The ESC Team project “Team for Healthy Life – T4HL”, financed by the European Solidarity Corps programme and run by Associazione Joint in cooperation with Cooperativa One in Italy, has come to an end!
The overall objective of the project, in accordance with the priorities set for 2021, was to promote well-being and a healthy lifestyle for the volunteers and local communities. It was an opportunity for participants to reclaim a space to socialise in a healthy and safe manner, while engaging in volunteer activities that promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups, health and wellbeing in communities.
Project activities touched on specific themes, in accordance with the host organisation and the needs of the local community:
Let’s see what participants have to say about it!
My name is Bianca, I am French and I am 21 years old. I participated in the “Team For Healthy Life” Project in Crotone for two months.
I graduated last year with a double bachelor in French/German Studies and International Studies. I strongly believe in non-formal learning, and I wanted to learn a new language, so I decided to take a gap year and to volunteer in the field of social work. I started with a six month-volunteering in Lombardia, then I decided to try a team volunteering mission, so I could experience living in a community and meet a lot of new people. I wanted it to be in another part of Italy, so I could understand how local development is managed by
associations. That’s why I decided to apply for this project. And I don’t regret it. I was expecting at first that, with this project, I could feel in a community. That I could feel surrounded and supported. I was expecting a lot of laughter, memories, experiences, games
and silly dances. And that’s exactly what happened, adding a crazy amount of amazing food from all around the world. I have learned a lot of things about how associations fight the mafia, and how local development is managed by hundreds of tiny actions. I helped by doing some of those tiny actions, like planting and harvesting in a farm, supporting a tortoise recovering center, giving out food to homeless people, creating content for social media to promote some amazing parts of Calabria… My opinion on this project is that it has a lot of potential, there are a lot of great associations collaborating with it. I know that this time was the first try of this project, and I know it would only get better and better. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to live a great human experience, and learn a lot of things in a non-formal way.
Hi, I’m Martina, I’m a recent graduate in Environmental Toxicology and at the beginning of the project I had some difficulties in understanding what I could do after graduation and especially not giving myself peace about it. So I decided to take part in this new adventure to be able to have a moment of calm, reflect, get to know myself better, connect with new people and also learn English, an important language these days. Before starting the project I didn’t have so many expectations, only the fact that it would be a new environment away from my chaotic everyday life and study, let’s say that I wouldn’t have imagined being in a new but familiar environment at the same time, and this was possible because of the lively and colourful people I met. The things I can say I have learnt from this project are different and disparate: first of all, patience, the patience needed to understand others, their current situation, but also the patience needed to understand oneself and to be able to accept oneself, plus the kind of patience needed to carry out tasks that are not up to you and that are time-consuming, I have learnt about acceptance and being available at opportune times, I have learnt how to weigh my choices and which people are best to approach for a given topic, but also which are best suited to spend quality time with. The activities I have done are very varied, ranging from cleaning entire rooms of Clare’s hostel house, entire floors of a church, but also rooms of a turtle shelter. I planted many vegetables and collected weeds from fields that were formerly owned by the Mafia, but I also tasted the flavours of what I sowed. Then I helped clean up the beach from all kinds of rubbish and helped people working for a camper van that donates food to people in need. Unfortunately, the activities lacked enough organisation to make everything run smoothly, in fact many times I found myself waiting for hours or carrying out tasks that were not planned for the day. In addition, I would also recommend adding a person who is available to listen to the different problems that may arise during the time of the stay, as in some situations I felt that I was not listened to. In general, I feel satisfied with how the project went, but this good opinion I have especially for the people I met, we worked together to succeed in moving the project forward for the better, the activities were sometimes poorly laid out and unfortunately there were moments where motivation was lacking while in others (but more rare)
where it was high. I would recommend this experience to people my age, or older, who after a long course of studies want some peace and quiet, to get to know each other better and above all to have new experiences.
I knew about ESC at least eight years ago but for various reasons I was not able to participate before. This year I saw the opportunity to do a short project as I had a break from my work. I had never imagined doing a team project but that has made the experience different and enriching.I applied to the project as a way of self-improvement and, to this one in particular, because I was attracted by the place where it took place and the activities that are different from what I usually do in my day to day life. I had high expectations in terms of feeling fulfilled with the work, perhaps because I am very demanding. I would have liked to have contributed more but I think that as a team we have done a good job. I have learned more about working in a team, about networking and about managing my emotions, thanks to the activities with other organisations (agriculture, environment, activities with children and teenagers and collecting and delivering food as social work). We have also done maintenance activities of the host organisation's facilities and different workshops. As a project, the organisation of the work needs to be improved, as a team of so many people requires a lot of organisation to get the most out of it. It is an experience that I recommend to all young people because it allows you to enjoy a different country, meet people and get to know yourself.
My name is Oleksandra, and I am 23 years old. I was born in Berdyansk, city in Ukraine. However, my hometown is currently occupied. For the past three years, I have been living in Lviv. I was not studying anywhere when I filled out this application. I have had many jobs. I wanted to change my routine somehow. I wanted to add something new and step out of my comfort zone. That is why I filled out the application. Before this, I had never participated in such projects. This was my first project. Therefore, I am glad that I ended up in this company, in this team, and in this organization. I learned patience, understanding, kindness, and that nothing is more important than the person themselves, nothing matters besides the individual. We had many activities. We worked on setting up a hostel, we did gardening, we worked on a farm, we worked with groups of children, we helped a church, and we promoted and raised awareness of the Calabria region. We learned to live in a large team. We also helped the WWF organization with the restoration of a recreational center for turtles.
Additionally, we cleaned up beaches, which benefited both the city and nature. Since this was my first project, I was incredibly lucky with my team for starting such a project. And I was incredibly lucky with our coordinator, Alessandra. However, I would like to see improvements in the management from the hosting organization. Some aspects were not very good. I would like future volunteers to be heard and listened to a bit more than we were. Of course, I would recommend this experience to all young people because it gives you new friends from all over Europe. It gives you an incredible opportunity to learn about yourself, learn something new, and, in general, have a great time with wonderful people.
The special feature of the ESC Teams is its short duration, ranging from 2 weeks to a maximum of 2 months. This aspect makes it accessible also to young people who work or study and cannot dedicate a whole year to travel! Despite the brevity of the projects, Group ESCs offer meaningful and intense life experiences, during which numerous professional skills can be acquired. Moreover, by sharing life and work with a group of people, similar to a community, lɜ participants have the opportunity to create strong bonds even in a short period of time.