What is the Solidarity API?

The Solidarity API's mission is to centralize and redistribute information about all the solutions helping people in need in France. The API provides real-time access to an up-to-date, exhaustive, and complete database to better guide people facing precarious circumstances.

Developed by the non-profit organization Solinum, the API currently covers 30 departments in France. In practice, any organization can use the API to participate in the mission of supporting and guiding vulnerable populations.

About Soliguide

Since 2017, the Solinum association has been developing Soliguide: the first online map of solidarity. Available on a website, an app, interactive terminals, and paper lists, Soliguide compiles all essential information about solutions that facilitate living conditions, access to rights, and socio-professional integration.

Why this API?

We are convinced that providing information through various channels is the key to reaching all those concerned. That's why, beyond the interfaces developed by Solinum, we believe that there are other ways to provide access to information beyond what we have envisioned.

Mapping initiatives have existed in the past but have consistently stopped or left outdated data abandoned. For beneficiaries, the impact of incorrect guidance is catastrophic: facing a closed door for the hundredth time can mean abandoning the path to reintegration.

Therefore, we want to empower all future initiatives to rely on high-quality data to fully unleash their potential impact through innovative channels.

Moreover, the referenced solidarity actors do not have the capacity to update themselves on multiple tools: it is essential to centralize data to reduce their workload.

Data Quality and Updates

Soliguide has a back office that feeds data into the Solidarity API through crowdsourcing. The information comes from users (information suggestions), referenced organizations with professional accounts, and Solinum's field teams across the 30 referenced departments.

The information referenced on the Solidarity API must be complete, exhaustive, and up-to-date.

• Completeness: Beyond just the address, it is essential, for guiding people, to know the hours of operation of the organization offering solutions, its access procedures (by appointment, registration?), its target audience (unconditional, specialized?), public transportation stops, and more. This is why the data published online is qualified by Solinum's territorial team.
• Exhaustiveness: Because the integration of vulnerable populations involves a holistic understanding of their journey (housing, nutrition, access to rights, etc.), the Solidarity API references all relevant solutions within it. Of course, it is not possible to reference everything at once, which is why the order of priorities is determined by local governance bodies in each department. Comprising all relevant stakeholders, these bodies prioritize themes for referencing based on the specificities of the territory (e.g., nutrition, access to rights).
• Updates: Every 6 months, in summer and winter, a complete database update is performed. Additionally, information is continuously updated based on feedback from referenced organizations and users.

Examples of Solidarity API Usage

Eurometropolis of Strasbourg:

Integration of Soliguide data to reference social structures and services in a 3D model of the city of Strasbourg as part of the "OD@CiT: Free Data and 3D City - Eurometropolis of Strasbourg" project. This project enables an intuitive 3D exploration of the territory accessible to everyone, including community agents, public and private sectors, and citizens.