Civic Service

ANNA COSSETTA

CIVIC SERVICE:

LIGURIA ON A COURSE FOR EUROPE

The original text was translated by Giulia Di Lallo, in collaboration with Valentina Destefanis (C. “Germany”),

Enrico Ottonello (C. “Poland”) Elena Romeo (C. “France”).

PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................ 7 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 9

THE PARTICIPANTS .................................................................................................................. 12 TRAINING THE VOLUNTEERS ................................................................................................ 13 THE RESEARCH .......................................................................................................................... 14 THE BLOG .................................................................................................................................... 17

AMICUS VOLUNTEERS IN THEIR HOST COUNTRIES: RESEARCH AND NARRATION ........................................................................................................................................................... 20 FRANCE ........................................................................................................................................... 22

VOLUNTEERS ............................................................................................................................. 22 PARTNERS ................................................................................................................................... 22 THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY THE VOLUNTEERS ................................................... 23

Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 23 Volunteering and civic service in Adolfo and Bianca's experience .......................................... 26 Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers .............................................. 28

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEERS ............................................................... 29 The diaries ................................................................................................................................. 29

CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 31 GERMANY ....................................................................................................................................... 33


Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 35 Volunteering and Civic Service in the experience of Federico, Lev, Antonella, Anna and Livia ................................................................................................................................................... 35 Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers .............................................. 37


CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 40 POLAND ........................................................................................................................................... 43


Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 44 Volunteering and civic service in Giulia and Alessandro’s experience .................................... 46 Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers .............................................. 51


CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 53 ROMANIA ........................................................................................................................................ 56

VOLUNTEER ............................................................................................................................... 56 PARTNER ..................................................................................................................................... 56 THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BU THE VOLUNTEER ..................................................... 57

Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 57 Voluntary work, Civic Service and Peace Corps in Francesca’s experience ............................ 58

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEER ................................................................. 61 The diaries ................................................................................................................................. 61

CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 64 SLOVAKIA ....................................................................................................................................... 66

VOLUNTEER ............................................................................................................................... 66

PARTNER ..................................................................................................................................... 66 THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY THE VOLUNTEER ..................................................... 66

Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 66 Volunteering and Civic Service in Anna’s experience .............................................................. 66 Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteer ............................................... 67

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEER ................................................................. 67 The diary .................................................................................................................................... 67

CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 68 SPAIN ................................................................................................................................................ 70

VOLUNTEERS ............................................................................................................................. 70 PARTNER ..................................................................................................................................... 70 THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY THE VOLUNTEERS ................................................... 72

Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 72 VOLUNTEERING AND CIVIC SERVICE IN THE EXPERIENCE OF SIMONE, ANDREA, ILARIA, IRENE, SARA AND VALERIA ................................................................................... 76

Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers .............................................. 77 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEERS ............................................................... 81

The diaries ................................................................................................................................. 81 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 83

SWEDEN ........................................................................................................................................... 85 VOLUNTEERS ............................................................................................................................. 85 PARTNER ..................................................................................................................................... 85 THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY THE VOLUNTEERS ................................................... 88

Regulatory framework ............................................................................................................... 88 Volunteering and Civic Service in Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario’s experience ................... 89


CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 96 THE EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEERS IN THEIR DIARIES .... 98

AMICUS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS .................................................................................. 104 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS .......................................................................................................... 118

VOLUNTEERISM AND WELFARE ......................................................................................... 119 VOLUNTEERING FROM ITALY TO EUROPE, AND BACK ............................................... 120 TOWARDS A EUROPEAN CIVIC SERVICE .......................................................................... 123

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................... 126

PREFACE Since 2006, the Region of Liguria has offered young people pathways which are included in national and regional civic service, with the intention to raise their awareness on issues concerning active citizenship, culture of peace and social solidarity as an occasion for personal growth and improvement.

With this goal to achieve, the Region answered the call of the European Commission to try out a transnational youth civic service among the twenty-seven EU member states, by introducing the Project AMICUS REGIONAL CIVIC SERVICE: Course for the European Networking.

The project was financed and comes to an end now with the presentation of this survey in which the main actors were the Amicus volunteers, “our special correspondents” in eight EU countries: Spain, France, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Sweden and Finland.

This route was complex, but gave the opportunity to explore new horizons and point out that, in order to shape up a cohesive Europe with a strong sense of identity, a major role can be played by the young, who are able to use their enthusiasm and energy to live any difference not as an insurmountable frontier, but as a chance to enhance human relationships.

The survey is a result of the hard work of our researchers and the efforts of our volunteers who operated in the host countries: it is the evidence of how much can be done in order to create connections and interactions among young Europeans, civil society and institutions: a mixture of human capital, relationship capital and knowledge capital, a huge common heritage to use at our best.

Lorena Rambaudi Counsellor on Social Policies, Third Sector,

Cooperation for Development, Youth Policies and Equal Opportunities

INTRODUCTION1

Amicus preparatory action and the project of the Region of Liguria REGIONAL CIVIC SERVICE: Course for the European Networking.

“Association of Member States Implementing a Community Universal Service” is the name that the European Commission gave to the initiative, to which the Region of Liguria took part with the project AMICUS REGIONAL CIVIC SERVICE: Course for the European Networking.

With the action EAC/40/2008, 11th March 2008, the European Commission, with its Directorate-General for Education and Culture, published its first call for proposals to experience a transnational youth civic service2 among the twenty-seven member states of the European Union.

The main goal was that of financing projects from every member state of the Union in order to: • promote the transnational nature of young people’s placements in civic and/or voluntary service

activities (each proposer selected and sent young people in projects hosted by other EU countries);

• create a European framework to facilitate interaction of current proposals of civic service and voluntary work for the youth, in member states (both public bodies for civic service and civil society organisations);

• guaranteeing a test and evaluation at European level, through real cooperation projects in the field of civic service and transnational youth voluntary service. The call was addressed primarily to national or local public bodies providing civic service, and

then to non-profit or voluntary organisations with at least a two-year experience in the youth sector. The call asked the proposers to formulate transnational projects of civic service which included

the following actions: 1) Information and awareness raising activities, to the whole population, about civic service

opportunities in Europe; 2) Research activities and evaluation of the proposal of civic service abroad, in general, and of the

volunteers’ personal experience; 3) Pilot activities concerning volunteering in the European Union for young people aged between

16-28 for a duration of 3 to 6 months. At the first call deadline, at the end of October 2008, among twenty-seven projects that could

have been sponsored, only six out of the submitted ten were approved (for an overall expenditure of 700,000 Euros instead of the planned 3 million), and among these only one had been proposed by a public body, the Italian National Office for Civic Service. In the light of these unsuccessful outcomes, the Commission opened a second call for proposals, after having modified and partially simplified the technical requirements. At the second call deadline, at the end of April 2009, other eleven projects were selected, among which the project of the Region of Liguria, again the only one proposed by a public body3. 1 Edited by Servizio Regionale Famiglia, Minori, Giovani, Pari Opportunità e Servizio Civile (Regional Service for the Family, Underaged, Youth, Equal Opportunities and Civic Service). 2 Usually, in Italian it is defined “civilian” instead of “civic”. The Italian word goes back to the first law on conscientious objection, n. 772 of 1972: civilian service as an alternative to military service. In English, though, which is the reference language in European context, the term used is “civic” in the sense of civic service, as opposed to the “civil” services provided by public administration in general. 3 Totally, in the two calls for proposals, 17 out of 31 submitted projects were financed; 4 presented by Italy and France 2 by Romania, 1 by Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia. 468 posts available for young people in 39 host NGOs.

These facts about projects’ selection and start-up, which are or will be concluded by the end of 2010, show a realistic picture of the state of civic, or similar, service in the Union. The submission of projects by such a few public institutions is already a hint of the scarcity of national bodies (and, therefore, laws) that regulate any form of youth civic service. The Commission was well aware of that, thus opening the call also to proposals presented by non governmental organisations.

Then again, the Union has already its well-established transnational youth voluntary service, that is, the now more than ten-year old European Voluntary Service (EVS), which gives the opportunity to young people aged between 18-30 to take part in voluntary service projects benefiting local communities in other EU countries, but not only. With AMICUS, the intention of the Commission is that of taking a further step, namely, providing itself and its member states with a monitoring instrument to implement contexts to develop civic services also in countries where they do not exist.

The Region of Liguria answered the second call by submitting the project AMICUS REGIONAL CIVIC SERVICE: Course for the European Networking.

A chance to jump at, considering that since 2006 the Region has enforced its commitment towards the development of new pathways through active citizenship within the civic service framework.

In 2006, in effect, competencies for the management of National civic service have been transferred from national to regional level, and also the regional law 11 on “Establishment and regulation of the Regional system of Civic service” has been approved. The new regulatory framework made possible the start-up of innovative civic service projects which are targeted at young people potentially excluded by National civil service, such as students aged between 16 and 18, young non-Italian citizens, vulnerable individuals aged between 18 and 29, as well as young aged between 16and 29 under alternative measures or other socio-educational actions and “probation”.

The pathways, implemented by the Regional civic service authorities, have the overall goal of introducing the young to active citizenship, culture of peace and social solidarity, as an opportunity for personal growth and enrichment in order to reach a higher degree of civic responsibility.

In particular, young people belonging to vulnerable groups or participating in correction measures can experience a positive sense of cohesion through civic service projects, by actively taking part in the life of their community and getting in touch with a “relational bank” that allows them to be involved in a balanced social environment.

Generally, civic service projects, by “doing”, bring forward pathways that lead to “knowledge”, “learning”, “interaction”, feeling “useful” and, thus, rebuilding the network which links the individual to the social context.

Given the preliminary remarks, the commitment of the Region of Liguria at European level was essential. The project allowed to further enhance the competencies in this sector through networking with different countries and young volunteers, thus enriching the expertise of all the actors involved in the project: the project manager, the coordinator of the relations between partner organisations and volunteers, the trainers and, not least, researchers.

Going back to the project subject, within the described scenery, the targets were the following:

General goals: • Sharing Italian civic service and other voluntary work experiences in Liguria with other local or

regional experiences within the Union, in order to develop best practices and new projects; • Promoting the search for a common system of European civic voluntary work, specifically

oriented towards young people. Specific goals:

• Experiencing new youth volunteering forms all around Europe;

• Starting up a research, with the use of various analytical tools, in order to examine the activities of civic and voluntary service, both national and regional, in host countries, beginning with those of Amicus volunteers;

• Pinpointing innovative experiences at European level which could be replicated in Italian context;

• Creating a permanent network between all the Amicus partners; • Providing young people with new opportunities to build up relationships which could be useful

for their personal and professional development.

The project, as required by the call, is divided into three types of activities. The first focuses on information, the second on research and the third on transnational activities of voluntary or civic service.

In the preparatory phase, all the partner organisations attended a kick-off meeting, within the framework of Type 1 activities (information and awareness raising): the main goal was a discussion on policies, programmes and technical aspects of civic service experiences in the areas involved in the project.

The data collected during this meeting were the first source to start up the research, central issue of the Type 2 activities (research and evaluation activities).

The research team, then, provided the volunteers – previously selected and trained during a pre-departure training programme – with the tools to make the best of their stay abroad and daily work with the partners, while offering relevant data for the survey.

The project required the selection and relocation of 30 volunteers (aged between 18-28) in groups of at least two or three people in eight European countries (Spain, France, Germany,

Sweden, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Romania) in different activity areas. The estimated volunteering period was 6 months for all of them. These young volunteers were to be the main actors in the process: living in harness with other young volunteers and hosting communities, learning in informal way and experiencing the basic values of civic service or voluntary work at transnational level.

In situ activities for the young participants had the aim of: 1. Contributing to social activities of the host organisations; 2. Helping the Region in the survey, with a particular focus on:

• the host organisation and the local network of services for young people; • laws, values and policies which regulate voluntary work and/or civic service in the host

organisation, and at local level; • motivations, roles and competencies of other young volunteers engaged in the host

organisation;

In the course of their experience, the young volunteers were also supported by training sessions in different stages, in order to facilitate the assimilation and global evaluation of their experience, also with the aim of a personal growth towards new goals, as described in the next paragraph.

THE PARTICIPANTS

Country Name Date of departure

Date of return

Withdrawal

France Centre des Sureaux

Adolfo Franchi 10th february 28th july

Francia La Ligue

Elisa Gurrieri 28 th february 20 th may yes

Bianca Roccatagliata 1st april 22nd september

Finland Irene Campanella 1st april 10th june yes Giovanna Granara 1st april 10th june yes Daniele Mannucci 1st april 31st may yes Germany Federico Biamonti 1st april 30th

september

Antonella Ministeri 1st april 12th august yes Anna Marangoni 1st april 7th may yes Livia Pasquero 1st april 30th

september

Lev Cogorno 1st april 30th september

Poland Alessandro Tremaroli

1st march 31th august

Giulia Castagna 1st march 31th august Romania Francesca Cogozzo 1st march 31th august

Slovakia Anna Crippa 24th march 15th september

Spain Simone Micillo 15th march 15th august Andrea Picollo 15th march 15th august Ilaria Badino 15th march 15th august Irene Capozzi 1st april 30th

september

Sara Pedrazzini 1st april 30th september

Valeria Cannatelli 1st april 30th september

Sweden Mario Olivo 15th february 15th august Alessandra

Campaniolo 15th february 15th august

Carmelo Danisi 15th february 15th august

TRAINING THE VOLUNTEERS4 Training the selected volunteers had a fundamental, cross-cutting role in the project

activities. The European call already suggested, as a reference training framework, the one used in the European Voluntary Service (EVS), that is divided in pre-departure training, on-arrival training, mid-term evaluation (for projects lasting not less than 6 months) and final evaluation, at the end of the experience. According to this approach, usually EVS volunteers can take part in free courses organised by their National Agencies (the sending organisation for pre- and final training, the host organisation for on-arrival and mid-term training) and, thus, open to all the volunteers of the same service period, even if involved in different projects.

With regard to the project AMICUS, the training team5 privileged a continuative direct commitment with the selected volunteers, commissioning to its foreign counterparts only the on-arrival training, as it is related to acquiring knowledge about national and local contexts, the host organisation and the specific functions of the volunteers.

Taken the EVS training approach as the main framework, which was used as a reference also for the main issues to be covered during the training modules, the courses proposed to the volunteers differed from that model for certain typical elements: - Longer duration of pre-departure training: with regard to a specification of the call concerning a

two-day activity, a residential course of five days and a half’s duration was implemented, in order to facilitate integration among the participants (who were to decide, on that occasion, the final arrangements among themselves, and the host projects), and to go into topics such as communication and conflict management, and the competencies required for the volunteers’ direct participation in the research activities;

4 This paragraph was edited by the trainers Francesco Ferrari and Mario Bozzo Costa.

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- Direct management of mid-term meetings, run by the training team itself: taking into account the single projects’ developments and the available budget resources, priority was given not to a single meeting with all the volunteers (which is, however, a further opportunity to be considered in the future), but to a visit of a minimum two days’ duration to each volunteer in their host country. This is a real innovation, compared to a mid-term verification carried out only at local level, by the partner organisation. This meeting occasion allowed to strengthen the network between sending institution, volunteers and partners, in order both to improve the effective role of young people in local services and to reach the survey’s aims;

- The final meeting, during the two and a half residential days (in compliance with EVS training recommendations), confirmed the targets of overall individual and group experience evaluation, but in our case also gave the opportunity to take an adequate period of time to promote dialogue between the project research group and the returned volunteers, in order to have a shared processing for the survey. Summing up, this innovative training method allowed to develop certain dimensions that are not

usually considered as central in EVS projects; first, the link between volunteer and sending organisation helped volunteers in assuming responsibility for the required commitment and, during their stay, overcoming any difficulties which may arise with the host partner. In the European Voluntary Service the link with the sending organisation is basically a technical and administrative matter, because normally the sending organisation is not responsible for the activities and, therefore, the goals of the host project. Also, apart from exceptional cases, it is not responsible for the training, of which National Agencies are in charge. In the Italian National Civic Service – on national or regional bases – instead, this link is essential, even when volunteers are employed in foreign projects, as the host organisation is a branch of the same Italian institution.

Another dimension, linked to the direct management of training by the sending organisation, was the opportunity of providing the volunteers with effective and balanced skills and, then, an individual final evaluation, according to their personal and professional growth, which resulted in the joint production of a Youthpass.

Lastly, on a wider perspective considering the project’s training context, the real innovation of the Ligurian project AMICUS, among all the experiences possibly comparable to a European civic service, was that of creating a connection of commitment not only to a local mission, but also to a target proposed by the sending organisation, which was the survey, in this case. From the interests belonging to each actor (the sending organisation, the host partner and the volunteers), typical of every EVS or national civic service project, a common European planning framework arose, in which each party was asked to share and commit to the European youth volunteering system’s growth and development goals. For this reason, AMICUS REGIONAL CIVIC SERVICE: Course for the European Networking represents a real innovative training model.

THE RESEARCH6 The research was structured in the following phases: Pre-departure activities First conceptual layout and research planning. This phase was carried out by the research team Liguria Ricerche, with the support of the other actors involved in project planning, and brought to

6 This paragraph was written by Michela Grana.

sharing common goals and designing the next research stages which were outlined in a minimum standard pathway (research on the country’s reference framework and the host organisation, research on the volunteers, reporting through the diary the personal experience as an AMICUS volunteer) which could be applied to all partner countries. However, in consideration of the differences between countries, host partners and voluntary activities which had been already scheduled in planning phase, the possibility of integrating the minimum standard pathway with specific activities to be agreed with the volunteers themselves, was left open. This preparatory phase also included a specific training module to be attended during the initial training. The participants’ training concerned the research outline, a brief reference to principles and methods of social research, and some directions on how to start up the survey once in the host country.

Background survey: examining the country’s value and regulatory reference framework related to voluntary work and possible local civic service. Before starting up the project, a survey form on the country’s reference context and some host organisation’s features was prepared. The survey took place together with the request for logistical and organisational information, necessary for the volunteers’ integration within the host partners. Not all the required information was provided on time for the start-up meeting and pre-departure training. Nonetheless, the research group arranged a general reference framework concerning the European position on volunteering issues, which was presented during the pre-departure training. Activities carried out during the volunteers’ stay in the host country Filling up the host country’s values and regulatory reference framework, within the host organisation. During their first two months abroad, the volunteers were involved in collecting information concerning the voluntary work and civic service system in the host country, also by interviewing their host organisation’s supervisors and other people they came to know. The survey used a form which could serve as a reference during the interview.

Research on the host organisation. Still in the course of their first period in the foreign country, volunteers deepened their knowledge on the host organisation’s nature and features: in some cases, the organisation and the project partner were not the same institution. In particular, using a semi-structured outline, the volunteers took notice of the mission, features and organisational methods, service typologies, leading figures and beneficiaries, volunteering typologies and their reference network in the country.

Research on the volunteers. Once the volunteers were integrated in their host organisations and countries and the first part of the survey on the reference context was completed, the second phase started, in which the survey was more specifically oriented on the features related to the volunteers operating within the host organisation or working in harness with AMICUS volunteers. Some questionnaires were prepared with the aim of analysing the volunteer’s role, motivations, integration model and other features. AMICUS volunteers, as well, were asked to fill the form in order to collect their opinions and, at the same time, have the chance to test the questionnaire beforehand.

Writing a volunteer’s weekly diary about their experience. With this tool aimed at recording their experience in progress, AMICUS volunteers turned from research subjects into research objects. All the groups posted on the project’s blog, in the area restricted to volunteers, and reported their ongoing experience every week, apart from some delays due to logistic problems. Post-return activities Post-return activities were carried out mostly by the researchers on the basis of data collected by the volunteers and their reports. On the one hand, data were processed in qualitative and quantitative systems, on the other hand, the volunteers’ reports on the countries were revised and better organised.

In particular, the following analyses were carried out and their results were collected in this report: • processing and analysing the diaries, by the research group • preliminary analysis of materials and background survey carried out by the volunteers, to

finalise the results comparison during the final training; reports revision • discussing the survey results with the participants during the final training • processing questionnaires filled in by other volunteers • processing questionnaires and evaluation forms filled in by the project’s volunteers • overall analysis of survey results and writing a survey report

The survey was carried out by volunteers continuously involved in comparison and support to the experts’ research team. The volunteers were trained on basic methods and principles of social research, and on the use of quantitative and qualitative methodological tools required. The survey adopted a strategy in which the researcher joins, directly and for a relatively long period of time, a social group in its natural environment and develops a personal connection with its members, in order to describe their actions and understand their motivations, through an identification process (Corbetta, 1999, 368).

The survey used both standard and no standard methods of social research, with an integrated approach, and arranged structured (structured interviews) and no structured tools (assessment surveys, diaries of the experience).

All the tools aimed at building up a composed picture of the volunteer-researcher’s point of view, highlighting the dynamics related to the reference context and, at the same time, going into the volunteer’s motivations both subjectively and objectively, also by using an ethno-methodological approach. The AMICUS volunteer, thus, participated in and experienced both standard and no standard approaches, according to an ad hoc research plan developed on the basis of a personal experience shared with other young people.

Introducing the young volunteers in a very different context to the one they were used to, produced a sort of participative observation attitude, even if not structured, which surely had an influence on the collected data analysis and interpretation; the volunteers noticed how the environment, as well as the spatial conformation of the places where the volunteering activities took place in the host country, had an influence on social action (Patton, 1990) and the very idea of voluntary or civic service.

A meaningful innovation for the volunteers was the building up a “diary of the experience” with its blog, which from the start has been considered a reference point to build up a research community and a virtual place for data collection, as well as a means of sharing each group’s experience. The blog was a way to build and share with travel mates the story of each one’s experience.

The blog, as well as wiki sites, is among the so-called Knowledge Level Systems, that is, those systems which “intend to discover, organise, integrate and spread knowledge, in coherence with the need to use information in learning processes” (Martinez, 2004). It means collaborative software focussing on the communication process and communication result at the same time (Kittowski, Kohler, 2005). Basically, volunteers could operate specifically on the contents at the same time, discussing and spreading the knowledge created in the process, while keeping in touch with the research managers.

As we will discuss in the following paragraph, the blog allowed to have immediate sharing of information useful for the research activity and exchanging information, impressions, advice and encouragement, which played a major role in the project completion. Free sharing of knowledge allows to improve the processes and make collaboration among participants more effective, while promoting the circulation of information and identification of new analysis opportunities for the people involved in personal growth paths (Majchrzak, Wagner, Yates, 2006); this cooperation facilitated the creation of a “group” whenever the infrequent encounter occasions did not permit it in advance.

THE BLOG7

During the planning and executive planning phases, the researchers pointed out the need to have a space available to a specific user community in order to allow the participants of the Amicus group to share their experience; thus, the implementation of a blog related to the project was decided and put into the hands of the regional information society, Datasiel. The blog was created by using the platform Wordpress, one of the most powerful and widespread tools in this kind of website solutions.

This is an open source Content Management System, written in php code and interfaced with mysql database: this solution allows to have a great implementation potential and, at the same time, an easy and versatile user management. This CMS, in effect, has an easy to use control panel which helps and guides the users/authors to make the best of all the possibilities offered by the instrument, and it also possess an easily accessible editor for posts writing.

7 This paragraph was written by Anna Cossetta.

In addition, it presents a wide range of editing choices: it allows to upload articles, create statistical pages and extend its functions by installing various plug-ins.

The structure created for Amicus responded to the project and users’ needs, while remaining easy to access and surf. This allowed to have all the typical features of a blog: article classification, and then availability of an archive organised by geographic areas of post origin, possibility to comment the published articles, share and publish useful links.

Plus, it is possible to download and publish Google news on the basis of specific keywords. Moreover, the users created some statistical pages available via an horizontal menu, which can be used to upload documents and information of common relevance.

The blog was decided to be closed and accessible only by the volunteers taking part in the Amicus programme, as well as the researchers of Liguria Ricerche and project coordinators (regional officer responsible for the project, the two trainers and the local mentor), but not accessible to the partners. The aim was that of having a space to facilitate continuous exchange, without any influence coming from the project progress conditions.

From the start, actually, the use and aim of the blog was that of the research: already in the planning phase, we tried to find a tool which could interact between worlds that had to be connected, that is, technology (unavoidable, given the geographic distance), individuals, social discourses (Williams, 1997) and the building up of a community.

Therefore, it was about the creation of a versatile platform, which could be modified by the volunteers and researchers, thanks to set-up and integrated applications. In fact, in the course of the research, the volunteers brought very few changes and, in spite of their satisfactory IT literacy, many of them had difficulties in uploading multimedia materials such as photos, videos or hypertexts.

On the blog the project promoted also the use of wiki tools: the use of this collaborative platform was also meant to produce common documents, but the diversity of the groups situations and experiences did not make it possible. Wiki (from the Hawaiian word wiki wiki, meaning fast) is a system in which any user can add new pages to an hypertext and bring, even radical, changes to already existing pages. The most renowned example is the popular Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, but nowadays there are also other examples of collaborative writing. These are easy-to-use, and now quite well-known, tools, but they are also rather controversial because agreement is needed not only with respect to the contents but also to a netiquette, that is, commonly acknowledged rules of behaviour which prevent unpleasant mistakes or misunderstandings to arise. In our case, the risks would have been limited for sure, but the more the groups became aware of the specific national realities, the more impossible became writing any file or consideration in a joint, homogeneous common way. Voluntary Work and Civic Service appeared as social institutions to be told and discovered in their national distinctive features.

The same can be said about the single or group experience reported in the diaries on the blog. Since the first volunteers arrived in the foreign countries, we realised that their experiences were individual, varied and changing from a context to another, thus a collaborative story was impossible to write.

Nonetheless, the questionnaire on data collection regarding the volunteers was produced collaboratively. The questionnaire, provided by the researchers in a preliminary phase, was then modified and implemented via Google Form. The use of wiki platform was limited, but still gave effective interesting outcomes especially with

regard to the questionnaire translation into English. The volunteers, as we noticed, soon understood the importance of the blog as an instrument

of research and story telling. A double space, not too formal, yet serious, closed and not public, where they could express their experiences and the outcomes of their thoughts and considerations. In effect, the volunteers usually communicated with more informal tools, such as Facebook or Skype, in chat or phone calls in which they made conversation or had fun.

In general, we can deem that the blog was widely and effectively used. In total the volunteers wrote 203 articles and 232 comments, uploaded 249 files including images and documents. Almost half the volunteers had a fast internet connection (DSL), while only 4% used a Dialup access; nobody used mobile connection tools such as mobile phones or iPads. In general, the average time which volunteers used to spend on the blog was quite long, almost eight minutes: this shows that the volunteers regularly read the (often very long) posts written by their Amicus “colleagues” in other EU countries. According to the collected data, after the first post written on the 26th February every day somebody accessed the blog with a maximum peak of 12 visits a day (data are net of connections from the same IP). An average of three volunteers logged in the Amicus blog every day.

Such an amount of information offered by the volunteers, on the one hand, showed the efficiency of the chosen tool, but on the other hand presented some difficulties in their treatment. On this occasion, a double methodological choice was made: data were treated both with traditional qualitative and epistemological research tools and with textual analysis quantitative software.

A final consideration about the role of the researchers. Most recent techniques of blog social analysis (Beer, Burrows, 2007; Locatelli, 2010) widely discussed the need to include the researcher in the field and the ethic and epistemological consequences of all the surveyed individuals being on the same level. In this project, though, there was no room for most of these controversial issues. The three researchers were, in effect, a coordinating element for the research and, by being logged in with their names and surnames, their role was soon acknowledged and defined. Volunteers asked them direct questions only about their survey on voluntary work and Civic Service, while the issues related to everyday life of the volunteers, such as administrative and management topics, were only partly discussed on the blog, pointing out anyway the specific intervention of the project coordination.

AMICUS VOLUNTEERS IN THEIR HOST COUNTRIES: RESEARCH AND NARRATION8

This chapter presents the country files collecting the experience and research items gathered by the Amicus volunteers in the different regions where they operated.

The files are organised in two sections: the first is about the volunteers’ research and the other one presents the experience as told by the volunteers in their blog.

The Amicus volunteers spent a considerable part of their stay abroad (normally one day a week) to produce a survey on voluntary work and/or civic service system in their host country. The scenarios were very different, as every nation has its own history, welfare system, concept of volunteering which totally differ from one other. Voluntary and civic service seems to be two essential aspects in the life of every country and their presence (or absence) has a strong connotation. The volunteers used different approaches to report their experience. Each one gave their personal point of view on those institutions, according to their feelings, education and direct participation.

Each country will be introduced following some macro-criteria: • a brief description of the host organisation; • regulation in force attaining civic service or voluntary work; • a summary of the documentation, interviews and analyses provided by the volunteers.

