According to our previous experiences, we suggest two volunteers aged between 23 and 27 preferably with a degree in social work/education/psychology, because of the challenging target group of the project.

ACCOMODATION

The volunteers will be located in a shared flat with other 2 or 4 young people in the city centre of Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza.

Project environment

The European volunteers will live in Yoda (flat) and will work mainly at the Alibandus

House.

Alibandus House is a two floors villa. We have decided to open this community in town

centre, where there are more possibilities of work, study and cultural services.

In Yoda the volunteers will have a double room with bathroom (shared with 2 beneficiaries of the service). It is important they'll keep their room tidy and clean.

Volunteers will eat in the residential community Alibandus, helping hosts and operators

in cooking, but they can use also the kitchen inside Yoda flat.

Alibandus is located in Bassano del Grappa. It’s a medium-sized town (population

around 40,000 people) in Veneto region of northern Italy, in the province of Vicenza

(Provincia di Vicenza). The town takes its name by the nearby Monte Grappa. The four things for which Bassano del Grappa is best known are its covered wooden bridge over the Brenta river, the strong grappa liqueur produced in the area, the military history of

Monte Grappa and locally-produced ceramics.

Bassano del Grappa is well connected with the public transportation with Vicenza and offers good possibilities of work, study and free time activities.

Our communities have their internal rules, which are very important for us because they have among their aims a process of change. Rules and small privations are a daily reference, they are a proof of the personal and communitarian path towards a gradual

conquest, considered possible; they are a tool for educating the hosted teeangers at an

autonomous management of their future. Therefore, during the period of the community it's essential that the regulations advices are well known and respected by the

volunteers.

At Alibandus House whatever kind of violence, both physical and verbal is strictly forbidden; we do not admit a coarse or not respectful language; we do care about the external appearance of the people (cleaning, clothes, hairs) with the intent to promote the personal care and their own imagine; the use of alcohol and drug is strictly

forbidden; the introduction of the above mentioned substances is forbidden as well.

Considering the target of assisted children, even during moments in which the volunteers are not in service, we however require a lifestyle consistent with the principles and values that inspire the community. A great sensibility and good ability to gather the sufferings of the guests and the culture of this experience is required. It

must be clear that the volunteers don't come to help a single child (being necessary for

that a specific preparation and a deep knowledge of the personal and social reality of everyone), but to support an educational team engaged in a path of sharing and growth. The volunteers do not have to care of the educational project (this both for themselves and hosts’ protection), but must be able to share the daily experience, without creating conflicts or false expectations. It is very important to build a sincere and loyal relationship with the operators, based on a mutual trust.

A breaking at any level between volunteers and operators would constitute an

unsustainable difficulty and a damage for the community and the hosts themselves.

The volunteers will be also involved in the other activities of the cooperative to assure

them a more complete intercultural experience.

They will have also several opportunities to be in contact with the local community, and they will be considered like a witnesses of the values in which we believe. For this reason they will be invited, with an active role, in every public events to testify

their own experience concernig also “Youth in Action” programme.

 

Adelante can host volunteers for periods of 6/12 months. They will live together with

the adolescents of Alinbandus community, sharing spaces and daily life.

The volunteers will have experiences in all different services of the cooperative and they will work side by side with educators throughout the different steps of planning,

devoloping and evaluating activities.

Therefore their role will vary according to the specific sector and service in which they will work in. Generally, we believe that volunteers can play an important role:

o increasing the intercultural awareness, openness and interchange among beneficaries and workers;

o supporting our educators in those projects aimed to foster active

participation and inclusion of minors/youngsters in leisure time,

educational, socio – cultural activities that Adelante offers in the territory;

o as live “testimonials” of international mobility, supporting the promotional

and planning activities.

 

All volunteers will be involved in the cooperative social life, in order to favour the comprehension of its choices and strategies; they can take part in team meetings, plenary sessions of the assembly and all community events involving Adelante.

 

The project offers to the European volunteers an experience of a deep human relationship, giving them the possibility to form themselves to the comprehension and the concrete solidarity towards adolescents that are often deprived of affections and

reference points.

 

The European volunteers thanks to this intense experience of cohabitation and sharing will be able to improve their relational and transversal abilities.

 

We will help the volunteers to develop soft skills as team-work, communication, listening, negotiation and mediation abilities. They will enter, step by step, in the context of an educative community observing how it works, its inner dynamics and

receiving a non-formal learning concerning education, tutoring toward autonomy,

psycho-therapeutic help to children in situations of strong uneasiness. We will sustain the integration of the volunteers in their day-life supporting them in the learning process of Italian language and our local traditions. We will give them the opportunity to organize initiatives to testify and transmit their cultures and traditions improving in this way an intercultural exchange inside our community.

