InCo Association is a non-profit organisation established in 2004 in order to develop international exchange, mutual understanding and intercultural sensitivity in youngsters.
Among the activities of the association youth mobility projects play a very important role. Through "Youth" young people are allowed to go abroad for a youth exchange, a volunteer experience or a vocational training project.
InCo is both sending organisation for EVS volunteers and co-ordinating organisation for different host projects.
The project ‘Go Social’ is one of InCo's projects and it foresees participation of 6 volunteers from Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Turkey and Georgia for 10 to 12 month volunteering mobility in the area of Trento and Bolzano. The volunteers are hosted by 5 organizations that are focused on providing social care and facilitating social inclusion in the area of Trentino-Alto Adige: Azienda Servizi Sociali di Bolzano (ASSB), Caritas Diocese Bolzano-Bressanone, Centro Trentino di Solidarietà (CTS), La Strada – Der Weg and VKE.
The project is financed and supported by Erasmus+ and Italian National Agency.
The blog is open to all the young people that are doing their volunteering in the Association InCo. It has the objective of promoting intercultural dialogue and sharing the volunteers experiences.
The main idea of implementing Go Social is to provide opportunity to 6 young people to enter the path of the development of their social capital, empower their ability to participate actively in society and in the same time to contribute to the reinforcement of social work and European awareness in the area of Trento and Bolzano. The specific objectives are:
- to create opportunity to 6 young people to benefit from long term voluntary service throughout which they will gain new skills and competences in the field of social work; - to support social work sector in the area of Trentino-Alto Adige, in particular facilitate voluntary support to the daily work of 5 organizations that provide social services to the vulnerable groups of people and contribute overall to the social inclusion of these groups in the region;- to promote inclusion, active participation, intercultural dialogue, active citizenship and Erasmus+- to boost the skills of participants for self-realization in the labor market throughout additional complementary activities and proposed activity of blogging.The 6 volunteers selected for Go Social will start an intensive path of personal growth that enriches their cultural, personal and professional baggage, and that increases their self-confidence and directly supports obtaining transversal skills. This objective will be pursued through participatory and informal methods of education in which the volunteers will learn while supporting their hosting organizations in daily work. Along with this, the volunteers will participate in the complementary activities, such as: “A testa in giu” – community event for young people in Bolzano, “Clarina Off Limits” – animation community event for young people in Trento and activities organized within Agenzia di Stampa Giovanile that involve as well writing articles on different topics.
The main impact on volunteers lays in the areas of their personal development, specific competences development, including fostering their transversal skills and thus employability potential. In terms of personal development, the expected impact is to become more self-confident and get new incitements for future personal and professional development, increased knowledge on the European dimension, broadened new contacts for possible future collaborations, raised awareness on other and own culture and mentalities, learning new language or even languages. In regards of specific competences development the volunteers will:
- enhance their transversal skills: critical thinking and ability to produce innovative solutions, problem solving;
- inter-personal skills such as presentation skills and public speaking and team work;
- intra-personal skills such as self-discipline, self-motivation, sense of initiative.
