and more independent society.

La Ligue is one of France’s oldest organisations in non-formal education. Founded in 1866, it aims to guarantee access to education for everyone, regardless of their age, social and ethnic backgrounds. It further promotes a secular society, solidarity amongst citizens and active citizenship.
At European level, la Ligue de l'enseignement is part of a number of European networks that promote shared values of social justice amongst the European institutions and national stakeholders. These networks are: Solidar, Volonteurope, The European Federation for Education and Culture, The European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), The Lifelong Learning Platform (LLL-P), The European Civic Forum (ECF).

As the other local federations of La Ligue de l'enseignement, la Ligue d’Indre-et-Loire, based in Tours (Center of France) and his member organizations carry out activities in the field of culture, education and lifelong learning, culture and media, social work, recreational and educational activities, environment and sustainable development, sports for all, international solidarity... 
In Culture field, we work with prison authorities by organizing cultural activities in jail, and try to notably reduce illiteracy. 

The project

According to an expert report of the European Commission in 2012, almost 75 million Europeans are illiterate. In spite of programs implemented to fight this situation, the illiteracy rate remains high. In France for example, about 7.5% of adult population is concerned by this situation, in prison, about 15%, which is a much higher rate that the national average. At best, more than half of the people in jail have only achieved primary education level. This illiteracy situation obviously has many consequences, such as bad self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, great suffering, which often spill over onto the quality of the relations these people have with others and lead to social exclusion.
In the Compendium of United Nations Standards and Norms in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice from 2016, rule n°64 states that “Every prison shall have a library for the use of all categories of prisoners, adequately stocked with both recreational and instructional books, and prisoners shall be encouraged to make full use of it." In the European rules which aim at standardising prison policies of the members States and to implement common practices and standards, it is also stated that “Every institution shall have a library for the use of all prisoners, adequately stocked with a wide range of both recreational and educational resources, books and other media.” (rule 28.5). All European countries have to develop libraries in prisons in order to give access to books to inmates.

Considering those assessments, we find interesting to confront the approaches and ways of working the issue of reducing illiteracy in prison by using cultural activities in different countries.

We therefore wish to organise 3 meetings in 3 different countries (France and 2 other partners) as well as an international conference on the subject. But what we plan to do can evolve, we are open to proposals that could come from interested partners.

If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact us.