ASSOCIAZIONE INCO - INTERCULTURALITA & COMUNICAZIONE APS

description of organisation

InCo is a non-profit organization which has the mission of promoting international exchanges between young people, of increasing and improving the level of contact among different cultures, stimulating intercultural sensibility while preventing and combating racism, prejudices and social exclusion. The organization was created in 2004 by a group of enthusiastic former volunteers who decided to assist other peers in further developing and sharing their intercultural abilities and non-formal education knowledge. The organization developed over the years and it is currently coordinated by a group of seven team members, all with vast international experiences. Currently we also collaborate with the Province of Trento on running a youth information center “Civico13” in the city centre of Trento.
The current activities of the association are addressing young people:
- European Solidarity Corps and other international voluntary service programmes: we worked with volunteers in the framework of EVS since 2004, as an accredited sending and coordinating organization. Since 2013 it is also a hosting organization. Since then, InCo coordinated hosting projects, hosting in total up to today 223 youngsters, while currently preparing to support arrival of other 15. From 2016, InCo is part of Rete Italiana Volontariato Europeo (RIVE: Italian Network European Volunteering). Currently we are managing a three-years volunteering partnership project “SOLE-darieta” (2018-1-IT03-ESC12-015074) that gives opportunity to 52 volunteers in total to undertake their ESC experience in Trentino and Alto Adige region. As a sending organization, till today we supported 243 Italian young people in short and long term experiences abroad. As a host organization, we provide learning expeirence to 1 or 2 European volunteers every year, hosting them in our main office.
- Capacity building in the field of youth with focus on such topics as global citizenship education, sustainable development goals, international and intercontinental volunteering, fostering transversal skills of the youth workers who work with youth with fewer opportunities. Currently InCo manages a KA2 project on global citizenship education “Global Learning to Overcome Barriers Encouraging Respect and Solidarity: GLOBERS” (608730-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPKA2-CBY-ACPALA). GLOBERS aims to create an enabling environment for global citizenship education: InCo is currently coordinating 9 cross-continental volunteering mobilities, whereas international volunteers will also organize workshops on GCE in the local communities. Along with this InCo has got another KA2 approved project "EMpath for YOUth" (618762-EPP-1-2020-1-IT-EPPKA2-CBY-ACPALA) and is partner in other 2 capacity building projects and one Strategic partnership/policy reform project “IYELabs”. The focus of the IYELabs project is to empower young people to become active citizens in their own communities through a training program designed by Fundacion Xul and implemented in Trento by InCo Association. InCo Association supports the group of young people throughout the process, guiding them into creating and implementing their projects, by connecting them with local realities in Trento.
Along with this InCo is actively working on:
- Supporting around 30 volunteers per year who arrive through international voluntary service for young people (“Internationaler Jugendfreiwilligendienst - IJFD”): a German program for international voluntary service;
- Providing learning support to the groups of young people in the framework of TLN mobility projects - 4 months of internships in the region of Trento, supported by the Catalan government.
-Aupair: an opportunity offered to young people aged between 18 and 26 to travel to a foreign country, live with a host family, and gain experiences of life and culture within a different country.
InCo also offers opportunities to discover the international environment through:
- Youth exchanges within the Erasmus+ programme: we have implemented a numerous youth exchanges about various topics such as: intercultural learning via art and music, intercultural and intereligious dialogue, emotional intelligence, envrionmental issues, raising awareness on migration and others.
- Coaching support for informal groups of young people from the region in terms of preparation their applications for "solidarity projects" in the framework of ESC;
- Promotion of non-formal education in order to increase skills and employability of young people as part of our one-to-one counselling meetings, presentations of ESC and Erasmus+ programme in schools.
- Promotion of international volunteering activities: using different means of communication, through our website, through local and national newsletters, through our social network platforms, but also informative meetings (info-day), distribution of leaflets in various cultural and educational centers around the region of Trentino Alto-Adige.

Volunteering project