Description of organisation

Commissione Sinodale per la Diaconia - Diaconia Valdese (www. diaconiavaldese.org) is a national non profit organisation within the Waldensian Church (www.chiesavaldese.org) in Italy. The Diaconia Valdese has regional operations in the many parts of Italy, from the North - where it's main settled - to the South and the Islands. Diaconia Valdese define itself as a laical organisation: nobody has to belong to the Waldensian church in order to work or benefit from the services of the organisation.

Diaconia Valdese's mission is: "Serving with the people". It focuses its work on the people in situation of difficulties or pain and it wants not only to be a service for the people, but it fosters the active involvement of the beneficiaries in its activities, putting the person at the centre of its strategy. The CSD - Diaconia Valdese lives in complexity, changing according to its understanding of the present. It reacts to the complexity of the present by accepting the challenge of following non-linear paths, in a constantly changing equilibrium, listening to and interpreting the noise of humanity, permanently readjusting. The CSD - Diaconia Vladese acts for change: it analyzes what exists, listens and looks for suitable tools and languages. To be able to read the change it is necessary to let oneself be permeated by the will to change.

For decades Diaconia Valdese has managed at a national level several services targeting people coming from difficult backgrounds: diurnal and residential services and special projects for minors, youngsters, families, seniors, persons with disabilities and specific dementia (Alzheimer and others), social farms, refugees and asylum seekers. Several guest houses economically contribute to the social services.

Diaconia Valdese has a consolidated, decades-old practice in hosting long-term full time young volunteers, both Italian (National Civil Service) and foreigners, through the European Solidarity Corps (previously named European Voluntary Service), the French Civic Service, the German Civil Service, and other voluntary service programmes. Thanks to the EDYN (Ecumenical Diaconal Year Network), Phiren Amenca, and other bilateral relations, every year Diaconia Valdese also send long-term Italian volunteers to more than 10 EU and non-EU countries. The organisation in Italy has around 600 employees, and involves every year about 100 volunteers.

The large pool of action in the social field and the nourished number of volunteers welcomed all over Italy has allowed and allows to foment and encourage the creation of an international community of young people willing to get involved through volunteering experiences capable of triggering an impact on the local, national and international contexts as well as on the individual participants, in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes, according to a mutualistic and proactive approach.