Hereunder you can find a summary of the hosting projects carried out or coordinated by Cesvov. For the complete description on the European database, you can click on the project’s number.

To know when we are looking for volunteers, keep an eye on the news section of the homepage!

• CESVOV
• SOS Malnate
  
• Comune di Malnate
• La Finestra
  
• AVIS Comunale di Varese

Host organisation: CESVOV – Centro di Servizi per il Volontariato della provincia di Varese

Project’s number: 2007-IT-179
Main themes: European Awareness – Media and communication/Youth information
Project’s duration: 7-12 months
CESVOV’s role: host organisation
How many volunteers we can host: 3

Description of the host organisation

About the project
Cesvov’s project is structured in one common part to all volunteers and three personalized and different parts related to specific area’s of activities:

Common part to all volunteers:

• Meetings with other EVS volunteers of the province of Varese (EVS-Club)
• Collaboration with the territory: weekly activities in local associations, events to promote the EVS in the local schools
• Personal project: possibility to plan, carry out and evaluate their own personal project with the support of the staff.
• Dissemination of results and follow-up: creation of a brochure about the volunteers’ experience, along with photographic or video documentation.

Apart from the common part to all volunteers, Cesvov offers three specific paths within specific area’s of activities:

• Communication, Information and Database
• Training and social report
• Promotion of volunteering and initiatives on European issues

Each volunteer will choose one path, according to his/her own motivation, experience and any previous training he/she might have had in the past. The choice of the path will be made in the selection phase and will also involve the sending organisation.

This area includes all the activities which aim to offer information, news, documentation and data about volunteering at local and national level.

• Cesvov’s news bulletin and website: writing, updating, introducing European topics, ...
• Press conferences: write press release, get in contact with the media, organise, ...
• Press clippings: collect press clippings on local and national newspapers about the non-profit sector and topics related to solidarity and to the activities we develop.
• Database on volunteering and publications: update, verify, collect data about local associations and their activities, use these data to publish a guide about volunteering in the province of Varese and help in the publication of the regional report of all Centres of Services of the Lombardy Region.
• Collaboration with the territory: collaborate with a local association that operates in the cultural and informative field.

This area includes all training courses that Cesvov carries out and/or supports in favour of volunteers of the local associations as well as all the activities that Cesvov does to report its activities towards the local community, authorities and non-profit organisations.

• Training courses held and/or supported by Cesvov: prepare didactic material, organise the course, prepare the participation certificates, update data about the participants and help to publish an annual report on training courses of Cesvov.
• Annual social report and “Carta dei Servizi”: help to collect data and write these two publications about Cesvov’s activities and services.
• Office work
• Collaboration with the territory: collaborate with local associations that already work with Cesvov on training courses.

This area includes all of Cesvov’s actions and tools that aim at encouraging the growth of the solidarity culture and at promoting initiatives of voluntary activities and reinforcing the existing ones, at local and European level.

• Events of promotion of volunteering: support in the organisation of these events
• www.go4europe.it and Eurodesk: promote youth volunteering and the opportunities given by the EU and help youth to find information about Europe.
• European Year of...: help organise conferences and seminars to disseminate relevant issues for the non-profit sector, the social solidarity and the active citizenship. Particularly, Cesvov focuses some activities and initiatives in occasion of the ”European Year of...”
• Collaboration with the territory: activities in local Informagiovani (youth information centre).

Accommodation
The volunteers are hosted in an apartment in the centre of Varese within 10 minutes walking distance from the train stations and from Cesvov’s office.

Food
The volunteers receive food vouchers for each day of work which they can use in various bars, eateries and in some supermarkets. They have an additional weekly allowance of €30.

Transport
Whenever local transport is necessary for the activities, the volunteers get refund upon presentation of the tickets.

Language course
The EVS volunteers will attend a course of Italian language which will give them at the end the opportunity to take a CILS exam (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language). If they pass this exam, they will receive an official diploma from the University for Foreigners of Siena.

