SVE en Italia!

 DEADLINE: 15/11/2015

 Hosting organisation

COMUNE DI CREMONA – SERVIZIO POLITICHE GIOVANILI

long term project (12 months from December 2015 to November 2016)

number of volunteers:

1 female volunteer

Description of organisation

Cremona Municipality, through the Youth Policies Department, plans, implements and promotes all the opportunities concerning the growth path of young people. The direct beneficiaries of the actions are young people from 14 to 35 years old. The activities are divided in three sectors: prevention and support activities/projects, promotion and expressivity projects, participation and citizenship activities/projects.
The staff is made up of technical and administrative experts (13 operators); youth educators and trainers from Cooperatives and Associations for specific projects (more or less 20 operators); volunteers of the national civic service (more or less 30); EVS volunteers (at the moment 6).
The Youth Policies Department, in the framework of Cremona Municipality, strongly cooperates with other departments that work with young people:
– the European Office that fosters the interest for European programs and calls for proposals promoting intr-regional/transnational cooperation and the exchange of know-how among public and private subjects
– Informagiovani Agency that provides an information service and helps young people to find answers about training, job, culture, free time, voluntary work, holidays, mobility in Europe etc.
– the Local Educational Office that plans and implements projects for schools and educational agencies on the municipality territory, with special focus on to children’s autonomy and knowledge of the town.
– the Cultural Department that plans, implements and coordinates the activities promoted by the museums of Cremona, in particular concerning the didactic activities and for the promotion and exploitation of the cultural heritage, communication of the initiatives and funds raising

The Youth Policies Department regularly plans joint projects with the Departments mentioned above in order to reinforce in young people the sense of European participation, mutual understanding and active citizenship.

Motivation and EVS experience

The Youth Policies Department of Cremona Municipality works in the context of the town cooperating with all the subjects that work with and for young people carrying out projects and paths destined to:
– Develop the autonomy and responsibility of young people through the increase of opportunities to enter adult lives
– Promote ways and spaces of positive participation and occasions for learning, analyzing and developing
– Create concrete occasions that can transform free time in useful time dedicated to increase knowledge, skills and competences especially concerning non-formal education.
Cremona Municipality, through the Youth Policies Department, fosters the European dimension through the implementation of training path and enhancing specific active citizenship.
In particular, Cremona Municipality has positively experimented in the last six years the sending and hosting opportunities of EVS volunteers and the coordination of projects that have involved third subjects of the territory through a technical and administrative support to the partners’ network.
At the moment, Cremona Municipality is the only institution of the territory accredited to host, send and coordinate EVS volunteers and it has established important links with different partners like Anffass Cremona, Sospiro Hospital and “D.Manin” High School.
A strong link was established also with Cisvol – Centre Services for Voluntary Work that is an EVS accredited institution on the territory.
Cisvol and Cremona Municipality have activated a specific Protocol related to some specific promotion activities for the enhancement of the European Voluntary Service.
The offer of Cremona Municipality for young volunteer is defined by some proper specific resources allocated every year for the actions of the Program Youth in action, with a specific budget and with the work of specific personnel specialized in the educational and technical sector.
The positive experience of Cremona Municipality concerning the European Voluntary Service was concluded with the participation of some volunteers to some promotion meetings for high school classes, universities and professional training centres.

