The activities that volunteers and female volunteers will generally be found to carry out are as follows:
1. Support the after-school program: often children from families with hardship present learning problems chronic that the school cannot solve. Different educational methods should be used for these children, based more on movement, play, non-formal education rather than logic and rationality. In addition, the presence of different cultural minorities within the school causes friction between the different groups and in the classroom various acts of acted out various acts of discrimination and bullying. Here then are the volunteers, supporting activities can help the educators from our partner associations to experiment with new learning techniques by sharing the good practices from their home countries with those already possessed by Italian volunteers. Specifically, the presence of other young people from different countries will concretely help to talk about cultural diversity, appreciate different traditions and modalities opening the possibility of listening also to the diversity present in one’s own class/area and forge new relationships that are healthier and more inclusive.
2. Thanks to the volunteers’ knowledge of English, AICEM will be able to organize free workshops in English and other EU languages known to the volunteers aimed at all youth and children in the target area with special reference to those living in rural areas who have less access to opportunities as those living in the city.
Often language courses, in fact, are the preserve of families with greater economic possibilities ce this contributes, from an early age, to widening the educational gap between those who can access quality education and those who cannot. In this way, the association will give all children/youth in the target community the opportunity to acquire a fundamental skill to become European citizens and to enter, in the future, the labor market with better prospects better. Volunteers, by supporting, the English-language workshops will offer that added value that will make them interesting in the eyes of potential users.
3. Volunteers will support workshops that will teach children the principles of environmental sustainability through recycling, recycling and cleaning common areas such as beaches and parks. Indeed, behind the fine words.
“let’s protect the environment” must be followed by concrete facts. Teaching children to respect nature means first of all educating them to differentiate properly, to take care of common areas, to pay attention to everyday gestures that however, can make a difference in having responsible and sustainable behaviors. Even today, unfortunately, many people , due to listlessness or poor information and education, lack the awareness of how vital it is to care for of the environment around us and its respect. Intervening with workshops and dedicated environmental cleanup actions/days will, therefore, be the chances of having adults who are aware of and committed to the preservation of their local area and a more attentive and sensitized community.
4. European Cultural-Intergenerational Inclusion Lab. Volunteers will show children-youth and their families, through play workshops and cultural evenings, their culture of origin and the different cultures present in the EU by showing dances folk dances, songs and videos to the children, thereby breaking down prejudices about what is different and having each child touch hands with each child a little piece of Europe instilling in their young hearts the desire for travel and the curiosity
of discovery.
5. IT InfoCommunication Lab. Through the volunteers in the association, ESC volunteers will be trained in using
of different types of online communication tools and platforms to create campaigns, write articles for blogs and online newspapers, videos and information through which they will tell about their ESC experience, they will promote European programs and opportunities dedicated to young people. They will be a kind of travel diary that, in addition, to become informative and promotional material of the ESC program will become a useful tool for dissemination projects and for the follow-up of future ones.