 

The volunteers will not substitute the staff in the ordinary activities, but they will bring an adding value to the community helping the operators to enhance the work already in

progress.

 

 

For example, in the residential community, the volunteers will not have an educational role with the hosts, but they will pose themselves in an intermediate level with the purpose to facilitate the communication and the closeness of the operators towards the hosts easier, through their good example, their presence in daily life: it is therefore essential that each volunteer avoids any autonomous educational

intervention, aiming to build a true and deep alliance with the operators.

In helping the hosts they could deepen the dialogue with them and gather their confidences as well, but the volunteers will have to acquire the sensitivity for getting close to the hosts without confine themselves at the role of friends and without

creating too many expectations or affective investment.

The different activities that the cooperative carries out will be showed to the volunteers, in order to give them a global vision of our reality in order to allow them

to understand in an easier way the specificity of each situation.

Volunteers will support the staff within the following sector/services:

1. "ALIBANDUS" - According to their inclinations and personal abilities, volunteers will be involved in some of the proposed initiatives: artistic and sport activities, school support, watching films together and then discuss about them, support with the daily management of the house (preparation of meals with the hosts, maintenance of the

house), organization and support of the free time activities, etc.

2. SOCIAL PROMOTION AREA - Volunteers will be involve in the following activities, taking into account their interests:

o organization of activities for children’s leisure time of the community

(sport and outdoor activities);

o programme specific intercultural events or activities (for example

workshop or seminar in the secondary schools to promote voluntary

service)

o support educators in the projects that they are carrying out adding a specific intercultural value.

The volunteers will be in all the process of the project since the preliminary analysis to the evaluation and follow up.

3. ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AREA (R&D OFFICE) - The volunteers will support the educators in the implementation of activities and events

addressed to the local community in order to promote youth active citizenship and

voluntarism (such as workshop, cultural events). The volunteers will present their ideas to add an intercultural value to all the activities implemented.

The percentage of time dedicated to the different services will depend on the volunteers' personal skills, aptitudes and desires, that will be checked during the selection process and at the beginning of / during the service. The volunteers, with

his/her/their different skills, will be progressively involved in the standard activities.

In addition, a further collaboration, geared towards realizing activities planned and put into practice independently, will be developed: ideas and decisions will be

launched and implemented together with staff, EVS volunteers and other volunteers.

The volunteers are asked to plan and carry out several underlined activities independently: she/he will receive suitable training. In general volunteers should have the ability to interact with minors for a maximum of 6 hours for day, 5 days for

week.

 

Volunteers should be cheerful, discreet and respectful, he/she should be able to work in a team group, he/she should be ready to share his/her experiences and should be

available for a long learning process.

Every week they’ll have two days-off, that won’t be always Saturday and Sunday, because those days are very good occasions to socialize with the children and organize together recreational activities or excursions. We will try to mediate the request of the

volunteers and the activities of the community.

Only for example we propose a week programme:

 

MONDAY

TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

8.00 - 13.00 Alibandus House Active citizenship and community development area FREE* FREE*

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch withchildren Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch with children

14.00 - 15.00 Team Meeting

15.00-19.00 Social Promotion Area Alibandus House Social Promotion Area

Dinner Dinner with children Dinner with children Dinner with children Dinner

 

19.30 -

21.00 Alibandus House Alibandus House Alibandus House

 

Adelante provides supervision and support for the volunteers, not only for the work to be done, but also in their free time (such as suggestion for excursions, meeting people, etc). Furthermore there will be also specific moments in which the volunteers will meet

the mentor to express ideas, feelings, needs…

In order to make the volunteers constantly involved in the service, Adelante will carry out a system of regular monitoring and evaluation. We will plan “formative

evaluations”, a type of evaluation focus on the process and not so much on the result.

They aim is to analyse how the project and the volunteer are doing and allow influence on their development. It is held all through the duration of the service and it provides feed back about the project and the people involve in it. For the volunteers it allows

them to let some steam off and exteriorise ideas, frustrations…

Finally we will keep in touch with the sending organisation to give support in the follow up evaluation of the volunteers, it’s aimed to: evaluating the EVS in general, comparing expectations or objectives with concrete outcomes; identifying the main negative and positive outcomes; helping the volunteers to deal with negative

experiences abroad in a constructive manner; helping the volunteer with particular

reintegration problems (reverse culture shock); providing the volunteers with opportunities to share their experiences with other volunteers that went through a

similar experience.

