Organisation

The secours populaire is a large decentralised movement made up of antennas, committees and federations.

The antenna is a group of persons (at least 2 persons) practicing solidarity for the secours populaire at home, during their work or studies with a committee, a federation or directly with the authority of the National Union of the secours populaire. The antenna does not require a legal entity. The activity must be regular but there is no compulsory frequency.
The committee is a local structure according to the law passed in 1901. The committee is run by an executive secretary. The committee gathers volunteers in some areas, communes, one or several cantons, a workplace or a school. He acts according to the guidelines of the association to run, coordinate and develop solidarity steps. It enables the backing through appeals to the generosity of the donators. Steps are taken to enable the donator to bring their financial support to the solidarity.
The federation is a departmental structure. It represents the association. Its job is to run, coordinate and develop solidarity measures and to ensure its financing. The federation is made up of all the committees and local antennas. A departmental committee ( chosen during the departmental conference ) runs the fereration. This committee cares for the respect of the guidelines. For this job, it is assisted by a financial commission, a secretariat, a financial manager and a executive secretary acting as a president.

How does the secours populaire work ?

Every two years the  SPF guidelines are chosen during the conference. Those guidelines are prepared with the fund raisers in the antennas, during the general meeting of the committees and the departmental conferences. Those moments, authorized by the statutes of the association, make many discussions possible with the partners of the secours populaire (fund raisers, people who benefit from its support, public authorities, economic decision makers) as well in France as abroad. The management teams are elected by the fund raisers at every level. Those teams pay attention to the enactement of those guidelines. As a whole, the secours populaire gathers 98 federations, a little less than 800 committes on the whole french territory. The regional structures are now been developped, a general council was created in each area whereas the departmental committes regularly meet at the departmental level. To run and to impulse the movement at the national level, the structures elected by the conference, that is to say the board of directors, its secretariat, the National Committee, the national Bureau, the financial commission meet several times every year.