Holiday
Apart from weekends, the volunteers will also get off on public holidays. Should the activities take place during the weekends, the volunteers will have two free days the following week. They will agree with the coordinator of their project as to when to take the other days off (approximately 2 days off per month that they can accumulate during the whole service).

top

Host organization: SOS Malnate

Project’s number: 2006-IT-76
Main theme: Health
Project’s duration: 10-12 months
CESVOV’s role: coordinating organization


About the host organisation
SOS Malnate is a non-profit association located in Malnate, in the province of Varese and offers services in the field of health protection. Beside the first-aid services (urgencies and emergencies, 24 hours a day), the association proposes transport services with ambulances, cars and special means of transporting. These services are designated for elderly people, disabled people and dialyzed patients. It takes care of transfers, dismissal/admissions from/to the hospital and medical visits. When some sport, social or cultural activities are organized on the territory, SOS Malnate makes available some ambulances to give assistance in case of need. The association manages also an ambulatory that offers nursing service, blood tests and specialized medical visits. Another service that SOS Malnate offers to elderly people and persons living alone is the remote assistance by phone (called "telesoccorso and teleassistance"). The staff is composed of 12 employed people. Beside them, there are 250 volunteers and 10 young people from the National Civil Service.
In 2005 SOS Malnate cooperated with the CESVOV which was hosting 2 EVS volunteers. These volunteers have had the opportunity to participate in our activities 2 mornings a week. As this was a very positive experience, SOS Malnate and the CESVOV decided to continue the collaboration in 2006 with the two new EVS volunteers. This has confirmed our wish to be also part of the EVS program as a host organization.

About the project
The EVS volunteers will be inserted in the usual activities of the association. At the beginning they will have some time to get to know the association, meet the staff and the volunteers, get used to the atmosphere and have a general view of our activities. After this period, they will organize their weekly schedule with the tutor.
First of all, the young European volunteers who will take part in our activities will discover how the health system works in Italy - it is probably different than in their country. They will take a first-aid and health education course given by an instructor certified by the Lombardy Region and the Emergency Center 118. In Italy "118" is the single number for health emergency. Thus the EVS volunteers will learn the theoretical and practical basic notions of first-aid. At the end of the course, they will receive a diploma. Besides the practical skills that they will have learned, their commitment in a social assistance association will allow the European volunteers to a personal growth and to experiences that will surely accompany them in their future.
The EVS volunteers will never be substitutes for employees or volunteers of our association. They will always and exclusively be there as a support and auxiliary person. Besides, they will not take part in the urgency and emergency services. So they will not be in contact with "difficult" patients or patients with severe pathologies. In any case, they will participate at the periodic debriefing of the transport services team with the support of a psychologist. The psychologist of SOS Malnate is anyway always available on request of the association's staff and thus also of the EVS volunteers.
The EVS volunteers will have the possibility to take part in the following activities:
1. Transport services of elderly and disabled
2. Office work
3. Organization of the association's events to promote its activities
4. Newsletter and internet site
5. Other possibilities for a personal project (for example a sensitization activity on health issues).

Accommodation
The volunteers will get accommodation at Casa Grizzetti in Malnate where volunteers hosted by CESVOV in the past years. There are two double rooms, a kitchen with living room together, a bathroom and a storage room. There are also a small terrace and a courtyard available.

Food
Volunteers will receive dinner tickets for every working day at the beginning of every month of the service. They will get also 30 euro in cash every week for other meals. They have to pay first for their expenses, collect receipts and show them at the end of the week.

Local transport
Volunteers will live and work in the same town. To go to work they can use bikes if they like. To go for a language course in Varese they need to take a train- we will refund costs of the tickets.

Language course
Two mornings a week the European volunteers will attend an Italian course in the school in Varese. At the end of the course, they will have the opportunity to take an exam that will give them, if passed, a recognised diploma of Italian as a foreign language, released by the University for Foreigners of Siena.

Holiday
Apart from weekends, the volunteers will also get off on public holidays.
Should the activities take place during the weekends, the volunteers will have two free days the following week. They will agree with the coordinator of their project as to when to take the other days off (approximately 2 days off per month).

Host organisation: Malnate Council – Cultural services and Information centre

Project’s number: 2008-IT-30
Main themes: Art and culture – Media and communication/Youth information
Project’s duration: 7-12 months
CESVOV’s role: coordinating organisation

About the host organisation

The Malnate Council is a local government that represents a community of about 16.000 inhabitants in their relations with the Italian Sate, the Lombardy Region, the Province of Varese and the international community. The Malnate Council promotes the development and the civil, social and economic progress of the community, which identity is based on cultural, historical, environmental, political and economic values. Among the services that the Council offers to its citizens, there are the Informagiovani/Informalavoro service and the Cultural Services, where the possibilities of intercultural learning and exchange are numerous.

