"Il Cammino", founded in 1987, is a social cooperative which offers services and assistance to young people and adults with handicap of different levels and nature. Its creation was promoted by the ANFFAS (National Association of Mental and Relational Disabled people's Families) which is still part of the Cooperative.

At present, it manages 5 socio-rehabilitative centres in the city of Forlì and hosts about 40 disabled people, on a daily or permanent basis. In the attempt to improve the service, in 2000 the Cooperative obtained a certification of its Quality System according to the ISO norm 9001:2000, as a recognition of the good standards of the offered services.

The staff is composed of 35 employers and working members, professionals, about 10 volunteers and 5 young people engaged in the National Civil Service; all these people represent the great resource of experience and competence of the Cooperative.

In the morning centres, we try to develop personalized project of intervention through handcraft and artistic workshops, classes of psychomotricity, of socialization, recreational activities and summer holidays. The Coop. manages also the transport services as well as the food service necessary to the realization of these activities.

The same services are offered also by the residential centres along with basic assistance and the planning of activities linked to the daily managing of the living environment. In this way, we try to create a family-like climate around the people who live in the centres.

It is very important for the guests' well-being to have adequate spaces and for this reason the two daily centres of the Social Cooperative "Il Cammino" are located in welcoming buildings in two suburban areas of Forlì, Barisano and San Leonardo. The Centre in San Leonardo (where the international volunteer will do his/her service) has two different buildings, one is a Residential Centre and the other a Daily Socio-rehabilitative Centre.
The guests of "Il Cammino", on the other hand, reside in two centres in via Maceri Malta, in Forlì, very close to the downtown area and to the Park "Franco Agosto".

"Il Cammino" works in with the State; it is member of the Consorzio Solidarietà Sociale of Forlì-Cesena (www.cssforli.it) at local level, and of the Consorzio Nazionale Gino Mattarelli (www.retecgm.it) and ConfCooperative (www.confcooperative.it) at national level.

Local Community
The city of Forlì is located in Romagna, a region known all over Europe for its tourist attractions, namely its seaside resorts and its clubs spread along the Adricatic coast. Forlì is about 30 Km far from Cervia, Cesenatico, Milano Marittima, and 60 Km from Rimini, Riccione and Bologna. It is about 100 km far from the Italian art cities of Florence, Ferrara while only 25 km from Ravenna and Faenza. Forlì is very well connected to the rest of Italy thanks to the railway service and to the rest of Europe thanks to its airport. The city economy is based on the service sector, the agricultural sector and on small industries. Forlì has a strong link with its rural past but during the last decade it has rapidly developed into a modern city due to the dislocation its territory of some Faculties of the University of Bologna.

Previous experiences of European Volunteers in the Social Cooperative "Il Cammino - Onlus"
From the year 2002 the Social Cooperative "Il Cammino" has hosted 4 European volunteers as we firmly believe that diversity is a value and that in order to obtain social integration we have to promote encounters between different people and cultures, such as young people of different nationalities.
Our experiences with the 4 volunteers were very positive and they were always eager to learn and help us. The main problem was the poor knowledge of the Italian language which, at the beginning, maked it impossibile for the volunteer to comunicate with the centre's guests. For this reason we now believe that a language training is essential in order to start a proper relation with the staff and the guests. As a consequence, we encouraged the volunteers to speak in Italian and to attend the classes of Italian language organized by the Consorzio Solidarietà Sociale Forlì-Cesena according to their individual needs.
Moreover, each volunteer takes advantage from the experience and knowledge of different cultures by working and socializing with other local, national and international volunteers either within our centres and within the network of member cooperatives of the Consorzio which host a total of 60 young people divided between the National Civil Service and the European Volunteer Service every year. The Consorzio Solidarietà Sociale Forlì-Cesena has coordinative functions and organises social events and moments dedicated to the exchange of the different experiences, trying to involve all the volunteers and to encourage them to know each other.

Reason to host international volunteers.
We would like to host an international volunteer to create a multicultural environment and an awareness of Europe within our organization, in particular for those among our guests who could not accede to experiences of international exchange.

We believe that hosting international volunteers means opening our organization to other European countries. This opportunity is very important for the personal growth of the people involved in the experience. The EVS volunteers of other countries have a peculiar added value as they represent a window on Europe for the disabled people, often enclosed in their "protected" life, but they also offer the organization staff to exchange views with different people and to come into contact with new approaches and proposals.

This project we are presenting here , we thing could be a stimulus for a young person, foreigners as well, interested in gaining the experience of hosting and accompaniment of the ones in need.

We think that a cultural exchange is an experience to give a good opportunity to and receive something from a young adult within European integration; for example, it is a chance to learn some skills with the possibility to find a job in this sector in the future, by developing ideas with our staff and becoming important for the organization.