All the inputs come from the documentation provided by the volunteers: the research group actually meant to keep their point of view as much as possible, while rearranging, reorganising and integrating the materials in order to have them more homogeneous and functional for future joint considerations. With respect to the research, the blog was then treated as the place where a collaborative ethnography was built (Murthy, 2008), that is, a place where researcher and actors involved in the research can interact. The idea of making the role of the researcher clear, immediate and available: for this reason, the researchers had to be accountable, that is, had to account for their work and methodological choices as the project evolved.

The second part of the country file presents the diaries which the volunteers published on the blog in the course of their Amicus experience. With this respect, the research group used a totally different methodological and analytical approach. The posts concerning the account of the volunteers’ experience have been elaborated according to different analytical methods, referring partly to the grounded theory and partly to text quantitative and qualitative analysis. In effect, we considered the analysed texts as elicited, according to Charmaz’s classification (2006) which separates these from the pre-existent texts as they are explicitly required by the survey, thus already acknowledged as user generated content. The volunteers narrated their experience aware of the fact that it was a research object: everything went on smoothly and without any difficulties which might have arose due to the technological intercession. On the blog, in effect, the guys published their posts, using the tag “diary” thus including in their experience the researchers and the other Amicus volunteers. The narration has been a direct and punctual “cognitive hermeneutic tool” (Striano, 2008), included in a specific, identifiable and time-framed experience.

In this file the narration was elaborated by the researchers and, thanks to the high quality texts produced by the volunteers, text qualitative analyses were also possible via software like Wordle or Tlab©9.

Wordle is a tool that can be used to create personal tagclouds: it presents in a cloud shape the more used key words in a text. A specific programme allows the researcher to exclude from the 8 This chapter was written by Anna Cossetta, Michela Grana and Beba Molinari. 9 Tlab© was used by courtesy of DISA, Department of Anthropological Sciences, of the University of Genoa.

collection punctuation marks, linking words, prepositions and all the elements which are not considered relevant. The programme, then, shows the most frequent words (in this case, our choice was of 50 terms) and operates the desired graphic changes. Tlab© is a software formed by a mixture of language and statistic tools for content analysing and text mining. Through text analysis, the programme highlights key words, word combinations, comparisons between key word couples, sequence and co-occurrence analysis. Moreover, a specific function produces conceptual maps which easily and quickly point out relevant aspects of a text. A powerful, refined software which contributed to highlight thematic and comparative aspects which came out to be useful especially in the overall considerations on all the volunteers’ diaries.

Summing up, the second part of the file will present: - a brief account of the experience as narrated by the volunteers, - an elaboration of the experience contextualised according to the cognitive structures to which

our subjects make reference, - an elaboration of the key concepts via the conceptual maps created by Wordle and Tlab©.

FRANCE !!!

VOLUNTEERS Adolfo Franchi Bianca Roccatagliata

PARTNERS 1.Ligue de l’Enseignement – Federation des Oeuvres Laïques (FOL) 2. Federation des Oeuvres Laïques de Haute Savoie Centre “Le Razay” F.O.L.74 3.Centre des Sureaux The Ligue de l’Enseignement - Federation des Oeuvres Laïques (FOL) is a federation of associations devoted to popular education, established in 1866. It is made up of 30,000 associations spread all over the national territory, member of 102 local federations, with an overall 2 million members. It operates at a national level, but it is still deeply rooted in the local communities. The associations members of the Ligue may assume the form of local institutions (Departmental federations and Regional Unions) or of specialised institutions, in the sport sector (USEP, UFOLEP), or in the tourism sector. In this case they act as networks devoted to the organization of holiday centres Vacance pour tous (UFOVAL).

According to its statute the Ligue is a movement for popular education, inviting citizens to gather together to fight inequalities, being actively involved in metropolitan areas. It aims to build a fair society through self-emancipation. The associations belonging to the Ligue promote democracy through education and culture, in a state where secularism, respect and dignity of any individual, regardless of their origin, age, gender and political views are vital. The aims of the Ligue are achieved through a plan that involves culture, sport, educational, social rehabilitation and environmental education activities. It also cultivates international relations and promotes leisure activities of different kind.

This organization employs more than 40,000 people, equivalent to 18,000 full-time jobs. In 2007 it recruited approximately 600 volunteers, while over the years 2009-2010 received 400 volunteers from the Civic Service. Volunteers, have different duties according to the major activity of the association they volunteer in. They work Monday to Friday, with a weekly total amount ranging from 26 to 35 hours. Bianca carried out her period of voluntary work in the association Le Razay (FOL 74), based in Haute Savoie, member of the Ligue and sharing the same mission statement. However, her service was carried out in the summer centre in Loire Atlantique Department. The federation is an association complementary to state schools and was entrusted by the Ministry of the National Education with the task to develop a part of its services, providing some teachers to the association.

Le Razay is a medium-sized centre and operates both at national and local level. The centre is deeply rooted in the local community and it is mostly known for its activities and actions to combat racism and discrimination.

Le Razay was founded in 1901 as a Real Estate Civil Society. In 1990 it took on the status of an association and, since then, it has cooperated with popular education societies, schools and

local communities. It has encouraged the participation of all social classes in cultural and sport activities, tourism and leisure. Also, it has organized creative workshops, on-the-job training, social rehabilitation programmes, seminars, conferences, debates, shows, sport events, trips and holidays.

Specifically, the FOL 74 includes approximately 400 associations, spread over different areas of France, consisting of 11,000 adult members and 26,000 young members. Since the FOL 74 has a national scope, Le Razay centre shares its same characteristics, being part of the FOL 74.

Paid workers are approximately 12, depending on season, while volunteers, receiving some sort of indemnity, are approximately 20. There is no other form of volunteering present in the association, nor of social service, except for the only Amicus volunteer. Volunteers have the duty to assist paid employees in the organization of recreational activities, especially with school groups. The activities carried out are specifically aimed at kids and youngsters. Volunteers, beside helping social workers, must tidy classrooms, bedrooms, reading rooms, meeting rooms, event rooms and yards. Their tasks also include making the beds, fixing bikes, cleaning aquariums, and putting on workshops for kids.

The activities performed are several: lectures, games and trips, all of them focusing on the marine environment (tides, littoral zones, cliffs, coastlines, dunes, salt marshes, fishing, seaports) or on the local history (Piriac sur Mer, La Turballe, Guérande, Le Croisic, Saint-Nazaire, Briere). In addition, sport activities are organized (cycling, sailing and swimming) together with activities where kids are taught mutual respect and cooperation.

The Centre des Sureax is where Adolfo worked as an Amicus volunteer. This association

was set up in 1985 with the objective of encouraging active citizenship, promoting the respect of human rights and redefining cultural approaches towards peace and non-violence, predominantly operating in a rural context.

The association operates both at national and at local level, in partnership with the General Council, four municipalities and local organisations such as the Agence nationale pour la cohésion sociale et l'égalité des chances (ACSE), the Caisse d'Allocation familiale CAF (Family Allocation Office) and MSA (Agricultural Social Mutual Fund). The association develops the active participation of all the 149 families, of which 19 work in the Council of Administration and 4 get paid directly from the Association.

The Centre des Sureaux is currently waiting to be accredited by the Ministry in order to be able to engage French volunteers in civic service. At the moment an Amicus volunteer and an EVS volunteer are hosted, with the duties of organizing educational projects in the schools and the educational centres of the area.

THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY THE VOLUNTEERS

Regulatory framework ARTICLE L111-1 – (Law No. 97-1019 of 28th of October 1997) – Article 1 JORF of 8th of November 1997 ARTICLE L111-2 – (Law No. 97-1019 of 28th of October 1997) – Article 1 JORF of 8th of November 1997 ARTICLE L111-3 (repealed the 1 of July 2010) – (Law No. 97-1019 of 28th October 1997) – Article 1 JORF of 8th of November 1997 Law n°2006-396 of 31st of March 2006 on Equal Opportunities.

Law n° 2010-241 of 10th of March 2010 on the Social Service. French Constitution Established in 1791, the French Constitution has been amended over many centuries. The current Constitution was brought into effect on the 4th of October, 1958, as a consequence of these revisions. The text, drawn up by a committee appointed by Charles De Gaulle, received a majority approval by the electorate on the previous 28th of September. The Constitution was responsible for the establishment of the ‘Fifth Republic, a characteristically semi-presidential form of Government. The preamble to the Constitution states: « The French people solemnly proclaim their attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789, confirmed and complemented by the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946, and to the rights and duties as defined in the Charter for the Environment of 2004.

By virtue of these principles and that of the self-determination of peoples, the Republic offers to the overseas territories which have expressed the will to adhere to them new institutions founded on the common ideal of liberty, equality and fraternity and conceived for the purpose of their democratic development.».

The Constitutional framework is composed of the aforementioned preamble, as well as 27 titles, the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, a Preamble to the Constitution of 1946 and the Charter for the Environment of 2004.

The 27 titles are subdivided into articles according to the following themes: the Sovereignty, the President of the Republic, the Government, the Parliament, the Relations between Parliament and the Government, the Treaties and International Agreements, the Constitutional Council, the Judicial Authority, the High Court, the Criminal Liability of Members of the Government, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, the Defender of Rights, the Territorial Communities, the Transitional Provisions relating to New Caledonia, the French-speaking World with the Association Agreements and the European Union .

It is interesting to note that this document does not cover issues related to the military service, the conscientious objection and the civic service. Servic Civil Volontaire The civilian service, created by Chirac last 2002, was passed into law in 2006 to promote the engagement, inclusion and participation of young people within society as a whole. It includes two kinds of voluntary service: • Volontariat associatif: The voluntary work serves as an opportunity for participants aged 16

or older to commit to two year voluntary placements in various public settings, where they can receive a stipend from the host organization;

• Volontariat civil de cohésion sociale: is for young people aged between 18 and 28, on voluntary placements not exceeding 2 years in public settings such as accredited organizations or state bodies. A stipend is also offered to volunteers by the host organization on this programme. All young people can take part in the Voluntary Civilian Service and they are selected

regardless of their qualifications and background. The principal aim of the project is not to provide employment opportunities but the promotion of voluntary activities amongst young people in various fields.

Voluntary placements are sector-specific and, often based within the following fields: environment, solidarity, art and culture, education, anti-discrimination, national civil protection and so on.

The financial support offered to volunteers ranges according to the nature of the host organization: • If the host organization is an association, the State grants 90% of the volunteer’s allowance,

which can reach a maximum of 600!; • If the host organization is a corporation, the State funds 75% of the allowance, which can reach

a maximum of 600!. The programme aims to develop the intercultural and civic learning of young people. The host

organization ensures the participation of the volunteer in a training, leaving it up to the organization to seek the most suitable one. An accredited and experienced staff offers guidance to the volunteer. Servic Civique The Law n° 2010-241 of 10th March 2010, pertaining to the Civic Service, define the new Civic Service. The programmes are open to those aged 18 and 25 and the duration of the Service is 6 -12 months, working 24 hours a week. Volunteers come under the rule of the Government, with the signing of an agreement containing various pieces of information, as the condition of the allowance or the social protection.

The Service may be with a non-profit organization or with any legal person or public body, taking place in France or abroad. The Civic Service can be a either full-time or part-time volunteering, according to the volunteer needs.

The aim of the project is to offer to all the generations the opportunity to donate a part of their own time to the community. In this way the volunteer can help to boost social cohesion and integration.

A Certificate is issued after the Civic Service participation, attesting the competences and the knowledge acquired.

This Certificate validates and certifies the personal skills acquired during the project and it can be considered part of the learning experience and of the training offered to the volunteer.

Volunteers can be involved in different activities: • Assistance: attending to the elderly or retired and organizing cultural activities for them; • Health education: working in schools, focusing on the health risks; • Education: participating in campaigns addressing illiteracy; • Culture and art: organizing cultural festivals; • Sport: supporting people with special needs organizing different sport activities; • Environment: organizing awareness raising campaigns on recycling and energy conservation; • Citizenship and memory: participating in the restoration of historical sites; • International development and humanitarian assistance: performing a mission in a not-for-profit

organization; • Humanitarian emergencies: rebuilding damaged sites and supporting the disaster-struck

communities in need. Volunteers receive an allowance of ! 440 per month financed by the Agence de services et de

paiement. The hosting organization will only provide meals to the volunteer through a food allowance or a

meal voucher. An expense reimbursement is also ensured for local transport. Some volunteers can receive a monthly extra allowance of ! 100, if needed by their social

situation. The cost of social welfare will be granted to the volunteer, fully financed by the government

(388 ! per year).

To be accredited, the host organizations can turn to the Agence du Service Civique and the accreditation will be valid for 2 years, according to the power of the organization and to the mission proposed.

The Agence du Service Civique is a Public Interest Entity (PIE) consisting of the Government, the Agence nationale pour la cohésion sociale et l'égalité des chances (ACSE), the Institut National de la Jeunesse et de l'Education Populaire (INJEP) and the Association France Volontaires. It is their task to: • define the strategies and the main missions of the Civic Service; • manage the acceptance and the financing of the Government; • promote and exploit the Civic Service with all the National Agencies, hosting organizations,

schools and other structures; • monitoring and evaluating the activity; • coordinating a functioning network among volunteers and former volunteers; • prepare some volunteers to work in the event of natural disaster or emergency crisis.

The association of voluntary work and the association of civil service for social cohesion and solidarity already have the qualifications required by the agency of civic services, and are therefore not required to have official recognition.

A personal support is provided to the volunteer by a Supervisor, appointed by the hosting organization. The mentor is responsible for the supervision and the monitoring of the project on the spot.

Training is provided to the volunteer, focusing on the citizenship values. Volunteers can also apply for international volunteer opportunities : • International solidarity voluntary service; • Administration voluntary service; • Internship; • European Voluntary Service (SVE). All these projects are included in the new Civic Service but still governed by the foregoing laws.

Volunteering and civic service in Adolfo and Bianca's experience Since 2006 the identity and the role of Civic Service have radically changed. Nowadays the Civic Service is regulated by the Law n° 241 of 10th March 2010, came into force on the 1th July 2010. The law changed the 22nd March 2010, when Martin Hirsh left the Government to become head of the Agence du Service Civique. The new Civic Service, discussed hereinafter, replaced the Voluntary Civilian Service10 and it had been reformed in many aspects. The new framework underlines important data: • 8,338 volunteers recruited after the 2006 provision; • 2,700 young people involved in the voluntary civic service in 2009; • An allowance of 672.75 ! given to the volunteer; • 97% of places offered by the associations, while 2% and 1% by other Municipalities or

structures, respectively; • 476 accreditations given by the Agence nationale pour la cohésion sociale et l'égalité des

chances to the structures interested to host volunteers (409 associations, 21 public bodies e 44

10 The Voluntary Civilian Service has been created by Chirac as an alternative of the military service, obligatory for young men.

municipalities); • 60% of the volunteers were women around 21.5 years old and their educational level was on

average high (40.80%). They chose voluntary placement of 9 months. !

!!

!!!

!!!The reform of the Voluntary Civilian Service In France, Voluntary Civilian Service was replaced by a new Civic Service and recruited up to 3,000 volunteers per year. The reasons of this failure are different: the lack of promotion and visibility of the project and the difficulties of implementation of the programme, that did not encouraged young people’s participation in the democratic life of their community.

In response to the unsatisfactory outcome of the Voluntary Civilian Service, the new project, supported by the Haut commissaire à la Jeunesse, aims at make their projects more visible and flexible and to give access to all young people.

On 29th September 2009, the President of the French Republic made a speech in Avignon, focusing on the importance of encouraging young people to participate in the social life of the

community. He tried to remark that the project should promote values like social inclusion and active citizenship.

According to the financial Law of 2010, 40 millions of Euros have been earmarked to develop this project and to support the structures.

Thanks to this provision, Civic Service should mobilise 10% of young people aged between 16 and 25 years old and recruit 10,000 volunteers in 2010. To achieve this objective and to recruit up to 75,000 volunteers, in 2015 the Minister organized different information to promote the Voluntary Service. One of them took place during the first semester of 2010.

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G#&!7(2=3&;!$%&9!4-5&)!0-*!$2!28&(52;&!$%&!(&3-$62#-3!-#)!3-#<,-<&!=-((6&(F!I have a little problem…I DON’T SPEAK ANY FRENCH!!!!!!!When I first arrived I was catapulted among 99 French people…neither Italians nor Spanish or English… (17$% April 2010 – Bianca Roccatagliata) …unfortunately I wasn’t’ given any support on my arrival…I don’t have a contract, a work schedule and I’m not attending any language course or training. I work all day and I can’t access the internet or making any research for my supervisor here (he looks still confused about my position here!!). It seems to me they are not interested in the research…(25!$% April, Bianca Roccatagliata) The job is still ok: even if I’m facing many difficulties, I’m acquiring more and more experience every day. The animator training organized by the city council has been really useful, God bless them!… No thanks to the supervisor!! (4!$% May 2010 - Adolfo Franchi)

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*$-($&)! 0(6$6#<! $%&6(! )6-(6&*! 2#! -! (&<,3-(! =-*6*/! $&336#<! -=2,$! $%&6(! (&*&-(5%?! "#! 7-($65,3-(/!V6-#5-! -#)!1)2342!0&(&! *%-(6#<! $%&! R2=/! 6#5(&-*6#<! -! 72*6$68&! -0-(&#&**! 24! $%&! <2-3! 24! $%&!7(2R&5$?!@%&9!*$-($&)!$2!*%20!-!*$(2#<!;2$68-$62#!$2!52;73&$&!$%&!7(272*&)!7(2R&5$/!6#!*76$&!24!*2;&!)64465,3$6&*!),(6#<!$%&!7-$%F!

Things now are changing, even if the collaboration was poor…we felt stupid because we didn’t know we were doing the same job, but now we know we can share it![…].The research has just started, the time is not enough and we are really busy. We have many objectives to reach!…we will try to do our best (9$% June 2010 - Bianca Roccatagliata)

!The last post of Bianca’s described the Amicus experience as an important challenging path for young people:

I would like to tell a lot of things about this experience… it has been a very enriching opportunity! … I think I really deserve my supervisor’s congratulations for the job I successfully completed!! I 'm sure that I'll return home with a suitcase 5 times as heavy!!…I will never forget anything, from the places I have visited to people, kids, special moments, words, days, nights, fun, crisis, howlers and many other things in these six full-on months abroad!!! France, Brittany and French people forever!!!…and “Le Razay” forever, where I hope to go back again next summer!!! XD

CONCLUSIONS Even if the young volunteers followed different projects, they shared the same experience and develop a personal growth. Both of them were really young but they managed to overcome the difficulties they faced in the local community and with people, which, in Adolfo’s case, were with his local mentor in particular.

As the months passed, Bianca gained much more confidence in her written expression, resulting in detailed and rich texts, and allowing all the readers of the blog to enter her seemingly isolated and closed world. During the final evaluation many people recognized the change between the line of the post and of the pictures she uploaded on the blog, suggestive images of fascinating but rugged landscapes.

Adolfo’s style from the first time was different, vivacious and bubbling, but over time his posts changed and became more serious and concentrated on the research. The last days in Marmande Adolfo made many progresses in his research , enriching it with specific arguments and documents and making a survey on the documents provided by the local authorities and the local press. He also realized interviews and ad hoc questionnaires?!

! !"#$%&'!#(!)%#&(#!*+%!,-*+.*/0!1#020!!

The realization, the administration and the considerations on these documents allowed us to understand how the young volunteers, un-discussed actors of this project, experienced and developed the themes of the research.

!3*2*!1$#.'00'%!45!6&*47!

GERMANY

VOLUNTEERS Federico Biamonti Lev Cogorno Antonella Ministeri Anna Marangoni Livia Pasquero

PARTNERS 1. Sozial Label In accordance with the conclusions of the phase of result-sharing, developed during the final evaluation, the young volunteers attempt to determine (as much as possible during the time of their voluntary service) some aspects of the Sozial Label organization, the German partner of the Amicus project.

The Social Label is an umbrella group whose main objective consists of promoting the employment of young individuals in non-profit organizations in Berlin. According to these young volunteers, the umbrella group is comprised of one member, who is their supervisor and mentor. This person is committed to addressing an additional organization operating in the territory and is involved in activities of interest. The Kaiser Wilhelm und Augusta Stiftung FOUNDATION The Kaiser Wilhelm und Augusta Stiftung is one of the four partner organizations of the Sozial Label which recruited the Amicus volunteers.

The foundation was established on July 2nd, 1879 with the intent of supporting the elderly of Berlin who faced the challenges of securing residential accommodations. It comprises two distinct structures: the first is located in the Wedding district, in the North-West section of Berlin, while the second is situated in Stieglitz-Zehlendorf, in the South-West section.

The structure provides the elderly with secure, comfortable accommodations, occasional legal and medical assistance, as well as the possibility of establishing social contacts with other elderly residents.

The Foundation has private nature: nevertheless, it deals with government bodies with the intent of attaining possible accommodation facilities, otherwise referred to as council houses and financial assistance for the residents who experience financial problems; it also collaborates with a large number of external social co-operatives which render services and counselling. On the other hand, in the Wedding district, there is also a series of escort and support services to facilitate daily activities and needs.

Due to their dislocation, the residents of the two structures of the Foundation usually do not interact, with the exception of those who are on staff and who meet on a monthly basis to compare notes and solve potential conflicts.

RESIDENTS To obtain housing assistance it is necessary to have the following requisites: • income, • state of health, • age of 60 or more. Currently, there is a noticeable increase in the applications submitted by fifty-year-old citizens, contributing to the curious phenomenon of the “two generations” within structures usually devoted to elderly people.

In the Wedding district 176 women and 118 men reside, totalling 294 guests, mainly from Germany. Among them, 33 are under 60 years old; 61 are aged between 60 and 69; 96 are between 70 and 79; and 90 people are between 80 and 89. Only 14 residents are 90 and older. Those dependent residents, which need the Pflegestufe (Social Assistance) are 96; 74 of them applied for the Stufe I (lower level and minimal assistance), 20 people for the Stufe II and only 2 for the Stufe III.

Thanks to government grants, 76 elderly residents benefit from the social assistance, while 93 must apply to private sources.

According to the data, there is a noticeable reduction in the applications (until recently, in Wedding district, 18 flats out of a total of 286 are unoccupied), and among them there is an increase of males and a reduction of females with an increasingly growing dependant population. The Wedding Foundation is devoted to offer its residents the following services: Lunch service (at present, about 21 people benefit from this service in the breakfast room and 3 accept room service), where meals are prepared by a social co-operative; Social and cultural activities include: • Dance courses • Painting workshops • Bingo and gaming tables • Annual festivities • Daily hour of support-by-listening, to meet particular needs and requests • Assistance with personal shopping • Transportation and escort service • Events management • Tele-assistance system for guests when required EMPLOYEES AND VOLUNTEERS Presently, the Wedding Foundation employs the following staff: 1 Verwaltung (director) 2 Seniorenservice (staff responsible for collecting requests presented by the residents, verifying their situation, and organizing animation activities) 1 Helferin Job-Center (a particular volunteer named 1 Euro-Job) 1 Pratiktikantin aus Italien (the Italian Amicus volunteer) 1 Hausmeister (porter and handyman) 2 Helfer in Garten (garden keeper, also named 1 Euro-Job) 1 cleaning lady Moreover, residents may rely upon one nursing assistant for every 100 flats. OTHER ASSOCIATIONS

In the Wedding structure, the KWA, together with the accommodations for the elderly Lange-Schucke-Stiftung and the care centre for the elderly with leisure initiatives (Seniorenfreizeitstätte), have created a residential neighbourhood that provides accommodation to approximately 1,200 elderly residents.

Other structures in the area include: • Haus der Jugend (hostels) • Kindergarten (kindergarten) • Jüdische Krankenhaus (Jewish hospital) • Ev. Geriatrisches Zentrum Berlin (rehabilitation centre) • Tagespflegeeinrichtung der AWO (daily welfare centre of the AWO, one of the most important

associations in Berlin)


Regulatory framework Currently, law enforcement is similar to that of the civic service, which is regulated by Law on the promotion of the youth voluntary service known as BGBl 2008, part I, n. 19, issued in Bonn on May 26th, 2008. On August 24th, 2010, the Italian daily newspaper “Il sole 24 ore” stated that Germany is living in a period of transition with regards to its mandatory military service. In fact, the German majority party and the Minister of Defence Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (Fdp, liberal) presented a reform project on the day prior to the publication of the newspaper heading.

The chancellor Angela Merkel approved its general contents, even though the abolition of the mandatory military service and the introduction of an entire professional army met strong opposition from the President of the Land Of Lower Saxony, David McAllister (Cdu). Such a reform in Germany is considered to be the most complicated in the last 70 years, and has awaken the interest of all non-profit organizations which would see the civic service disappear and/or be modified.

The law of promoting youth voluntary service offers young people between the ages of 16 and 27 the opportunity to avoid the obligation to military service by completing an alternative activity. Volunteers have the possibility to complete this activity from a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 18 months in accredited structures within the Ministry. A monetary contribution, accommodation, food allowance, and an insurance policy contribution are offered to volunteers. Should they have any dependant, they are also given a family allowance. It is interesting to notice how with this law, the word “work” is repeatedly used to the detriment of an idea oriented toward the act of volunteering. Young people can “work” in structures such as hospitals, social services, nursing homes, structures for disabled people, kindergarten, day centres, parishes, youth associations, cultural institutions and sporting clubs.

In order to define the competences acquired during the process, the volunteers have to participate in up to 25 obligatory seminars in which they will discuss their experiences of practical work within the host structure.

Volunteering and Civic Service in the experience of Federico, Lev, Antonella, Anna and Livia The voluntary year in Germany is characterised by the four following aspects: 1- the Freiwillige Soziale Jahr – FSJ, the voluntary social year, for young people under 27 years of age who have completed the compulsory education.

The voluntary social year is patronized by the Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, and by the Europäischen Sozialfond (ESF), the European Social Fund (ESF). 2- the Freiwilliges Jahr in der Denkmalpflege (FJD), the year of volunteering devoted to the conservation and preservation of the monuments. It is directed to young people aged between 18 and 26 who have completed their compulsory education. This service offers young people the opportunity to: • work in teams • learn the theory of restoration and preservation of the monuments and artistic heritage, • work directly on the field

Moreover, today the volunteers have the possibility to use their voluntary service as if they had completed an internship. In spite of this, the acknowledgement is not a standard procedure but a preliminary agreement with the educational institution.

The year of volunteering devoted to the conservation and preservation of the monuments is sponsored by the Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and by the Europäischen Sozialfond (ESF), the European Social Fund (ESF). 3- Freiwilliges Ökologisches Jahr – FÖJ, the voluntary ecological year, for young people aged between 16 and 26 who have completed their compulsory education. Usually this service begins on September 1st and ends the following year on August 31st. No particular competence is required, but the applicant must have strong personal motivation. This service offers young people the opportunity to acquire: • knowledge and direct contact with nature, • theoretical instruments in order to carry out a good job on the field (seminars for all kinds of

voluntary social year) • ability to work in teams.

As in the previous cases, the voluntary ecological year is sponsored by the Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and by the Europäischen Sozialfond (ESF), the European Social Fund (ESF).

4- Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr im Politischen Leben (FJP), the voluntary political year. This service is relatively recent and gives young people the chance to: • be active and informed, • acquire competences and be able to manage the activities, • develop self-critical awareness, • learn about the structures, the activities and the political mechanisms through a direct

involvement with the institutions, • learn how to manage conflicts, • develop solidarity and promote tolerance among people.

The political year is sponsored by the Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and by the Ministerium für Gesundheit und Soziales Sachsen-Anhalt, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt.

Finally there is the Freiwillige Soziale Trainingsjahr (FSTJ), that is the training year for social volunteering. It is addressed to young people aged between 18 and 24 who live in disadvantaged areas and do not have the requirements and competences to complete their education and would not have other possibilities to finalize one year of “ordinary” social volunteering.

It offers young people the opportunity to enhance skills, competences and knowledge by supporting dialogue with other young volunteers in that area. The most important goal of this programme is to familiarize young people with any further training or with the business world, depending on their personal skills and aspirations.

Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers Young volunteers have analyzed volunteering reality with the help of two qualified personalities, who accepted the invitation of the Foundation coordinator, and who perfectly understood the Amicus objectives.

The interview to the head of the “Der Paritätische” organization located in Berlin (DPV), showed that voluntary service in Germany has been a strong reality since the ‘50s and the ‘60s, whose aim consists in supporting the German social system.

Such an organization has given other volunteering associations the opportunity to settle in the territory, by means of a series of actions in different areas of intervention. For this reason, the Government decided to grant this reality a legal arrangement, that is the Diaconal Year (from Diakonie): the voluntary social year was born.

Eligible participants are young people aged between 16 and 27, and the voluntary social year includes throughout its whole duration 40 working hours a week, as well as a 5-week seminar. In this way, volunteers can elaborate and answer questions about the world of work and face cultural issues of their interest. The programme foresees a social insurance policy, ‘Pocket Money’ and, sometimes, accommodation and food allowance, and transportation tickets if needed.