 

Volunteers should be interested in working with children and young people and should

be ready to work in a staff-cooperation.

Training, qualifications or previous experiences in the social field are preferred but not compulsory.

Sending organizations should be ready to work with us, fostering young people protagonism and taking into account the possibility of cooperating also in other projects

or activities in the future.

The volunteers must be inclined to team work, be fond of one or more sectors such as video, music, art, comics, culture and youth policies in general as well as be willing to

make their creativity available to the entire community.

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers, that are really eager to try themselves in innovating projects. The volunteers should be creative, active, and interested in youth

policy.

The various set of activities provided by Adelante in favour of children and youngsters, allows the presence of volunteers with different backgroung (educational careers in the field of social care, culture, international sciences, etc …). Of course, the more in line with the project their basic competencies are, the more satisfying the project can turn to be for-them.

In the social work field we mostly deal with the relationship dimension, therefore volunteers should hopefully show suitable social and communication skills that can allow

them working in a team and in multicultural contexts.

During recruiting process we will reflect the general openness of EVS and the spirit of the Programme-and-we-guarantee-transparency. Volunteers will be chosen on the basis of their CV and motivation letter, avoiding any discrimination connected with ethnic

group, religion, sexual orientation or political opinion, but only according to their

interest towards the project, availability, reliability and motivation. We will also take into account the professionalism and accessibility shown by the sending organisation on the basis of the contextual presentation of volunteers or of past collaborations, as well as

the support and training they ensure before departure to them. We do belive that a

close co-operation between sending and hosting organisation is crucial for a successful experience.

The selection process will be managed by staff members with a very long experience in the

voluntarism area and will consist in the following steps:

- trasmission of volunteer’s candidature (CV and motivation letter) by Sending organisation to the coordinating and host organisations;

- interwiew with the candidates (face to face, telephonic)

- communication of the selection results to all candidates and the consequent

placement of the volunteers in the organisation.

The selection process will be carried out with transparency, through the publication of all

relative information, presented on the website “www.adelante.progettozatterablu.it”

Furthermore, the candidates will receive, by email or phone, the up-to-date information on the selection results. Finally, Adelante will work together with any Sending

organization in order to organize travel, the welcoming process and accomodation.

 

In order to ensure quality learning and welfare standard of EVS for each volunteer we will be able to host 2 volunteers at the same time. We will prefer volunteers coming from different countries to guarantee a better intercultural experience. One volunteer

will work mainly in Alibandus House, the other mainly in the youth center Color Cafè.

However to guarantee a better intercultural experience to anyone, according with the volunteers, they will be able to have several experiences in all the different services of

the organisation.

 

Most of the time, disadvantaged youngsters have had very few opportunities to go abroad and to cope independently with new situations.

We believe that EVS is a great learning opportunities for them to prove themselves, too. Our structures are unfortunately not equipped for hosting people with physical disabilities. We're, instead, available to welcome volunteers with fewer opportunities

from geographic, social, economic or cultural point of view.

However for protecting the harmoniousness and the security both of our hosts in the residential community and the volunteers themselves it is necessary that the volunteers

do not show psychic fragilities, educational deficiencies that might increase in contact

with our reality, which is already very delicate and strong emotional impact.

Adelante will provide specific type of support:

- “support person”: this person (chosen between the educators) will have the role to make sure that the volunteer get properly resources and tools to accomplish their tasks but also the personal needs; he/she will give several feed backs to

help volunteers to understand their performances, underlined the positive ones.

- training support: specific training session will be organize on the basis of the their needs.

- intercultural support: in order to reduce the feeling of missing home we will find the activities from home to the host town (for instance sports, hobbies, etc) probably in a adapted way. We will put the volunteers in contact with formers volunteers that have already done similar experience, in order to get peer

support from each other.

- social support: we believe that free-tima satisfaction is equally important for the success of the voluntary service, than the tasks within the project. So we will help them to get opportunities to integrate themselves in the local community,

introducing a peer system.

 

In the facilities in which the v olunteers will be doing the service, all of the necessary security measures are taken according to the Italian law requirements, in order to avoid risks to the health of anybody involved. Besides, the structure that will host the volunteers is authorized by the Local Health Agency (ASL). All the volunteers will be

insured by the AXA-EVS agreement and a 24h support will be available for any

emergency.

