Between the 11th and the 15th of March 2013 the second meeting of the project “Face to Success”– Grundtvig Learning Partnership was held in Palermo. The meeting involved staff members of the partner organisations and learners (adult immigrants, especially Roma people to whom this project is addressed).
The project – that ends in 2014 – aims at promoting volunteering as a tool for immigrants to access the world of work and, at the same time, trying to identify new manners to preserve their own culture in the process of social integration.
During the days of the meeting the participants confronted with – through workshops and study visits – the central issues of the project. Moreover, they focused on the cultural background of the learners and on their relationship with their origin culture during the process of their integration. It was realized through a direct and fascinating method: the learners introduced themselves and their culture by presenting a song of their own culture which they have a strong connection with.
During the programme big space was dedicated to the topic of volunteering: each partner introduced the situation of recognition of volunteering (and related skills) by the national authorities in their country. This point was an excellent impulse for reflection and it led to focus on the most important issue: if we intend to use volunteering as a tool for integration and acquisition of skills, it must be officially recognized also by the highest levels of the national authorities (as it is already happening in the UK). The participants were discussing possible solutions for this argument, finding the international recognition of volunteering by the European Union as a point of reference.
The meeting was an occasion as well to demonstrate the situation of immigrants at national and local level. The presentation of interventions of the associations working on local level with Roma people whose communities are often marginalized and are in the risk of social exclusion was also very impressive.
The next meeting will be held in Bulgaria in June 2013. Meanwhile, CESIE will organise activities with the local learners to deepen the issues already discussed during the meeting and to prepare them for the next mobility.
For further information, please contact alberto.biondo@cesie.org