ESC: Social Re-Activation

Servizio Civile Internazionale ONLUS (SCI Italia) is the Italian branch of the Service Civil International network (ww.sci.ngo), the oldest voluntary movement still alive, present today in almost 100 Countries around the world. For 100 years, it has been promoting international volunteering projects on the issues of peace and disarmament, conscientious objection, human rights and international solidarity, sustainable lifestyles and environmental protection, social inclusion and active citizenship. The core of its work is a concrete commitment to change situations of inequality, injustice and violation of human rights beyond all borders. Currently the SCI network counts about 130 organizations (42 national Branches and 88 partners). SCI is part of the wider movement Coordination Committee of International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), which includes almost 200 organizations in the world, and reaches more than 30 thousand volunteers per year (www.ccivs.org). SCI Italia, founded in 1948, is an NGO recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a consultative member of UNESCO and the Council of Europe. It is composed by Regional and Local Groups of activists in different Italian regions, coordinated by the National Secretariat which is based in Rome and by the Board composed by elected members. Most of the organization’s members, even if not all them, are young people between 18 and 30 years old. Over the course of its existence, SCI Italia has sent and received thousands of volunteers, contributing significantly to the dissemination of the practices and values ​​of international volunteering and active citizenship. The organization realizes its mission through many different activities, at first through workcamps: a short-term volunteering experience lasting from 7 days up to 3 weeks, where a group of international volunteers and a group of local ones work together on a specific practical and concrete work which supports the development of a community and which doesn’t require a specific professional competencies. Workcamps are organized by Branches and partners of the SCI Network with their local hosting partners which are mainly non-profit organizations, municipalities, cooperatives, informal groups; the activities can be focused on several thematics like Environment and Sustainability, Gender, Remembrance, Culture, Migration, Social Inclusion etc. SCI’s motto is “Deeds not words”, the idea beyond is that working together is one of the best tools to develop mutual knowledge, counteract stereotypes and spread a peace culture. Indeed, they are a great opportunity for everyone for growth, exchange, peer to peer education and active support to the community. Every year SCI Italia sends all over the world around 400 volunteers and it carries out more than 30 volunteer workcamps in Italy hosting more than 250 international volunteers, thus contributing to the development of social work, environmental protection and the promotion of activities of educational and historical-cultural interest. Furthermore, added value is represented by "La Città dell'Utopia" (http://www.lacittadellutopia.org/) a project developed by SCI Italia in Rome in the spaces of Casale Garibaldi in Rome, proposing networking opportunities and continuous interaction at local and international level. Equally relevant to develop its mission are the other volunteering activities such as self-funded long term projects and the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) and the previous European Voluntary Service (EVS). Since 1997, SCI Italia has been coordinating, sending and receiving organization for EVS and then ESC projects. Indeed, these projects guarantee high multiplication power and high level of value outreach thanks to the participants’ commitment, effective awareness-raising process and skills development for participants themselves, regularity of the action, continuous development of the relationships and best practises among participating organizations. Moreover within the framework of its values, SCI Italia realizes various international trainings, seminars, job shadowings, capacity building for youth workers and youth exchanges including participants with fewer opportunities in the context of European programmes such as Erasmus + and Europe for Citizens and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.