Agence du Service Civique: a simplified digital journey to support young people's commitment
"To better meet the application needs of young people and organisations, we have modernised our previous portal with a service that is more attractive to young people and offers more network management options for organisations.
With the option of a radius of search around you, we are enabling young people to refine and personalise their searches. We've simplified the whole application process to reach even more young people and encourage them to apply online."
- A "responsive" map adapted to all the online moments of 16–30-year-olds, on PC and mobile.
- Autocompletion on the address or town field to speed up the search for missions.
- Geolocation to search for missions "around me" within a radius of 5 to 200 km. Without collecting personal data.
- Woosmap APIs that are less expensive than other major platforms on the market.
- Woosmap solutions are listed in the national public procurement agency UGAP (Union des Groupements d’Achats Publics) multi-publisher catalogue.
L’Agence du Service Civique (the Civic Service Agency) is a French Public Interest Group created in May 2010. Today, it is a unique operator at the service of young people's commitment and mobility in Europe. It is responsible for implementing the Civic Service, the Youth & Sport component of the European Erasmus+ programme, and the European Solidarity Corps. Since it was set up, the Agency has enabled more than 700,000 young people to carry out a mission.
At the end of December 2021, to support the recruitment of young people, the Agency launched a new version of its website. The programme includes engaging content for social networks and communications tailored to the needs, expectations, and practices of young people. In 2022, the Agency recorded 144,000 civic service volunteers.
In March 2023, a digital map was added to the site, to simplify and speed up the search for missions. The "around me" geolocation option allows future volunteers to display a list and map of civic service missions within a radius of 5 to 200 km. They can also search by locality name or keyword, throughout France and abroad.
Understanding young people's needs with a simplified service
Civic service missions are aimed at young people aged 16 to 25, and up to 30 for disabled people. This population is hyper-connected, with an average of 4 hours of daily Internet surfing for 15–24-year-olds, almost double the national average, including 2h19 on social networks. 93% of this time spent by 15–24-year-olds on the Internet is spent on mobile phones (Médiamétrie 2022). This implies a need for speed and simplicity when displaying information.
The Civic Service Agency has therefore simplified access to missions for young people, as well as the registration process for creating an account. Clicking on the "Find my mission" button directly displays all the postings available, in the form of a list and on a map. Young volunteers can display the list of missions available around them, simply by choosing automatic geolocation or by searching for the name of their town.
" To better meet the application needs of young people and organisations, we have modernised our previous portal with a service that is more attractive to young people and offers more network management options for organisations.
With the option of a radius of search around you, we are enabling young people to refine and personalise their searches. We've simplified the whole application process to reach even more young people and encourage them to apply online."
Woosmap APIs for the map and address autocompletion
The Woosmap Map displays the missions on a map of France and the world. A progressive zoom on the map shows the number of missions per zone, then the precise location of the missions according to the address of the organisations and associations. The map uses a combination of Woosmap APIs and OpenStreetMap collaborative mapping. Its "responsive" display adapts to the size of PC or mobile screens, for all the online moments of 16–30-year-olds.
Searching by town name uses Woosmap's Localities API. It speeds up the filling of the field by autocompletion, the automatic filling based on the detection of the first letters typed.
"Not asking for the volunteer's full address when looking for assignments boosts the number of searches. Applicants can immediately see the missions in their area, without losing time or motivation. Our previous auto-completion solution took longer and had a few bugs. We have better autocompletion results with Woosmap and the map display is quick and easy."
Woosmap autocomplete takes into account common abbreviations, apostrophes and is tolerant of typos. This approach simplifies and speeds up searches. It also avoids address errors when filling in the registration form to create a Service Civique account, for both volunteers and associations.
Simple, modular APIs for rapid integration
"We selected the Woosmap APIs that were relevant to our project and were able to integrate them quickly into our portal, without any additional configuration. This way, we took only the elements we needed, such as autocompletion, with no superfluous elements, while optimising our budget. "
Laure Bienaimé, POW project manager at the Agence du Service Civique
In addition to functional criteria, the budgetary aspect was a priority when choosing a mapping solution.
"We chose Woosmap because its solutions are listed in the UGAP (Union des groupements d'achats publics, the national public procurement agency) multi-publisher catalogue and its APIs are less expensive than other major platforms on the market."
Personal data protection considerations have also been taken into account. Woosmap's geolocation solution does not store users' positions or IP addresses. And Woosmap does not collect any personal data. It is only when an account is created on the Agence du Service Civique portal that personal information is requested, such as name and address. On Woosmap's side, as usual, no data is collected.
A map to support future projects
For 2023 and 2024, the Civic Service Agency has launched two major projects focusing on sport and the environment. It is rolling out the "Generation 2024 Civic Service" programme in the run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The "Youth and Nature" Civic Service is aimed at protecting the environment.
The agency is therefore working with a growing number of organisations and associations to encourage them to publish their missions on its portal. In addition to its map, it is also continuing to simplify the application process for young people. The aim is to generate more visits, but also to improve the completeness of applications. The aim is not only to boost young people's applications, but also to enable them to stay in touch with the associations, so as to make a lasting commitment.