The applicant must carry out her/his service in the host structure in force of an agreement previously undersigned, whose duration is one year. However, the voluntary social year cannot be compared to a salaried job: young people live this experience as a period of reflection at the end of school and before embarking on an academic or professional path, taking valuable time to understand their own aspirations with regard to work activity and life as a whole.

During the service year, volunteers have the opportunity to: • develop their personality, • attain economic independence, • satisfy a personal desire, • foster self-awareness and improve their sense of responsibility, • set new objectives, • invest time on an enriching experience.

Volunteers can count on the support of mentors, who evaluate their potential and if necessary, discuss their problems. Young volunteers usually apply for services addressed to: • children, • disabled people, • elderly people. The voluntary social year features three key elements: 1. volunteers (80% of which are female),

2. the umbrella group (e.g. the DPV), which receives money from the Government and from the host organizations in order to allocate volunteers’ costs,

3. the place where the practical activity is carried out, financed by the umbrella group for the volunteers’ recruitment (in the past, funds were about 1,000 German Marks; today about 1,000 Euros). Associations are stimulated to employ volunteers because of their minor costs for the structure (300 - 400 Euros), up to 5 times less than a salaried worker.

The DPV offers 1,100 posts in Germany (if we take into account all the organizations, available posts for the young people who want to be a volunteer are about 10,000 - 20,000). Young people can apply by answering to a call for proposals.

Moreover, some young people (about 5% of the total) choose the voluntary social year as an alternative to military service.

Another opportunity for young people who had problems at school and who could find difficulties in completing a normal voluntary social year, is represented by the Year of Training to Social Work.

All voluntary services stated above form part of the Freiwillig category. There is another category of voluntary service, the Eherenamtlich, that is the honorary

worker. There is no age limit and volunteers generally work 2 hours a week, without any time constraints. They are given an expense allowance, an accident insurance and sometimes tickets for public means of transport.

The second interview analysed the Treffpunkt Hilfsbereitschaft association, a second level organization based in Berlin which mediates between volunteers and volunteering organizations. Its aim is to raise awareness and promote projects in the territory by means of informative material, as well as to give young people detailed information on application procedures.

This association does not receive any financial contribution either from the companies with which it collaborates, or from the volunteers who operate within the organization: it only benefits from funds donated by the Berlin City Council (for employees’ salaries and advertising campaigns) and by the European Union (for larger contexts such as the organization of fairs).

Every two years, the National Federation rewards agencies that are similar to the Treffpunkt with a seal of quality, by evaluating their activities and results in the territory (BAGFA-Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Freiwilligenagenturen e.V.).

Intermediary agencies and the most important voluntary associations such as Caritas, Malteser and Diakonie, are enrolled in BBE, The National Network for Civil Society which includes both the Ehrenamt and the Freiwillig categories.

There is a similar association at local level: the Landesnetzwerk. According to what emerged during the interview, some German companies offer their

employees the opportunity to carry out a voluntary activity, which is considered a useful opportunity to reach top managerial position in the future. In schools, there are classes that choose to perform a social voluntary experience by applying directly to the Treffpunkt or to one of the 15 organizations located in Berlin (Germany hosts 300 organizations in total).

Thanks to the umbrella groups, young people have the opportunity to benefit from a counsellor able to give them advice taking into consideration their personal interests, in view of an engagement to well established and structured organizations, thus offering an efficient service. Twice a year, Berlin associations organize the Berliner Freiwilligenbörse, an important fair financed by the European Union and some partner companies.

The fair comprises 90 stands classified in 6 different fields: 1. social and health

2. environment, nature and animals

3. culture and education

4. international sector

5. politics and globalization

6. technology and organization

Furthermore, Berlin hosts the yearly Berliner Freiwilligentag, the volunteering day, which is celebrated all around the city and which is structured into the following sectors: • To stay together and help each other • For strong arms and green fingers • For good hand workers and big eaters • For a cleaner city • For the young and the elderly • For all nationalities This event is organized by the Treffpunkt and it is financed by the Berlin City Council.

In addition, the organization also promotes a series of roundtables (about 3 times a year) chaired by a different politician each time.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEERS

The diaries Considering the quantitative analysis about the frequency with which the diary pages were written, it is clear that the Berlin group of volunteers did not really understand the utility of this instrument. In general, the young people briefly described what they did within the host structures, and only in few cases they discussed about their survey and the division of duties. With regards to this, in the blog arose few comments, nor interactions among the volunteers.

Volunteers generally did not write many pages and in some cases they were very short. On the whole, 22 posts and about 15 documents (approximately 25 typewritten pages) were published and some of them were posted directly on the blog.

After a first period of general enthusiasm deriving from the big opportunities that a city like Berlin offers, some logistic problems slackened the research activity of some volunteers, in some cases even for a long period.

In spite of the initial misunderstandings and the lack of flexibility for the resolution of the logistic problems, the partner made a clear distinction between the moments of research and the moments of service within the host structures. Notwithstanding such misunderstandings, young volunteers have been offered the possibility to choose the structure where to work during their six months, by suggesting a series of activities and different users. During the first weeks, in order to understand how the work was organized and for a possible future employment in areas of interest, they have been shown and visited logistic realities operating in different fields.

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According to the first posts, there were great initial expectations which, nevertheless, found some difficulties since the very beginning of the activity: first, the distance between workplace and volunteers’ homes, secondly, the rigidity with which the welcome structures organized their activity and to which young people had to adapt. As a result of this adaptability, the volunteers developed different skills such as the ability of organizing plays, or their improved linguistic, musical and artistic skills, such as in Federico’s case. Volunteers transformed such problems in a strong point with the aim of strengthening their inclusion membership both towards the projects and towards other users with which they had daily relationships.

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In this respect, Berlin has immediately shown its charm and its capacity to receive young people at its best:

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However, in some cases, difficulties linked in particular to logistic and organizational issues have brought about mechanisms of consciousness concerning the project aims and to the activity itself. On the other hand, in other situations they have been the motivation, together with different problems or personal opportunities, that led to give up the experience.

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During the final evaluation and the sharing of the results, emerged a general positive outcome, in particular because of the special characteristics that made the project in Berlin a real path of life, awareness and civic sense.

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CONCLUSIONS The voluntary service in Berlin has been characterised by a series of problems and misunderstandings, but also by volunteer’s development of self-critical awareness and sense of belonging. The problems that the volunteers had to face during the first period slowed down the study and the investigations of the research that, in fact, had difficulties to start till the last months. On the other hand, these same difficulties have contributed to improve volunteers’ maturity and usefulness in their lives.

Volunteers’ activity consisted in offering a service, for example to elderly people: this experience compelled them to find a way to establish relationships by overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers. Thanks to Federico’s beautiful portraits and drawings, Livia’s artistic sensibility, Lev’s unconventional deepness, as well as Antonella and Anna’s kindness, the volunteers have

found the tools to get to know this country, in order to overcome difficulties and build a future. Volunteers’ narrations are very different: some of them wrote a very neutral and short description which let just few emotions and reflections come out, while other volunteers conveyed through the blog deeper thoughts and states of mind.

!

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As the Wordle shows, the most used words are for sure: Berlin, the host city throbbing with

life and with its ability to communicate with young people, but also work and service, relationships and home, the important issue that concerned almost all the volunteers. Home far from the place where they worked, home becoming hostile, home to be found, home to leave rapidly.

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POLAND

VOLUNTEERS Alessandro Tremaroli, 28, from Genoa

Giulia Castagna, 20, from Sarzana

PARTNERS STOWARZYSZENIA DLA DZIECI I M"ODZIE#Y SZANSA (G$ogów - Poland) The hosting partner is an NGO established in 1999 with the status of “public welfare” institution. It employs 33 paid workers (30 of them are part-time workers) and 15 volunteers. There is not any community service volunteer because in Poland this kind of service does not exist anymore. During Alessandro and Giulia’s stay there was not any EVS volunteer as well.

The organization is rooted at a local level, specifically in Glogow’s south-west district , where there is its headquarter and it is a point of reference for the families, while outside this territory it is not very well known. Anyway it cooperates with other institutions and this broadens its activity range. Among these institutions there are: - (“Nobody’s chlidren” foundation) Dzieci Niczyje www.fdn.pl - Sport Górski www.sport-gorski.pl - (Baptist Church) Ko%ció$ Chrze%cijan Baptystów www.kchb.org.pl -European Council www.coe.int - (Low Slaskie NGO organization) Dolno%l&ska Federacja Organizacji Pozarz&dowych www.dfop.org.pl - (Voivodate) Województwo Dolno%l&skie www.umwd.dolnyslask.pl - Top Poligrafia www.toppoligrafia.com.pl

The mission of Szansa, as the charter of the association of association state, is the following: “Keeping always in mind the principle of respecting human dignity, human rights and fundamental liberties and devoting ourselves to the activities of the community, we aim at preventing and working with any kind of pathology of children and young people, helping them develop their creative, intellectual and emotional potential, trying to satisfy all their needs”. The goals of the mission are the following: • Support children, young people and their families in the states of crisis;

• Realize prevention plans about the various social issues children and young people are stricken by;

• Support teachers and parents in solving the problems of children and young people;

• Educate on human rights and intervene in the event of human rights violations;

• Develop and manage health education plans;

• Provide social and legal education;

• Organize activities aimed at limiting unemployment among young people;

• Develop young people’s personality;

• Manage various educational activities;

• Start and carry out activities for and with disabled people, aiming at their interaction with the local community;

• Develop international youth exchange programs;

• Set up activities aimed at preventing the isolation of people on the fringes of society;

• Strengthen the relations and cooperation with other NGOs and public administration;

• Develop the cooperation, the rules of conduct and the sense of belonging to a community made up of many NGOs;

• Work for making the use of drugs among young people an acknowledged threat;

• Develop the creativity of children and young people;

• Develop and promote the idea of voluntary service.

The volunteers have been introduced into the Centre with some specific tasks, such as the organization of weekly language (Italian, Spanish and French) and eurhythmics courses or the support to other volunteers and operators. The volunteers conceived a documentary about voluntary service in Glogów as well, and they started making it, even though they could not come to an end because of problems in finding the video materials.

The volunteers had daily contacts with their mentor and weekly contacts with the executive director of the centre.


Regulatory framework The first normative reference is the Polish Constitution, dated 2nd of April of 199711.

11 The analyzed text of the Polish constitution does not seem to be up to date, even though it is available on the website of the lower house of Parliament. The doubt arises from the fact that compulsory military service (and consequently the alternative service) has recently been suspended, while in the analyzed text seems to be still active. Anyway, it can be assumed that the Constitution has not changed yet, since the law still has to be defined in its new structure. Article 85 It shall be the duty of every Polish citizen to defend the Homeland. The nature of military service shall be specified by statute. Any citizen whose religious convictions or moral principles do not allow him to perform military service may be

obliged to perform substitute service in accordance with principles specified by statute. Hereby establish this Constitution of the Republic of Poland as the basic law for the State, based on respect for freedom

and justice, cooperation between the public powers, social dialogue as well as on the principle of subsidiarity in the strengthening the powers of citizens and their communities.

Article 12 The Republic of Poland shall ensure freedom for the creation and functioning of trade unions, socio-occupational

The first paragraph of the section number 85 says that all polish citizens have to defend their homeland, while the third paragraph guarantees the possibility of refusing to serve in the compulsory military service, both for religious or ethical reasons, so that they can dedicate themselves to an alternative service set by the statute which regulates the military service; it is interesting to notice that the expression “conscientious objection” never appears.

Except for the mentioned section number 85, the Constitution does not seem to be explicit for what concerns community service and (probably even more) voluntary service, which is almost never mentioned. Anyway, if we think about the totality of the areas of interest in which the third sector is active, we can find, reading between the lines, favourable references to organizations based on the voluntary work of the citizens. For example, in the preface of the Constitution itself there is a clear reference to the principle of subsidiarity as one of the basic instruments needed to consolidate the citizens’ and the local community’s power, while section number 12 acknowledges the freedom of assembly in labor unions, farmers organizations, or other kinds of citizens movements and voluntary foundations and associations. If in these two sections we can find some sort of legislative ground for the concept of free association, in others it is possible to find the targets the volunteers should aim to with their civil commitment Among them we can find the protection of the social fabric, cultural heritage and environment. Particularly noteworthy are section number 86 – which states that anyone should take care of the environment and be responsible for its protection - section number 2 – which says that the Polish Republic is a State of democratic right committed in spreading the principles of social justice – and section number 5 – which says that the Polish Republic has to preserve the independence and the integrity of its territories, ensuring the liberties and the rights of the people and the citizens, the protection of the national assets and of the environment in agreement with the principles of sustainable development. It seems obvious then that any voluntary action aiming at defending and promoting what is stated in the constitution should be fostered by the constitution itself, and so voluntary work should be considered as an active form of defence of the constitutional values and of the country itself. Anyway, section number 26 considers as defence of the homeland only the work carried on by the armed forces of the Polish Republic in order to preserve the independence and the territorial integrity of the nation, ensuring the inviolability and the security of the borders.

Finally, it is necessary to run upon another use of the word “voluntariness” inside the constitution: section number 11 states that political parties should be founded on the principle of voluntariness. To this day, there is still a certain ambiguity in the use of the word “volunteer” since it also used to indicate the militants of the political parties. Apart from the fact that politics and the third sector are two very different worlds, it would be more appropriate to use another word since the people who are into politics usually aim at becoming professionals and as such their actions are moved by economical interests.

organizations of farmers, societies, citizens' movements, other voluntary associations and foundations.

Article 86 Everyone shall care for the quality of the environment and shall be held responsible for causing its degradation. The

principles of such responsibility shall be specified by statute. Article 5 The Republic of Poland shall safeguard the independence and integrity of its territory and ensure the freedoms and

rights of persons and citizens, the security of the citizens, safeguard the national heritage and shall ensure the protection of the natural environment pursuant to the principles of sustainable development.

Article 26 The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland shall safeguard the independence and territorial integrity of the State,

and shall ensure the security and inviolability of its borders. Article 11 The Republic of Poland shall ensure freedom for the creation and functioning of political parties. Political parties

shall be founded on the principle of voluntariness and upon the equality of Polish citizens, and their purpose shall be to influence the formulation of the policy of the State by democratic means.

The problem, according to an interviewee, is basically semantic and arises from the fact that to identify these practising politicians, in the past they used the word "spo$ecznik" (“social worker”) which is now seen as negative and so they felt the need to use a more dignifying word, even if it does not represent properly their actual social function.

Volunteering and civic service in Giulia and Alessandro’s experience Alessandro and Giulia summarized the European Commission report about voluntary work in Poland12, reading it again in light of the interviews made during their service and on the strength of their own direct experience. The third sector today The origins of the Third Sector in Poland date back to many centuries ago but, because of complex historical events, the nation completely lost its identity, reappearing on the maps only in 1918. In the past the spontaneous and unselfish help to the people in need was very rooted, thanks to the concept of Christian mercy, promoted by some activities of the Catholic Church even though it is not to underestimate the laic contribution of the local authorities and of some enlightened aristocrats.

Anyway, what they built during the second Polish republic was dismantled in the aftermath of the Second World War with the coming of the communist regime, which wished to control every aspect of the social life: for this reason the only third sector organisations that were kept alive were the Red Cross, the Polish Scout Organization and the Friends of the Children Organisation, and their action had to be confined into the constraints of the ideology of the regime.

With the recent coming of democracy, the third sector received a new impulse, so it is not surprising that 90% of the active organisations were born after 1989; furthermore, social assistance in Poland is nowadays organized by units of the central and local public administration cooperating with organisations such as foundations, associations, the Catholic Church and other churches, religious groups and employers. The majority of the social services is provided by the local social assistance centres and district centres. These centres deal specifically with financial, psychological and social support for families. The regional centres for social policies, instead, coordinate the activities of bigger organisations such as NGOs which give a shelter to homeless people, residential homes, professional integration services, etc.

Anyway, until the end of the past century, only few people took part in voluntary work and it was not even well understood and accepted. It was not until 2001-2007 that many citizens decided to engage in voluntary work activities, thanks to a major change in Polish public opinion. Voluntary work was not seen anymore as a mass work to do compulsorily for a hated regime, but it became a chance for civil engagement. This fact must be read anyway taking into account other elements; in fact, for example, 41% of the volunteers under 25 was unemployed; and so it is likely that for these young people voluntary work represented a useful experience to enhance their CV and to fill up their time, since they did not have a job. In more recent times, a reduction in the number of voluntary workers has been recorded, together with a growth of the number of service hours offered by them. Anyway, this tendency stopped in 2008, with just 11.3% (approximately 4 millions) of the adult population willing to dedicate their free time to helping other people, 10% less than the 2006 figure. An explanation could be partly found in the increased supply of the labour market together with an intense emigration towards foreign countries. Therefore it is possible to think that young

12 http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/eyv2011/doc/National%20report%20PL.pdf

people had the chance to directly enter the labour market instead of dedicating themselves to activities of voluntary work. The role of the volunteer According to the law dated 24th April, 2003 about “public utility activities and voluntary work”, the volunteer is someone who “voluntarily and without financial remuneration provides services based on rules specified by the laws”. The idea of “volunteer” keeps being problematic and often it is not understood by the public opinion; in fact the expression “voluntary organisation” does not exist in Poland. They use expressions like “non-governmental organisations” (NGOs), “non-profit organisations” or “social organisations”. While the first two expressions have recently been imported from foreign languages, the last one was already popular in Poland before 1989, even if it increasingly acquired a negative connotation during the Communist era and became very little used. This expression has recently been recovered with a more neutral nuance.

Much of the semantic ambiguity shown up to now could be partly explained with the fact that the polish term wolontariusz (volunteer) was historically used both for the ones who were involved in an unpaid apprenticeship and for the ones who wanted to enter the army. It is not surprising then that today in the Polish society the voluntary work is often seen as a sort of work experience or apprenticeship aimed at obtaining an experience in some jobs: for this reason, the voluntary work has often been considered as a way to obtain workforce without paying. It is emblematic how the practical training period medicine students willing to specialize have to go through is sometimes considered as a voluntary work activity, and the same applies to the practice period young law graduates have to do in the justice court. Vice versa, it has to be noticed that the voluntary work activity in the strict sense of the word has not been linked yet to school and university educational paths, even though at the moment these are being examined as possible solutions to assign credits.

Luckily, depending on the situations, the voluntary work is not evaluated only on the basis of economic revenues: for many people it is a way of acquiring educational and professional experience, but for many middle-aged people it is only a way to reach a personal realisation away from their job place, and for the retired persons it is a way of feeling useful and not being socially excluded. A noteworthy fact is that the percentage of men involved in voluntary work is just about the same as the percentage of women: in the year 2007 13.3% of the interviewed men and 13.0% of the interviewed women claimed to have done voluntary work.

Research confirms that the age group most involved in voluntary work activities is the one including young people under 25, whose number tripled between 2001 and 2005, even if the difference between age groups is slowly changing. People between 36 and 45 years old are increasingly involved in this activity, while the contrary applies to the age group between 26 and 35 years old, probably because they cannot find a stable personal and professional condition when they end their university studies; this does not allow them to dedicate themselves to other activities. As already said, another reason could be the mass emigration of young people towards foreign countries.

The majority of the Polish volunteers engaged in voluntary work and philanthropy (60.7%), are moved by their own religious, moral and political ideas, even if there are other reasons that show a more down to earth approach towards voluntary work; among them the hope that their efforts will be returned in the future.

According to the Polish law, the voluntary work activity can be carried out in a wide range of areas of public interest, for example the social protection and the protection of consumers’ interests. Organisations that offer assistance to poor people, religious movements, active groups in the field of growth and education, fire brigades, GOPR (Voluntary mountain emergency) and WOPR (Voluntary water emergency), are the more attractive organisation for volunteers.

The main places where volunteers work are the towns, mainly in the eastern and south-eastern regions, where there is the majority of NGOs.

Anyway, undoubtedly the role of the volunteers, that in 78.8% of the situations do an organizational job while a quarter of them holds an expert role, is of key importance to make the third sector work properly. According to a Klon/Jawor (a non-profit organisation that supports the world of social issues by gathering and spreading information) research, almost two-thirds of the NGOs do not employ paid workers. Voluntary work and the institutions Although the role of the volunteer is governed by the 23rd April, 1964 Civil Code and by the 26th June, 1974 Work Code, in recent times an intense debate took place within the Polish politicians with the purpose of adjusting and updating the third sector rules.

The above mentioned 24th April, 2003 law about “public utility activities and voluntary work” is in some sense a clear divide for the history of voluntary work in Poland: the main characteristic of this law is the fact that the legislator tried to adopt the same point of view of the non-profit organisations in trying to set, once and for all, the legislative structure of their relations with the public authorities. Another merit of this law is that it introduced the “1% mechanism” that allows the taxpayers to donate the 1% of their own taxes to any NGO they want to. The law introduced the basic criteria needed to understand the definition of “public utility work” which is what a non-profit organisation is expected to do. This definition includes concepts like social help, charitable work, activities with disabled people, protection of consumers’ interests, environmental protection, preservation of the historical and cultural heritage which the national identity is founded on, and activities to support certain ethnic groups. In addition, the law states that public utility work can be either paid or unpaid: the first case is referred to some public tasks performed by those association that in their charters allow compensations, together with the sale of products and services. This guarantees the right of the members of the organisation to earn money from their work. The measures of this law govern the foundation of public utility organisations as well: in order to obtain this status there are criteria that have to be observed; many of these criteria are related to the area where the organisation operates. Once they are active, these organisations have to give to all the interested control authorities a yearly financial report together with a final balance.

According to section number 42 of the Act on public interest activities and voluntary work, the voluntary work activities can be carried on through NGOs - registered in a special register - that have among their statutory targets public utility tasks, public authorities – excluding the ones active in the economic field – and organisations controlled or supervised by the public authorities; private organisations are not allowed to host volunteers.

In addition, the law determined the institution of the Public Interest department, by the Finance, Work and Social Policies Ministry. This institution is responsible for two important tasks: on the one hand monitoring the correct enforcement of the 24th April, 2003 law itself and on the other hand helping the Finance Ministry in the matter of social themes so that it can affect the laws to come.

In January 2009 the Council of Ministers approved a bill that partially changed the 24th April, 2003 law, with the purpose of making it easier to assign public tasks to NGOs: in the event of natural disasters, accidents and technical collapses, it will be possible to infringe the normal procedure of open competition. According to this act, the Prime Minister will be able to delegate the task to an NGO without an open competition, provided that it is necessary for protecting the health or the life of the citizens or if it is of significant public interest. Furthermore, local authorities will be able to delegate public offices to NGOs without an open competition if the cost does not exceed 10,000 PLN and the proxy does not exceed the duration of 30 days.

Moreover, there is a Fund for the Social Initiatives which aims at increasing the number of NGOs and religious organisations involved in public offices; nevertheless, NGOs keep being not considered as potential partners of the public administration in providing social services.

From a legislative point of view, the promotion of voluntary work is basically a duty of the Government and of the third sector organisations themselves. The Social Protection department within the Ministry of Employment and Social Policies is, in concert with the other Ministries, the controlling body for the promotion of the voluntary work and for the monitoring of the conditions needed for the development of the third sector in Poland.

What’s more, many organisations are involved in promoting voluntary work values by means of the facilitation of the cooperation and information exchange. For example, following the explosion of NGOs after 1989, in 1993 the National Centre for Voluntary Work came to life in Warsaw. It is the first structure of this kind, not only in Poland but in the whole central and eastern Europe. The function of the centre, which is in turn an NGO, is that of being a place where organisations and aspirant volunteers can meet, even on a local and on a regional scale, thanks to the decentralized centres built in a second moment. The Voluntary Work Centre in Warsaw has been responsible for the adoption of the ethical document of the volunteer as well, a document which was already widespread in the USA and which became a sort of basic national document for the self-regulation; even if it is not official, it has been adopted more and more by the organisations of the third sector, adapting it to their demands.

Another very important authority is SPLOT (“Support Network for the NGOs”) born in 1994 thanks to six organisations of the third sector with the purpose of spreading information, suggesting and supporting social sector operators. The Regional Centre for Information and Support Foundation, born in 1993, is part of this network too. It works mainly in the Pomorskie region, but its target is to support NGOs and the social representatives in building a conscious and integrated society.

OFOP (National NGO’s Federation) is, to some extent, similar to SPLOT; it represents associations and foundations operating in the third sector at national, regional and local level, and supports them in their action trying to affect the legislation of the sector.

Even the National Forum for the Non-Governmental Initiatives (OFIP) contributes to supporting and spreading the voluntary work culture. It consists of a two-day meeting for national and foreign NGOs organized every three years by the Warsawian association Forum for the Non-Governmental Initiatives (FIP). The goal of the meeting is talking about the problems and the key challenges the organisations have to face, exchanging views and meeting representatives of the public administration, the economic sector and the media.

Another important authority is the Operative Programme Fund for Public Initiative (Fundusz Inicjatyw Obywatelskich, FIO), which is a long-term governmental project, promoted by the Council of Ministers and supervised by the minister which is responsible for the social matters (at the moment the Minister of Social Policies). This ministry has to achieve the main results expressed in the 2005-2007 governmental programme. FIO deals with existing non-profit organisations in order to cooperate with them and strengthen public initiatives.

The fact that Poland entered the European Union changed the relation between the institutions and the third sector in a way generally appreciated by the stakeholders. In fact, the organisations that provide services concerning employment policies became active in the social policies. So the EU’s intervention in the third sector had a positive effect and the organisations, foreseeing European interventions in the future, decided to increase the level of awareness on the concept of voluntary work, particularly in the sectors of society where it is still unknown; furthermore, it is certainly positive to increase the cooperation between public institutions and NGOs. The promotion of voluntary work

The main opportunities for becoming a volunteer in Poland are linked to the popularity of voluntary work among young people: on the one hand, it is due to the spreading of SVE, on the other hand, many reasons are linked to the increasing interest of the local authorities for voluntary work, from the creation of ways to support voluntary work in the territorial authorities (employing people responsible for the voluntary work, management of the funds and promotion) to the promotion of cooperation between volunteers, agencies and local authorities developing relations with hospitals and the social assistance centres. Other important measures include introducing voluntary work in the school and extra-curricular education and the opportunity to serve as a volunteer in the organisation of cultural events and sports competitions like EURO 2012.

Even though there is not yet a common strategy at a national level to promote voluntary work, the Government produced a document titled “Support strategy for the development of society in the years 2007-2013”. This document indicates the generalized lack of civil commitment as the main cause of the inadequate development of voluntary work in Poland today. The strategy is to fight against this indifference thanks to the efforts of local authorities. For this purpose they started the programme called: “Strategy for the voluntary work”, promoted by the voluntary work centres of the whole country; the aim is to offer training opportunities to the people working in this sector.

The voluntary work is promoted within different categories of people like the unemployed, minors with a written authorization of their supervisors and immigrants. The unemployed are particularly encouraged to dedicate themselves to voluntary work. In fact they can keep the rights as long as they can demonstrate that they are actively looking for a job. It is interesting to notice that voluntary work in foreign countries is in a sense opposed; in fact if the service period is longer than three months some facilitations are cancelled. An emblematic case is the following: students and unemployed people can lose their health care if they have been volunteers abroad for long periods of time.

At regional level, there are many projects like the promotion of voluntary work in secondary schools (the “Voluntary Student” programme) and among people over 50 years old (the “50+” programme). Voluntary work has been promoted in companies as well (the “Voluntary work in the world of business” programme) with the purpose to make the world of economy and the third sector closer. Similarly, between 2002 and 2005, the programme “First job” was promoted in order to give the newly-graduated young people the chance to take part in a work experience in an NGO or in public administration. Another important initiative is “Voluntary work in hospitals”, that had the purpose of promoting the work of the volunteers (adequately trained and vaccinated) in children’s hospitals. The problems of voluntary work The world of voluntary work is going through a tricky period, even if most people keep seeing the third sector as a positive thing. In fact, the percentage of people convinced that non-profit organisations can be more efficient than the Government, fell from 65% (in 2004) to 52% (in 2007). Anyway, the percentage of people convinced that NGOs have an important role in managing some difficult situations increased.

The two main difficulties for the world of voluntary work are the lack of funds and the fact that many people do not want to commit to purely altruistic activities.

With regard to the first problem, it must be said that in recent years the third sector grew older because no new organisation was created; this, together with the fact that existing NGOs became bigger, led to a sort of oligarchy in the third sector. In fact, the most influent associations became a model on which the legislation of this sector was based, imposing their requirements, even thanks to connections with politicians that are unthinkable for the small and independent NGOs.

From a financial point of view, in recent years the support offered by the local authorities increased. Anyway, according to the data provided by Klon/Jawor in 2007 the main incomes for the NGOs were represented by: entrance fees, the support of local authorities, and donations from private citizens, from institutions and from the government.

