ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE COOPERAZIONEINTERNAZIONALE SUD SUD

description of organisation

CISS is an Italian non-profit NGO, founded in 1985 and active in the sector of solidarity and international development cooperation. CISS receives support by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the European Commission for the implementation of several projects directed to the mobilisation of local communities in social, economic sustainable development initiatives.
The organisation works with grassroots communities, movements, associations, NGOs, local organisations through international cooperation activities, local development initiatives, for marginalised sectors of the population, migrants and refugees living in different “Souths” of the world. CISS carries out public awareness campaigns and educational courses on development issues specifically targeting students and young people. For this reason, over the years, it has invested in the construction of a Documentation Center (CEDOC) on "the south of the world" which today represents a unique heritage of its kind. The CEDOC nowadays is hosted at the “House of Cooperation”, a multi-cultural space created in a disadvantaged area of Palermo (Sicily) located in the South of Italy. Since its foundation CISS has already implemented - or still is implementing - about 60 multi-year projects and 250 smaller interventions, directly involving more than 1,500,000 people in 32 countries of the world. The main purpose of the NGO is to intervene on development issues, in favour of the most marginalised groups of the population, in Italy as well as in other regions of the world and especially in Latin America, in Africa, in Middle East and in the Western Balkans.
CISS is strongly committed in the field of education, training and raising awareness of young people at local, national and international level. The NGO involves and empower young people through strategic partnerships with informal groups, youth association, schools, universities, cultural actors and local institutions in Sicily. The NGO thus recognises a special importance to all training, educational and raising awareness and information activities, that can lead to the creation of a new awareness of solidarity in Europe. In this framework, the European Solidarity Corps, through the promotion of intercultural exchange and youth mobility, represent a key activity to carry out its mission. The use of non-formal learning methods is thus largely applied by CISS’s staff and volunteers in different geographical contexts and spheres of actions. The exchange of good practices and social innovation in education and training is also an important component of CISS’s project actions. Finally, CISS organises international summer schools, youth exchanges and training for youths and adults (especially women) in order to facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge, experiences, best practices, methodologies and tools. Encouraging youth leadership and youth activism through volunteering assumes for CISS a fundamental importance especially in the socioeconomic contexts characterised by difficult situations, such as in North Africa and Middle East, as well as in disadvantaged areas of Southern Italy and Europe.