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Groupe SOS has to highlight that many points of contact or community in small towns - such as caf茅s, bistros, local shops and even village post offices - no longer exist.

This can cause loneliness and isolation among inhabitants, especially older people, the group said.

It is also calling on villages to open not only caf茅s and bistros, but also post offices, parcel centres, co-working points, cultural and artist sites, debate centres, delicatessens, and bakeries.

It has set up a new website for the scheme (pictured below), named .

Mayors of local communes with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants are invited to submit an application. To be considered, communes must currently have 鈥渘o caf茅, or any caf茅 currently threatened with closure鈥�, and must have at least one vacant space locally that could be converted into a suitable site.

The scheme is supported by the State, and will form part of the government鈥檚 鈥渞ural agenda鈥� plan. This is set to be presented by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on September 20, during a conference of rural mayors in the Nord department.

Groupe SOS president Jean-Marc Borello - a former Sciences Po professor who once taught President Emmanuel Macron - also has support from the President.

Mr Borello : 鈥淭he village caf茅 was once a central meeting place for inhabitants, but [nowadays] it has commonly disappeared.

鈥淸These places] will also be a meeting place for local associations, cultural events, and a community space for elderly people. This is not an original idea, people have been talking about it for a long time. The difference is that we have decided to give it a go.鈥�

Groupe SOS has dubbed the scheme a 鈥渟ocial and entrepreneurial initiative鈥�, and said that it will help to recruit local duos to help run the centres. It will offer them specific information, which will help organisers to become independent entrepreneurs, it said.

Each site will receive administrative, financial, and supplier support from 鈥渢he national team on the project鈥�, Groupe SOS said.

Mr Borello : 鈥淸They will] be everything except solopreneurs. Their status will depend on who they are - whether previously unemployed, retired, young, urban professionals who want a change in lifestyle...they will become workers, managers, or co-managers.鈥�

Groupe SOS said that it would 鈥済uarantee a minimum salary, and 鈥渁 third of the profits鈥�, with at least half of the remaining profits being reinvested into the association.

Groupe SOS was set up in 1984 to fight against forms of social exclusion, including among young or unemployed people, as well as in the healthcare, culture, and ecology sectors.

Today, it has 495 sites and 17,000 regular workers nationwide - plus a yearly turnover of 鈧�910 million, making it one of Europe鈥檚 largest social enterprises.