Project Environment

Cremona is the capital city of the same Province in Lombardy; the city has 71.968 inhabitants (37.982 women and 33.986 men) divided in 33.888 families (Cremona Municipality, 31st of May 2013). *
The reference population of young people (14-35 years old) is made up of 14.984 people, that is the 21% of the inhabitants.
The town lies on the river Po, in hearth of the Po valley and its economy is mainly connected to agriculture; it does not have slums but there some disadvantaged areas related to specific situations of immigration, economic and cultural poverty, difficulty of dialogue between adults and young people, few facilities for young people.
The local community is involved in the activities through the connection with the Departments, the associations, the families and the adults who get in contact with young people.
The work is based on network and on the dialogue among different generations as a tool for mutual growth of young people and adults.
The Youth Policies Department, moreover, coordinates the activities related to the National Civic Service. In 2012 more or less 30 volunteers of the National Civic Service have worked in the Municipality’s departments and in other sectors connected to the Municipality.
The meeting between these two experiences of active citizenship represented in the past and will represent in the future an other enriching element for the projects and the improvement of the staff involved.
The main previous experiences in the framework of the Program Youth in Action are:
Action 1: information and support to groups and association for the participation to youth exchanges
Action 2:
• Information and support activities for students of the town’s high schools, university students and, in general, for all the young people who are interested in the EVS experience;
• Coordination and support activities for the territorial institutions for the participation to calls for proposals;
• implemented n. 10 hosting projects for EVS volunteers and n. 3 sending projects for a total number of n. 17 volunteers.
WELCOME PROJECTS
The learning opportunities are connected to the activities carried out: management and updating of photos and video archives, organization of events and of leisure activities related to non-formal education, communication, intercultural differences, group’s dynamics, project’s management.
The opportunities of non-formal learning, in particular, will be transversal to the activities like, for example, the interaction with the single person and the group, the dialogue, the processes related to the kind of work of the group, the organization of meetings for small groups, the feedback on the activities for future planning, the constant intercultural and linguistic exchange.
The activities proposed to the volunteers are based on the work in groups with different professionals like social assistants, educators, psychologists etc. This working methodology allows to train the volunteers on the job thanks to the use of the tools typical of the planning and group activities: organization of meetings, planning of phases and projects, organization of the work, cooperation, monitoring and evaluation of the activities. The volunteers are invited to make a presentation of their realities and culture in order to think about their identity in a new context and in a new way.
The volunteers’ interests, desires and skills will be taken in consideration.
Italian language and culture will represent an other learning opportunity.
On the websites of the Municipality will be uploaded documents, photos, videos etc. in order to inform the citizens about the EVS experience and its importance. For the same reason, the experience will find a specific space on the local media.
The linguistic and intercultural training will be carried out through weekly and individual meetings organized by specifically trained staff employed by Cremona Municipality.
The volunteers will be accompanied by tutors (according to their kind of activity) and by a mentor. The volunteers will meet them to:
monitor the progress of the activities and projects
follow and facilitate the volunteers’ learning process
support the volunteers in managing problems
help the volunteers in drafting their Youthpass.
The contact with the sending organization will be constant. The sending organization will be updated on the development of the project.
All the people involved know the program Youth in Action, and in particular Action 2, thanks to the direct experience of the last years and to specific learning moments.
The volunteers that will be hosted in the projects of Cremona Municipality will have the opportunity to choose among the following projects:

UNIVERSITY AND INFORMAGIOVANI AGENCY

EDUCATIONAL POLICIES DEPARTMENT

YOUTH POLICIES DEPARTMENT

COMICS CENTRE «ANDREA PAZIENZA» (CFAPAZ)

The role of the volunteers
The EVS volunteers participate to the activities of their Departments with the support of their tutors.
The role of the volunteers is important because they offer the opportunity to have direct contact with other cultures. They are involved in all the phases of the project’s planning taking into consideration their specific interests. In all the contexts described above the volunteers will have the opportunity to offer their original contribution in the organization of the activities underlining the cultural differences and similarities as part of the learning process.
For every volunteer is foreseen the activity of promotion of active citizenship (European Voluntary Service and National Civic Service) in cooperation with the volunteers of the National Civic Service; this activity is completed by the presentation of the opportunities offered by the two experiences for schools, meeting centres and places attended by young people. The same volunteers will be testimonials in the meetings. The final aim is presenting to young people mobility as an experience of personal and professional growth allowing young people to participate in an active way to the civic and social life of the European context. The relationships established among the volunteers facilitate the inclusion in the town’s social context.
The volunteers will periodically analyze the progress of the project and their satisfaction level.
The volunteers will be hosted in two adequate flats with two beds, close to the historic centre and in a good position from which you can easily get to the Municipality job-places (10 minutes on foot). The flats are on the first floor of a two-floor building, they are comfortable (internet connection available) and they are next to supermarkets and several other shops. The flats have a kitchen and they respect all the safety rules according to the law 81 05/2008.
The volunteers can make their meal at home. Cremona, moreover, is characterized by a good network of public means of transportation and bike-lanes and every volunteer will have a personal bike.
The volunteers will work 5 days a week (from Monday to Friday, with the possibility to take part to events, training activities and conferences also during the week-end and in the night) for 36 hours a week.
The volunteers will have 5 weeks of holidays.

