The partners of the TotalEnergies corporate Foundation share their experience: Proxité
Sébastien Lailheugue – Director
What can you tell us about your association?
Proxité was founded in 2002 in Saint-Denis. In the beginning, the real purpose of the project was to help young people from socially vulnerable regions to succeed in their career prospects, studies and professional integration.
What’s your commitment to youth?
Our commitment is to help young people from socially vulnerable urban and suburban zones, to succeed in their education, professional integration and career prospects. In practice, we welcome students during extracurricular hours. They can come and do their homework, have a chat, work with volunteers from partner companies and administrations who have the necessary training and tools to help young people, and are there to support them throughout the academic year so that they can succeed.
What’s your project with TotalEnergies Corporate Foundation?
TotalEnergies Foundation supports our regional deployment. When we came to see them, the key issue was accessing urban areas that did not have any resources or were more isolated than others. Thanks to the Foundation, we were able to deploy branches of the association in these new areas so that we could reach out to more young people. In the long term, we are aiming to support 3,500 young people nationwide.
Can you sum up “Creating partnerships” in a few words?
Creating partnerships is being able to work in synergy with other associations. That impetus is catalyzed by TotalEnergies Foundation, by providing the means for all the stakeholders to meet, but it’s also about having a partner of trust, like TotalEnergies Foundation which follows and supports Proxité, and is able to open doors to regional institutional and private partners, without whom our activities would simply be impossible.