As for the second point, the main reason why people do not want to be part of NGOs is that they want to spend all their free time with their families.

Statistics show that the number of volunteers that chose to work for more than one organisation decreased. For example, in 2007, 40% of the volunteers (that is 2% of the population of Poland) said that they had worked for more than one organisation while the figure decreased to 20% (6% of the population) in 2008. Civic service and the “substitute service”13 The current law about compulsory conscription says that every man between 18 and 28 must do the national service; afterwards, they will be considered as reservists until the age of 50, even if this does not apply in peacetime. Starting from 2005, the national service lasts nine months while before 2005 it lasted twelve months; at the moment, the duration of the “substitute service” is not clear14, but before 2005 it lasted eighteen months (only six months for graduated people).

As we have already seen, the Polish Constitution allows people to be conscientious objectors, but it demands the law on substitute military service (passed on the 28th November, 2003 and in force since the 1st January, 2004) the task of defining the modalities of the alternative service. If you want to be a conscientious objector you have to observe a time limit, in fact you have to make your request before the beginning of national service. For this reason, people that are already doing their national service and the reservists cannot be conscientious objectors. The request has to be directed to the appropriate committee in the voivodate of residence; this committee is formed by five members and two of them are specialists in ethical and religious problems. After an interview with the conscientious objector, the committee decides on every single case.

Even if the request is rejected, the objector can still submit another one in the six months following the disputed decision; if this second request is rejected too, the objector can appeal to an upper grade committee and finally to the Administrative Court.

The “substitute service” is managed by the Ministry of Employment, together with the local authorities; it can be carried out in government institutions in areas such as health care, assistance, social works and environmental protection, sometimes even in cooperation with religious organisations working for the common good and NGOs recognized by the Ministry. After the “substitute service” the conscientious objector cannot be called again as a reservist in peacetime. Moreover, according to the 1999 Law about the duty of defending Poland, the right of choosing the “substitute service” instead of the national service is suspended in wartime; in this case even conscientious objectors can be forced to do their national service. Professional soldiers do not have the right to be conscientious objectors.

Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers The two volunteers showed from the beginning a great enthusiasm and dedication in researching with the help of their mentor. However, they had two problems that frustrated many of their 13 This paragraph comes to a large extent from the following website: http://www.wri-irg.org/co/rtba/poland.htm 14 The analyzed document, where the information comes from, was last updated in 2008; it was impossible to find a clear answer to this doubt even in other sources.

attempts to find interesting information sources for their research activity. The first problem was, without any doubt, the language, which is very difficult to learn, particularly with regard to conversations with technical subjects: this entailed that they always needed the support of local people that helped them in speaking and translating. As already said, language entails semantic problems as well; in fact, the meaning of words like voluntary work makes it difficult to translate common questions and sentences. The support has always been guaranteed and the hosting Authority was very helpful and sensitive with foreign volunteers, but it was not possible to reduce the intensity of its intervention as time went by. The second problem was the mistrust that some people showed when the volunteers asked them to make interviews or videos. The authority itself encouraged the volunteers to make a video about voluntary work in Poland, combining their role of volunteers with their research commitment and with the cultural and operative interests of Szansa. However, the volunteers could not make all the interviews they planned, because many people refused to participate and so the project of the video was abandoned. This was a negative situation that damaged the work of the volunteers. The mistrust of the Polish people is not surprising: recent works about social capital and trust show that Polish people are still very fearful and suspicious (Growiec, 2009); furthermore, the development of newspapers and mass media is slower compared to other European countries (Lauk, 2008).


The diaries Alessandro and Giulia have been happy in Glogow and they have been a team right from the start. In effect, they have regularly updated the blog signing together the posts and everything they made since they arrived there.

The first impact is definitely positive and the two volunteers feel the positive attitude of the association that gives them one week to settle in: furthermore, they think that the accommodation is perfect.

The accommodation is wonderful and it is all for us The volunteers immediately made proposals concerning their activities, even if it was unsure whether they could realize them or not:

In these days we discussed the projects we would like to realize (gymnastics, French, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish courses) and the ones we should realize according to Szansa. At present we don’t know what courses we will be able to activate because up to now we have just prepared advertisements to pin up around the city in order to know how many people are interested in our proposals.

Furthermore, Giulia e Alessandro have been doing research since they arrived in Glogow,

with the same attitude; they are very enterprising and the responsible of the centre is very helpful and she facilitates the contacts, if required by the volunteers.

After three weeks, they understood the situation of voluntary work and civic service in Poland. This will be the main subject of their future research activity.

An interesting element is that voluntary work is directly promoted in the schools in a completely free way; that’s why every voluntary work activity does not imply any effect on their marks.

As regards the civic service, it doesn’t exist anymore because the national service is not compulsory anymore; therefore currently in Poland there are only spontaneous and unpaid volunteers (in France they are called benevolat, for instance).

The volunteers carry on their positive attitude both in their voluntary work activity and in their research activity, without losing heart when the answers they receive and chances of realizing their projects are not the ones they expected.

before the beginning of the course, and even afterwards, we sent an e-mail to the students to ask them to send us some documents we needed, but they did not answer. What’s more, we never received from the Warsaw centre for voluntary work the documents we asked them (and obviously we couldn’t go there during our stay in the capital city).

The language has been from the beginning a difficult obstacle to overcome; the efforts of the volunteers will let them deal with simple conversations, but they were not able to improve their Polish enough for conversations that required an advanced level.

… they asked us to watch and if possible to take part in the discussion thanks to the simultaneous translation provided by a member of Szansa who is helping us. Giulia, who is assigned to the group interested in the relationship between students and the school, was able to take part in the conversation while Alessandro, who is assigned to the group that analyses the relationships between parents and their children preferred not to speak, even because the translator did not constantly stay with him; anyway he hopes to make up for it the next month…

The ability to take the initiative can be seen even in the “mobility” of the two volunteers that during their stay in Poland visited Warsaw for the SVE course, Lublin and Danzig.

The activity in the Szansa centre follows its seasonal rhythm, reducing its working hours during the summer; in fact in this season there are fewer users because of the high temperatures. Anyway, their research activity goes on and the responsible of the centre is very interested in it. Her help is essential to contact important interlocutors even if these interlocutors don’t answer. Since the responsible of the centre is very interested, she asks the volunteers to give her a resume of their research activity.

An aspect that remains unclear in the diaries is the relationship with the users of the association and with the other volunteers. The blog posts tend to be more journalistic and they leave out their impressions and feelings in this experience.

Anyway, during the meetings that took place in the middle of the project and at the end of it, the importance of this experience in the enrichment of the volunteers emerged. In fact, they discovered a deep feeling of sharing and of exchange, also thanks to activities that did not involve people on the fringes of society or situations of serious social unease.

CONCLUSIONS Like in other countries, in Poland the history of Civic Service and voluntary work is deeply interwoven with the history of compulsory military service and its evolution towards voluntariness and with other compulsory or voluntary forms of service in favour of the common good and communities. Poland is still in a transitional phase in which the compulsory military service has not been completely cancelled, but in fact it has been reduced very much. A new, clearer law is being discussed in the Parliament, but it is still uncertain when the passage procedure will finish. The acknowledgement of the conscientious objection led to the introduction of a “substitute service”, which anyway was not considered as civic service. At the same time, there were forms of compulsory social work as well. This had an inevitable influence on the idea of voluntary work and on the way it is felt.

Anyway the social work association based on volunteers, like Szansa, are a reference point for the local community and they are linked to a large network of people, activities and funding.

The Amicus volunteers have been given a warm welcome and they have been gradually but continuously integrated in the association; there have been few moments of lull, both in their work as volunteers and in their work as researchers. The partner association played an important role in the voluntary work activity, while in the research activity the work was continuous and productive thanks to the fact that the Amicus volunteers have been very enterprising and active. In effect the two volunteers collected a lot of useful material, both official and unofficial, in order to depict the Polish situation, and they did not miss the opportunity to activate important contacts for their research activity.

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Unfortunately, even if the volunteers showed initiative, the context did not help them. In fact, they had to limit their expectations, because they encountered a certain reluctance in granting interviews or comments on voluntary work and civic service. Obviously, even the linguistic difficulties played an important role; especially in the first period every action of the volunteers was mediated by local people that helped them by translating or intervening in the interaction with the stakeholders.

In the diaries the two volunteers describe very carefully their activities in the association, particularly the language and the gymnastics course. Sometimes the activity suffered a reduction due to the lack of users, but the volunteers used these moments to dedicate themselves to the Amicus project. The high degree of integration in this experience makes impossible any sort of separate account; the two sides of the Amicus project resulted, indeed, very similar.

Data processed by Tlab©

ROMANIA

VOLUNTEER Francesca Cogozzo, 25-year old, from Genoa

PARTNER HR Investment & Consulting - Bucarest – Romania Host organisation: FONDATIA ORIZONTURI - Campulung Moldovenesc - Romania [In the case of Romania, the host organisation was different to the project partner]

FONDATIA ORIZONTURI is a non governmental organisation, founded in 1985. As stated in its charter, its social goal is “improving the activities concerning mental health

care”. The activities have a local dimension; however, the organisation is part of an informal network of organisations dealing with mental health care services at different territorial levels.

The activity is exclusively on voluntary basis. In spring 2010 there were three volunteers, a representative of the USA Civilian Peace Corps (in charge until the 28th April 2010), plus our Amicus volunteer.

The organisation is small, but has two dimensions: 1. At local level, the activities are supervised mainly by the priest responsible for the service at

the psychiatric hospital, who promotes the organisation and try to recruit new volunteers in the association. At urban level the organisation is well-known among the institutions, and has several partnerships with Centrul Escolar and other schools, the city council and, obviously, the mental hospital.

2. At national level, but not only, the organisation has an active role in events in partnership with other mental health care organisations. The executive director, Gabriela Tanasan (Amicus mentor), has organisational duties in events, conferences and workshops which address mental health issues, networking also with international donors that sometimes sponsor the foundation’s activities.

Among Orizonturi’s partners, we can enumerate the following organisations which were operating during our Amicus volunteer’s stay: • AREAS, Suceava: organisation which provides training to adults, especially people with

special needs. Main activities include: professional integration projects, integration of people with disabilities and awareness raising on social exclusion; it does not have volunteers in its staff, but it is in the process of accreditation for the European Voluntary Service.

• Fondatia ESTUAR, Cluj Napoca: the association delivers mental health care services, through recreational workshops and professional counselling (psychologists, social workers etc.), in order to create single personal growth pathways. It operates in various offices around the country. The visited headquarter, Cluj Napoca, cooperates with international volunteers, civilian Peace Corps, and Romanian, mostly students who need a work experience to graduate and then decide to continue the voluntary work.

The volunteer was involved in the activities directed to the beneficiaries, participating in the recreational moments that take place twice a week, the literary club which collects material for the magazine A FI (Being), coming out twice a year, and the blog/IT workshop with the special school kids.

The volunteer was also included in the preparatory activities for the European Voluntary Service accreditation.

Contacts with the NGO’s executive director were regular and frequent, at least once a week.

THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BU THE VOLUNTEER

Regulatory framework The Constitution of Romania (adopted in 1991 and revised in 2003) guarantees freedom of thought, opinion and religion (art. 29). The Constitution also establishes the duty to defend the country with voluntary and compulsory military service, which is regulated by law (art. 55).

In Romania, before 1989, military service was compulsory, with no exceptions. Art. 354, para.1, of the Penal Code established that “failing to respond the call within three days or, if the term is longer, failing to respond within this term” constitutes an offence punishable with a 5-year detention. In paragraph 2, it also stated that “the same punishment shall be administered to the ones who do not report to the unit they have been assigned”. Conscientious objection was not contemplated and the procedure applied to conscientious objectors as well.

Since 1991, the Romanian Constitution recognised that religious principles could somehow represent a reason to refuse the compliance of military service. Thus, the road to conscientious objection was open.

The new regulation came into force with Law 46/1996 which established the alternative service (art.4), serviciu utilitar alternative. The law was criticised because it did not take into account factors other than religion which could be a motivation to conscientious objection, and required conscientious objectors to be in service for twice the time of military service. Amnesty International was concerned about this limitation of freedom of expression for many years, because such a disparity could threaten the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Modalities of the alternative service were established in 1997, with a government decree 618/1997: the service is considered a way of performing military service duties in case of a refusal due to religious reasons. The duration is 24 months, twice as much as military service. It can be performed in public or private institutions and trading societies, which act as employers to the volunteers. The activities of the host organisations shall be in the area of: social assistance, public works such as infrastructures (industrial plants, roads and railways, waterworks), environment preservation, agriculture and forestry.

Later on, the Parliament of Romania adopted Law 395/2005, which establishes the delay of compulsory military service in peace time and transition to voluntary military service, with the following articles: Art. 1: Romanian citizens, men and women, carrying out the legislation requirements, voluntary,

can fulfil the military service within the armed forces, with no discrimination; Art. 2: Starting with 1st January 2007, the compulsory military service within the armed forces is

suspended; Art. 3: During the state of war, state of mobilization and state of siege, the military service is

compulsory, according to the law. Therefore, since 2007, in peacetime Romania has not applied anymore measures concerning

conscientious objection.

With respect to voluntary work, it is evident that the country’s political history had a strong influence on the creation of a welfare state and acknowledgement of the third sector. It took an even longer time and it is not until 2001 that the first regulation on voluntary service appears (L.195/2001, modified by No 629/2002 and No 339/2006) and defines voluntary work and its areas of intervention. Art.2 states that: • “Volunteering is an activity of public interest, undertaken out of free will by a person aiming at

helping others, without being motivated by financial or material gains; • The public interest activity is carried out in various domains such as social assistance and

services; human rights protection, health, culture, education, arts, science, humanitarian issues, religion, philanthropy, sports, environmental protection, community, and so on”. The volunteer is considered in the most “traditional” form, being his/her activity unremunerated

and performed in social, environment and cultural areas. The introduction of a specific regulation guarantees a formal acknowledgement of the role of all the people operating in the field and a basis for the development of practical tools, which is quite an innovation for the European system, especially in the countries of the ex-Communist Bloc.

Voluntary work, Civic Service and Peace Corps in Francesca’s experience Romania, as most countries which were under the Communist regime until 1989, has only recently seen the development of social practice, and the same idea of volunteering has different approaches compared to the other countries of Western Europe. The European Union and the Romanian Government have been promoting the diffusion of voluntary work for years and, in the last ten years, in effect, several organisations were created, mainly based on volunteering. It is mostly NGOs which have more or less binding contacts with international organisations, with which they interact, for the opportunity of being supported economically and implementing their competencies and activities.

Only few years ago, Romania was considered a target for international cooperation: many NGOs and associations considered, and sometimes still consider, the country as a place to implement voluntary activities, like short-term solidarity camps, children camps and so on, or more complex programmes such as EVS and Peace Corps. Peace Corps are a US volunteering organisation which has a long term international history. Founded by President J.F. Kennedy, Peace Corps brought more than 200,000 American citizens in over 139 countries. Peace Corps have been active in Romania since 1991, when 18 volunteers came from the US to implement a project in an orphanage and, then, an agreement between Romania and the USA established English language teaching standards in schools according to the TOEFL criteria.

During the last 20 years, American volunteers have been more than a thousand and mainly involved in language teaching (45%), environmental projects (17%), economic development (17%) or development of local institutions (22%).

In the course of the years, the contacts between international volunteering and Romania had a continuous, mutual growth, thus ensuring the sustainability of several local initiatives, as well as a network for recently created associations and NGOs. It is a phenomenon in progress, but has already shown interesting peculiarities.

It is no wonder that the above mentioned law No 339/2006 on volunteering has a specific reference to European voluntary service, particularly the programme Youth in Action, which helped in giving Romania international relevance and brought several young volunteers in the country.

Volunteering is a growing phenomenon, even though there is still no comparison with the activities of other EU member countries or the United States, from the qualitative and quantitative point of view, as recent studies show (Andronic R., 2010; Petrescu I., 2008). The organisations tend to emphasise the volunteering component in their activities, and further studies (Rigman C., 2008)

show the wide gap between the activities actually performed by the volunteers and what the associations declared.

type of activity percentage of volunteers who

support that type of activity conducted

percentage of organizations that claim that volunteers carry out the type of business

working with beneficiaries 29,74 48,4 organizations of events 15,97 83,9 management/coordination activities

12,04 0

communication/PR 11,8 0 Public campaigns 7,62 0 office and administrative activities

6,15 45,2

editing documents 5,16 51,6 fundraising 3,2 48,4 research and social surveys 3,2 0 ecology and tourism 0,74 0 manintenance assets 0,5 0 coordinating other volunteers

0,5 0

Other 0,25 6,4 Source: Rigman C., 2008

Again, the study by Cristina Rigman reveals another relevant difference between volunteering demand and supply, particularly concerning what is stated by the associations or the volunteers. Volunteering hours requested by NGOs and associations are not corresponding to the time volunteers would or could spend on voluntary work: some of them would volunteer almost full-time, others could dedicate only few hours, while the organisations tend to ask an average time which does not meet the volunteers’ needs etc. The data show that voluntary work in Romania still has much to improve to be integrated in the local culture and prevent it from being an imported social habit, not suited to Romanian needs and society. One of the most significant aspects in Romanian society is the minorities phenomenon. In Romania several ethnic minorities coexist: Hungarian, Polish, German, Jewish, Italian, Roma, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serb, Croatian, Turkish, Tartar, Greek, Albanian, Armenian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Russian. Such an ethnic variety brought to the institution of 18th December as Day of National Minorities. Minorities are not all the same, though, with respect to size and social integration. For instance, 6.6% of the population belongs to the Hungarian ethnic group, which is the most numerous. They mostly live in Transylvania, the most economically developed region, together with the small German minority. Here the Hungarian presence is so high that Magyar is the first language in schools and public affairs. In the past, there was a strong political organisation which strongly contrasted the government, but nowadays it is less strict and more focused only at its members. The associations in protection of the Hungarians are coordinated by a network, www.harit.ro, which, thanks to the funding of Hungarian members and international associations, guarantees high quality standards and, at the same time, hardly communicates with the Romanian organisations.

The second ethnic minorities is the Roma, whose number underwent a big decrease in the country. However, data are controversial (some estimate 2mln Roma living in the country, while unofficial surveys assess the number at less than 700,000 individuals). The protection of the Roma is guaranteed by a representative in the Parliament of Bucharest, as well as the Governmental Department for the Roma; nonetheless, discrimination towards this group is still widespread and

actual integration is not yet a reality. In the last few years, with the admission of Romania in the European Union, many Roma left their country and moved to Italy, France and Spain in particular.

The organisations interested in Roma people are many, often they are international organisations which supported projects in favour of this minority and facilitated the creation of local NGOs. Some of them, like CRISS, have become very important and influential, and can also rely on a large international network. The National Network of Volunteer Centres in Romania Contrary to other countries of the Eastern area, Romania also established coordination structures, such as the Volunteering Centres, which have similar functions and duties of their Italian counterparts. The Romanian volunteering centres network developed over the last 20 years thanks to European and international funds. The first volunteering centre was created in 1997, with Pro Vobis in Cluj and Activ in Botosani, thanks to the EU programme Phare. Since then, the network has been growing every year adding new national and local centres. In 2001 the National Network of Volunteer Centres is established with the economic support of CS Mott foundation (USA) and the Open Society Foundation. The network was started with 4 members and was not registered, but was born together with other significant infrastructural elements for the development of a volunteering system, such as the law on volunteering, the portal, the National Conference on Volunteering and the National Week of the Volunteer. Again in 2001, the first volunteer centre was registered: Pro Vobis Volunteer Centre. The network grows and includes about twenty centres, through the implementation of various projects. The National Network of Volunteer Centres aims at: • becoming a reference point for all the subjects interested in volunteering: volunteer centres and

organisations, public institutions and bodies, enterprises and citizens; • promoting voluntary work as a renowned and understood alternative to solve controversies

within a community; • offering counselling, training, networking, help services, research projects, advocacy, and

implementing new programmes at national and international level; • becoming an organisation with strong internal structure, staff management policies and

economic sustainability, which offers a pleasant work environment, personal development opportunities and professional, dynamic and committed personnel.

More, the National Network of Volunteer Centres has the goal of developing local volunteer centres and strengthening the network through a set of activities such as: • counselling and training activities, concerning the creation, development and management of a

local volunteer centre • promoting start-up meetings in the communities • coordination and meetings for local volunteer centres • guidelines and training for local volunteer centres • communication and public relations for the National Network of Volunteer Centres.

The Centres are assessed according to organisational and activity standards, which also represent an ideal growth process.

Good practices learnt from the National Network of Volunteer Centres in Romania show that: • the local community’s commitment is essential for a local volunteer centre to be sustainable • when an organisation or individual decides to start up a centre, a certain self-interest is also

present • equal resource distribution limits the performance in some local volunteer centres

• a local volunteer centre’s performance and specificities mostly depend on the local community’s peculiarities

• there shall be a common standard to identify a local volunteer centre • a local volunteer centre’s performance is influenced by the presence of other organisations

which offer volunteering opportunities at local level

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEER

The diaries Integration in Romanian society was gradual and not always easy. A negative influence, especially in the start-up phase, had some misunderstandings between the organisations in charge of the project management (coordination organisation in Genoa, project partner in Bucharest, host organisation in Campulung Molovenesc) and had a direct consequence on the two volunteers’ accommodation

We get there, sure that we were going to share the same apartment for six months. So what? The apartment turns into accommodation in different families: plus, Irene has been so lucky to get the shack house, which she shares with the project mentor, it’s cold and too small for two people. (…) The mediator (HR) who applied for the project and has always been the contact with Italy, didn’t organise our arrival details (our mentor didn’t even know she had to provide us meals…) . She was quite confused about the project, too; well, she didn’t know anything about it at all; spending the first days explaining her the project terms was quite annoying.

These misunderstandings on the project terms and conditions go on for the whole first month and, unfortunately, directly affect Irene and Francesca, who is left on her own after fifteen days. The Bucharest partner indeed does not give an adequate support.

Unfortunately, Irene went back to Italy today, because her conditions here were not suitable, and I’m here alone now. Most of the time we spent here, so far, has been used to solve logistic/organisational problems, with long exhausting discussions that led to few results: cultural difference and no previous experience of other European volunteers do not help in understanding our needs and pre-departure expectations…

Francesca’s persistence was clear from the very first moments, probably the hardest, due to the interactions with the organisation where she has to operate, and the host family; she always looks at the bright side, appreciating the positive aspects and potential of the situation, and starts to have a positive attitude:

Negative aspects apart, we saw that the host organisation is trying to do its best and is interested in the research we’re doing, also with the intention of involving other volunteers in the future.

Francesca regularly visits the blog, publishes posts every week and keeps in touch with the other volunteers for both Amicus activity and friendship. Francesca’s 20 posts are very rich on every respect: she successfully describes the context, elaborates on the research subjects, uploads

documents which she collected or produced herself, communicates her impressions on the reality she sees every day

This first week was used to know Fundatia Orizonturi’s activities, which are carried out every three weeks, and we were surprised by the fact that most users are not people with visible mental illnesses, but only people who are lonely or don’t know what to do: there’s a major problem with unemployment in the whole country and in rural areas like this, in particular.

In her considerations on the local context, Francesca always finds some elements of the country’s history and traditions. On the community centre’s role and importance in Romania she repeatedly writes:

The organisation means to create a space for people who experienced mental health problems or are still on the way of overcoming such problems, by creating meeting moments and different activities during the week and participating and/or organising awareness raising events on the issue, cooperating with other NGOs that deal with the same topics on the Romanian territory. The founding members and volunteers are people who directly experienced this situation in the past and decided to commit to this cause, at the beginning in the form of therapy, then as a personal mission, since in this area the big migration phenomenon, caused by unemployment and made worse by the closure of factories after the fall of the Communist regime, provoked a rise in the frequency of these problems. I want to highlight the social relevance of the centre, because according to the interview I made in Cluj [to the director of the centre Pro Vobis] (…) until twenty years ago, the Communist regime would forbid any form of association among people; this rural area doesn’t seem to have a place where people usually meet and interact, off course mostly adult and elderly people, with special reference to the ones who experienced some kind of trouble (a place that could be a church, a bar or a club, in Italy). The foundation has this role for the people who attend the activities, according to me.

Also, traditional elements are pointed out in several posts and in the volunteer’s everyday life:

I’m getting to know other organisations (…) and Campulung high school “Dragos Voda”, which organised for me and the American volunteer a show concerning local traditions, in particular those related to Easter, and they even provided us with translation into Italian and English. It’s very interesting to see how young people are so fond of their traditions and committed to pass them on. They know dances and chants and spend a lot of time in the preparation of documentaries to participate in competitions or the decoration of traditional costumes, with different patterns depending on the village they come from. Off course, there are also negative aspects, especially in small villages, like marriages at very young age and wanted by the families and not by the young couple.

Easter comes and creates a certain excitement in Campulung… they all have to tidy up to be ready for the celebration… everything is postponed to after Easter, that is, after the 12th April, because celebrations will go on after Easter too.

Francesca also describes the country, with its nature and seasonal changes, though she suffers from the long rainy periods.

I’m writing from warm sunny Campulung Moldovenesc: with the good season the city is turning into a garden; all the hills around are becoming green and full of mountain flowers. I can’t remember the last day it didn’t rain in Campulung Moldovenesc, and this surely doesn’t help me in terms of mood and production

Francesca includes in her diary also some very personal experience and feeling, pointing out the need and relevance of the relationships built up during her experience with other volunteers and people who attend the centre.

Last week was a very intense week, not from the professional, but from the emotional point of view: the American volunteer who’s been here for two years left today, and this unsettled everybody here, me too. Betsy has been a sort of guide for me in these two months: she helped me to understand this place, showed me the good things, introduced me to her friends in Campulung, and has been not only a friend, but also a term of comparison on the way of volunteering. Last week the association’s magazine “A Fi” came out, with my article and the information on the Amicus project. (…) Last week went fast, with the magazine binding, “poets” waiting for their poems to be published, it was nice to see the people who wrote so happy to see their published works, and the appreciation for the words I wrote about my stay in Bucovina. It’s weird to realise that my experience is coming to an end, and I have to admit I’m a bit nervous of what will come next… but I try to be positive.

Also the research activity has been intense, but often frustrated by answers not given which could have added more information to Francesca’s analysis.

With respect to the research, I haven’t had many answers so far. Tomorrow my mentor will start some threatening phone calls. At least, the Ligue gave me the contacts of French Amicus volunteers in Romania, I’ll send them Dodò’s questionnaires. With respect to the research, I haven’t had answers from the organisations I would meet, as well as my Polish friends, but at least by the end of the week two French Amicus volunteers will come and visit me and I’ll give them the questionnaire, and perhaps get some other contact.

In her last weeks, Francesca made some final considerations on the experience, which, despite the initial difficulties, was interesting and challenging

As I already wrote, in August the activities slowed down so I took the chance to sum up and explore a little bit more of this strange Eastern European country, so full of historical and natural beauties neglected, but where even decadence is somehow attractive if intended as an outcome of the recent history and suffering of the population.

In spite of all the troubles, I’m sad at leaving Romania. It’s been six intense months, totally different and unusual, compared to what would have been at my place: different relationship times, the socially accepted flexibility of the rules, a total reconsideration of my spare time habits, these are the things I bring back with me, enriched by the faces of the people who shared this journey with me.

CONCLUSIONS As most Eastern European countries, Romania is gradually growing with respect to Volunteerism, even though it comes from a long period when spontaneous associations were illegal, with the obvious consequences this can have on volunteering and civic service. In the last decade, a major development occurred in the field, thanks to international cooperation programmes which involved the country, as well as local initiative to create a real national volunteering network.

This evolving situation, with its great potential, is described in the volunteer’s account. Francesca was gradually integrated in Romanian reality, overcoming the difficulties which

discouraged many of her colleagues, and creating important relationships with the people she met: her host family, the host organisation and the users.

Though deeply immersed in the Romanian reality, this did not diminish her analytical capacity. She made her best to get to know her host country, with special reference to the volunteering issues. Also in this case, the research was mostly based on collected documents rather than interviews, because of the shortage of possible interviewees. Nonetheless, Francesca made full use also of informal conversations in which she found interesting elements for the research.

The service in the host organisation was interesting and absorbing: it showed how the lack of relations and projects can affect social inclusion. The positive impact can be found in the users’ outcomes, as told by Francesca, and the will to perform activities which could have a positive result in future, like the ones with the schools in Campulung Moldovenesc.

The idea is that of implementing recreational activities for the kids at Centrul Escolar (school for kids with various problems) in the last school term and, in case of a successful outcome, organise them again next year on a regular basis… we’ll see what comes next, but I’m positive, even though starting something here always requires a lot of effort and talking…but I really wish this would happen, especially for the girls who showed the intention to do some volunteering in their community, they could be the pioneers of a phenomenon which should be expanded in this area.

