An aid fund has been set up to support small associations, which are facing many financial difficulties due to the Covid-19 crisis, especially when it comes to structures with a cultural destination.
However, this device is still poorly understood.
If many companies are in difficulty because of the health crisis triggered by the Covid-19, we talk less about the situation, just as precarious, associations, several thousand of them having yet had to close last year.
A fund of 30 million euros was released in January to help structures with fewer than 10 employees, but few know that it exists.
"It must be said that today, we have nothing more to save", laments to Europe 1 Rosa, the sole employee of the cultural association Etincelle in Villiers-le-Bel, in the Val-d 'Oise.
With an activity completely stopped for almost a year, the association could no longer pay her her salary, so she turned to the solidarity fund.
"I received the notification of the grant agreement on Wednesday evening, for a sum of 5,000 euros, which allows us to consider the coming months a little more calmly", explains Rosa.
>> LIVE -
Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Sunday April 11
"Make sure that the structures that really need it will be the ones that will be served"
For the moment, 942 associations have received between 5,000 and 8,000 euros in aid, or a total of 10 million euros distributed.
There is still double the amount in the coffers, but many associations do not dare to take the steps, regrets Denis Dementhon, the general manager of France Active, which manages the allocation of funds.
"There is a phenomenon of self-censorship for the smallest structures which imagine that the file will be complex. So we still have a big effort to make to make this fund known and to ensure that the structures which really have it. need will be those that will be served ".
Associations with fewer than ten employees have until June to submit their requests on the urgence-ess.fr site.