The initiative of two young Marseillais, who had buzzed by extinguishing the signs of the stores remained lit at night, made emulators. The NGO Geres, supported by Eurasia Net, both based in Marseille, have just launched an “academy” project of future influencers for solidarity and the climate.
A form registration has been published and the winners will have four training sessions next fall. Geres, which is leading the project, brings its “technical and theoretical skills on climate change and Eurasia Net its know-how on training young people”, explains Mathieu Grapeloup, in charge of communication. “It is a work of co-construction where our two structures have a fairly strong complementarity”, summarizes Vicky Atlani, project manager at Eurasia Net, an NGO specializing in international volunteering.
“Virality logic”
Funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Coordination Sud, this “academy” aims to help young people develop their community on social networks and to support them in the creation of “positive challenges” in a “logic of virality”.
“TikTok is a network that works well among young people and that lends itself well to this,” says Mathieu Grapeloup. These “challenges” will be found by the young people selected. “The idea is really that it is they who take up the issue of climate and solidarity, and that afterwards, they are able to manage themselves”, suggests Romain Donda, responsible for citizen mobilization at Geres.
“Bring out a new generation of influencers”
Beyond the need to find fairly simple challenges, such as one piece of trash picked up per day, or “clean up your mile”, the goal is that they can be duplicated on a very large scale. And no question of putting yourself in danger like tempting the devil to turn off a light bulb or hinder a convoy of nuclear waste. “The ten young people will be bound by an agreement with a few rules, in particular those not to put themselves in danger and that the actions are accessible to all”, specifies Romain Donda.
Addressing primarily an audience aged 16 to 25, this “academy” will also seek to recruit outside the beaten track people already engaged. Social centers, local missions, rectorate were called upon to get the message across. Resource management, waste, solidarity action, “popularizing these themes among young people is a great project,” adds Vicky Atlani. “The idea is also to bring out a new generation of influencers, based on commitment and to shake up this very interested, very marketing logic that social networks can have”, wishes Mathieu Grapeloup.
From there to imagine that the future Greta Thunberg comes from Marseille, there is only one step that the promoters of the project do not take. “We are not in the lobby, in the address to the governors”, tempers Mathieu Grapeloup. “Our job is to act in the field, not to advocate,” adds Romain Donda. And to conclude: “It’s really an experience, we’ll see if it takes.”