Glocalising Int. Volunteers

From the 18th till the 21st of November, Valdocco in Torino hosted the seminar "Glocalising International Volunteers". The seminar focused on the concept of European citizenship, aiming a motivating "ex-volunteers" to use the "global experience" they have acquired during an international voluntary service to make a social change in their "local environment".

All participants have worked as a volunteer in Don Bosco projects worldwide. Common in these experiences is that they cater for young people which face poverty and social exclusion. This is not just a problem existing outside of Europe. Inside the European Union the number of young people at risk is growing, for this reason the European commission named the year 2010 the European year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. Throughout the seminar we used the European year as a catalyst for the participants to make the change from the global to local level.

The programme of Glocalising International Volunteers was very diverse: active workshops, presentations, study visit to local projects, reflections, intercultural evening, an exchange market and informal moments. In the end the participants needed to make a decision on how they wanted to use this seminar as a step towards a new involvement in their local communities.

We choose Valdocco as a venue because it is the place where Don Bosco started his movement, based on young people voluntarily committing themselves to make a difference in their local community. There is another reason why we choose for Valdocco as venue for this event. In 2010 Torino is the European Youth Capital, which means in 2010 the city put an emphasis on the youthful character of the city. As Don Bosco is an important part of the city's history of youth work, we felt it was necessary to also contribute to this year of celebrations.

Glocalising International volunteers brought together 23 participants, from 9 EU member states. The project was lead by a European team of trainers from DBYN's pool of trainers and support staff from Federazione SCS and the international secretariat of DBYN. Like the participants, both trainers also had an international voluntary service experience, which enables us to have a stronger peer-to-peer educative approach. The project was financially support by the EU's 'Youth in Action'-programme. - created at http://animoto.com

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