Community centres and recreational facilities

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Each community centre has its particularities, but they generally offer:

• activities for young and old alike, either by registration or on an open-admission basis;
• activities during school holidays;
• neighbourhoods gatherings;
• a place where anyone can share their problems and obtain information;
• provision of rooms;
• different courses and workshops;
• themed events.

The inhabitants of each district are invited to play an active role in the association of their community centre according to their interests and availability. To find out more, contact your local community centre directly.

Video of the community centres

Discover three successive short films presenting the community centres of the City of Geneva.

The partners

The City of Geneva provides these associations with premises. It subsidises them by paying a percentage of the coordinators’ salaries and operating costs or by granting them occasional financial aid in relation to specific projects.

The community centres of the City of Geneva also meet within the framework of the City Centres Coordination, a forum providing volunteers and coordinators the chance to discuss their projects and the different problems encountered.

All the community centre and recreational facility associations within the canton are members of the Fédération des centres de loisirs et de rencontres (FCLR), which provides support for volunteer associations.

The Fondation pour l’animation socioculturelle (FASe) is the legal employer of the coordinators and activity leaders in all the canton’s community centres.

The tripartite agreements

In April 2012, the recreational facilities, community centres, the FASe and the City of Geneva signed a series of common agreements. The aim was to determine common diagnostics and objectives. The first forum of community centres was held in 2014, focussing on the particularities of hosting children in community centres. A summary of the different working groups can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.

Brief history

The first community centres were founded in the 1960s with the emergence of the problem of young drop-outs. In 1993, they signed a cantonal community centres charter which is still in force today.