Youth and Europe
The Committee – CSV of Belluno has been working actively since 2015 with two European projects, Erasmus+ and Europe for Citizens, offering Bellunese youths concrete opportunities for personal growth and training. Exchanges among young people, training courses, international volunteer projects: these are the proposals for movement which we organize at monthly intervals in partnership with numerous youth and volunteer associations from all over Europe. We believe that the movement of youths is one of the keys to success to offer opportunities to new generations of young people and possibilities of growth and active citizenship.
The investment we are making as CVS Belluno is centered completely around young people: we are not doing it alone but are supported by two European projects, Erasmus+ and Europe for Citizens, who, as we ourselves, are moving in this same direction. As stated, they are projects involving vast mobility, growing in numbers and opportunities, opening the road towards knowledge and skills across-the-board, useful for professional and personal growth.
There are young people who, thanks to our mobility projects, have enriched themselves from a human and cultural point of view and have also learned one or more new languages, while acquiring new skills, for example in the digital world, and now have friends all around Europe. They have grown, formed their character, developed their creativity, potential, and they have discovered new talents they didn't know they had.
In the last three years there have been more than 150 Bellunese youths, between the ages of 15 and 35, who, thanks to our proposals, have been able to have an experience abroad, 20 of which have had a long-term volunteer experience.
The qualitative level of the experiences that our youths have had “beyond borders” are encouraging: the overall tone of the youths, after the experience, has shown a significant increase in personal growth and culture, and an important focus on the path of internationalization of each one's training and professional profile. Besides improving personal linguistic skills, the experience of moving abroad has allowed youths to learn methodologies not present in Italy, to deepen the knowledge of other cultures, to acquire key skills and soft skills, increasingly in demand by employers.
All the experiences of mobility clearly contribute to the refining of positive personal attributes, enhancing and improving them considerably. We are speaking of aspects related to learning new skills involved in accepting and adapting to different cultures and work environments, but also learning to be more open towards others. Analytical and problem-solving skills increase, along with increased awareness of strong and weak points, and, above-all an increased awareness of personal skills, which are certified and validated at the end of each mobility experience with a “Youthpass”, a participation certificate recognized throughout Europe. A young person on the job-market who can boast of his/her European mobility experience, or volunteer work abroad, most certainly has an advantage!
Currently we are in collaboration with various associations in our territory, but also higher institutions and local public entities. Among these we cannot fail to mention the partnership with the County of Feltre which is now hosting our two volunteers from Russia, Lucy and Eliza, involved in a European volunteer service project, financed by Erasmus+, named Youth Culture, along with l’Ufficio Turistico (tourist office) and the association “Il Fondaco per Feltre”. Therefore, with no further adieu we are pleased to hear of the precious contribution of our volunteers. I invite Lucy to share her experience as a volunteer and active citizenship.
