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P.A.I.R. (“Program to Aid and Integrate Refugees)
P.A.I.R. is a program designed to help support the integration of asylum seekers, refugees and new foreigners who come to Paris, and wish to learn from others how to best integrate into the French and Parisian culture.
Serve the City Paris assigns volunteers to new foreigners who wish to learn more about someone else’s story, experience, or learning about best practices of moving to Paris and integrating with the French culture.
Volunteers are assigned to a foreigner, who is usually a new beneficiary of one of the Serve the City programs. The connection and interaction usually takes place during or after a foreigner participates in a Serve the City activity, such as a training course, receiving a sandwich, or a foreigner is introduced to us through a STCP partner NGO.
Volunteers can meet (usually at a café) with the new foreigner who is new to France. Serve the City Paris helps coordinate the introduction and ensures there are no language barriers. Serve the City Paris also reimburses the Volunteer for two cafés each time a meeting takes place (receipts must be submitted to STCP each time).
All volunteers are asked to take a P.A.I.R. training course prior to starting the program. The cost is 10 Euros. The program consists of one evening training session, scheduled each month of the year. The sessions discuss the ‘do’s and don’ts of communicating with a new asylum seeker, refugee, or a foreigner coming to France. We also discuss the key factors of integration and best practices of how to properly integrate into the French culture.
We encourage our volunteers to meet with the same foreigner more than once, but it is not mandatory. Many of our volunteers become close to their paired partner friend over time, and sometimes continue in conversational language training, group ‘welcome dinners’, or simply more conversations about integrating into the French culture over a café.
For more information, or to receive the monthly training schedule in advance, please send an email to info@servethecity.paris.