For any potential kind of risk, the best efforts will be made through a pre-departure information package, made in collaboration with the sending organization, in order to guarantee a fully aware choice of the. It will be a task of the Adelante Administration

Office to give fully detailed information about the project and to answer to any request

of further details. Upon the volunteer's arrival, as mentioned above, a specific training for the prevention of intercultural shocks will be given to the participant.

Moreover we will verify that the sending organisations spend time on these issues during the pre-departure period, especially focusing on volunteers and organisations'

rights and responsibilities, preventing accidents and crisis, insurance.

In the EVS Activity Agreements with the partners we will require to explicitly indicating disadvantaged situations or difficulties of the candidates in order to prevent possible risks, facilitate logistic and organizational solutions and to allow adequate hosting conditions (establishing for example an action plan in case of emergency and defining roles and responsibilities). In case of volunteers with fewer opportunities we will describe in the application which measures we intend to adopt, according to their

specific needs.

During the first month, a training will be given to the volunteers for facilitating their understanding and integration in new context and the necessary information in order to better carry out their tasks: they will be gradually introduced to the general activities of

the organisation, to the staff and to the users. After the first 2 weeks of observation and

presentation of different tasks, they will be freer to give their inputs and express their

creativity.

Life in community does not present any particular physical risk, but is definitely an experience of strong emotional impact. For their own serenity in work and in the communitarian life it is very important that the volunteers might enjoy of times of decompression and spaces for themselves: for this reason it’s advisable that the

volunteers respect the general organization mark of the days with shifts and defined

activities that we undertake to guarantee. The volunteers will never left alone with the group of the hosts: there will always be the shift educator; when the volunteers will be more inserted in the context, at maximum, they can test the relation "one to one" in

occasion of the exits for accompanying some hosts. The volunteers might count on the

support of a psychologist, supervisor of the educational staff of the community, that will

be at their disposal both for group intervention and personal interview.

Furthermore, for the calmness of the volunteers and all the educational staff, it is essential to build a good dialogue with the operators: the volunteers will have regular

chances to express their opinion and their experiences with the hosts, during the

evaluation process with the educator of reference or with the whole staff.

 

Concerning to communication difficulties, doubts, conflicts, fears that might be faced there will be a strong dialogue and a positive solution will be serenely elaborated together. But in any case the volunteers will receive the necessary support from the

linguistic, human and working point of view.

Besides, there will be regular evaluation occasions during formal and informal meetings with the mentor to discuss about their progress. He will also ensure ongoing support for the volunteer during the activities. Through constant contact with volunteers the

tutor can monitor the situation and help prevent or solve possible problems linked to

personal difficulties or to activity implementation. We assure continuous assistance and availability to discuss in case of new demands on their part.

Efforts will be made to help volunteers integrate into the local community (orienteering, transportation, main services, shops, etc.): they will be also informed about different opportunities of leisure and free time such as excursions, parties and

other local events.

Volunteers will be urged to participate in the training sessions provided at a centralised level.

Moreover, since we intend to co-ordinate hosting projects in our province, we will organise a common training for the volunteers who are present in the same period, analysing themes such cultural shock, crisis prevention and management, by using

problem solving and conflicts management, case analysis, role plays and simulations.

Apart from the person in charge of the project, there will be an EVS coordinator inside the Administrative Office, who will regularly control the running of the service. She will also ensure an individual support in order to let the volunteers free to discuss their

expectations and difficulties linked to the project and their integration. In this way the

to the volunteers will be given the opportunity to express their opinion with two

different contact people.

During the activities period, we will constantly stay in touch with the responsible person of the sending organisations and the mentor, in order to update them about the project

performance and in case share with them possible difficulties.

Contacts and meetings with other EVS volunteers living present in our province will be encouraged.

Towards the end of the project we will warn volunteers against the so called "reverse cultural shock". On the other hand we will ask sending organisations to support volunteers upon return, helping them re-integrate in their community and make the most of this experience. The final evaluation (report plus assessment) is considered

valuable also in order to improve future projects.

 

Motivation and EVS experience

Adelante is a social cooperative (non profit organisation) involved mainly in work with

youth and children with fever opportunities.

Our mission commits us to plan promotional actions in favour of our social context, in order to bring a significant contribution to the welfare development of our community. We

trust that experiences different from ours can enrich our work in the field of non-formal

education and socio-cultural animation; we think that volunteers coming from other countries can bring with them competences and ideas that can contribute to the growth

of our educators and stakeholders.

