Bringing happiness to isolated elderly people through reading

With some twenty partner establishments in the Nord region, Lire et Sourire has successfully established itself in Hauts-de-France. 2026 marks a turning point with the recruitment of a branch manager and a structuring partnership with the Rabot Dutilleul company. Since the end of 2024, with the support of the Fondation du Nord, Lire et Sourire has undertaken to structure and develop its action in the region Hauts-de-France, more specifically in the department Nord. A challenge masterfully met by Chrystelle François, project manager dedicated to this development, who, in almost a year, has set up about twenty new partnerships with senior establishments then recruited and trained as many volunteer readers. She has been able to draw on a long-standing collaboration with the CCAS de Tourcoing and the support of several local partners: the Féron-Vrau group, the Treille Espérance Foundation, M comme mutuelle, and its Temps de vie partners, the Partage et Vie Foundation in the Douaisis region and the CRESS Hauts-de-France, of which Lire et Sourire has been a member since January 2026. In March, Lire et Sourire took the next step with the recruitment of a dedicated branch manager, based in Lille and hosted on the premises of the Rabot Dutilleul company, which has sponsored the establishment of Lire et Sourire from its early days within the Fondation du Nord. Today, the stakes are many: - grow the branchwith, eventually, a horizon of around 100 partner establishments and 200 to 300 volunteers ; - develop the associative life and consolidate the integration of volunteers with, in particular, the organization of face-to-face training courses and- appeal to new territories - a project already opened up by the partnership with the EHPAD Notre-Dame-de-Boulogne in the Pas-de-Calais and the commitment of the Fondation Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie to support the project's development in the Greater Amiens area. There's no doubt that Stéphanie will rise to these new challenges with flying colors!

Already firmly established in Lyon, where it operates in some forty senior establishments, Lire et Sourire is taking a new step in its development by now extending to the whole of the Rhône département. In this way, it intends to strengthen access to reading aloud for the elderly, with the support of the Rhône Commission des Financeurs de la Prévention de la Perte d'Autonomie (CFPPA).