The Informagiovani/Informalavoro service has been operating for 10 years in the fields of youth information and information on work. The aim of this service is to offer a space where the local youth and community can find information on various topics such as leisure time, work, tourism, international mobility, in particular the opportunities at European level, education, … Young people have an autoconsultation space on these subjects at their disposal. An operator is always there to help them in their research if they need it. Furthermore, the operator of Informagiovani/Informalavoro is available to give some more specific counselling, for example to foreign users, and to give individual guidance, particularly concerning school choices, professional education and job search. Besides these regular services, the Informagiovani/Informalavoro organises every year the “Salone delle Vacanze” (Holiday Fair), an initiative on summer holidays. The visitors who come to the fair can find there brochures, guides and other promotional material on numerous Italian and foreign touristic locations. This can help them decide where to go on holiday or, if they already know, it can give them ideas on what to visit, what to do, where to go out, …

Through the Cultural Services the Council wants to make available a series of cultural and recreational activities to all the inhabitants. The cultural moments, that have become by now fixed appointments, are organised in a way to involve as much as possible the local associations. Every year the Cultural Services organise, in cooperation with some of Malnate’s associations, “Estate in Villa” (Summer in the villa) which is a summer program of cultural events: concerts, cinema, theatre, dance parties, documentaries, … These events are centred on the dialogue and the encounter between genres, generations, languages and cultures. They deal with very contemporary issues such as peace, migration, popular cultures.

The council library “Adolfo Buzzi” also plays an important role in the diffusion of culture. It wishes to satisfy the population’s demand of information and documentation and to promote reading, particularly among children and young people. The Malnate Council is the head of the library system “Valli dei Mulini” that organises interlibrary lending and thus allows the people to have access more easily and more quickly to the collections of 30 council libraries of the Province of Varese, which take part in this system. Furthermore, through the project “Parole in libertà” (Words in liberty), the Council wants to bring books and the pleasure of reading to as many people as possible, targeting particularly the disadvantaged groups (elderly, disabled, blind people, …) Young volunteers organise animated readings and small plays inspired by literary works, in schools (kindergarten, elementary and middle), at elderly, blind and disabled people’s houses, in retirement homes, in day centres for young disabled people, …

About the project

The activities of the Informagiovani/Informalavoro  which VOLUNTEER 1 can take part in, after a brief training with the service’s operator, are:

1. Updating the autoconsultation material through paper material, local and national databases, guides and manuals, specialized publications, newspapers, …
2. Assisting the operator during the opening hours (“front office” activities): welcome the users of the service, guide and help them during their research, update databases, deal with the Youth Card inscriptions, promotion of initiatives in favour of youth.
3. Helping the operator during the closing time: do some specific research for the users, assist the operator during individual encounters, particularly with young people who need guidance and advice about training and education after they finish middle school.
4. Participating in the organisation of the Salone delle Vacanze: making contacts with the tourism promotion boards and offices in Italy and abroad to ask for tourist material, help in the promotion of the event (design of posters, articles on the Council’s internet site, …), set up the fair, welcome and guide the visitors. The Salone delle Vacanze gives a good opportunity for the volunteer to develop a personal project. He/she will have the possibility to set up a space in the fair, on his/her own country, region or city. If he/she wants, he/she can also make a presentation of his/her country on the inauguration day of the Salone. The organisation usually starts in December and the event takes place in April.
5. Other possibility for personal projects: organise an event to improve the Informagiovani/Informalavoro’s visibility and to get the local community more involved.

The activities of the Cultural Services which VOLUNTEER 2 can take part in, after a brief training with the service’s operator, are:

1. Participating in the organisation of “Estate in Villa”: making contacts with the local associations and agencies and evaluate their cultural propositions, set up the calendar of the events, prepare the promotional material (posters, articles on the Council’s website, …), set up the places where the events take place and be present during the events. The organisation usually starts in September and the events take place from July on.
2. Participating in the project “Parole in libertà”: make contacts with the schools, the retirement homes, the day centres for disabled people, and other entities which take part in the project, plan and organise reading sessions, animations and plays with the aim of promoting books and reading. In these activities, the volunteer will surely have the possibility to develop a personal project in which he/she will be able to express his/her own creativity.
3. Other possibility for personal projects: participate in the Salone delle Vacanze in which the volunteer will have the possibility to set up a space in the fair, on his/her own country, region or city. If he/she wants, he/she can also make a presentation of his/her country on the inauguration day of the Salone.

Accommodation

More information about accommodation will be given to the candidates in the selection phase.

Food

The volunteers will receive a weekly allowance for food.

