LE REFUGE

The Refuge is the only structure in France, agreed by the State, to offer temporary accommodation and social, medical and psychological accompaniment to young adults, girls and boys, victims of homophobia or transphobia. Risk-taking, suicidal thoughts, prostitution, dependencies, scarification… are all concrete manifestations of this malaise. The Refuge offers a listening, welcome and accommodation to young people rejected by their parents because of their homosexuality or transsexuality.

The departmental delegation of the Pyrenees-Orientales opened its doors in the course of 2013, and is animated by a dozen volunteers, mostly homosexuals, who are well aware of exclusion and rejection, but also of parents who have listened to their children and accepted their homosexuality. The antenna works in partnership with Solidarity Pyrenees for the monitoring and hosting of young people not housed in the framework of the Refuge. At present, an educational team and a psychologist participate in all hotlines and direct young people in difficulty to emergency reception facilities. Various workshops are organized: kitchen, discovery of heritage and environment, speaking group and writing, prevention in collaboration with the association of life of Roussillon, sportsman (equestrian exit, karting…).