On January 4, 2005, Sébastien Bonfils and his friends created an association with the explicit goal of giving a voice to the youth and young people of Nice. Registered in the official journal on February 12, 2005, this association offers multiple surveys on life in Nice through its website. Nice-Première met its president to introduce you to this very local association.
Nice-Première: How long has your association been in existence?
Sébastien Bonfils: We are celebrating our first anniversary this month, but the group that now forms the board of the league has known each other long before and has long been reflecting on youth issues in Nice.
N.P.: Why create an association when other student movements exist?
S.B.: Student movements do exist, but they are either strictly for students or are politicized. Our intention is different: we want to reach all of Nice’s youth: the students, of course, numbering 27,000 at our university, but also middle and high school students and working youth, since we consider a “young” person to be someone up to the age of 30. Moreover, we wish to remain independent: we work equally with elected officials from both the right and left in Nice. Our intent is to prioritize the interests of Nice’s youth beyond political divides. Of course, to make progress, we must work with politically affiliated officials, but we are beholden to no one.
N.P.: Can you introduce our readers to your association?
S.B.: The association primarily operates online through the site https://www.liguedesjeunesnicois.fr.st. On this site, we offer questionnaires on specific topics such as transportation, safety, and the environment. Each young person fills out the questionnaire, and after about three months, we close the questionnaire by changing the theme. At that time, the league’s board starts the bulk of the work, namely analyzing the results with statistical calculations, and then we draw conclusions about the youth’s views on various topics. We then present these conclusions to the elected officials of Nice who respond.
N.P.: You are an association created by the youth for the youth. What are your communication methods?
S.B.: Mainly the internet, email, and telephone. We also had the use of a photocopier at one point, which allowed us to produce a substantial number of flyers and posters, but the impact was limited. Otherwise, word of mouth works very well, especially by sharing the site’s web address on MSN. If everyone talks about the site to all their contacts by putting the site’s address in their online status, we quickly reach a lot of people.
N.P.: Do you have members, and if so, how many?
S.B.: We consider as a member, anyone who has filled out a questionnaire for the league and who has given us their email address to keep them informed about the league’s various project advancements. We therefore have around 300 members since the beginning, with about a hundred having completed all the questionnaires we have posted online. This is encouraging since with each new topic, we receive more and more questionnaires, the last one concerning the environment in Nice having collected nearly 200 responses.
N.P.: What contacts do you have with local officials?
S.B.: As I mentioned, we are working on several projects with Mr. Mottard. Mr. Rivière is also informed of our projects and does not hesitate to support us when needed. We are also in contact with the city hall, but the response time is very long and we would sometimes like things to move faster.
N.P.: What is your main focus?
S.B.: Promoting youth and its actions in Nice. It is often said that Nice is an aging city, losing momentum. Just this morning, the regional daily announced 55,000 births in 2003/2004 and a demographic growth rate of 0.3% in Nice. So, it is up to us to show that Nice is a young city that wants to move and become a dynamic city. We hope that through our actions, we will encourage other young people to make their voices heard, perhaps through the associative framework that the League offers, because it is clear that today, to be heard, it is better to go through an association. The youth of Nice can and should have an impact on municipal management and even more so in the field of youth. We want to express ourselves and especially to be heard! This is not yet the case today.
