COMUNE DI BAGNOLI DI SOPRA

description of organisation

Bagnoli di Sopra is a town in the province of Padua of 34.98 km², located in the south part of Veneto, a northern Italy region. Currently, the town numbers 3625 inhabitants including about 1453 families. The presence of foreigners of different nationalities is around 15%. In Bagnoli di Sopra there are about 471 children and teenagers between 5 and 14, and about 450 young people between 15 and 29 years. The community has one primary school, one secondary school, 2 kindergartens, one nursery, one theater, one municipal library. There are different associations that carry out activities in the social, welfare and cultural fields, sporting field (as skating, football, volleyball, tennis club), creating moments of support, meeting and socialization for the population.
Municipality of Bagnoli di Sopra is a local public body which provides public services to citizens and promotes the youth participation throughout intercultural activities, volunteering projects and official communication tools. One of the most important aim is to support active citizenship and social involvement of young people by helping the development of networks and coordinating projects for youth and adults who work with them: national and local voluntary service, European voluntary service, international youth exchanges, training courses for young people.
Municipality pursues the following general aims:
- to provide more opportunities to young people in order to achieve new competences and grow as individuals, through formal and non-formal context;
- to improve youngsters' spirit of initiative, creativity and awareness of being European citizens, by fostering activities focused on the intercultural knowledge and understanding;
- to help young people in achieving a greater knowledge and in developing their social, working and personal skills; giving the opportunity of ideation and development of projects, events and initiatives aimed at the promotion of social inclusion, action for peace and international solidarity;
- to enhance the youngsters' knowledge of foreign languages, at the same time encouraging foreigners to study Italian language, through non-formal discussion groups in foreign languages in order to improve their language skills;
- to give opportunity to young people to meet and understand different cultures and countries, being allowed to develop their competences on communication and their network of international contacts (cultural integration);
- to promote and support cultural, sport and touristic initiatives;
- to enhance volunteering as a mean of exchanging the knowledge in order to achieve a better society, encouraging active solidarity and participation by young people, without discrimination definition on sex, race, religion and economic conditions;
- to promote ideas of respect for sustainable development;
- to promote sport with special focus on inclusive sport and projects of international mobility;
- to specialize in promoting and using information and communication tools (databases, social media and web tools).
Municipality of Bagnoli di Sopra pays serious attention to young people as a target group in its territory, having as main goals: socialization, competitive sport and physical activities, critical thinking and initiative spirit of youth, promotion of diversity, tolerance and respect, integration, prevention of violent radicalization.The target is to guarantee equal opportunities for everybody, provide protection, promote autonomy and responsibility, ensure right to education, foster the sustainable development (social and economic), encourage youth exchanges and activities, create a territorial support network.
The Administration is organizing several activities of artistic, cultural and sport promotion touching many fields such as music, theater, dance, intercultural dialogue, various types of sports. Moreover, several initiatives are organized in collaboration with Municipal Library, schools, Sports clubs, Parish. Young people indeed can benefit of the services offered by the library (courses, workshops, expositions, books presentations) and at the same time, they can make proposals themselves. The Municipality organizes cultural visits for schools, involving young volunteers under the supervision and with the support of the team working for the Municipality.
The target groups of these services are children and teenagers (from 8 to 14 years old), young people from 15 to 29 years old, youth workers, teachers, educators and professionals engaged in educational services and territorial animation, with an active participation in their communities.
Youth involvement, cultural heritage and environment protection are the keywords for the priorities considered for coming years by our Municipality.