Description of the learning opportunities, the role and the activities in which the volunteers will be involved.
a.- Learning opportunities

We believe that the EVS experience beside bringing an important value to the activities of the association, gives an opportunity of personal growth to the volunteer both through the confrontation with the persons in need and through collaboration in informal way with the operators and other association's volunteers.

In particular, the hosting project will allow the acquisition of the following skills:

¢ Adoption of 'propositional' behaviour aimed at fostering kindness and friendliness
¢ Collaboration with professionals involved in the different activities, according to one's role and tasks.
¢ Integration with other professionals and non-professionals and their role
¢ Adjustment to the context : language and attitudes towards norms and timetables
¢ Management of one's own emotionality with respect to suffering
¢ Working in team to produce collective results
¢ Independence in taking the necessary management decisions, although within a system of common and already established procedures

The international volunteer will work together with the staff and other volunteers in the different activities so that he/she will acquire more linguistic and operative competences. These new competences will facilitate his/her relations with the users and his/her participation in the socio-educational activities and in the integration process within the community. This contact between the volunteer and our hosting organisation can create an important exchange of ideas, competences and good practices.


The international volunteer will be encouraged to use his/her own experiences to propose new initiatives in the services for the users.


Moreover, thanks to the service itself, all the people involved in the European Voluntary Service will learn the way of living and working of other communities and other places in Europe by establishing a relation based on reciprocity and trust.
During the service, the international volunteer will be supported by a "tutor" and will have regular meetings with a "mentor" in order to monitor and evaluate the project and to face any possible difficulty or problem.
Using a linguistic-cultural mediation model, the Consorzio Solidarietà Sociale Forlì-Cesena has created a plan with precise goals which try to facilitate international volunteers' integration both in their service environment and in their everyday life in Forlì.

b.- Description of the international volunteer's role
The international volunteer will always be in service with the operators of our centre located in via Sansovini, 2 Forlì - San Leonardo (not far from the city but surrounded by the Romagna countryside).

He/she will participate to the rehabilitative and educational activities with the disabled users of the rehabilitative centre. The International volunteer will be assisted by the staff all the time.
The volunteers will be involved in activities of the week, will take part to the weekly workshops with some responsibility for the service areas. The International volunteer will work for 32 hours per week, which means 7.30 hours per day. The timetable will be arranged with the service coordinator according to the volunteer's needs and those of the hosting organization.
The volunteer's involvement could be as follows:

He/she will arrive at the centre when in service to welcome the users; will participate to the workshops or to the other rehabilitative activities (in any phase, as for example activities in the gym, activities in the water, artistic workshops, leather labs, cooking activities…). Lunch with the operators and users at 12.30. In the afternoon he/she will begin the afternoon activities until the end of the daily service.
Since the work required can change in the different season of the year it is not possible to schedule a typical week or day. The working hours go from Monday to Friday , from 9.00am to 4.30pm. Volunteers will have 2 days per week during the entire year of service plus the public holidays.

Beside this, each volunteer will be encouraged to participate to the organization decision-making process with the chance to take part to the mounthly meetings.


WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
You can find bellow an ipotetical weekly schedules of 34 working hours per week (training included):

MONDAY (7,5 hours)
9:00 - 12:30 Workshop or rehabilitative activities
(the volunteer will be involved in any phase, as for example activities in the gym, activities in the water, artistic workshops, leather labs, cooking activities…)
Lunch
15:00 - 16:30 Activities of support and accompaniment of the guests (for example, walks, recreational activities, accompaniment to the public services)

TUESDAY (6 hours)
9:00 - 12:30 Workshop or rehabilitative activities

16:30 - 18:00 Linguisc training

WEDNESDAY (7,5 hours)
9:00 - 12:30 Workshop or rehabilitative activities
(in any phase, as for example activities in the gym, activities in the water, artistic workshops, leather labs, cooking activities…)
Lunch
15:00 - 16:30
(organisation of thematic afternoon like theater, accompaniment to the cinema, organisation of recreational initiatives)

THURSDAY (6 hours)
9:00 - 12:30 Meeting of evaluation and/or training and/or coordination with the tutors, operators, volunteers
16:30 - 18:00 Linguisc training

FRIDAY (7,5 hours)
9:00 - 12:30 Workshop or rehabilitative activities
(helping in the activities of reorganisation and tyding up of the workshops)
15:00 - 16:00
(organisation of thematic afternoon like theater, accompaniment to the cinema, organisation of recreational initiatives

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY (free days)

According to the interest and the motivation of the volunteer, there will be various possibilities for the development of a personal project during the year of service. The first personal projects of the volunteers have been very different from each other depending on the competences, the skills anf the intersts of the volunteer.