SOW: Seeds of Volunteering Actions

Background of this Seminar: As SCI movement, part of our effort goes into the organisation of international volunteering camps aimed at fostering solidarity between local communities, to engage into learning and practising activities connected to topics like global solidarity, sustainable development and peace education. A volunteering camp is a learning experience aimed at connecting global volunteers with local communities worldwide and at discussing pressing global issues while cooperating together for a good cause. These words may seem simple, but anyone who has participated in a workcamp knows their meaning well. 

This type of experience projects volunteers into an alternative dimension full of emotions, discovery and resourcefulness. Bonds are formed between people thousands of kilometres away and local communities are transformed into open books where one can learn the customs and history of the place. Camp after camp the local partner and the community grow thanks to the work carried out by the volunteers and thanks to the meeting of people from different places and cultures. 

Volunteering camps are the means by which we connect and amplify local struggles for social and climate justice; in a global view, a multitude of political issues and realities interact with each other creating something new. All this is created thanks to the effort of partners, local activists and branch staff members. 

Each camp is unique but the challenges to organise and conduct them are not. As SCI branches, partners and activists we usually experience different problems in the organisation of camps:

• It is difficult to communicate what a camp is, in what it consists and what is its impact;
• Camps are the most useful to local communities and they are the most needed exactly where they are the most difficult to be organised, communicated and coordinated;
• Camps require committed and prepared local partners, local activists and camp leaders in order to be successfully delivered; 
• Camp leaders need effective preparation for coordination and management of activities during volunteering camps; 

In order to discuss all these issues and to deliver practical solutions for our needs, SCI Austria has decided to organise together with SCI Italy and a local partner Mòvesi, an hands-on seminar on volunteering camps directed to SCI staff, volunteers, future camp leaders and any community/local activist or leader willing to understand how workcamps can be useful tools for fostering and implementing impactful actions at local level and with a global perspective. The participants will also be the pioneers of a new collaboration in Buccino, this will allow us to interface directly with some of the challenges and understand them together. 

Aims and Objectives:

• Sharing practices and experiences between activists, partners and staff from different branches. In particular about:

- how to enhance  the impact of workcamps

- how to communicate our impact

- how to find local partners and collaborating with them;

- how to prepare camp leaders

• Understanding the “glocal” nature of workcamps
• Learn how to build and sustain new alliances at local level through voluntary workcamps
• Updating existing materials about camp coordination
• Facilitate the preparation of the post-training workcamp for the local partner

Who’s involved in organising this?

SCI Austria and SCI Italy are branches of Service Civil International. Service Civil International (SCI) is a global movement dedicated to fostering peace, social justice, and sustainable development. With a rich history spanning 100 years, SCI organises impactful international volunteering projects and innovative educational activities that promote intercultural dialogue and inspire positive change. 

Mòvesi APS is a youth-lead NGO based in Buccino, Italy, dedicated to fostering community development in depressed rural areas of South Italy. Operating in the province of Salerno, Mòvesi focuses on revitalising marginalised communities, particularly addressing challenges such as depopulation, scarce opportunities and low participation. Our mission is to facilitate movements of people and ideas, aiming to create opportunities, especially for young people, in areas where hope and prospects have dwindled. 

Our trainers:

Marco Rondoni: (he/him) is a trainer, facilitator and activist based in Turin, Italy. His passions are connected to agroforestry, permaculture and climate justice. Marco works as a freelance designer of photovoltaic systems and he actively participates in the development of the La Città Dell'Utopia project in Rome as a trainer and facilitator. Since 2015 has created a nature observatory in an agroforestry system in Cumiana, in the mountains near Turin.

Gianmichele Tuozzo: (he/him) is project manager at Mòvesi APS and SCI Austria. He spends most of his time reading philosophy and theory but professionally he is engaged in creating innovative (educational) activities on the topics of environmental sustainability, rural life and community development. He will be coordinator and trainer of this project. 

Methodological approach

All participants will be expected and stimulated to contribute to the activities and discussions. The interactions will be horizontal and learner-centred to create a transformative facilitation style and sharing space. Especially in this training role plays, simulations and interactive methods will be used to involve the participants fully and to re-create a workcamp learning atmosphere. 

We will a participatory methodologies based on: 1) participatory diagnosis,  2) collective intelligence design, 3) canvas, 4) co-design of solutions, 5) prototyping. 

Participants’ profile:

• Being 18+
• Being resident in an Erasmus+ Programme or Partner Country (in general any country that is part of Erasmus+ Programme); 
• Being part (or having been) part of SCI network as a volunteer, staff, camp coordinator, activist, etc. 
• Being part of a volunteering organisation or informal group willing to organise volunteering activities at local level; 
• Being a member (coordinator, activist, staff) of a local partner of a SCI branch involved in the organisations of voluntary camps; 
• Being interested in the coordination, design or coordination of a local voluntary activity.    

We explicitly encourage participants of all genders, sexual orientations, abilities and nationalities as well as cultural backgrounds, religion and social status to apply. There will be a space to share any inclusion needs before the training, and the team will be in touch in case there is the need to organise any special arrangements. 

Ready to apply?

If you’ve read all the information in this call and feel ready to apply… amazing! You are ready to fill in the application form. Find it here: 

LINK application form 

For more information or questions, please write to: coordination.sciaustria@gmail.com

Funding information:  SOW - Seed of Workcamps is an Erasmus+ International Seminar financed by the OeAD (Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation) as part of an Accreditation project in the field of Youth (2021-2027). Within this Accreditation project, SCI Austria will organise seminars, training courses, campaigns and capacity-building activities for the next 3 years. SOW is one of these.