Wordle of Francesca’s posts

SLOVAKIA

VOLUNTEER Anna Crippa, from Genoa.

PARTNER REGIONAL YOUTH CENTRE MELEDZE (RCM), Kosi'e.

THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY THE VOLUNTEER

Regulatory framework The regulation concerning voluntary work in Slovakia is No 5/2004. The regulation No 282/2008 is also quoted.

No 5/2004 has a reference to voluntary work in paragraph 5, mainly concerning redundant workers who can do voluntary activities and the bureaucratic procedures needed by an organisation in order to have volunteers on its premises. No 282/2008 addresses voluntary work only in three paragraphs (11, 12 and 13), mentioning required terms and procedures.

In effect, a specific regulatory framework addressing voluntary work does not exist and, due to this vacatio legis, some organisations built up a study group to propose an effective regulation. Actually, organisations operating on the basis of voluntary work do not have juridical status at the moment.

Volunteering and Civic Service in Anna’s experience In Slovakia civic service is not granted. Until 2004 conscientious objection was permitted as an alternative to compulsory military service, but, since its abolition, these policies did not go any further. In general, Anna soon found the overall associative life quite narrow. In Slovakia, as in most countries which took part in the Warsaw Pact, voluntary work is not a particularly dynamic sector (the first organisations were established at the end of last century). Some organisations exist, such as CARDO, the biggest and best-structured in the country, which has its headquarters in the capital Bratislava and was founded in 2004. It is no accident that CARDO set its main goal in the promotion of voluntary work culture and, as its website www.cardo-eu.net shows, aims at building up a documentation centre on voluntary work in order to collect practices and regulations from other European countries (especially Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Romania, Latvia and Lithuania, which share with Slovakia a similar historical background) to be spread throughout this small country. One of the main volunteering tools in Slovakia seems to be the European Voluntary Service, which also has a major role in the Slovakian voluntary service website www.dobrovolnictvo.sk .

In effect, as the document “Financovanie neziskového sektora na Slovensku” published on http://www.partnerstva.sk/ shows, in Slovakia voluntary work is strongly relying on foreign

countries. Also from the financial point of view, NGOs and non-profit organisations exist thanks to foreign funding. The lack of specific regulation and national endowment, which can provide voluntary organisations with funding originated by the privatisation process, as it is the case of the nearby Czech Republic, prevents the creation of national resources and, therefore, a real bottom-up development of voluntary activities.

Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteer The main document that our volunteer took into account is the “National survey on cooperation and voluntary work” edited by CARDO in 2009. A dozen of studies on the topic, published over the past five years, shows the overall picture of voluntary work in Slovakia. It is particularly evident the prevalence of women on the number of men and the very young average age: over 70% of the volunteers is under-30. Numbers, though, are very low: according to Salamon and Sokolowski’s survey (which dates back to 2001, though), Slovakia is the last country among the 24 selected: Slovaks prefer to donate their money rather than their time and/or skills through an active involvement in associative life. According to the survey published by CARDO (quite inaccurate and based on projections), in 2007 there were roughly 25,000 active volunteers in Slovakia. This is how the economical contribution of voluntary work for the Slovak economy was estimated: an average value of hours spent for volunteering was estimated and then multiplied by 4.12 !, that is, the average hour contribution. Voluntary work would amount to 8,726,049 ! in Slovakia. This is, however, a very controversial calculation, because translating voluntary activity into a monetary value means depriving volunteering of its very essence, namely, sharing values, competencies, building a social and relationship capital etc.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEER

The diary In general, the account given by Anna Crippa is quite poor: she talks about her arrival, the first contacts, the tranquillity of the place where she was hosted, as well as the difficulties she found in starting up her research, mostly due to the lack of regulations and relevant experiences. Her stay in Kosi'e, a city of 200,000 inhabitants located at the border across Poland, Ukraine and Hungary, which for its position has always been one of the key points in Central Europe, begins quietly, but not without difficulties: the language and the extremely calm life at the Youth Centre. The arrival was good, though: the house described by Anna sounds nice and comfortable, and the relationship with the housemates, Adria and Naledi, coming from Spain and Germany, are also good.

Soon Anna starts doing her research on the laws regulating voluntary work and civic service, but the results are scarce and do not encourage further investigation.

In this period, Anna does not seem to find any issue on which may focus her research: In Slovakia, the situation is the following:

1) Civic service does not exist. It used to exist, when military service was compulsory, but few people participated actively, and since there is no more Military service, 2003, no more Civic service.

2) No official regulation on voluntary service exists. Only two regulations (which I have already mentioned, No 5-2004 and 282-2008, that address voluntary work as an alternative for redundant workers)… but there is no further reference!

At this stage I wonder: which is the best way to move on with this research?? I feel like I’m at a dead end…!! (Anna Crippa, 17/05/2010)

Anna’s initiative is, thus, blocked by the general climate in Kosi'e, where everything goes on without any great expectations nor particularly interesting activities. The researchers, though, suggest new ideas:

I reckon that, in your case, we can slightly adjust the research focus. First of all, try and understand something about Military service, if possible. Does it exist, did it exist, has anything changed over the last few years. Then, perhaps go into the ‘youth’ issue, what do they do in their spare time, are there sociological or psycho-social studies on the topic, etc. What do you think? (Anna Cossetta, 31/05/2010)

Also during the mid-term evaluation visit, Anna seems motivated to expand her research scope, but, later on, also due to a one-month stay in Finland, which is not mentioned in the blog though, her connection with the AMICUS project and research seems to become weaker. Anna is now full-time committed to Kasarne, the cultural centre which is organising the 2013 events when Kosi'e will be the European Capital of Culture, and where Anna seems to have found motivations and a place to share her ideas:

The organisation approved a project of mine concerning migrants and political refugees, and we are arranging an interesting workshop (I hope so!) which includes a debate between various NGOs and institutions, some asylum seekers’ personal stories, a concert, a photo exhibition… I am so proud of this project!! As you can assume, I’m really absorbed and busy…I’m very happy about that!! (Anna Crippa, 09/08/2010)

Anna’s experience ends the 31st august with a short but meaningful post:

Good morning, everybody! here in Kosi!e life goes on, drizzling and 12 degrees. My activities in Kasarne (the cultural centre where I’m working) go on, even though I’m trying to get through them all, little by little. Probably in October I’ll have to come back here, as we’re organising a debate on Political refugees and DEFINETELY I can’t miss the debate! The city is coming back to life after summer, but as AMICUS or EVS volunteer I’m still the only one in the region… ! A big hug and see you soon Anni

CONCLUSIONS Anna’s research experience came to a quick end due to the lack of incentives and connections with her AMICUS colleagues. As Anna reports and we can assume from the documents regarding voluntary work examined by our volunteer at an early stage, Slovakia seems to be a country which has not yet experienced a strong enthusiasm or motivation for associative or voluntary activities. The solitary condition of Anna surely did not help in this task, as she could have gathered more information about young people’s life, activities in their spare time, networking modalities and participation in social and public life.

In short, Anna seems to have missed out an important aspect of the survey, the one which considers her as the main actor of a unique, meaningful course. Her experience in Kosi'e deserves to be told and shared in some way with other young people involved in AMICUS. A story waiting to be told.

SPAIN

VOLUNTEERS Ilaria Badino Valeria Cannatelli Irene Capozzi Simone Micillo Sara Pedrazzini Andrea Picollo

PARTNER Fundaciò Catalunya Voluntaria

Fundaciò Catalunya Voluntaria (FCV) was founded in October 2007. It saw its origin in the youth association Barcelona Voluntària (BV), non-profit organisation created in 1999 to promote active participation of young people in solidarity actions.

BV has a 10 year experience in the management of European Voluntary Service projects in the framework of the European Commission programme Youth in Action. It cooperated with roughly 30 local institutions (Cruz roja, Payasos sin fronteras, Casal del enfants del Raval, etc.), acting as a coordination, host and sending body for projects all around Europe lasting from 3 to 6 months.

As a host organisation, BV implemented several projects which involved European volunteers with duties in the areas of information, promotion and organisation concerning youth mobility projects, volunteering and peace culture promotion, at local and international level. BV successfully applied various supporting measures for its young volunteers and organised courses and seminars on the European Voluntary Service action at regional (targeted at young volunteers) and international level (meant for the organisations’ experts, mentors, managers and representatives).

It has an active role in numerous social and institutional networks, of which is member, at local (Consejo de la Juventud de Barcelona), national (Federació Catalana de Voluntariado Social), European (European Volunteering Centre), Euro-Mediterranean (Anna Lindht Foundation) and global level (International Association for Voluntary Effort). This gave BV the opportunity to learn, through its experience and exchange of information and knowledge, about the importance of youth voluntary service in the personal development of the young individual and the society as a whole.

It aims at promoting young people’s active participation and volunteering commitment, supporting voluntary associations in improving the quality and effectiveness of their actions, thanks to the contribution of young volunteers from other countries, strengthening partnerships and networks at local and European level, in cooperation with young and institutions from all over Europe. Operators

FCV’s staff includes 6 paid operators: 3 major project managers, 2 communication officers and one executive secretary.

In the course of the Amicus project, 10 Amicus volunteers are employed in the headquarters: 6 Italian volunteers – Regione Liguria 1 Italian volunteer – Arcistrauss (Mussumeli – PA) 2 Esthonian volunteers – Continuos Action (Tallinn) 1 Algerian volunteer, naturalised French – La Ligue del Enseignement (Paris, France)

At the time, also two German volunteers are doing their national civic service abroad. The Foundation acts as a host organisation also for two French Amicus volunteers who are

doing their service in other associations in the urban area of Barcelona, namely, La Llar de l’esclerosi múltiple, a centre to improve the living conditions of people affected by multiple sclerosis, and OIKOS, an association operating in informal children education and awareness raising on environmental issues.

FCV also makes use of the collaboration of strictu sensu volunteers, who give their unremunerated contribution, to enrich their personal or educational history, or to be in contact with a young, multicultural environment. At the moment, this group is formed by a French volunteer in the IAVE project, a Slovakian in Catalans al Món and two young Catalans in support of the whole Foundation: a volunteer is in charge of the Spanish language training, while the other one organises cultural excursions to the benefit of all the volunteers. Mission and vision FCV wants to be a useful tool for the society as a whole, by offering educational activities and opportunities of active participation and learning, so that young people can develop their competencies and, with these, contribute to a better society, through promotion, participation and management of socially relevant community project, and thus becoming active elements cooperating with volunteering institutions on the territory.

The activities give young people an opportunity to develop their competencies and skills in mainly operational sectors, promoting personal initiative and creativity by participating in social service projects.

Direct involvement in the different project stages allows young people to acquire knowledge on the management and organisation of activities and team work, but also communication, intercultural and conflict management skills. Projects FCV has the intention of implementing and empowering its projects in order to enlarge the network of youth volunteering associations in Catalonia, and thus offer new growth, learning and mobility opportunities for the young people who are part of the organisations, by the implementation of three programmes: • Catalans al Mòn (Simone, Sara, Andrea, Valeria) • Iave Youth Office (Ilaria) • Clam por la Pau (Valeria)


Regulatory framework • Ley 22 de 6 julio 1998 reguladora de la objeción de conciencia y de la prestación social

sustitutoria • Ley 48 de 26 de diciembre 1984 reguladora de la objeción de conciencia y de la prestacion

social sustitutoria • Ley 6 1996 del voluntariado • Real decreto 525 de 22 de mayo 1992 por el que se determina la duración de la situación de

actividad en el regime de la prestación social sustitutoria del servicio militar.

• Ley 48/1984, de 26 de Diciembre, reguladora de la objecion de consciencia y de la restacion social sustitutoria

Contrary to Nordic and Anglo-Saxon countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands) which dealt with and somehow solved the conscientious objection issue in the first two decades of the century, in Latin countries (Portugal, France, Italy, Greece) conscientious objection is still seen with suspicion. In Spain alternative measures to conscription became a debated issue only after the second half of the XX century (the first objector was the Jehovah’s witness Alberto Contijoch, 1958).

Until 1973, the Government did not consider any measures alternative to military service, young people who refused conscription were given a 3-year and one day sentence. Such a verdict would stigmatise the young person and prevent him from having any public or teaching position in the future. In 1976, according to article 30 of the Constitution, the issues regarding military service and its alternative, i.e. conscientious objection in charity works, were defined. Roughly ten years later (1984), Spain delineates a definition of conscientious objection in the law of the 26th December 1984 ( Reguladora da la objeción de cosciencia y de la prestación social sustitutoria).

The alternative service is structured in a way similar to military service; it can last a minimum of thirteen months up to a maximum of eighteen months. In case of an armed conflict, the alternative service must necessarily implement civilian protection and defence activities. The service management and supervision is assigned to the Ministry of Justice and Domestic Affairs, which has the duty to accredit the organisations where young volunteers can operate. The regulation, also, requires that conscientious objectors in their service have the same rights as the ones that do military service.

Law 48/1984 of the 26th December was put in force according in compliance with article 16 of the Constitution on ideological and religious freedom of individuals and communities. The normative principles of the text are the following: • regularization of conscientious objection; • elimination of any discrimination between conscription and conscientious objection; • implementation of alternative services to the benefit of society and individuals.

The law is divided into four different chapters: 1. Procedure 2. Regulation 3. National Council for conscientious objection 4. Disciplinary regime

Procedure The first articles define the executive procedure required to be exempt from military service. Article 1 establishes that the right to conscientious objection is instituted by article 30 of the Constitution, those who for religious, ethic, moral, humanitarian or philosophical reasons do not intend to do military service can do an alternative service. The conscientious objector status has to be officially acknowledged by the National Council for conscientious objection. Regulation The activities performed by the objector should be targeted at the following areas: environment conservation, culture and education promotion, civil defence, health services. The young objector can do his service in 18 to 24 months. National Council for conscientious objection These articles deal with the Council structure and define its duties. Disciplinary regime The final articles establish the disciplinary regime regarding conscientious objectors. In the performance of their duties, objectors must respect and obey the institutions and organisations’ representatives they are working with. The following actions are considered serious offences: disrespect of officers or people involved in the host organisation, intentional destruction, removal and disposal of materials, equipment or elements given to the objector by the association, unexcused absence and leave. According to the seriousness of the offence, different measures will be adopted: pay loss, assignment to another service and/or extension of the duty of three more months. Real decreto 525/1992, de 22 de mayo, duraciòn de la situaciòn de actividad en el regime de la prestaciòn social sustitutoria del servicio militar. In 1992 the duration of service alternative to conscription was modified to a fixed period of 13 months for all those who choose conscientious objection starting from 1st January 1992. Such a modification was brought up due to some faults and limits of the previous law, i.e. law 48/1984 of the 26th December. A further adjustment is the possibility of the Council to collaborate with the Autonomous Communities in managing and supervising the alternative service.

The 1998 regulation deals with the same issues presented in the 1994 legislative text; again, the first articles describe the procedure needed to be exempt from military service. In particular, Article 1 establishes that the right to conscientious objection is granted by article 30 of the Constitution, those who for religious, ethic, moral, humanitarian or philosophical reasons do not intend to do military service shall apply to the National Council for conscientious objection to perform an alternative social service. The application can be handed in until one day before the start of the military service, and the Council freezes the procedure until a decision is made. The established time of the procedure is three months, normally: in case the Council do not reply, after this period the application is considered valid. The National Council for conscientious objection, then, informs the Ministry of Defence with respect to the applications received and decisions made.

The second part of the text concerns the regulation of the sector where alternative service can be performed, basically the same areas as per the 1994 law.

Alternative service has to be performed in non governmental organisations or public administrations which have duties of general interest for the society. Preferably, the service should be done in the Autonomous Community of residence and, if possible, in one’s own city council or selected body. Conscientious objectors in the performance of their duties have the right to the same health and social measures of the ones in the army; more, they have the right to board and lodging, clothing and transport, but only in case that these are necessary to pursue their social duties. In particular, the objector shall be guaranteed the employment status he had before the beginning of the service. If the social service to be performed requires specific competencies, the objector has the right to a training course whose duration depends on the overall service’s duration.

The National Council for conscientious objection is composed by a member from every of the following institutions: • the Bench, • the Ministry of Justice, • the Ministry of Defence, • the most representative trade unions, • the Ministry of Work and Foreign Affairs, who represents voluntary organisations, • a secretary of the governing body, appointed by the Ministry of Justice, • a representative of conscientious objectors who already completed their service.

The National Council for conscientious objection has the duty of: • evaluating the applications for conscientious objection, • considering any petitions or claims moved by conscientious objectors, • elaborating reports required by the Ministry of Justice or Autonomous Communities on topics

of its competence, • completely or partly validating the time spent by the volunteers in carrying out their alternative

service. A relevant role is assigned to public administrations which shall guarantee the promotion of this

institution and its regulation. Real decreto 481/2002, de 31 de mayo, por el que se suprimen las Áreas Funcionales de Objeción de Conciencia y Prestación Social Sustitutoria integradas en las Delegaciones del Gobierno. The 2002 decree establishes the abolition of conscientious objection and the related social services, as a consequence of the interruption of conscription dated 31st December 2001. Ley 6/1996 de 15 de enero, del voluntariado In Spain there is only one national law regulating voluntary service; that is, law 6/1996 of the 15th

January 1996. It deals with four different topics: 1. General measures on voluntary service 2. The volunteer 3. Relationship between volunteer and organisation 4. The promotion of voluntary activities General measures on voluntary service National law defines voluntary work as s set of activities of general interest (social, civilian, cultural, scientific, sport and health services; cooperation for development; environment, economic

and research preservation; development of community life; promotion of voluntary activities) carried out by the individuals for philanthropic, and not monetary, reasons.

A voluntary activity has to comply with the following principles: • it shall be fair and philanthropic; • it shall be freely chosen; • it shall be performed without any remuneration, apart from the volunteer’s expense claim for the

money spent in the performance of his/her voluntary service; • it has to be carried out within public or private non-profit organisations. The volunteer The law has a wide framework of rights and duties that the volunteer has to abide by: Rights: • to counselling, training, technical and personal support; • to casualty and health insurance; • to expense claim; • to a certification declaring the nature and duration of the accomplished voluntary activity; • to good safety and hygienic conditions; • to the respect and acknowledgement of the social value of the service. Duties: • to respect rules and commitment towards the host organisation; • to keep all information confidential; • to decline monetary compensations; • to show diligence and solidarity; • to respect and take care of material resources of the organisations. Relationship between volunteer and organisation In order to be accredited and be able to recruit volunteers, the organisations shall be legally established, have a legal status and be non-profit. They will access funding and contributions, only in case they meet the legal requirements.

The integration of the volunteer within the organisation shall be agreed by both parties, the organisation and the volunteer, in a document that will declare the altruistic nature of the employment relationship, rights and duties, description of the activities and time to be devoted to the organisation, duration of the commitment, and disengagement reasons and conditions. Measures to promote voluntary activities The law establishes some economic compensation measures for volunteers, in the form of reductions on public transports, museum and cultural events. According to article 15, military service can be replaced with a voluntary activity in case the criteria defined in the Ley Orgánica 13/1991, del 20 de diciembre, del Servicio Militar, are met.

In the period preceding the abolition of military service, the performance of an alternative voluntary service was possible, but only in case that the activity was carried out for a minimum duration of six months, within an institution or organisation accredited by the Ministry of Justice

and Domestic Affairs, in accordance with the law 48/1984, dated 26th December, on conscientious objection and alternative service.

VOLUNTEERING AND CIVIC SERVICE IN THE EXPERIENCE OF SIMONE, ANDREA, ILARIA, IRENE, SARA AND VALERIA Given the fact that at the moment in Spain there is no possibility to perform Civic Service, which was abolished in 2002 with the interruption of conscription, our young volunteers focused their research on the Spanish volunteering context. Because of the complex political situation, in Spain volunteering became a relevant phenomenon only in the last twenty years. The first non-profit organisations were founded in the second half of the XIX century in Catalonia in the form of workers’ cooperatives. After the civil war (1936-1939) and Franco’s dictatorship (1939-1975), the organisations promoting voluntary activities were run down; only with the 1978 Constitution a relevant recovery of the third sector occurs: the Constitution, indeed, establishes a new territorial organisation model, which grants every region the right to self-governing, also with respect to the voluntary sector.

Every Autonomous Community has a unit responsible for voluntary activities in its public body, while at local level every city council coordinates its own volunteering programmes.

Nonetheless, the national law 6/1996 (5th January) establishes national strategies in the volunteering sector. In fact, the law was published to gather the existing regional regulations of the Autonomous Communities and thus limit its relevance at national or super-regional level. The main issues envisaged by the national law are: - definition of voluntary activity; - rights and duties of volunteers and organisations; - organisations’ responsibilities; - service accreditation certificate; - incentives related to this sector; - difference between the status of volunteer and employee.

The national law defines voluntary work as a set of activities of public interest (social services, civil rights, education, culture, science, sport, health, cooperation for development, environment, economics, etc.) carried out by individuals for philanthropic, and not monetary, reasons.

An activity, in order to be classified as voluntary, shall meet the following principles, namely it shall: - have an altruistic and solidarity connotation; - be freely chosen by the individual; - be carried out without any economic remuneration, apart from the volunteer’s right to expense

claim; - be performed within public or private non-profit institutions.

With reference to Catalonia, the law 25/1991, dated 31st December, establishes the creation of the Catalan Volunteering Institute. Volunteers and organisations’ profiles In Spain, unfortunately, official surveys regarding voluntary work do not exist. The most recent data go back to a study carried out by the Association of Voluntary Service Organisations AVSO and the European Volunteer Centre ECV, between 2000 and 2001. According to the survey, 57% of the volunteers belongs to the age group 18-30, while 16% is in the group 30-40. The shortage of

data is partly due to the fact that no legal obligation requires that organisations define the role of the volunteers included in their staff; in case the organisations are subsidised by the State, instead, they must provide detailed information on the number of recruited volunteers. Institutional framework The Subdirección de ONG y de Voluntariado is the first government department which is exclusively centred on volunteering issues at national level. It was founded in 2008 with the goal of promoting and supporting voluntary activities, as well as coordinating all the related programmes. Before 2008, such a department did not exist. The Ministry of Work and Social Affairs (Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales), through its Secretariat for Social Services, Families and Disabled People (Secretaria de Servicios Sociales, Familia y Discapacidad), had been in charge for years of the promotion of voluntary work, before the creation of the Subdirección de ONG y de Voluntariado.

Other public institutions are involved in volunteering, namely: 1) the Directorate of Civil Defence at the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, which is in charge of the

protection of civil rights; 2) the Youth Institute (INJUVE) at the Ministry of Equal Opportunities; 3) the Volunteering Department of the Ministry of Equality and International Cooperation

(Ministerio de Igualdad y Cooperación Internacional); 4) the Environment Volunteering Department of the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and

Fisheries (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Agricultura y Pesca); 5) the Cultural Volunteering Department of the Ministry of Culture (Ministerio de Cultura).

Beside public institutions, in Spain there are two major private organisations in charge of the promotion of voluntary work: Plataforma para la Promoción del Voluntariado – PPVE and Asociación Española de Voluntariado – AEVOL. PPVE was founded in 1986 with the aim of representing the volunteering movement in front of public authorities and other interested institutions. Its activities include counselling, research, awareness raising and educational campaigns. AEVOL, instead, organises its activities also at international level and is involved in the works for the international youth day; sometimes its functions overlap those of PPVE. Funding mechanisms for voluntary activities We do not have data concerning the amount of national budget dedicated to voluntary work at national level. The main funding sources are: income tax (49%), national and local administrations’ contributions (32%) and donations (19%). Public administrations devolve part of their budget in voluntary activities. Information on the funding distribution modalities are limited; some interviewees stated that funding distribution depends on the region to which the organisation belongs and not to the area where it is based. If the organisation is based in more than one region, it is entitled to national funding; otherwise, it can access only local funding.

Interviews, documents and analyses collected by the volunteers In Spain, before 2008 no governmental department was exclusively meant for volunteering issues. At that time, the major institution promoting voluntary work and developing public awareness

raising campaigns was the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs (Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales), through its Secretariat for Social Services, Families and Disabled People (Secretaria de Servicios Sociales, Familia y Discapacidad). In 2008, the reorganisation of public administration established the Subdirección de ONG y Voluntariado, which became the main public body responsible for voluntary activities in Spain.

In accordance with the constitutional power division between State and Autonomous Communities, general directorates and institutions or public centres for the promotion and support of voluntary activities in dependence to the regional governments, are spread all over the country. For this reason, the various regional Departments of Social Affairs created decentralised agencies which promote, encourage and support voluntary activities. Every city and Autonomous Community has its own regulation (with the exception of Cantabria and Ceuta y Melilla), and each Autonomous Community has a specific reference unit in the voluntary sector. On the territory there are also several organisations performing collaboration and counselling functions: within this framework, the regional government and third sector organisations come together at regular intervals to discuss issues concerning the activities to implement.

At local level, every city council has its own volunteering programme. These programmes are designed for promotion and fund raising, and normally implemented by platforms or agencies.

The education sector has a major role in volunteering activities at national level. The National Congress on Volunteering (November 2004) highlighted the need to involve educational institutions in spreading the values of voluntary work and promoting such activities, both in schools and universities. Now, several Spanish universities encourage social and cultural voluntary service in courses, research programmes or awareness raising activities. According to Arias and Simon’s study dated 2005, "Las estructuras solidarias de la universidades españolas: organización y funcionamiento", Spanish universities are more and more involved in promoting solidarity values and developing voluntary activities of social inclusion: almost 89% of the Spanish universities sponsors and organises such projects. The more popular activities in this area are related to cooperation for development and people with disabilities.

In the promotion of voluntary activities, the major organisations are private institutions, like Plataforma para la promoción del voluntariado – PPVE and Associación española de voluntariado - AEVOL.

PPVE was created in 1986 with the intention to gather the different institutions operating in the sector (voluntary organisations and regional voluntary centres of the Autonomous Communities and Provinces). Its goal was that of representing the volunteering movement in front of public authorities and other beneficiaries. Its services include counselling, research on volunteering, training and awareness raising campaigns.

PPVE represents over 750,000 volunteers, is a member of the European Volunteer Centre (CEV) and is the Spanish representative of the IAVE (International Association for Volunteer Efforts).

AEVOL is more focussed on the international perspective; for instance, every year AEVOL organises the Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) to encourage voluntary work and offer training for young people.

Also several NGOs, foundations and organisations (especially national organisations with a strong organisational framework, such as Caritas or Red Cross) promote voluntary work and offer training. More, the State Concil for Welfare and NGOs represents the advisory body within the Spanish Platform for Voluntary Work and is in charge of the implementation of policies related to voluntary activities and associations. Some Autonomous Communities created their own promotional organisations, such as: Consejo Andaluz del Voluntariado, Plataforma del Voluntariado Social de Sevilla, Plataforma del Voluntariado de Albacete, Plan Estratégico del Tercer Sector Social de Cataluña, Instituto Catalan de Voluntariado INCAVOL, Plataforma Regional de Voluntariado de la Comunidad de Madrid, 2006-2010.

Data and statistics In Spain, due to its complex political situation, voluntary work became a relevant phenomenon only from the 1980s: the first non-profit organisations arose, particularly in Catalonia, in the form of workers’ cooperatives.

Therefore, publications concerning voluntary activities, as well as official studies, are quite scarce. One of the most important was sponsored by the European Union in 2008 and produced by the Association of Voluntary Service Organisations.

The study is a comparative analysis of voluntary activities in 27 EU member countries, with the aim of extending the awareness of the importance and development of voluntary work at national, regional and local level, and identifying similarities and differences in the countries.

The study also encouraged the European Commission to implement various initiatives on voluntary work. However, it is important to highlight the difficulties to find a common methodology to use in each country unambiguously; therefore, it was impossible to produce a comparative analysis at European level.

In the case of Spain, there are no official data on national voluntary activities, as no official national surveys have been produced. There is no exact information on the number of volunteers recruited in Spain. However, recent surveys and interviews revealed that in 2005 the number of volunteers was 5,000,000, that is 12% of the whole population. The data provided by the Subdirección de ONG y Voluntariado show that voluntary activities increased over the last few years and keep on growing, especially at local level. The reasons for this trend are many: more social awareness, the rise in the number of young people interested in voluntary work etc. A recent study of the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs (February 2010) assessed the number of volunteers operating in associations and NGOs at 1,070,000. Women are a narrow majority (58% against 42% men). 66% of the volunteers is under-35 and the average education level is upper-intermediate (roughly 28% of the volunteers has a degree). Basically, in spite of being a recent phenomenon, Spanish voluntary work is quickly reaching the European standards, with respect to both volunteer profile and general impact: it is estimated that it would represent more than 2% of the overall national employment value (source: Ministry of Work and Social Affairs). Volunteers’ sex ratio As we already pointed out and García Campa’s survey confirms, women’s participation in voluntary activities is higher than men’s.

