“VOLUNTEERING – JOURNEY TO SUCCESS” was a youth exchange under the Erasmus+ program and it was developed and implemented in cooperation with the Associacion Projuven. It took place in Italy, specifically in Naples, Castellamare di Stabia during the period of 17-25/04/2017. Hotel “Palma” hosted 42 young people from Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Spain and Cyprus.
The overall aim of the exchange was to promote volunteering as a tool for combating youth unemployment through gaining various skills and experience which will help youngsters to develop themselves in the labor market. Moreover, it promoted the Erasmus+, emphasizing the personal and professional development of the participants by informing them about mobility programs, EVS, volunteering benefits and ways to combat youth unemployment. It showed also, the importance of gaining soft skills and competences that can help a person to find easily a job.
The main activities were first of all the team building, human library by doing presentations about EVS and volunteering benefits. Furthermore, another important skill was the Discussion Forum: what is volunteering and the simulation “Mission Volunteer”. An important role had the workshops, for example volunteering against youth unemployment; Follow up activities – Future plans.
This program had as a main role to expand communication between the people from other countries and to promote mutual understanding and respect. Respect the people but also respect your country. The competences and outcomes are best articulated in a framework that organizes the range of youth development outcomes into five developmental areas: working, learning, thriving, connecting, and leading. This youth exchange combined all these five important characteristics and gave you more knowledge concerning that and of course it offered you the opportunity for improvement!
