Summer workshops in France

Educational workshops for learning during the summer

More than 190 children from extremely disadvantaged families are housed by the Salvation Army Foundation at the Grandes Voisines site in the Lyon metropolitan area.

The risk of falling behind during the school holidays can amount to as much as three or four months of lost learning for these children. The Salvation Army Foundation works to offer activities during the holidays that ensure educational continuity for children.

With our support, two weeks of pilot workshops run by Ateliers Amasco were organised at the Grandes Voisines site in the summer of 2024, and the programme was repeated in the summer of 2025.

The objectives of these workshops are:

• to restore a taste for learning and prevent school dropout
• to develop children’s psychosocial and cognitive skills
• to develop children’s soft skills (e.g. teamwork and cooperation, empathy)
• to develop children’s psychomotor skills (dexterity, fine motor skills)

Just like a real school day! A workshop day runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with drop-off and pick-up times at the beginning and end of the day. A quality lunch is provided during the midday break, giving them the energy they need for these days rich in learning and discovery.

In total, nearly 50 children aged 6 to 9 benefited from these first workshops.

The results are very positive, with almost all of the children satisfied with their experience and parents unanimously reporting increased self-confidence and greater enjoyment of learning.

These workshops also foster social ties, cohesion and camaraderie among children living in crowded conditions. Some tensions between the children have been eased, which makes the work of the site’s social workers easier.

The experiment is therefore likely to continue in the future.

A project by