According to the surveys, the standard features of a Spanish volunteer are: Woman, under-35, graduated, volunteering in social services.

Various sources agree on the fact that in the third sector female volunteers are still a majority. Statistical data show that, from 2002 up to now, the percentage of women almost held steady around the percentage of 60%. Age structure According to a study of the Association of Voluntary Service Organisation (AVSO) and the European Volunteer Centre (CEV), most volunteers are in the age group 18-29, which constitutes 57% of the whole sample. These are followed by the 30-45 group which represents the 16%. Another survey carried out in 2003, Sondeo de la Juventud Española, states that 4.9% of the young participates in voluntary activities, and 22.4% would like to start an experience in this field.

The major organisation concerning voluntary issues at national level, has provided official data since 2005. It asserted that people under-44 constitute more than 80% of the overall number of volunteers, while the number of over-65 has raised considerably over the last few years. This is a group formed mostly by retired people, who have more spare time to devolve to voluntary activities and a still active social role. Diffusion of voluntary activities in the country Diagnóstico de Situación del Voluntariado en España declares that the Regions of Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, the Balearics and Canary Islands have the highest number of NGOs. On the contrary, the Regions of La Rioja, Navarra, the Basque Country and Cantabria are the ones with the lowest presence of voluntary organisations at local level. Formal education level Most volunteers are highly qualified and 28% has one university degree, at least. According to 2010 statistical data, they spend an average 5 hours a week on voluntary work.

Distribution of volunteers in volunteering sectors. Source: AVSO, 2005.

Areas of intervention According to Pérez-Díaz and López Novo, 2003, most voluntary organisations target their activities at the local community (52%) and within Autonomous Communities (22%), only 17% extends their activities to include the province and 9% performs duties at national level.

Areas of intervention. Source: Pérez-Díaz, López Novo, 2003.


The diaries Contrary to their colleagues, the volunteers who did their service in Spain did not leave all together: the first group arrived in Barcelona in March, while the second group left two weeks later.

During their 6-month service, the Spanish volunteers published 21 posts and a dozen documents, for a total of 40 folders. Considering the fact that the volunteers were six in total, the frequency with which they wrote their diaries is quite scarce; some of them were absent for long periods, even one month, and a volunteer published only one post in which he attached a document, without further comments on his research and work experience.

I attach the information on the Spanish institutional framework: - civil protection-INJUVE-Ministerio de Igualidad-MARM (16th June 2010 – Andrea Picollo)

Given the large group, the volunteers soon understood the need for organising the research in

different areas to be dealt with by each one separately. Even though they held a meeting on the issue, the provided documentation shows overlapping and repeated information.

Eventually, we made our first steps in the research. Today, after an exhausting meeting, we agreed on the guidelines of the research project on the Spanish third sector. Since we’ll be quite a big group, due to the arrival of three new volunteers tomorrow, we decided to split up into three groups, thus creating three research units divided by topic. (31st March 2010 – Simone Micillo)

Each volunteer experienced some kind of difficulty; after the initial enthusiasm, some

volunteers faced problems related to the service and organisation they are working with. There’s no official indication on the number of research hours; the Fundacio’ is likely to give us 5 hours a week, which should be enough, as we’re six. We discussed with the others and we agreed on the research topics (we’ll point that out on a post). The only problem is language training. We didn’t expect such a strict position on the language issue. (9th April 2010 – Irene Capozzi)

For other volunteers, instead, difficulties are related to daily life in a new cultural environment, even if some posts show certain similarities between the two countries.

Finding your own dimension in a country that didn’t raise you, didn’t form you, is a great experience… However, culture, habits and traditions are very similar to the Italian ones. (20th May 2010 – Valeria Cannatelli)

Each volunteer was assigned a project for his/her service period: Simone, Valeria and Sara to the project Catalans in the world; Ilaria to the IAVE Office; Irene to Clam per la Pau and Andrea to administration and IT. All of them had to be in service for 30 hours weekly.

A minor problem concerns working hours: we don’t know yet how much time we’ll have to do research and, above all, Simone and I work in the morning, while Andrea works in the afternoon. Then, we haven’t had much time to work on the project together so far. (22nd March 2010 – Ilaria Badino)

In some cases, the organisation’s workload prevented volunteers to contribute to the research in tranquillity. Another controversial element was the fact that the project supervisors were not informed about the Amicus project’s goals and the need to support research and survey activities as much as possible. In fact, volunteers had to use their spare time for this duty.

Wordle of the posts by Ilaria, Valeria, Irene, Simone, Sara and Andrea.

CONCLUSIONS The Spanish group’s experience radically differs from that of the other volunteers, because it was a lively period in which they had the opportunity to get in contact with a multiethnic reality, experience different cultural incentives and, in particular, get to know values and difficulties typical of a national sub-culture: the Catalan culture. These peculiar tracts marked the dynamics of the volunteers’ parcours and contributed to define the context of civic service and voluntary work issues.

In the volunteers’ perspective, Spain seems to be a country where civic service did not constitute a major phenomenon. This alternative to military service suffered from organisational, administrative and legislative drawbacks, which brought to some legislative modifications. With the abolition of conscription, civic service disappeared from the regulation in force, in favour of an increase in voluntary work, which is the reality lived by our volunteers in the course of their activities.

In conclusion, the volunteers seem to have been passionate about and committed to, their activities in the organisations, but from their research analyses we can assume they did not fully understand the Amicus project’s intentions, which indeed can reach an insight free of preconceptions and prejudices, thanks to the young volunteers’ work.

Data processed by Tlab©.

SWEDEN

VOLUNTEERS Alessandra Campaniolo, Carmelo Danisi, Mario Olivo

PARTNER Åmål Kommun, Samverket, Europe Direkt.

The host organisation in Åmål (Sweden) represents a joint effort of local institutions in the Åmål Municipality. It is a meeting point for the community.

Its goals are: • helping people to discover their better selves; • getting in touch with lonely and isolated people; • improving the quality of life for groups of socially excluded, elderly people, migrants, people

with disabilities, unemployed; • supporting relatives of people in need of nursing care, with disabilities or mental illnesses; • rouse public interest in voluntary work as complementary to public services.

Being complementary to public service, Samverket cooperates with: all the municipal authorities, Europe Direct (central information service for European volunteers); social service office; schools; old people’s homes; users; Home Help Services, an association of volunteers operating in home services to support people with disabilities in home maintenance; Churches of various denominations; social security services; health care services; language centre teaching Swedish to migrants and asylum seekers.

1. ORGANISATION

MUNICIPAL BOARD OF EXECUTIVE JAN ERIK LUNDIN Supervisor

Samverket Tösse ÅSÅ BODMARK 25%

Samverket Åmål MONICA LINDSTRAND 75% ÅSÅ BODMARK 50%

Samverket Fengersfors MONICA LINDSTRAND 25%

Samverket’s structure includes three centres located in neighbouring towns: Åmål; Tösse; Fengersfors.

It is economically supported by the Public Health Department in order to train volunteers by organising meetings, courses, conferences and specific projects.

Samverket cooperates with other volunteering organisations and public health care institutions thanks to monthly meetings where the activities are planned, problems solved and new ideas brought up. Here are some examples of collaboration: • Åmål – Manafwa joint programme, which aims at using solar power, arranging environmental

planning, checking out land erosion; • Knowledge and know-how sharing with foreign organisations in order to develop a stronger

consciousness of the realities of other countries;

• Volunteer-swapping between Åmål e Manafwa. 2. WHAT IS A VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION? Samverket defines a voluntary activity as an individual or group work, operated mostly within an organisation, by free choice, based on personal motivation and necessarily unremunerated. Thus, voluntary contribution promotes active citizenship and social commitment. 3. WHO IS THE VOLUNTEER? - A person who works beyond his/her family in an organised fashion; - A person who has some free time to give to other people; - A person who has the knowledge and can be of assistance to other people; - A person who wants to be helpful.

His/her contribution can consist of: going with somebody for a walk, to the Church, shopping, to the hairdresser’s, to the library; conversation; reading out for somebody; making a phone call to people who need it; study groups; bingo; cooking; brain-training; summer excursions with the Church; music-café; music entertainment in old people’s homes; activities in the parish; supporting relatives of people in need; welcoming and training the volunteers; adults in schools (a sort of surveillance); stick-walking; fitness training.

Volunteers are recruited by: - word of mouth - conferences - brochures - the Internet. 4. YOUTH AND VOLUNTARY WORK Some specific activities in which young volunteers can participate, are: • making contact and visiting regularly people who are old, ill or simply need help, particularly in

old people’s homes; • lending a hand during the different activities carried out in old people’s homes; • helping during the Church summer camp in Derrenas; • taking care of the dog when the owner is sick; • big sister project – acting as a big sister to somebody who needs to be listened to, or just needs a

friend; • entertaining children at school during the breaks; • babysitting to the benefit of single parents. Young volunteers can: • increase their social skills by experiencing new realities; • have different experiences by working with disabled people, children and elderly people; • work in a friendly environment; • have a pleasant job; • improve their CV.

5. RULES

Among the rules which the volunteers have to obey in their activity, we find the following: • listening and trying to understand the people they are helping; • promoting and encouraging new activities; • planning and complying with the scheduled visiting hours; • confidentiality on the collected information: you must not tell anybody about the people you

visit or the activities carried out in private houses; • abide by the rules of the family or associations you are working with. Also, the volunteer is

forbidden to carry out paid workers’ duties, unless otherwise specified by the manager; • do not give medical advice; • accepting money or other forms of payment from the helped people is forbidden: the activity

must be totally voluntary and unremunerated; • do not have any religious, political or other kind of influence on the people you visit; • specify that any conveyed opinion is strictly personal and does not represents Samverket’s

position.

6. FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS

Samverket welcomes volunteers coming from all around Europe and employs them in associations, organisations or municipal services for a period of 6 to 12 months. Samverket’s coordinators are the contact persons for the young volunteers and take care of their welcome, programmes, monitoring and final evaluation. Up to now, these volunteers’ work has been positive and had a positive impact on the society.


Regulatory framework As most democracies, Sweden has a written Constitution which has a privileged position in the source hierarchy and sets the fundamental laws on the operation of government and society. These laws have priority over all the other regulations.

The Swedish Constitution is composed of four fundamental laws: Instrument of Government, Act of Succession, Freedom of the Press Act and Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression. There is also a law on the working order of the Parliament (Riksdag) which has a special status between constitutional law and ordinary law, even though it does not qualify as a fundamental law.

Chapter 2 of the constitutional law on Instrument of Government regulates fundamental rights and freedoms: Art. 1. Every citizen shall be guaranteed the following rights and freedoms in his relations with the

public institutions: 1. freedom of expression: that is, the freedom to communicate information and express thoughts, opinions and sentiments, whether orally, pictorially, in writing, or in any other way; 2. freedom of information: that is, the freedom to procure and receive information; 3. freedom of assembly: that is, the freedom to organise or attend a meeting for the purposes of information or the expression of opinion or for any other similar purpose, or for the purpose of presenting artistic work; 4. freedom to demonstrate: that is, the freedom to organise or take part in a demonstration in a public place; 5. freedom of association: that is, the freedom to associate with others for public or private purposes;

Art. 2. Every citizen shall be protected in his relations with the public institutions against any coercion to divulge an opinion in a political, religious, cultural or other such connection. He shall furthermore be protected in his relations with the public institutions against any coercion to participate in a meeting for the formation of opinion or a demonstration or other manifestation of opinion, or to belong to a political association, religious community or other association for opinion referred to in sentence one.

Unlike art. 52 of the Italian Constitution, no reference to military service appears in Swedish fundamental laws. Law 1809/1994, as well as Law 1810 on equal opportunities for women to take part into the defence service, regulates the “total defence” system.

With specific regard to civic service, the Parliament is currently examining a Government proposal to turn compulsory military service (which was already optional, in fact) into voluntary service. In the new system, civic service is not considered. In spite of the opposing minority parties, the Defence Committee approved the Government proposal (2009/10:160) which aims at changing the “total defence” act that involved most citizens so far. Since the 1st July 2010, military recruitment will be only on a voluntary basis. Other duties, comparable to those of civic service and included in the total defence act, will be required and officiated only in case of war preparation. Under these circumstances, Law 1809/1994 will be still in force: this law already reformed the total defence act, but preserved conscription. In compliance with the law, the National Administration Service now in charge to manage compulsory enlistment (a representative of which is on the interview list), will change its name into Recruitment Agency starting from January 2011. So far this public administration has guaranteed the right to serve the country without using any weapons.

A bill concerns the introduction of a specific regulation on civil society, 2009/10:55. With this initiative the Government means to improve the conditions in which civil society operates. For this reason, it aims at strengthening the dialogue with the associations involved and the capacity of civil society to promote the creation of growth and well-being in the community. A regular monitoring system has already been created and, after the presentation of an interdisciplinary research programme, the Government is going to provide more surveys on the topic. Issues concerning policies on inclusion, equality and diversity will be further developed, thus promoting more public support to the involved organisations.

Volunteering and Civic Service in Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario’s experience The AMICUS volunteers in Sweden had the opportunity to investigate and draw a very detailed picture of the overall situation of voluntary work and Civic Service.

A starting point, in addition to the analysis and considerations on the laws in force, were the scientific publications on the issues. In particular, Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario analysed the document on voluntary work in Sweden, published by CEV in 2007, and reported:

Swedish welfare has always been considered one of the most advanced in the world: it constitutes a real social model, in which public expenditure exceeds 30% of the GDP (in the last few years it has decreased, but is still one of the highest in the world). Considered the fundamental role of the State in the social sector, the law regulating voluntary work seems to be rather unclear and incomplete: volunteers tend to operate in harness with government institutions in a blurred “welfare mixture”. Nonetheless, volunteering, promoted by civil society in general or by the Protestant Church of Sweden, has a long-term tradition and, since the ‘90s, gained more and more power in the distribution of social responsibility to the detriment of the State.

The legislative vacuum on voluntary work is reflected also in the lack of an official definition and a doubtful translation of this phrase in the local language: no English word can reproduce effectively the subtle polysemy of the Swedish term. In effect, we already noticed the difference, we only hope this will not create inconvenient misunderstandings in the research. In Facts&Figures the solution was to use the term ‘non-profit’ and a definition of voluntary organisation as an association created on the basis of common ideals, resolvable without the intervention of the State and operating for public benefit without any remuneration. The research is based on a survey on a sample of 2,000 Swedish adults, and shows that, despite their “semi-public” connotation, volunteers are considered by 2/3 of the interviewees as an independent element, capable to offer something different from paid work and not just a means to cut off expenditures. To the question “If the government assumed its responsibilities, voluntary work would not be necessary” only 1/5 of the interviewees gave an affirmative answer. From these data we can assume that socio-political criticism in voluntary activities is quite a weak element in this context, even though the percentage of agreement on the last question mentioned almost doubled between the ‘90s and 2005.

The research, then, gives an overview on the history of voluntary work in Sweden. During the Second Industrial Revolution, charitable associations arose on the Anglo-Saxon model and were institutionalised only at the beginning of the ‘900, when they were arranged in the CSA (National Civic Service Association) and several leaders of those groups took part into the national bureaus. As in the rest of Europe, at the end of the XIX century several mass movement had their origin with the aim of changing the society, among which we can mention the Swedish trade unions confederation and the Social Democratic party: those movements laid the basis for active citizenship in the country. After the Second World War, the Welfare State absorbed many prerogatives of non-profit associations, mostly based on personal initiative. Often, volunteers are not members of the associations they cooperate with, which in general are not internally structured

in a strong hierarchy. Specific offices explicitly dedicated to voluntary work are an innovation of the last fifteen years. Volontärbyrån (national volunteering centre) cooperates with various agencies, especially the regional ones. Also these centres are not clearly defined, which makes the verification of the mentioned statistics harder. In effect, the centres are more suited to promotion and information rather than an effective coordination of the voluntary activities.

The centres are 69 in total, 60% of which was created before 2000, and their dimensions are quite small, only 12% of those works with more than 50 people. The first was founded in 1993, thanks to a national initiative lasted until 1996, and brought up quite a controversial issue, because the volunteer was considered as a possible threat to paid workers’ role, thus giving grounds for a future dismantlement of the welfare state; nowadays, this suspicion is much weaker. The research hints at a remarkable difference in the numbers of centres located in the various regions, easily understandable by taking into account the heterogeneous Swedish demography. Volontärbyrån connects volunteers and organisations and offers on its website a useful search engine for people interested in volunteering in any region and sector. This centre was founded under the patronage of the Forum För Frivilligt Socialt Arbete and financed by municipalities and private companies.

Fact&Figures goes on presenting data on voluntary work in Sweden, which involves more than half the population, but complaining about the possibility that the percentage includes also partially remunerated activities and the most popular sector is sport or social daily life activities (walking elderly people to the doctor’s, doing their shopping, organising excursions, reading clubs etc). The main target group are elderly people, followed by people with physical or mental disabilities, drug-addicts, migrants and political refugees, abused women. 20 out of 69 centres are also monitoring self-help support groups besides their organisations.

Statistics show that most Swedish volunteers are well-educated, have children and come from Swedish families, actively participating in associations. Central role is that of retired people, who operated in almost all the centres considered. Volunteers are almost equally divided between the two sexes, even though men are more dedicated to sports and women to Church activities. The survey highlights a smaller presence of women in managerial positions in the voluntary sector: I doubt that this is due only to a negative influence of the Swedish Church, which notoriously is on the cutting edge of the fight against sexual discrimination. Putting forward hypotheses without detailed statistics is rather controversial: the survey shows that the percentage of women in “general voluntary activities” is slightly more than a half, but then presents the data concerning Volontärbyrån (which includes 777 associations and 2,559 missions), where the percentage of women is 83%. We already mentioned the great number of elderly volunteers, which is continuously increasing due to the ageing population and better health conditions of elderly people compared to the past. The researcher clarifies that the high percentage of elderly people among the volunteers may also be influenced by the choices made in order to complete the statistics: the eager retired Swedish take on manual jobs useful for the community, such as snow shovelling or cooking, on behalf of the associations of which they are members, while new services such as Volontärbyrån are mostly supported by young people (64%), with the remarkable result of 72% of volunteers recruited for the first time by this association. According to statistics provided by Volontärbyrån, the Swedish seem to join volunteering moved by strong motivations, but without looking for a specific organisation or activity, while another study claims that this tendency is changing and now the choice is more focussed on personal and specific criteria. However, it is easy to understand Volontärbyrån’s success, as it offers connections and contacts with more than 700 associations all around Sweden.

The preparatory courses, provided by the municipalities sometimes, are very popular among Swedish non-profit organisations. Stadsmissionen, which mainly operates in the support of homeless people, organises 8 meetings with the would-be volunteers in the year preceding their recruitment.

A chapter concerns the economic value of voluntary work. This is a controversial estimate, even harder to make because of the peculiarities of the country. However, the two studies

considered, namely one by the John Hopkins Centre for Civil Society Studies and the other by two Swedish researchers, agree on the result: roughly 4% of the GDP. We point out that the John Hopkins study is limited to voluntary activities in associations, excluding sport or religious ones: thus, the percentage of volunteering population decreases from 50% to 28%, still much higher than the average in developed countries (15%, according to the John Hopkins comparative study). Another research assesses the monthly time dedicated to voluntary activities at an average of 13/14 hours. Unfortunately, the volunteering forms considered are not specified: they also quote an estimate by the Riksidrottsförbundet (the local CONI – Italian National Olympic Committee), according to which volunteers involved in sport activities spend also 4.3 hours a week on those.

The last part of the research focuses on legislation. Again, it is made clear that legislation is almost inexistent, there is no charter on rights and duties of the volunteer in force and certain inconsistencies originate problems on specific situations, such as unemployed and disabled people, who cannot volunteer full-time without losing their compensations. This state of affairs does not seem to create worries, as normally voluntary work is a part-time activity in Sweden (EVS excluded).

Legislation is faulty also as far as concerns the State position about fiscal assets and grants. An office appointed by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs distributes quite generous grants to the various organisations, but often ultra vires and without a clearly defined scheme: same happens for tax exemption. Municipalities, instead, sponsor 70% of the regional centres we mentioned. Lastly, the study mentions new volunteering organisation’s strategies: more consideration on marketing as a tool of promotion and more cooperation with public and private institutions, which are offered to have volunteers working jointly with their paid workers.

Another document which our volunteers considered is “The popular movement marinade: The dominant civil society framework in Sweden”. It is a 2004 publication which analyses Swedish non-profit organisations which founded their activity on voluntary work. The study is based on qualitative interviews to key figures, in particular the directors of the major Swedish organisations, such as the Red Cross (SRK), the Social Democratic Party (SAP), the Swedish Missionary Church (SMK), the Football League (SvFF), the Swedish Union of Tenants (HGF), the Swedish Consumer Cooperative Union (KF), International Organisation of Good Templars (IOGT-NTO), and the Association of the Visually-Impaired (SRF).

Most of the research focuses on the importance of having a large number of associated members. In spite of the differences between the various associations, their heterogeneity and their selection methods (visually-impaired people do not choose to be so, for instance), the explanations are quite predictable and shared by all the directors interviewed. Having many members is a priority of the associations, because this attests their success and legitimacy, increases their influence on society and provides economic support. Besides, hopefully members are active and operational, contribute to spread the association ideas and recruit new associates.

The most interesting part of the research concerns the associations’ organisational framework, based on strong democratic principles which enable the members to elect their own representatives. Considered the dimensions of the examined associations, normally roles and responsibilities are distributed; all the members can vote, at least, for their local representatives, who then choose the delegates for the assemblies and so on, until the top positions.

A democratic form, to a more or less evident extent, can be noticed in the examined associations’ websites, as in notes 1-8. This can be considered a prerequisite in Swedish associations, at least in theory (the interviews will try to evaluate its actual presence and the volunteers’ participation degree). Obviously, there is a division of the work between volunteers operating on the field and directors, but the opportunity of being included in the decisional process, at least in theory, is a fundamental issue, not only theoretically. The research quotes the case of Greenpeace national branch, which was denied the right to tax relief by the Revenue Office because of its peculiar self-governing regulation, established by its charter and also in force in all its divisions around the world. The county courts of Goteborg and Borus confirmed the Revenue

Office’s claim and the same did the court of appeal, which however gave Greenpeace some sort of economic relief. The Supreme Court set an end to this case, refusing the appeal of the ecologist association. It is clear that the Swedish Revenue never questioned Greenpeace as a non-profit organisation moved by a strong ideology (ideel förening, in the complex Swedish terminology of the sector), the problem only concerns its governing regulation: a directory board of 20 members (professionals of the revolution who guide the masses?) which yearly elects an executive committee of 5 of them, thus excluding every form of control and participation of the remaining 200,000 associates and making impossible tax exemption by law. The research shows that Greenpeace Nordic website highlights that the members with the right to vote are 20 and the association cannot be considered as a people’s movement in the traditional Nordic fashion. Focus on International cooperation activities. Åmål and Uganda. International cooperation for development is one of the sectors which enjoys greater participation at local level (Åmål). In particular, a project was started recently in cooperation with some Ugandan districts which involve the whole community. In effect, the City Council is the major partner, but volunteering institutions and associations (SamVerket and the Red Cross) and secondary schools are actively involved as well. It is proved also by the data concerning the number of visits to Africa of citizens resident in the community, which amount to over 100. Just in 2007, for instance, 19 people coming from Åmål (especially young people and teachers) visited Uganda and 24 people coming from Manafwa went to Sweden to meet the community.

The project is part of the programme Municipal Partnership North-South (MPNS) financed by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and cooperating with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. In particular, in 2007 SEK 1,224mln were spent in the implementation of 3 environment-related projects with Manafwa in Uganda. As the director of the whole operation, Jan-Erik Lundin, pointed out, the City Councils are the main actors of development cooperation in Sweden. Especially in the activities related to democracy promotion, the small Swedish realities can transfer effective organisational models coming from their long-term experience in self-government. However, in order to understand the functioning of this sector, financial modality is central: local administrations cannot assign money gathered by taxes to these activities, because they are already assigned to local services meant for the citizens. Therefore, a coordinating committee was created in order to assign funding to local institutions to implement projects in developing countries. The City Council staff, as well as the director, participate by dedicating a certain amount of hours every year to the coordination of the projects. Local self-government is the central issue of the whole system and a prerequisite to eradicate poverty, which is the goal of every Swedish development aid programme. Through the City Councils and County Boards, Sweden elaborated its very own development policy strategies.

With respect to the single initiatives, three of them are about environment protection (green energies, water and environment management). In April 2007, for instance, a group of teachers and students went to Manafwa to install solar power systems, together with their African colleagues, to be used by Uganda Red Cross. Also in this circumstance there was a high level of participation: the installation was only the final step of a cooperation that started in practical and theoretical training in Åmål and Manafwa schools and ended up in the promotional activity of enterprises located in Åmål. A similar process followed the project destined to the digging of a well. In the first phase Swedish students and teachers headed off to Uganda to test water quality and collect data. The second step was fund raising to build the well. A third project concerns environment management, particularly renewal, fight against deforestation, garbage collection and awareness raising among the population of Manafwa. Sharing the experience is essential, given the great attention paid to this matter at Swedish local level. In this area, also the elected executives and officers of both parties took part in specific meeting and training courses. The outcomes of other similar initiatives are

evident: among those, the building of an Environment Education Centre (EPC) in Kisumu, Kenya, and in Jinja, about 100 km from Manafwa, again financed by Sida.

Finally, the project related to democracy in Bubulo. This is an exchange in more steps to support, together with Red Cross, the development of local democracy and the administration of social affairs, youth, schooling and environmental issues. On this occasion, the funding amounts to SEK 1,424,000, with the sponsorship of Sala Ida AB. The project, which started on the 1st April 2006 and ended on the 31st December 2008, has good chances to continue on a further step which will start in few months.


The diaries Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario wrote a lot and described exhaustively their experience. Over sixty folders (90,443 characters, 15,420 words), 30 posts, 13 photos and 20 documents telling the story of their six months which went on smoothly.

Åmål welcomed the three volunteers in a functional, efficient way. Everything was ready:

In Sweden in half a day we had: a welcome meeting, transports, bank account, house with every kind of cooking tool (even an unbelievable egg-chopper) and DTT, accommodation and… off to work! Every question of ours had an immediate, clear solution. (Carmelo Danisi) Nothing was missing, in spite of the cold weather which never seemed to leave the Italian

volunteers during those long months and made hard the transfer between the lodging and the day-care centres where the guys were volunteering. The activity did not correspond to the one scheduled by the project, as some volunteers already operating at the partner organisation extended their stay,

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but Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario were not concerned at the change and soon got involved in the new activity. From the stories written on the Amicus blog, cultural and organisational differences emerge and will be the leit motiv throughout their stay. The positive prejudices about Sweden, a cold, quiet country where everything is efficient and smooth, are never demolished, but confirmed in fact:

A Swedish day care does not correspond to an Italian one (no need to say, maybe…): no children yells, they eat everything and ask for “thirds”, if at the singing time the teachers are not ready they sit down and wait! (Carmelo Danisi)

The volunteers’ work is supported by both a mentor and a supervisor on regular basis: every

week a “fika” takes place, that is, a meeting where the main issues and activities are discussed. A regular, well-organized meeting moment were the (unusual) difficulties can be discussed and solved.

With respect to the mentors, mine is a wonderful and super-helpful person…she deeply understood her role and she really does her best to make me feel at ease… I can tell: I am loving Åmål! (Alessandra Campaniolo)

From the start, the three volunteers tried to make contacts with people and institutions that could

possibly help them in their research and start talking with mentors, supervisors and different representatives of the closest associations: SamVerket, Red Cross, Europe Direkt etc.

In Åmål there are also about thirty Iraqi refugees that can rely on the housing provided by the City Council (one of the apartments is the one assigned to the volunteers, at the beginning) and a financial support. Carmelo, who is attending a PhD in “Democracy and Human Rights” in Genoa, becomes very keen on the issue and starts investigating on the aid modalities directed to the refugees by the City Council, as well as the regulation concerning the possibility of refugees to take part in Swedish political life.

Weeks pass by smoothly: volunteers organise Easter parties, find ways to catch up with other volunteers in Åmål, people coming from Estonia, Germany, Spain and also the Far East. Work in the day cares goes on well: working with children is very gratifying and the relationship with the teachers is as positive. The on-arrival training was positively evaluated, even though the participants were only six:

This arrival term, which lasted four days in total, mostly consisted of informal training activities, funny open-air group games whose best part was the final walk on a trunk floating between two trees which we climbed up in a roped party. (Mario Olivo)

Training included issues concerning culture and stereotypes on Sweden. Stereotypes which were

totally fulfilled both by the events previously reported and the considerations made during the training. The volunteers had to walk the streets in a neighbourhood in Stockholm and take note of behaviours which could seem relevant or different in their view. Result: Mario witnessed

a small accident between a truck and a parked scooter. The scooter’s owner, who was nearby, instead of cursing and swearing, didn’t say a word, he didn’t even lift an eyebrow, crossed the road and had a chat with the truck driver, and he wasn’t a Buddhist monk!