Transport

Local transport expenses will be paid for if needed for the activities or for the Italian course.

Language course

The EVS volunteers will attend a course of Italian language which will give them at the end the opportunity to take a CILS exam (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language). If they pass this exam, they will receive an official diploma from the University for Foreigners of Siena.

Holiday
Apart from weekends, the volunteers will also get off on public holidays. Should the activities take place during the weekends, the volunteers will have two free days the following week. They will agree with the coordinator of their project as to when to take the other days off (approximately 2 days off per month that they can accumulate during the whole service).

top

Host organisation: Association La Finestra

Project’s number: 2008-IT-48
Main themes: Disability – Anti-discrimination
Project’s duration: 8-12 months
CESVOV’s role: coordinating organisation

About the host organisation
The association La Finestra (“The Window”) was constituted in 1984 with the aim of fight against social exclusion of disabled people. Initially we only organised recreational activities during public holidays. Little by little a group of volunteers and parents of disabled people was formed with a common project. The main aim of the association is the social integration of all citizens, with particular attention to persons in situation of social exclusion like disabled people, through a service of training towards autonomy. We work on increasing the capacities, reinforcing the awareness, improving the potentialities, rehabilitating and developing abilities towards autonomy. The objectives are:

• “use what you are”: personal growth and autonomy of each individual to encourage his social integration
• From “I’m here to help you” to “I’m here to work with you”: cultural change of the relational style and of the concept of disability towards a collaboration that promotes and valorises the person.

Furthermore we have tried to emphasize more and more the aspect of social and territorial integration. Our philosophy is to allow each disabled person we work with, including the ones that cannot be active in the professional sense to have visibility on the territory. That is why we try to give to each activity a public dimension and a concrete aim of participation at the social life. This openness to the territory gives us the opportunity to collaborate with other associations in order to really integrate each disabled person giving value to what he knows and what he can do.
We base our rehabilitation action on the evaluation of the abilities of each user. Our activities are organised in various workshops that aim to develop specific skills: assembly workshop, artistic and creative workshop, illustration workshop, swimming pool and gym, psychomotricity, expressive group activities, writing workshop, canteen, music activities, wood workshop, senses workshop, etc. The periodical activities of the association are: creation of Christmas decoration, sale of products made by the users, summer holidays, recreational activities, etc. Moreover the association organises cultural outings (for example the users go to see a performance at the Theatre La Scala in Milano) and sport outings (for example basket ball game with mixed teams, outing in sailboat on the lake of Varese)
Our association deals with different types of disability that can be linked to various pathologies (oligofreny, genetic syndromes, post-traumatic syndromes, etc). Our users have fragilities at physical and psychic level, and cognitive and personologic level. For the moment, La Finestra works with 50 users, aged 25 years old on average, that present a medium or medium-severe deficit.

About the project
As said above, the EVS volunteers have time at the beginning of the project to discover various workshops and get to know the educators and the users in order to define with their coordinator the activities they will take part in. The general orientation of the project will be already defined during the selection phase.

The activities in which the EVS volunteers may be involved are the following:

MANUAL ACTIVITIES

• Assembly workshop
• Artistic workshop
• Wood workshop
• Canteen

MOTOR ACTIVITIES

• Swimming pool and gym
• Psychomotricity

COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES

• Writing activities
• School subjects workshop
• Music activities
• Cineforum

RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES AND ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE ASSOCIATION

• “Two hands to help you to do the shopping”: a few users improve their social autonomy going to do grocery shopping for elderly people of Malnate.
• “Around the territory”: Within this project, some educators of La Finestra accompany a little group of users to teach them how to go around the territory (read the road signs, take public transportation, ...).
•  Cultural and sport outings: museums, art exhibitions, exhibition at the Theatre La Scala in Milan, basket-ball tournament, basket-ball “Game of the heart” that is played in mixed teams (users and athletes of the Malnate association of basket-ball), sailboat trip on the lake of Varese, ...
• Annual social party: The Festa Sociale is a moment of party, of exchange and sharing with the local community, of sale of the user’s creations, of recreational activities with the users ...
• Summer holidays: During the summer, the users spend one week in the mountains where they have great possibilities to relax, have fun, do special activities, ...

Accommodation
More information about accommodation will be given to the candidates in the selection phase.

Food
The volunteers will receive a weekly allowance for food.

Transport
Local transport expenses will be paid for if needed for the activities or for the Italian course.