Our values, that we try to transfer into our activities, are linked to peace building, respect for differences and tolerance. We consider that hosting EVS volunteers in our services is a

concrete way to carry out what we believe in. Living together among operators, users and

youngsters from other cultures allow us to reassess our prejudices, measure up to diversity and grow up in respecting and acknowledging "the other" as a richness.

 

We considers European volunteers as a resource for our organization and the local community. In fact, they are going to be a surplus value for the promotion of European culture and the development of the country in a European sense. The interchange and the

comparison of the volunteers with young people and the youth organizations, the

relationship with people of different culture and the daily interaction in contexts, promote the increasing of the intercultural dialogue and a better understanding of diversity.

 

Our leisure-time animation planning evolves in line with the idea of youth promotion, condition for the youngsters' emancipation, activation of resources and entrepreneurialship. We feel that voluntarism and mobility are qualifying experiences

developing young people's potential and at the same time promoting a positive image of

youngsters among adults, which can foster a serene and constructive intergenerational dialogue.

This new project line engages the cooperative into a new learning path in the field of intercultural education, which needs a constant exchange of ideas with other views, at local, national and international level. The EVS experience can be an excellent opportunity

for passing on skills inside and outside our organisation.

In order to support international activities, we will keep on planning promotional events and activities in favour of youngster throughout our province (Vicenza). These activities have turned out to be extremely enriching both for the participants and for the involved local communities; at the same time new requests and an increasing number of linked projects and actions, demand further energies and resources and a peer attestation that only volunteers themselves can make more efficient. We also believe that EVS volunteers, with a similar age to our users' could be able to involve that target and

become the most effective testimonials of international mobility.

Furthermore, hosting volunteers will contribute also in the development of the local community, as the activities described below are conceived in collaboration with local

authorities, groups and associations of the territory.

Adelante joins Progetto Zattera Blu. Progetto Zattera Blu is a social cooperative,

founded in 2003 in Schio (VI), in Veneto Region in the Province of Vicenza.

Its history started in 1993 as “Zattera Blu” a cooperative created in order to promote the values of justice and equality and to guarantee the same rights to every person (minors

in particular) with fewer opportunities. It worked in the North of the Province of Vicenza

(Alto Vicentino).

In 2003 “Zattera Blu” was divided in three different autonomous social cooperative in order to satisfied more effectiveness the needs of the local communities:

- Adelante in Bassano del Grappa;

- Radicà in Calvene;

- Samarcanda in Schio;

These organisation are independent but they share the same values and goals and very

often they carry out projects jointly.

In 2003 was founded also Progetto Zattera Blu to plan complex and innovative projects in partnership with Adelante, Radicà, Samarcanda.

Progetto Zattera Blu is specialized in different services as training, counselling and projecting in the social fields. It works as a consortium (even if it isn’t officially established) and in partnership with the other cooperatives. The board of director,

composed by the presidents of the 4 cooperatives, meet regularly once in a month to

promote projects, to share ideas and to elaborate new “answers” to support disadvantaged people

Progetto Zattera Blu and the other cooperatives have a great experience in working

with youths and minors especially with people with fewer opportunities.

One of the main topic of our projects is the promotion of the youth active citizenship, mainly by voluntary activities and training of volunteers in schools, youth centers and

with informal groups.

All ours youth workers have a deep experience as tutor or mentor of youth volunteers and they have regularly specific trainings.

We have mainly been working only at local level, so we are going to add a new European dimension to our projects and services. Specifically we are interested in the

implementation of activities that:

- fostering young people’s sense of European citizenship and help them to understand their role as part of the present and future Europe;

- reflecting a common concern for European society, such as racism, xenophobia, drug

abuse;

- debating the founding principles of the European Union: liberty, democracy, respect

for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

We do believe that by EVS we will be able to guarantee to a larger target group of youths a non formal education experience and, at the same time, to promote the value of the voluntarism and solidarity. Our interest is to work in partnership in hosting, sending, coordinating EVS projects and developing events, cultural initiatives with

volunteers to spread information about European voluntary service.

Progetto Zattera Blu and the other cooperatives have the objective to establish a new local agency called “OPEN DOORS” finalized to promote EVS in the Province of Vicenza,

by informing, counselling and training youth.

We are going to meet regularly to share values and goals of this new service that aims to improve youngsters awareness about the EVS, its priorities and opportunities. We have already written a “values and objectives chart” of this new agency.