At the beginning of May, Mario Bozzo Costa visited the three volunteers. The meeting had

positive outcomes, also with respect to the research. In few days, the volunteers become more active and start posting on the blog some documents as well as the host organisation file. In Åmål every one seems to be aware of their presence: they are interviewed by the local newspaper and asked to

teach Italian recipes to make the Scandinavian environment, still very cold, a little bit hotter. They even organised an Italian night, with posters, flyers and music playlist as well. A real event taking place in one of the city restaurants, with Italian food, a quiz on our country and a lot of fun, which brought our volunteers to be once again protagonists on the local newspaper and social life of Åmål.

Telling foreigners about our country is no easy task, especially considered the fact that Swedish are moved by a strong national feeling and expect the others to behave the same way. I might be a victim of a positive prejudice, but I reckon their love for the country is mixed with a national and community feeling, and, perhaps for this reason, it doesn’t appear fake or sacred nor sound as a sort of nationalism. In Italy, fortunately or unfortunately, it is not always the same thing. We organised a night to entertain, we didn’t mean to starkly talk about politics nor whine about, but we didn’t even want to portray the spaghetti-style stereotype or start a tourist promotional campaign. We bet on a self-referential humour, emphasising the differences between the two countries. We hope we did succeed, the reactions were surely positive. (Mario Olivo, 27th June)

The relationships between Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario seem also positive: they catch up

often and organise home parties sometimes. Other European volunteers do not seem to share this mutually supportive spirit:

Foreign volunteers are not all that supportive: the Nordics don’t even know what empathy and solidarity mean, plus they snub the Italians. We’re lucky though, because we’re a great team and with Ale and Mario we laugh ourselves out… and that’s another way to make time pass by! (Carmelo Danisi, 18th May)

Time however seems to pass by with no rush, but with a lot of activities and things to do:

excursions, conventions, weekly meetings, barbecues with parents… Alessandra also has an activity as “big sister”:

Which involves me in keeping a disabled girl company whenever she calls me…two days ago I went to her place, we watched TV and talked talked talked, then I helped her with a painting of hers… she loves painting.. (Alessandra Campaniolo, 20th May)

The occasions of solidarity are not few: in the building where the volunteers live, there are also

people with disabilities and Down syndrome: Mario spent an afternoon with them, drinking tea and watching a short dancing and singing show.

Quite soon summer comes, and again a warm welcome is organised: Midsommar:

Tradition wants that on Midsommar day a couple of the town gets married and arrives among the crowd on a horse-driven chariot. Too tacky! Beautiful also the “priestess” who did the ceremony: it lasted only 15 minutes, tear-jerking song sung by a young girl included. Very nice, anyway, especially if compared with the never-ending Sicilian weddings! Before the wedding, there was a mass joyful moment: everybody around a weird-shaped tree decorated with flowers, singing folk songs (for your info, one’s about a shoeless, gloveless frog (!?), another one is used to mimic emotions… basically, mass craziness, and people trying to cry first and then laughing themselves out, but always with moderation!), which are the same for all the feasts! I have to admit that they all seemed very happy, but the Swedish expression of joy is not the one typical of southern Europe: in my place, at the market 8 stallholders and 10 ladies doing their shopping are much louder than a thousand Åmål citizens singing and dancing around. (Carmelo Danisi, 27th June)

Parties are not over. By the end of July, the Blues Festival comes and Åmål is full of life and music for almost a week.

However, summer really slows down the work, in the day care there is not much to do and many people go on holiday. The volunteers try to fill their days up with activities: the Amicus research first (unfortunately, many would-be interviewees are not available), but also more practical activities such as Mario’s painting fences and environmental cleansing on the island.

Their experience is slowly coming to an end: the volunteers are happy and go back to Italy, finding a long-forgotten warm weather. For all of them the experience has been very fulfilling.

CONCLUSIONS Alessandra, Carmelo and Mario are three guys which radically differ with respect to their education, age and origin, but they made up a good team (it is no coincidence that the most frequent word in their diaries is “our”, as shown by the Tlab© graphs) and they got along very well. Their experiences, therefore, reveal similar feelings, even though they are narrated with different styles. Åmål, as we can assume from the Wordle of their diaries’ posts, became the centre of their lives for six months, with its slow rhythm, its efficient organisation and its silence, but also with its will to get to know our volunteers and celebrate together.

Wordle of Alessandra, Mario and Carmelo’s posts

A model, the Swedish, which stimulated the volunteers’ interest and allowed them to have an insight view of different associational realities and the habits of welcoming foreign volunteers. The volunteers had the chance to challenge their limits and deal with important issues, such as those related to the educational system, international cooperation, refugee integration and so on. Perhaps a unique model, which, maybe also for this reason, charmed our volunteers and allowed them to live a calm, but deep and useful experience.

Data processed by Tlab©

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE VOLUNTEERS IN THEIR DIARIES

As we already pointed out, the blog collects and “narrates” the Amicus volunteers’ personal experience. Most of them contributed with posts and documents (photos, videos etc.) continuously, even sometimes the time frame was not linear due to their commitments in the organisations.

In general, their stay abroad was articulated in a start-up phase, an intermediate more aware phase and a closing phase.

The start-up phase was the most controversial for everybody and was central for many withdrawals. In fact, those who withdrew for different reasons connected both to the reference background and personal reasons, did not pass the first stage of the experience.

The integration in the new reality since their arrival in the country, had a major role on the further development of the experience.

Some elements influenced the volunteers’ integration and time needed to move from the initial phase to the next stage. First factor is the welcome by the partner and other actors representing the context where volunteers were to experience their activity. An efficient organisation, conscious of its role and the project, plus an active and reliable mentor, contribute to a good start and permit to overcome easily any inconvenience or difficulty of integration in a new “foreign” environment.

To this element, we can add the general welcome by other actors (host family, population, etc) in the arrival place:

My arrival was awesome. There must have been 20 people waiting for me and when I got off there was such a cheering that I was impressed! FRANCE FEBRUARY 2010 The way I was welcomed was nice, polite, moderated, very French, I would say, but I have to admit I really enjoyed it. The supervisor and my two colleagues (the chief-animator and pedagogical coordinator, plus another animator) are very friendly and always ready to help me. FRANCE MARCH 2010 Here we are! Also Simone, Andrea and I arrived eventually after many mishaps, and the city gave us a warm welcome thanks to the sun and the smiling faces of the other volunteers working at Fundaciò Catalunya Voluntaria, coming from all around Europe. I live in a very big house near Parc Guell with two guys from Germany, a girl from France, one from Estonia, one from Bulgaria and another one from Italy. Andrea and Simone live in another place with two French and an Algerian. We spend a lot of time together: we wont’ start working until tomorrow, by now we have time to get to know everybody, go around the city with our boss Jordi, (…) who knows every barrio by heart, and queue for ages to solve all that bureaucratic stuff. SPAIN MARCH 2010

Secondly, an appropriate logistic accommodation facilitates integration and avoids to waste the

volunteers’ energies in practical matters which could be easily solved, so that they can totally get engaged into service and research.

Well, do you remember the chaos of the pre-departure training week??? Ok… forget about it! In Sweden in half a day we had: a welcome meeting, transports, bank account, house with every kind of cooking tool (even an unbelievable egg-chopper and DTT), job arrangements! Every question of ours had an immediate, clear solution: my friends say “Holy Sweden!”… and it’s true! The day after, off to work. SWEDEN FEBRUARY 2010

Finally, spring came here as well and has made much better my stay here, which improves every day: a lot of time was spent in the clarification of small organisational aspects that should have been discussed before Irene and I arrived here and that I shouldn’t be dealing with. That’s a bit annoying. ROMANIA MARCH 2010 The welcome has been great: in our first week the Fundaciò planned some guided tours which allowed us get to know Barcelona in details. A Catalan language course will start in the next few days, as well as other extra activities they will tell us about each time. SPAIN MARCH 2010

Third important issue is the type of activities and compliance with the expectations. In some

cases, despite the best efforts made in planning and pre-departure stages, it was impossible to meet the volunteers’ expectations completely. Again, an open-minded attitude in the volunteer played a fundamental role in the integration within the host organisations.

The same experience can be considered from one point of view:

With respect to the job, I have to admit it’s not very exciting.. (…) we are working together in this youth centre in the outskirts, which operates in the area in order to prevent the creation of neo-Nazi groups (that apparently are quite numerous in this neighbourhood). Anyway, at first it looked like a cool place, but Lev and I ended up babysitting children who come and play here, which is not cool at all and, I’d rather say, boring. Anyway, I’m on the way of reconsidering my duties with the bosses, so I’ll let you know later on. GERMANY MAY 2010

and from a different perspective:

Much more important, I really enjoy the task I’ll have to do. So far, I’ve just worked one day, I’ll work from Monday to Thursday, from 2 to 8 p.m., in a youth centre, I’ll deal with the entertainment of children in the 4-9 age group. I really enjoy the environment and I immediately got along. GERMANY APRIL 2010

Most volunteers enjoyed their activities, making the most also of the less gratifying aspects and

often giving an interpretation in line with the social environment considered.

Honestly, I think that the colony is really helpful… especially for the children from Tremblay... I didn’t know anything about that, but they don’t live in a nice place at all… there’s a lot of violence, as in all the outskirts of Paris... I don’t mean to be strict, but you can tell the difference in the kids and it’s not their fault!!!... and for them the colony is a real shot in the arm!!!...away from street and home violence…away from grey decay…1 month together with other children, on the sea, open air, to play, have fun, cook, do all the activities we do and, above all, in a place where the rule is not that of violence and punishment, but that of dialogue and respect…and the kids do feel it!!!... they love their families, as they should obviously, but everything else is wasting them.. working with Tremblay kids some of the times is harder, but they are the ones that give you much more satisfaction!!! FRANCE AUGUST 2010 I want to highlight the social relevance of the centre (…) twenty years ago under the Communist regime every form of association was forbidden and in this rural area a meeting and social point (especially for people who experienced problems) seems totally inexistent, obviously among adult and elderly people. The foundation has this function for the people who take part into the activities, according to me. ROMANIA APRIL 2010

The intermediate stage of the experience, which is the ‘full stretch’ phase, points out the

volunteers’ ability to become active subjects experiencing a completely new situation. Fundamental is the volunteer’s adaptability, an open-minded attitude towards new, different situations, an opening towards different cultures. The volunteer’s ability in becoming protagonist of his/her own experience can be inferred from the proposition and planning capacity that the volunteer can develop with respect to his/her activity and the host organisation’s, and with respect to the more organisational aspects. Succeeding in this circumstance can fill volunteers with satisfaction and they can even give a new meaning to their whole experience.

Now the situation is clear and I think everything ended up well, eventually (…) I think this is a good diary page to tell you what I had to go through, the fears of not knowing were to go and the unpleasant misunderstandings occurred with the German partner, I hope it’s clear that we didn’t wreck the apartment, we left it perfect, e we didn’t mess around with the owner or the person in charge, and the fear I betray is because I want to stay here. I understood that talking with my mentor asking for help makes no sense, because he slams the door to your face, he wants no problems, but if I have practical suggestions, as I did, and he just has to say yes or no, I can solve the situation. GERMANY AUGUST 2010

By this time three months have passed by… if I have to draw some mid-term conclusions, I can tell it was not easy at all but I’m proud I got till here!!!...now they’ve adopted me!!!...and also in the nearby town they know me as the Italian!!!... FRANCE JULY 2010

I’m sad that many people don’t get till the end of this opportunity we were given…I had hard times, too…Francesco’s remarks on the life we can run here were not encouraging at all…I don’t know…Francesco, do you want me to go back home, as well?!?!?!...anyway I won’t!!!...maybe it’s not the most social life but now I found my balance and I can live at my best!!!...plus, here every day is a challenge…and I want to win them all!!! ;-) FRANCE JUNE 2010

At school I’m promoting some activities such as the Italian course and, above all, I suggested one that horrified the parents: making a horror movie with 7-10 year old kids…HAHAHA…I’m still laughing at the kid’s parents and my chef’s faces… but I did it on purpose: in France children have so many restrictions, among which they’re forbidden to watch horror movies. Then, I though of a provocation (…) I wrote an awesome project called “Horror movies, between likely and unlikely” (obviously in French) and they all congratulated me, as I made no mistakes. Basically, the project motivation was the children’s misunderstanding between what is real and unreal.. thus, I won all the parents’ sympathy and they promptly gave me the permission!!! FRANCE MARCH 2010

In addition to the already planned activities, our mentor and I are already thinking to organise a cineforum, even though some logistic problem may arise, and produce a movie on the association and the city from the foreign volunteers’ perspective. POLAND MARCH 2010

Our idea, which we’re already working on, was that of briefly analysing the volunteering situation in our host city (and perhaps the whole region). Would it be useful for the research? POLAND APRIL 2010

We’re also thinking about organising, as requested by Monica, a night to promote the Italian culture and every two weeks on Thursday we take part into the SPRAK Kafe… to let the Italian students in Åmål speak a bit with us. SWEDEN MARCH 2010

Personal initiative had an influence on the research, as well. In several occasion, still pointing

out the difficulties in progressing with the research, the volunteers had to actively participate in the translation of documents or the creation and arrangement of survey tools. With this respect, in spite of the evident language difficulties of some of them, the volunteers always made their best to overcome any practical problem which may occur. While in other circumstances remarks or help requests did arise, with this respect all the volunteers found normal to make it their own way. Sometimes, it was also an occasion for mutual support between the Amicus volunteers who did not seem to communicate very frequently via blog (we then became aware that they were using other communication channels and conferred the blog a certain official consideration for diaries and research).

Several associations involved the volunteers not only for the activities planned by their centres and the implementation of new services, but also enforced the research activity scheduled by Amicus (even though it took a while before everyone deeply understood Amicus’ goals and contents, which was surely facilitated by the mid-term visit of the trainers) and the “European” competencies of the volunteers; beside being interested in the volunteers’ research (an interest shared only by a few partners), some associations involved the Italian people in European planning activities, such as Youth in Action projects, with the search of Italian partners o EVS accreditation.

The closing phase of their stay abroad was quite short for everyone, and left on the blog considerations typical of a moment of detachment and reflection, but also happiness to come back home.

Despite all the hard times, I’m a bit sad of leaving Romania, it’s been six intense months, in a completely unusual, different way compared to what would have been at my place: different relationship times, the socially accepted flexibility of the rules, a total rearrangement of the spare time compared to my habits, these are the things I bring back home with me, made special by the memories of those faces which supported me in this experience. ROMANIA AUGUST 2010 MAMMA SON TANTO FELICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE PERCHE’ RITORNO DA TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE what a good feeling, being about to finish this stay of mine =) The idea I’ve been away for such a long time without seeing my relatives, friends, makes me proud of myself. At the same time, though, I have 15000 things to do at once, especially concerning the research. Meanwhile, I’m thinking about all the children who will cry once they know I’m leaving. I’ve opted for the “white lies” technique…I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I can’t see them hurt…and then time heals all wounds. Kids leaving on holidays tell me: ”See you in September!!!” and I say: ”Off course”, but I’m feeling a pang while I’m saying it… but, talking with the bosses, I was advised to lie, and that’s what I’m doing, regretfully. Well, every time you leave, something’s left behind.. now I’m focussing only on the pros of my departure, but I know, as soon as I leave this town which hurt/taught me so much, something will be missed… FRANCE JULY 2010

I’m here in Berlin, only 14 days to the end of the project. And I don’t want to go back… here I’m doing great, and since I have my new beautiful room I really feel like home… I lived a hard time in Berlin, but now I’m seeing the results, at work everyone loves me and I’m the mascot of the team. GERMANY SEPTEMBER 2010

Now I’ve less than a month left and I’m still wondering how time could go so fast, despite the boring moments were many and so were the hard times, I think I’m happy with the occasions and work I had here and sharing a part of my journey with many people willing to change and improve a country where there are many difficulties to discourage any good intentions and a great desire of running away. ROMANIA SEPTEMBER 2010

Beside the theoretical pathway we have just described, some cross-cutting elements can be

pointed out as relevant for the overall experience of the volunteers: the intensity of connections and, as a condition or consequence, the language knowledge.

Language is only briefly mentioned with reference to its taken-for-granted but fundamental importance for an effective integration in the social context. The ones who experienced more problems, due to a late start-up of the training courses or for the actual difficulty of learning an idiom that radically differs from their mother tongue, also encountered slightly more difficulties in getting integrated in the social context and totally enjoy the experience. Obviously, each one dealt with the situation by using their personal skills, adaptability and specific capabilities to respond to the situation, but surely this is a factor which cannot be left behind in reading an international experience such as that of the Amicus programme.

Social connections (with the Amicus colleagues, with other volunteers, with the mentors, with the coordinating team, with the population, with other visitors, etc.) are the centre of the experience, as it can be assumed from the diaries. Often the relationships represented the real motivation to succeed, to go on in spite of any difficulty, as well as the lack of connections and loneliness, were the cause, maybe unconscious, of some withdrawals. The volunteers drew from their relations a real sense of the experience, both as support to their activities and outcome of their efforts.

The posts representing this matter are many and a selection is necessary:

Joking apart, the families are really special and are strong reference points. For instance, families have internet access…they are my saviours… Plus, if one night I don’t feel like eating by myself, I need advice, if I need to talk, etc. I know where to go! In my first family, the mother teaches Italian in high school, thus, if I want to speak fluent Italian sometimes, I can! We are a mutual dictionary! FRANCE FEBRUARY 2010 Today I had a lot of fun!!! That’s the title of a great day!!! A beautiful celebration of elderly people, well done!!! Today indeed is the happening that the old people wait for the whole year in the centre where I work!!! The “elderly people’s day” GERMANY JUNE 2010

The July colony is over… I didn’t imagine it would have been so sad!!!...in the end, you live together for one whole month, you see them all day, every day (yes, I work only in the morning, but living in the colony I see them all day long) and suddenly you don’t see them anymore and you’ll never see them again… 8( FRANCE AUGUST 2010 I think it’s the most liveable capital city in Europe, to a 20-year old guy coming from Genoa it’s a continuous discovery, and I think every one can find their own dimension here. GERMANY JUNE 2010

At the foundation the activities went back to full standards and with a large turnout. In addition, my improvements in the Romanian language allow me to have funny conversations with the people attending the centre, who are becoming very friendly and help me in learning new words, plus they’re very patient in conversation. ROMANIA APRIL 2010

The reference context, as well, has a connection with the relational issue. There is a noticeable

difference, indeed, between integration within a small, maybe rural, town and a wide urban area, for their different opportunities. The volunteers who experienced difficult moments in Barcelona or Berlin had a possibility to escape the initial integration problems in the many social, cultural and social opportunities offered by the city. Despite the fact that in small cities it is easier to access and get to know the community, in most cases this element was not enough to promote the development of social connections. The feeling of loneliness, which probably all of them experienced sometimes, was exacerbated in very small places with few inhabitants and few opportunities of social relationships, so that some volunteers decided to withdraw from the project.

Lastly, a consideration on the research, which has been an occupation and a big concern at the same time. Since the pre-departure training, they all understood the importance of the Amicus project and their primary role as researchers on the field, and almost all of them dealt with the topic of volunteering and civic service since the very first weeks, even before they pointed out the practical research objects.

Many of their first posts highlighted the first remarks on the issue of volunteering and civic service in the host country, often showing a relevant and focused summary:

I was told many times that: a- in France civic service doesn’t exist, because they tried to give young people this chance, but was a total failure. Why????? b- because people see a contradiction between voluntary work, which is unpaid by definition, and civic voluntary work, which is considered as an alternative job… now, let me be clear, what should my task be?? Investigate some inexistent issue ghostbuster-style? =) I was told they’re trying to restart the civic service under a new name, but they don’t know when… FRANCE FEBRUARY 2010 Civic service doesn’t exist anymore, because recently military service stopped being compulsory; therefore, at the moment, in Poland there’s only the figure of unpaid spontaneous volunteer (like the French benevolat, I mean). POLAND MARCH 2010

…in Slovakia there’s only one law concerning voluntary work (Law 5/2004) which explains that during the Communist regime the idea of volunteering could not exist. Now I’ll look for more information concerning this first considerations. SLOVAKIA MARCH 2010 With respect to civic service in Spain, we understood that a pilot project was implemented last year, by the government of Catalunya. It was also sponsored by our organisation. At a national level, a similar project doesn’t exist, but we cannot assume that it hasn’t been implemented in other autonomous regions. SPAIN APRIL 2010

At a first glance, voluntary work seems organised in a different way compared to Italy, there’s a prevalence of organisations connected more closely to the state or, alternatively, the initiative of the individual who performs a public service for a smaller or bigger group. SWEDEN MARCH 2010

All the volunteers’ groups soon committed to do the research and, as for the integration in the

host country, they spent a certain amount of start-up time also to point out the research issues and schedule their work, which then was built up thanks to the dialogue between the coordinating team and the volunteers themselves.

The experience told in the diaries has a wide variety of perspectives; the Amicus project, with its typical features – communion of service and research, training as a moment for growth and evaluation, voluntary service in different realities – gave a gratifying, though demanding, opportunity to those who were able to seize it and overcome the different personal and peculiar difficulties which are frequent in complex projects.

AMICUS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS15

Beside the study on voluntary work and civic service on the basis of the regulation in force and other sources, the young volunteers made two different surveys with semi-structured questionnaires. The first, which concerned France only, was involved French people and recorded the possible interest and involvement with regard to the new Civic Service.

The second survey, which was carried out by volunteers in the other countries, instead, meant to point out the features and motivations which were behind other youngsters that were involved in a voluntary or civic service programme abroad.

By studying the socio-structural information which come up from the questionnaire, it is possible to determine an overall picture of the young foreign “colleagues” with whom the Amicus volunteers got in touch with.

On a total of 55 interviewees, the average age is 26.05 with a trend of 22 (9 people), a maximum peak of 75 year-old and a minimum of 19 in 3 volunteers; most people are under 24.

15 This chapter was written by Beba Molinari.

Sex ratio shows a prevalence of women (38 a.v.) compared to men (17 a.v.). Girls are also younger: by the intersection of age and gender variables, we can notice six 22-year old and five 23-year old female volunteers.

The sample is composed by volunteers who are doing their service mostly in Sweden and Romania, namely 18 and 11, who constitute half of the total volunteers (55%), followed by Spain with 6 volunteers (11%) and a set of single presences spread in the remaining countries (2%).

Nationality distribution Units Poland 2 Germany 3 Estonia 1 Romania 11 Sweden 18 Spain 6 United Kingdom 1 France 1 Denmark 1 Luxemburg 1 Hungary 1 Netherlands 1 United States of America 1 Italy 4 Not available 1

With respect to the trend in marital status distribution, there is a clear prevalence of single

women that are almost 67%, with only 5 married volunteers and one divorced; these data are particularly relevant especially when compared to the 49 singles in total, which are 89% of the overall number without considering the gender difference.

The education level is quite homogeneous in consideration of the sample’s average age of 26: only one volunteer has a high school certificate (1.8%) while 16 people have a high school diploma (29.1%), 23 volunteers have a degree (41.8%) and 2 have a post-graduate degree, PhD or MA (3.6%).

Considering the educational level and distribution, the study on the pre-departure working positions shows that 38.2% of the volunteers are students (21 a.v.), followed by full-time workers by a 12.7 percentage points margin.

The present working position experienced some changes compared to the pre-departure situation: 27.3% of the volunteers declares to be students, thus highlighting a decrease of 10.9 percentage points. The workers’ number decrease as well (both full- and part-time), with an increase of unemployed (from 9.1% to 23.6%). It is not possible to determine if the situation occurred as a consequence of the departure or if the volunteer, being aware of the possibility of losing his/her position, decided to take part in a volunteering experience of this kind.

Employement position before the service

Frequency Percentage

Valid Full-time workers 14 25,5

Part-time workers 4 7,3

Occasional or seasonal worker 4 7,3

Student 21 38,2

Working student 4 7,3

In search of the first job 3 5,5

Unemployed 5 9,1

Total 55 100,0

Current employment position


Valid Full-time workers 11 20,0

Part-time workers 1 1,8

Occasional or seasonal worker 8 14,5

Student 15 27,3

Working student 2 3,6

In search of the first job 5 9,1

Unemployed 13 23,6

Total 55 100,0

59% of the volunteers (32 a.v.) was already involved in associative contexts in the past and

40.4% (21 a.v.) considers the activity coherent with his/her own educational history. A peak of 22 volunteers considers their activities quite coherent, while only 7 volunteers think that the activities they are involved with are very distant from their studies.

With regard to the motivations, we chose to consider the elements which characterised the choice of such a path. As a premise, out of the 55 volunteers, 74.5% (41 a.v.) was put into the structure through international programmes, mainly EVS; also, the volunteer’s participation in a programme determines his/her mission in the host country, defyning the targets and action modalities. Therefore, it is likely that the commitment to a specific programme already reflects personal motivations. In our case, as it is shown in the following graphs, 63.6% (35 a.v.) of the volunteers made this choice to progress in their education, 20% (11 a.v.) to carry out an activity and only 7.3% (4 a.v.) to live an enriching life experience.

The motivations to start this journey are many, but among them all the emerging typologies are the need to test their education/professional skills (29.1% - 16 a.v.), the will to help people in need (21.8% - 12 a.v.) and sharing an experience with other people (20% - 11a.v.).

The cross-analysis of the data concerning values and motivations shows tolerance among the values identified as first choice (29 a.v.), followed by responsibilities (18 a.v.) and a set fluctuating between 15 and 13 regarding: skills, participation and solidarity.

It is clear that tolerance is fundamental in multi-ethnical environments like civic service/volunteering organisations where the volunteers worked.

The associative experience did not have any influence on the volunteer’s political ideas or friendships, which gathered 65.5% and 50.9% of the preferences16, while it slightly affected the daily family life for a 36.4%.

This number is partly confirm by the fact that volunteers are very confident in their families (56.6% - 30 a.v.), while they are quite careful in the relationships with entrepreneurs (54.7% - 29 a.v.) or colleagues (52.8% - 28 a.v.). Some sort of distrust of the politicians (37.7% - 20 a.v.) is shown, data confirmed by the suspicion of the volunteers towards public officers as well (31.4% - 21 a.v.).

16 This percentage was calculated by adding the negative answers “none” or “small” which had an incidence of 30.9% and 34.5% regarding political ideas, and 14.5% and 36.4% regarding friendships.

66.7% (34 a.v.) of the volunteers declares they are remunerated for their job and, according to 52.6% (20 a.v.) of them, remuneration is essential for the progress in the chosen pathway.

From the analysis of the distribution of the association’s areas of intervention, social assistance and education are the sectors which show the highest percentage, 33.3% and 29.4%, followed by other groups that are at a distance of 10 percentage points. The territorial reference framework is mainly related to the city council level 30.9% (17 a.v.), the activities are focussed on the users’ needs (45.4%, 25 a.v.) and involve the volunteers for an average 25.7 hours a week.

Users of the organisation


Members 4 8,0

External users 25 50,0

External members and users 7 14,0

Public institutions 5 10,0

Others 9 18,0

Total 50 100,0

Not available 5 Total 55

The most interesting aspect of the experience is the emotional participation of the volunteers in the users’ experiences (28.3% - 15 a.v.), followed by the opportunity of having a real work experience (24.5% - 13 a.v.). This aspect is particularly important considered the average age and education level of the sample, thus we may assume that the volunteers testes their educational and professional skills in their commitment for the associations.

The volunteers’ considerations on the reasons which encouraged them to start such an experience, are strictly connected both to their personal and professional fields. In consideration of this last remark, 23 volunteers (43.4%) almost agree on the idea that, with this experience, they are improving their abilities to work in team and acquire specific skills which could be useful for future work experiences (36.4% - 20 a.v.)17.

With respect to the personal and relational sphere, 20 volunteers (37.7%) agreed with the idea that such an experience improves social skills and brings more awareness and knowledge of realities which diverge from the one to which they belong (38.5% - 20 a.v.) and almost agree to the idea that such an experience can facilitate the development of a more responsible and mature attitude in the volunteers (41.5% - 22 a.v.)18.

The remaining values are in general agreement with a great civic consciousness (28.3% - 15), and a greater attention and knowledge of the territory (23.1% - 12) and to improve their own managerial skills (28.3% - 15 a.v.)19.

The overall evaluation on the experience is unequivocal, most volunteers gave a positive judgement, reaching indeed almost the total of the sample, with a percentage of 94.2% including those who surely (69.2%) or probably (25%) would do the same choice again.