The activities common to all the Departments that could involve the volunteers are:
• training paths about the specific work of every department
• planning of meetings for specific activities
• contacts with the stakeholders of the territory like young people, associations and other institutions that work with and for young people
• report on the activities and organization of the historic archive
• organization of specific didactic activities
• organization of important events like meetings and exhibitions
• participation to conferences, training courses, seminars, specialized fairs and events
• active participation to the information-search (and updating) specifically destined to young people
• personal blog /personal texts concerning their experiences on the websites of the single Department

Every volunteer will have the opportunity to organize specific activities on the basis of their interests and characteristics (for example: language courses, traditional kitchen courses, online photo albums, important intercultural event

For HOSTING PROJECTS

Cremona Municipality, as hosting organization, through its constant contacts with sending organizations and volunteers, will answer doubts, questions and suggestions finding new solutions and changing, if it is necessary, the activities’ plan.
Once arrived in Cremona, the volunteers will be supported by a tutor and by the operators who will take part to the non-formal learning process and to the phase of operative support.
The volunteers will be part of the Department’s working routine, in direct contact with young people of different ages and adults respecting the safety rules of the Department’s facilities.
The volunteers will benefit from the insurance of the EVS program and they will receive a card with all the emergency numbers to call in case of necessity.
Every volunteer (since 2007) can count on the assistance of a doctor of the National Health Service. The flats where the volunteers will live are adequately furnished respecting the safety rules and the rules concerning the buildings’ risks.
Thanks to the involvement of the entire staff, in different roles, it will be easier to monitor the activities.
It will be granted also the support to the volunteers for their activities thanks to the presence of a tutor and of a mentor who will help the volunteers in entering the social context and solving any possible problems or difficult situations.
The presence of other EVS volunteers of different projects, who live in the same flat, can facilitate integration among the different activities of the same department and the analysis of possible difficulties. For this reason, especially during the first weeks, will be organized monitoring meetings with the volunteers, the operators, the tutors and the mentor. It will be granted also the possibility to have constant dialogue with the operators about the experience of Voluntary Work.
For COORDINATING PROJECTS
The operators of the Department will be in constant contact with a person in charge of the projects able to communicate difficulties or crisis of the volunteers who work in external seats, in order to evaluate the level of satisfaction of young people through techniques for the management and development of human resources.

The volunteers will live in two one-room flats with two beds each. It is located next to the historic city-centre and close to the working seat (10 minutes on foot). The flats are on the first floor of a two-floor historic building and they are made of a big open space of more or less 28 square metres with modern living-room furniture, a sofa bed, two single beds, a wall equipped to cook, table, chairs, washing machine and a set of saucepans; in another small room there is a small wardrobe. There is also a small entrance and a bathroom, with bath tub/shower and toilet; the houses has two big windows and one flat has a small balcony. The houses have internet connection and bed sheets. They are next to the supermarket, chemist’s shop and other kinds of shops.
The flats comply with the electric and plumbing safety rules as required by the law 81 05/2008

How to apply

Building Bridges Association members will have preference, please enroll to the association here.

For the selection of the volunteers we will need:
– Europass CV with picture (made in the last month) and skype name

– Motivational letter, writing that your sending organisation will be “Building Bridges”. We ask all candidates to send a specific letter of motivation – why they want to volunteer with us rather than just a general EVS one.

Remember to write in the motivation letter that your sending institution is “Asociación Building Bridges”.

All documents written in english you can attach below with subject “EVS Italia CREMONA. YOUR NAME. YOUR SURNAME» to asociacionbbARROBAgmail.com