The contact point of “Open Doors” agency is in Calvene, where Progetto Zattera Blu is

settled, but mainly the initiatives will be realized in schools, youth centres, parishes, ensuring that the largest possible number of young people can benefit by it.

We strongly believe that working in partnership will assure us an added value to our EVS projects at different levels:

- educational: we will be able to involve volunteers in a wider number of training courses, in fact in this way they can live different  experiences organized by the

cooperatives;

- social/intercultural: we will be able to create a local group of EVS volunteers that: guarantees a peer support; increases young people's positive awareness of other cultures; supports dialogue and intercultural encounters with other young people from

different backgrounds and cultures;

- impact: at local level the presence of several EVS volunteers helps to prevent and combat prejudice, racism and all attitudes leading to exclusion; develops sense of tolerance and understanding of diversity.

Description of the organisation

Adelante is a social co-operative, founded in 2003 in Bassano del Grappa (VI). Its main aims are the planning and implementation of social activities in favour of children and youngsters, with particular attention to deviation, prevention and family counselling. The values inspiring our social actions are peace making, co – operation as

a social model in opposition to individualism and community break – up, diversity seen

as a resource, solidarity and centrality of the human being. Our activities are mainly addressed to children, youngsters and their families (in total around 1000 people), thanks to 48 workers, youth leaders and educators and office employees. We are also

supported by the help of many volunteers.

We completely agree with the democratic and participatory pedagogies. Their values as self managed tools for personal and collective development constitute the very essence of our work. The implementation of participatory pedagogies in educational programmes is one of the most important characteristics of non formal

education, that is our main methodology.

Our three main areas nowadays are:

1) EDUCATIONAL AREA

This area aims to provide educational services to disadvantaged  children, adolescents

and young adults. We have different services:

ALIBANDUS HOUSE - Educational residential community for minors temporary moved away from their families.

Alinbandus is a residential child care institution (host community) for children and adolescents temporary moved away from their families. Children and adolescents (aged between 10 -18, male) live in the residential communities for a short period and they

regularly go to school. Actually Alibandus hosts 7 people, the average period of staying

is changeable, 5 professional educators and 1 cook work in the community.

RAMALOCH – Educational daily community for adulescents

Ramaloch is a “daily” community where disadvantaged children and adolescents (10-18 years old), that live in families with social problems, can get specific individual educational programmes to develop soft skills, autonomy and self confidence. Also their families are supported by professional educators. Nowadays we are “hosting” 7 adolescents. 4 professional educators work in this service. YODA – Educational programmes for young adults with fewer opportunities Yoda is a special project addressed to young adults, aimed to promote their independence and autonomy. Basically it’s a flat that hosts youngsters with fewer

opportunities (usually 18 years old that have lived in Alibandus House for many years).

They live and are supported with the help of professional educators to become more autonomous and self confident. The flat can host 4 youngsters. 2 professional

educators work in this service.

FAMILY SOCIAL CARE – Family counselling and support directly in a “family contest”

All activities are lead by a professional team of 12 educators.

2) SOCIAL PROMOTION AREA (non formal – education)

This sector aims to involve children and youngsters (11 – 25 years old) in non-formal activities in order to improve their potential through emancipation, cultural inputs and

social participation.

 

There are different fields and activities:

INTEGRATION FIELD: Services preventing social uneasiness and  promoting the weelbeing

such as street educational projects.

LEISURE TIME FIELD: workshops (art, sport, culture, health,  interculturalism,

communication) community animation.

SOCIO-CULTURAL FIELD: socio-cultural networking projects (participation in territorial animation, festivals, exhibitions and events), international activities, promotion of voluntarism and cooperation. We have also a youth center, COLOR CAFÉ’ with a bar where work our promoters. In the youth center many initiatives are

organized with the active participation of youngsters (15 – 25 years old). The main

types of the activities implemented are intercultural education workshop, youth

exchanges, musicals, initiatives for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse.

All the activities are lead by a professional team of 12 animators.

3) ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AREA (R&D OFFICE)

A professional team of project managers/educators work together with Public Authorities, local communities and associations establishing partnerships in order to carry out activities (events, conferences, workshops) to promote active citizenship, voluntarism and, above all, social changing and non violent transformation of social

 

and political conflicts. Our approach is inspired by Community development that promote empowerment and participation. 2 project managers, experts in the field of youth participation, active citizenship, voluntarism and European policy work in this

service, in collaboration with 13 educators mainly involved in the development of new

partnership at local level.