17 The percentages refer to the trends of the single variables, referring to the five possible answers. 18 Idem. 19 Idem.

Considering the peculiarities of such an experience, the volunteers who would recommend the service to a friend are 88.5% with a divergence of 6 percentage points to the previous value; nonetheless, the overall evaluation given by the volunteers on a scale of 1 to 10, is 8, where the median and the mode have the same value.

Would you recommend this experience to a friend?

Total Surely Maybe Probably not Not at all Would you make the same choice again? Surely 31 3 1 0 35

Maybe 8 3 2 0 13

Probably not 0 0 1 1 2

Not at all 0 1 0 0 1 Total 39 7 4 1 51

The survey carried out in France

Processing the questionnaires which Bianca and Adolfo administered to young French can offer some considerations on the level of knowledge concerning civic service and the recently modified regulation.

The 66 young French who answered the questionnaires are mostly men (53% - 46 a.v.). The age distribution shows that the under-16 group is quite small, only 19.7% (of which 6 men and 7 women), while the age group 19-25 represents a 48.5% (of which 18 men and 14 women), an intermediate percentage is covered by the group 17-19 that is the remaining 31.8% (11 men and 10 women).

With regard to the knowledge of the recently established civic service, 27 young, slightly less than half the sample, declared they know civic service (40.9%), while 29 show their absolute disinformation about the topic (42.4%) and 11 do not answer the question (16.7%).

From the intersection of this variable with the gender variable there are not major changes to the above described trend; nonetheless, it is remarkable that the pattern is equally distributed not only with respect to the gender, but also to the different answer modalities available.

The principal information means which gave young people the opportunity to get to know about civic service were word of mouth (51.4%) and the information provided by the volunteering organisations themselves (31.4%), where we can assume that some of them (12 a.v.) already had the chance to listen to the stories and the impressions of the people who had already done or were doing a period of voluntary work.

More than half the sample (63.8% - 37 a.v.) considers civic service a useful opportunity to test their skills and for this reason 32 people already started some voluntary activities in the past, in opposition to 33 who declared their total indifference to this kind of actions.

Do you think civic service is a good opportunity?

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The most popular sector is education (37.5%), even though the trend has many missing

answers (34 a.v.). Probably, such a feature is not due to a total indifference to civic service, but to the lack of information about the available activities and sectors. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that the value is in line with the number of people who do not have any knowledge concerning civic service (28 a.v.).

With reference to the trend of continuance of these activities, data shows that 8 men and 6 women have been doing some form of voluntary activity for more than 2 years. In case they were asked to do a period of civic service in the organisation where they already volunteered, 10 volunteers out of 27 gave a positive response.

Would you do civic service in the same voluntary organisation?


In the same 4 14,8

In another organisation 5 18,5

It does not matter 10 37,0

I would not do civic service 8 29,6

Total 27 100,0

Not available 39 Total 66

It is interesting to highlight that the fact of having volunteered is indifferent to the awareness

about civic service; in effect, the distribution of the answers concerning the knowledge about civic service was the same for those who volunteered already and those who did not.

The sub-sample of young who already volunteered in some association shows a coherence between voluntary activities and qualifications in 13 volunteers (58.1%), while other 18 people (41.9%) did have a negative opinion on this respect.

There is a certain degree of mismatching between the last variable and gender difference: 8 young women out of 12 declared the relation of the activities with their qualifications, while 14 young men out of 19 have a completely opposite opinion.

Like the survey on the overall group of volunteers resident in the other countries, in this case too as well the motivation which push young people to start a civic service path are closely related to the feeling of being useful to other people (25 a.v.) and have a real work experience (15 a.v.). The monetary issue is important in 31 out of 65 volunteers, but not determining the actual commitment to the service. In effect, 26 young out of 65 declare they would have started civic service even if unpaid, opposite to 21 who would not do it at all or 18 who do not express any preference.

The importance given to this phenomenon by the young is evident in the cross-analysis of the data concerning those who would do the civic service anyway and the recommendation of the service to a friend. 20 people not only would do the service even if unremunerated, but also recommend the experience to other people.

The trend of this variable confirms the importance of civic service among young people: the

vast majority of the interviewees would recommend it and, for the first time, there is an inverted trend between the “No” and “I do not know”, namely, 4 and 17 cases, so that young people prefer not to give any preference rather than express a clearly negative response.

Most people, namely 82% of the sample, declare their preference to go on a civic service period abroad, without noticeable gender differences: 12 men and 14 women gave a positive response, while 13 men and 8 women are not interested. Interestingly, a remarkable number of people, 9 men and 9 women, do not adopt a particular stance.

Would you go on a civic service period abroad?

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The overall evaluation is definitely positive: 91% (58 a.v. out of 64 answers) of the young

people interviewed consider civic service as a strong point, an experience to live and share with the others.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS The European Union, since its foundation, with the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992 by the twelve member states of the European Economic Community, always looked beyond its borders and tried to overcome local realities of the time. Since then, member states have become twenty-seven, with the addition of many Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia), the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Austria, Cyprus, Malta, Finland, Sweden. Wider borders include several populations, ethnic groups, histories. Social and cultural differences between the countries are huge: the different systems of volunteering and Civic Service are a clear sign, because they concretely represent active citizenship, citizens’ aptitude in getting organised, using their resources and energies, directing their actions by choosing between multiple approaches and strategies; all with the goal of having an active, responsible role in overcoming the faults of public administrations and generally developing the public interest (Arcidiacono, 2007). Interactions between voluntary work, Civic Service and Welfare state can, therefore, open various scenarios, as many as the European Union member states. The research element included in Amicus, in spite of its limits, concerned such relevant issues and made researchers and volunteers, as well as mentors, third sector operators, local organisations’ representatives and trainers in eight European countries, discuss on ideas and practices which encourage participation in democratic life and contribute to the creation of shared citizenship values.

Studying voluntary work and Civic Service on the basis of young volunteers’ experiences has also been an interesting methodological challenge: a different way of doing social research, which brought us back to the origin of our work. Volunteerism is a relatively young subject in sociological research, but it goes back to the deepest values of our society. It challenges the ancient juxtaposition between unselfishness and selfishness, individual and society, self interest and interest of community, and more.

Voluntary work is located at the intersection between primary (kinship, neighbourhood) and secondary sociality (great networks of belonging), and tries to satisfy the needs, more and more varied and numerous, which both state and market cannot please. This means, however, that voluntary system strongly depends on the dimension and peculiarities of the family, on the one hand, and the welfare state, on the other hand, without forgetting the often underestimated role of the market. Same can be said of Civic Service, which however presents other peculiarities, such as traditional nonviolent defence of the home country and strong connection with state authority and common good.

Both social practices are based on a voluntary choice (there is no European country where Civic Service is compulsory, even though this has been a controversial issue, sometimes). Voluntary work and Civic Service imply freedom of choice: a conscious decision made to perform a solidarity practice. It all starts with a motivation that, as Aristotle used to say in its Nicomachean Ethics, “choice is the desire that reasons and reason that desires”. Therefore, a choice which creates a circularity between reason and passion and “makes every effort to make a value concrete” (Stein E., 2001).

The Italian word volontà, which comes from the Latin voluntas, originated the word volontariato (voluntariat in Romanian, voluntariado in Spanish, etc.), but strangely the English word will did not produce the word volunteerism, which was only later loaned from French. In German and Swedish, though, the term volunteerism is made up of two terms, one referring to will and the other one meaning free, creating the word freiwilligenarbeit (frivilligverksamhet in Swedish). Slavonic languages, as well as English, keep the Latin-French root (e.g. wolontariacie in Polish, volonterstvo in Croatian, ()*)+,-./012 in Serbian, dobrovo3níctvo in Slovakian and 4)5.)()*67-8,(2 in Russian, which add to the idea of will the word “good”). A free choice, then,

which is based on the will to operate for common good, within the community, with specific traditions which belong to it. French is the only language which made a further distinction, conveying the idea of volunteerism with the words volontariat or bénévolat. The first word highlights the will, while the second term, which is most used and frequent, pays more attention to the gratuity and the orientation towards a common goal. Apart from the linguistic differences, volunteerism is often defined according to social and historical issues: as we noticed, in some countries such as Poland and Romania, legislation deliberately emphasises in its definition the idea of free choice (juxtaposed to the traditional definition of volunteering as an activity comparable to military service, given during the Communist regimes) and equality tool, open to all social classes and ethnic groups (the reference to minorities is explicit, especially in the case of Romania).

It is no accident that the European Union itself declares: “A common definition of volunteerism is hard to find, because the understanding of voluntary service radically differs from one country to another and according to traditions and cultures. In general, we can say that the word etymology refers to a work done by free will and not by obligation, assuming that the volunteer is a person who chooses to perform an activity for personal realisation purposes and humanitarian values, and not for economic grants”.

VOLUNTEERISM AND WELFARE European volunteerism realities are extremely varied, as we already said. It is the differences, in effect, which were the leitmotiv of both documental and bibliographical sources provided to the volunteers before their departure, and their research efforts, as well as the final considerations concerning the Amicus project.

During the centuries, historical and political factors, as well as religious and social issues, brought to the creation of completely different systems in the various nations. In some countries, volunteerism is considered what Stebbins (2004) defines as an agreeable obligation, because it is integrated within a framework where not only volunteering is socially accepted, but even considered an obligation of the citizen; in other countries, such as Eastern Europe or even Great Britain, voluntary work can be seen with suspicion or indifference as it is not yet a common behaviour. In other cases, such as in presence of strong welfare systems like the Swedish one, volunteering is a marginal activity, which attains only specific fields, as the welfare already looks after the social sector.

In Europe only, the welfare systems are many: literature (in particular, Trigilia C., 2009) divides them into four major models: the first, called institutional-reallocational, is characterised by a universal distribution of the rights, because it comes from the idea of universal equality of the citizens’ civilian and political rights. Thanks to a very high level of public expenditure, associated with an appropriate fiscal policy, the State delivers to the citizens an amount of services in health, social, educational and occupational (in accordance with trade unions) sectors. Sweden has been the major model of this system since 1948, and has often been defined as a more human and successful form of capitalism and thus a model for other countries to emulate (Freeman R.B., Swedenborg B., Topel R., 2010). In fact, only few other countries (Norway, Denmark, Finland) followed this example.

The opposite welfare model to the previous one is called residual: in this case, the coverage of the citizens’ risks is marginal and the beneficiaries are only restricted social groups, generally the poorest. The level of public expenditure is very low, while social fragmentation is elevated, with many advocacy groups and trade unions, which normally are the reason of such fragmentation, feeble and poorly structured. The reference country on this occasion is the United States. In Europe such a system has never been applied so radically, even though in the ‘80s the so-called

Reaganomics tried to import it in Great Britain as much as possible, keeping universal services only in the health sector.

Continental Europe has a third reference model (which was divided into two separate paradigms, later on) that is called remunerative. The main beneficiaries of the services are not all the citizens or disadvantaged people, but the workers, who are then divided in socio-occupational levels corresponding to different, progressive contributory brackets. The countries using this model are mainly Germany and France (as well as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic). A significant distinction compared to the Mediterranean European system, where there is no basic social protection for people who are at the fringes of, or do not take part in the job market. In these countries, the care function is mainly carried out by families, women in particular (especially with respect to elderly people and children). Italy represents a peculiar case, because the role of the family and woman has so much relevance in care services, that even modified their role in the job market; plus, the corporative system representing various interests often produces a great amount of social conflict.

Different story is that of Civic Service, which is interconnected to the different forms of government and idea of volunteering. Also in this respect, European countries have different origins, conceptions and institutions, which are hardly ever comparable. Only as a piece of information, we report a chart of the situation of the countries involved in the project and Italy, as described by the volunteers.

Compulsory military service in national history

Compulsory military service nowadays

Civilian service, as alternative to military service

Voluntary service exists

Voluntary service is regulated

Civic service exists

Civic service is regulated

POLAND existed doesn’t exist existed yes yes no no

ROMANIA existed suspende

d Existed, but not practiced

Yes, recently

yes no no

GERMANY existed exists exists yes yes Yes yes

SLOVAKIA existed doesn’t

exist existed Yes, recently no No no

SWEDEN existed exists exists yes yes yes no

FRANCE existed doesn’t

exist existed Yes, for a long time

yes yes (back in 2010) yes

SPAIN existed doesn’t

exist existed

yes yes

No no

ITALY existed Doesn’t

exist existed Yes, for a

long time yes

yes yes

Volunteering and civic service are included within these systems, and cover their faults and inconsistencies, responding to those needs which the welfare cannot meet yet. All this is associated with traditions and histories which make every country a unique element with respect to its modalities of relationship, solidarity and citizenship.

VOLUNTEERING FROM ITALY TO EUROPE, AND BACK Despite the preliminary remarks of the pre-departure training already pointed this issue out, all the Amicus volunteers reported the challenge of being immersed in a reality totally different from the Italian background, whenever they did their experience. In our country, in effect, volunteerism has a long-term tradition and a complex, articulated relationship with the welfare system.

Nonetheless, volunteering in Italy is undergoing a phase of major changes: only ten years ago, volunteerism was mainly based on young male volunteers, with a high educational

background, associations were strongly influenced by ideologies and linked to institutions such as parties, unions, the Catholic church etc. Nowadays, the situation is different. A polarisation of the associations is occurring, which are either very big or very small. Small organisations tend to become even smaller, often originating due to a separation (most times without agreement) between the volunteers. As suggested by the 2006 Biannual Report on Voluntary Activities in Italy, many associations are “presidential associations”, based on a charismatic person, who often is not young anymore, which in fact prevent young personalities from emerging. In spite of the traditional distinction between “red” and “white” associations in Italy, the connection to traditional institutions tends to become weaker, with the emergence of associations which have goals without strong political connotations such as consumer rights protection, environmental and food sustainability, etc. Volunteerism itself seems to be less powerful: young people choose to spend their time in different ways and associations have to deal with this shortage with paid, high skilled workers.

Surely, volunteerism is still strongly rooted in Italian society: fortunately, it is widespread especially in the northern regions, where it still has a key role in health and social care. Young people’s motivations, though less and less influenced by political parties and trade unions, are still characterised by a high degree of unselfishness (Rossi G., Boccacin L., 2006), even though other motivations, more instrumental, arise such as the acquisition of competencies and skills which can hardly be learnt in more formal contexts.

Considered this complex background, the young volunteers who participated in the Amicus programme had to face the composite realities of the host countries. There, they put into practice a research which initially had been only suggested by the research coordination team: at first, volunteers were asked to produce an excursus on the regulation in the host countries (both on volunteering and Civic Service), then they had to work autonomously to analyse peculiar features or interview personalities whom they found particularly interesting in the host context, with our methodological and scientific support.

The freedom of action was mitigated by the possibility to find reference figures that could quickly give an answer to their questions and ideas, via the blog. In some circumstances, this freedom seemed to have caused some uncertainties, as most volunteers at the beginning were most focussed on the possible interviews rather than trying to understand deeply the volunteering situation in the host country. Everything was then interconnected to the personal situation of the volunteer’s integration and commitment to the service (which was not the one agreed at the beginning of the project, in some cases).

The volunteers, nonetheless, successfully overcame the first difficulties and the mid-term visit of the trainers proved to be really positive for some of them. On these occasions, we tried to have videoconference meetings, so that the volunteers had the opportunity to speak together with the trainer, on their side, and the researchers, thus clarifying certain aspects which were not discussed adequately through the blank page of the blog. Also in this respect, the countries presented different situations, but in general we can say the research activity had a great increment from may, and the volunteers were able to find useful documents, precious witnesses and important indications, so that they understood many initially controversial aspects.

In some occasions, such as in Sweden and Poland, volunteers were strongly supported in their research activities by the local mentors and this helped their work, which already had a good basis thanks to specific competences of the volunteers themselves. In other countries, like Slovakia, France and, to a less extent, Romania, the peculiar shortage of information available, plus the distance from the capital or key centres, complicated the duty. With specific reference to Spain, the volunteers, very absorbed by their service and not particularly supported by their local mentors, did not have the chance and time to make the best use of their skills and deepen many aspects of the research which rose their interest from the start.

The overall picture provided by the volunteers is, nevertheless, wide, composed and rich: in some cases, further investigations were provided and may be useful for more reflections.

Growing through experience and connections Young people who took part in Amicus had the opportunity to build themselves a considerable part of their volunteering paths. They could choose (in most cases) the country or the type of project, and, once arrived, they shaped their personal and/or group experience on their aptitudes, personality and skills. It seems that most volunteers experienced successful participation thanks to their personal commitment in the process:

successful participation

connection

challenge

capacity

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According to the well-known three Cs of successful participation, young people have to

acknowledge in the experience a challenging element to overcome their limits. The challenge, however, does not have to be insurmountable, otherwise it might cause the withdrawal from the project or frustration, which will lead to withdrawal eventually. At the same time, young volunteers have to feel the opportunity to use their skills and competencies, their aptitudes, even if this can be quite a controversial area since the individuals have not had the chance yet to test their abilities. Another aspect pointed out by Jans and De Backer concerns the availability of connections: young people have to feel a connection compatible with their world.

Challenges, relationships, opportunities, surely characterised the Amicus experience, which was well balanced in terms of the three Cs, despite some cases when the volunteers have not been able to face or overcome some difficulties. The withdrawals seem to correspond to this picture, for instance, in particular those of the Finnish group, which came back to Italy only after few weeks in Kristiansund. Despite the fact that they had made a free choice concerning the destination and were aware of the peculiarities of the city, once they realised the scarce relational opportunities in the cold Baltic city, they decided to give up and come back to Italy soon. The other withdrawals had different reasons: on one occasion, the volunteer was offered an MA, while in the other case the volunteer, after some months of serene commitment, had some troubles with the local staff and had to come back to Italy, also due to major concerns.

Apart from specific situations, unavoidable in projects of the kind, it is needed to make some serious considerations on the possibility of selecting volunteers by the major partner. It is an

important aspect, because withdrawals are a criticality of the project: if the volunteer abandons the project in an advanced stage, it prevents substitution with potential candidates, and anyway can prevent an effective participation as the combinations are obligatory. Matching the volunteers’ capacities and interests with projects and destinations is a fundamental issue; unfortunately, the project’s schedule and experimental approach did not permit a full implementation of this aspect: Amicus is a new programme and partners had scarce mutual awareness: they had never worked together in previous experiences and, in some cases, the reality the volunteers found was not corresponding to the one presented during the first meeting.

Most Amicus volunteers were from Liguria, but also from other regions: very few of them knew each other previously, most of them met at the initial training for the first time. After their departure, they had the chance to keep in touch very often, in formal way through the blog, but also with other very popular tools such as social networks (Facebook, first of all), Skype, the freeware software of instant messaging, and VoIP (Voice on Internet Protocol). Thanks to the Internet access, it was quite easy to create a familiar feeling of belonging to a community and sharing of an experience which was so diverse depending on countries and host partners. The connections between volunteers have been very frequent, as well as the interaction with the researchers has been regular and informal. This feature made the research much more effective both in its analysis of the volunteering and Civic Service system and, mostly, the account, which in most cases was rich in considerations that were much deeper than the simple account required by the weekly diary. In general, we can say that the experience of sharing, as it was hoped in planning phase, was perfectly accomplished.

TOWARDS A EUROPEAN CIVIC SERVICE From the documentation and the surveys provided, as well as the reports of the trainers-evaluators and coordinators, it is clear that the experience done by the volunteers in this project – whenever the project was carried out to the end - was gratifying, challenging and offered many items for possible considerations; it was an overall contribution to personal and, sometimes, professional growth of the individuals who were able to take some risks.

Beyond the volunteers’ experience, the project offers a picture, even if fragmented, of the real situation in which volunteering and, partly, civic service associations operate in some areas of Europe. On the background, there are some countries which still want to develop “voluntary” activities to improve their society and civilian life.

Despite the historical differences, all countries give signs of acknowledging a role in society to volunteerism; also in the societies where the social State is more advanced and leaves few open spaces. Volunteering becomes a “modern gift”, because it overcomes the distance between the community aspect of primary networks and social relations, and allows the topicality of the gift by preserving individuals and their freedom from the community constraints. Volunteering can facilitate the passage between the system of gift as private action, directed only to relatives and friends, to the gift as public action which has an influence on wide-range activities (Zamagni, 2008).

Voluntary activities, on the one hand, tend to exist as an exchange free from performance constraints, but on the other hand, are by their very nature relational interactions and, thus, bound to certain interaction rules, yet less structured. (Cossetta, 2004). This does not exclude the fact that voluntary work needs organisations and standards, as well as shared values: these guarantee the volunteers various opportunities to offer their commitment, yet their first step is being conscious of their responsibilities.

As far as volunteerism is concerned, all the examined countries presented some sort of movements of volunteering promotion and organisation, with more or less structured networks with

local and national institutions for the areas of intervention which involve the third sector. A more blurred situation pertains Civic Service.

The very idea of Civic Service necessarily refers to that of military service and its connection with values like home country and non-violence. In spite of clashing issues due to globalisation, the values related to national dimension have still a very strong influence. In this respect, despite the controversial history of conscientious objection, the Italian tradition recently found ways and areas of intervention which stress the importance on civic values and active citizenship. Regional attempts have also given a positive contribution on the field. This is a particular reference to the case of the Region of Liguria, which, by widening the catchment area, meant to join the goal of social inclusion to the growth of a more responsible citizenship20. Next step was an orientation towards issues of primary relevance in the European agenda, i.e.: sustainability, environment, social inclusion, culture, education, etc.

On this basis, a reflection on European Civic Service was brought up, together with the volunteers who took part in the project. Considerations also emerged from the overall research and account of the volunteers’ experience.

First, we can point out some organisational issues, which, beside being useful for any volunteering activity, can be a real strong point in a possible civic service, and cannot be left out. First of all, the integration of the volunteer within a project and planning of an operational project which takes into account the volunteer’s personality and commitment21. A second element, which proved to be more and more influential, is training. The Amicus project highlighted that frequent training, organised by one single subject, can help to empower the volunteer’s path and contribute to the evaluation, both of the project and acknowledged competencies of the volunteer (through the certification).

These elements are important with respect to volunteering service in a foreign country; even more important they will be in the framework of a possible European Civic Service, which assumes the exchange of volunteers in different countries, but still has to find its own peculiar identity. Thee difference between Civic Service and Volunteering should be based on an active role of political and territorial institutions. On the one hand, the concept of volunteer can originate and develop only with society (NGOs are noteworthy examples, in this respect), on the other hand, in the Civic Service Context the citizenship pathway has to recall the institutional context, with its history, traditions and specificities. Therefore, a project of European Civic Service will have to include a relevant institutional presence, which means not only a formal subscription, but also a guidance for the project themes and goals.

The present context is not ready yet to take inspiration from the strong points of national programmes and overcome the limits of National Civic Service22 in the perspective of the development of European citizenship: a factual proposal can only take into account the possible common elements which however acknowledge the value of mutual differences. The Amicus project, promoted by the Region of Liguria, pointed out that differences are still hard to overcome, but they represent the very essence of being European citizens. A European Civic Service, which is meant to be different from a transnational voluntary experience, must bear in mind the differences between countries and make full use of possible relationships and exchange, even in an institutional framework.

Again, the idea is that of networking and opening towards the ‘others’: the opportunity to choose different pathways necessarily implies a point of encounter, to meet and generate mutual trust and responsibility. Open one’s own space towards wider and wider, even if limited, frontiers where there can be room for sharing common values and opportunities. Thus, European Civic

20 See on this respect the research carried out by our group and included in Cossetta (2009). 21 Remind, on this respect, the debate, occurred among institutions dealing with international cooperation, on the predominant role of the volunteer or the project. Both elements have to be balanced, so that one part do not take over the other one. 22 Which, however, in Italy and other countries is living a controversial phase.

Service could give the opportunity to express diversity of people which are already equal in their joint effort towards the common good.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Agenzia per le organizzazioni Non Lucrative di Utilità Sociale, Il volontariato in Europa, Roma, 2008. Ambrosini M., Scelte solidali. L’impegno per gli altri in tempi di soggettivismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2005. Andronic R., Volunteer Management in Romania. An emerging practice, Review of General Management issue: 1 / 2010, pages: 71-78 Anheier H.K., Creative Philantropy, Routledge, New York, 2006. Barbetta G.P., Cima S., Le istituzioni non profit in Italia. Dimensioni organizzative, economiche e sociali, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2003. Bichi R., L’intervista biografica. Una proposta metodologica, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2002. Beck U., La società del rischio. Verso una seconda modernità, Carocci, Roma, 2000. Charmaz K., Constructing Grounded Theory. A practical guide through Qualitative Analysis, Sage, London, 2006. Dekker P., Halma L., The values of volunteering: cross cultural perspectives, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publiher, New York, 2003. Delgado P., Las cruenta de la economia social. El tercero sector in Espana, Fondaciòn ONCE, 2004. Deviren F., Babb P., Young People and Social Capital, Office for National Statistics, 2005. Fiorino Y., Polidori S., Rotondi S., Giovani e volontariato, in Osservatorio nazionale del volontariato, Rapporto biennale sul volontariato, Roma, 2005. Freeman R. B., Swedenborg B., Topel R.H., Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2010. Gaskin K., Young People and Civic Service, Institute of Volunteering Research, London, 2004. Jans M., De Backer K., Youth (-work) and Social Participation. Elemets for a practical theory, Flemish Youth Council, Bruxelles, 2001. Lauk E., Comparing Journalism Cultures After the Fall of Communism, University of Tartu, 2008. Monaci S., Scifo B., Sociologia 2.0. Pratiche sociali e metodologie di ricerca sui media partecipativi, Scriptaweb, Napoli, 2010. Osborne S. P., The Third Sector in Europe: Prospects and Challenges, Routledge, London, 2008. Pestoff V. A., A Democratic Architecture for the Welfare State, Routledge, Oxon, 2009. Petrescu I., Management social, Editura Expert, Bucarest, 2008. Rossi G., Boccacin L., Le identità del volontariato italiano, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2006. Rigman C., Volunteers in Romania: A Profile, Centrul pentru Studiul Democra!iei, Facultatea de !tiin"e Politice, Administrative #i ale Comunic$rii, Universitatea “Babe#-Bolyai”, Cluj-Napoca 2008. Silverstone R., Media, Technology and everyday Life in Europe, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2005. Stebbins R. A., Between work & leisure: the common ground of two separate worlds, The Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 2004. Stein E., Introduzione alla filosofia, Città Nuova, Roma, 2001. Tarozzi M., Che cos’è la Grounded Theory, Carocci, Roma, 2008. Tragardh L., State and civil society in Northern Europe: the Swedish model reconsidered, Berghahn books, Oxford-New York, 2007. Tremayne M., Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media, Routledge, New York, 2007. Trigilia C., Sociologia Economica, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2009. voll. 2. Williamson H., Charting the landscape of European youth voluntary activities, Council of Europe, Bruxelles, 2005.

The research, collected in this volume, was carried out by Anna Cossetta, Michela Grana and Beba Molinari (Liguria Ricerche), who constituted the research team for Amicus Regione Liguria. However, this work has been a real joint effort: many gave their contribution, with their own styles, abilities, aptitudes, and, above all, a shared enthusiasm. Special thanks to Francesco Ferrari and Mario Bozzo Costa, project planners and trainers: they were the first ones who talked about the possibility to propose the Amicus project to the European Union and laid the basis for the general planning. At first, we were a bit suspicious: the idea of being selected for the call sounded almost impossible. The response was affirmative, though, and we immediately found ways to cooperate and work together effectively. Training, evaluation and research activities had several, mutually fruitful contact points. Most considerations, here reported, are the outcome of long phone calls and chats. Despite all the political and managerial changes, the Ligurian Regional Office for Civic Service and Youth Policies managed to support us with the best hints and organisational, professional and emotional efforts, thanks to the indefatigable, incomparable Anna Doris Genesin. Special thanks to the managers Marisa Moscatelli and Giorgina Zaccaron and the counsellors Massimiliano Costa and Lorena Rambaudi, who always supported the project. Quiet, but special role is that of ARSSU, particularly Linda Lucini, Paulo Melo, Francesca Marin, who dealt with all the administrative issues with professional and sensitive aptitude; also, Alessandra Ferlenga, from Datasiel, who took care of the blog. The main actors, though, were Adolfo Franchi, Elisa Gurrieri, Bianca Roccatagliata, Federico Biamonti, Livia Pasquero, Lev Cogorno, Alessandro Tremaroli, Giulia Castagna, Francesca Cogozzo, Anna Crippa, Simone Micillo, Andrea Picollo, Irene Capozzi, Sara Pedrazzini, Valeria Cannatelli, Mario Olivo, Alessandra Campaniolo e Carmelo Danisi: these young people dedicated six months of their lives to a commitment of solidarity and this surely contributed to our growth as citizens of Europe and the world.

Documents

Civic Service