The European volunteers’ formation program

Every year our three hosting organizations involved in the European Voluntary Service prepare some training sessions for the European Volunteers and Civil Servants.
This year the first meeting was held at Residenza “Pietro Zangheri”, Forlì. There our volunteers stopped their help for a minute to look into their inner self and learn how to express themselves and their feelings, at the same time they had the opportunity of awakening self-consciousness regarding their emotions and moods.

The second session took place at Fondazione Opera Don Baronio, Cesena. This time the role was changed, and volunteers had to put themselves in the elderly’s shoes through a role game. By pairs volunteers played everyday situations putting into practice wrong codes of conduct and then analyzing and transposing the codes of conducts in each situation. Volunteers experienced a new perspective and became aware of elder’s needs, feelings, and concerns.

The following week training session was organized by Casa di Accoglienza “A.Fracassi”, S. Angelo di Gatteo. In this session volunteers unleash their creativity by preparing different activities for the elderly with a given material. Succeeding different group discussions to find out which activity would improve elder’s condition, volunteers shared their proposals with everyone.

The closing ceremony was arranged by UNISER, which was honored to host volunteers and the representatives of the nursing houses for the last training session. This time volunteers shared the projects they want to develop at each nursing home. Their projects involved activities that will enrich the elder’s live from cognitive development through music, to functional activities through handicraft and games. Still, they had the opportunity to develop their sensorial abilities and get to know each other better a group game.
In the end, we all shared an appealing buffet celebrating the help and work of our VOLUNTEERS, civil servants and the nursing houses.
We are grateful to have you here.

NATALIA SARMIENTO