Language course
The EVS volunteers will attend a course of Italian language which will give them at the end the opportunity to take a CILS exam (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language). If they pass this exam, they will receive an official diploma from the University for Foreigners of Siena.

Holiday
Apart from weekends, the volunteers will also get off on public holidays. Should the activities take place during the weekends, the volunteers will have two free days the following week. They will agree with the coordinator of their project as to when to take the other days off (approximately 2 days off per month that they can accumulate during the whole service).

top

Host organisation: AVIS Comunale di Varese

Project’s number: 2008-IT-66
Main themes: Youth information – Health  
Project’s duration: 8-12 months
CESVOV’s role: coordinating organisation

About the host organisation
AVIS (Associazione Volontari Italiani Sangue – Association Italian Volunteers Blood) is a non-profit, non-confessional and non-political volunteering association that does not admit any discrimination based on sex, race, language, nationality, religion or political view and that pursues a goal of public interest: to guarantee an adequate supply of blood and hemocomponents to all the patients who need it, through promotion of blood donation, calls for donators, education to solidarity and healthcare of the blood donors. In this way, AVIS contributes to processes of health education and encourages preventive medicine.

The main activities of AVIS Comunale Varese aim to facilitate the insertion of new blood donors and to create strong bonds with the scholastic world in order to promote healthy ways of life. The activities are divided in various work areas: marketing on the territory, health and management of the donors, image and communication, school, administration.

The volunteers of AVIS Comunale Varese work together with other AVIS points of the local territory to guarantee a constant presence at the Immunohematology and transfusion service of the Circolo Hospital of Varese through the “Punto AVIS”. The aim is to be present with the donors to help them feel at ease while donating blood and to give them the possibility to get information about the association and to ask any questions and express any doubts or perplexity they might have about blood donation. The Punto Avis is the link between AVIS, the transfusion service of the hospital and the donors.

AVIS Comunale Varese’s staff is composed of a part-time employee, a management board of 11 members, 37 collaborators who help the various work areas to organise and project activities and we also work together with 3 doctors. AVIS Comunale Varese has 3200 member donors.

About the project
At the beginning of their European Voluntary Service, the young volunteers will have a training that includes theoretical parts on the Italian public health system, on the functioning of the transfusion service and on AVIS and its various levels of activity (national, regional, local). Furthermore, non-formal moments are foreseen to train the volunteers to welcome and accompany the blood donors (training through role playing, discussions, ...) This training is carried out by expert volunteers with the support of professionals (psychologist and experts of the communication and “welcoming” fields). It is a specific course on the world of volunteering and on how to welcome whoever comes close to our association.

The EVS project foresees a series of activities that allow the volunteers to know different work areas of AVIS Comunale Varese. According to their personal interests and the skills they already have, they will have the possibility to get more involved in specific work areas that they can chose:

• Promotion of blood donation and the culture of solidarity: participate in events to promote AVIS’ activities and to spread the culture of blood donation, participate in initiatives working together with other local associations, plan and carry out campaigns for the promotion of blood donation.

• Educational project with the school: contribute in organizing projects to sensitise the youth on topics related to active citizenship, to their own wellbeing as a resource for the others and for themselves, to the value of tolerance, to the respect of themselves and of the others and to social integration.

• Activities related to blood donation (Punto AVIS): welcome and accompany the donors (more specifically, the EVS volunteers can inform new donors and foreign donors on the functioning of AVIS Comunale Varese and of the donation in itself), supporting the donors as they rest after the donation, recruiting new donors, calling for donors, helping with office work, ... (no specific sanitary or medical activities are foreseen)

• Communication activities: help write the news bulletin, develop the website and make it a good instrument to promote our activities as well as blood donation, to deeper discuss some topics to inform about other similar associations in other countries, ...

• Personal project: for example, new ideas to improve the way we welcome donors, new informative and educational material for youth, specific activities within the project with the local schools, ...

Accommodation
More information about accommodation will be given to the candidates in the selection phase.
Food
The volunteers will receive a weekly allowance for food.
Transport
Local transport expenses will be paid for if needed for the activities or for the Italian course.
Language course
The EVS volunteers will attend a course of Italian language which will give them at the end the opportunity to take a CILS exam (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language). If they pass this exam, they will receive an official diploma from the University for Foreigners of Siena.
Holiday
Apart from weekends, the volunteers will also get off on public holidays. Should the activities take place during the weekends, the volunteers will have two free days the following week. They will agree with the coordinator of their project as to when to take the other days off (approximately 2 days off per month that they can accumulate during the whole service).