Insights from a week in Italy focused on volunteer resilience and community.
As a European NGO, ForEveryone is honoured to be able to apply for EU-project grants. These grants are essential to our mission of creating belonging and encouraging civic engagement. They also enable us to meet with other community-focused organisations from around the European Union. This means we don’t just grow, we grow together. And that’s how we learn to create something beautiful.
This autumn, we were lucky enough to earn an EU grant to help us explore Peer Support and Resilience in Adult Education. This topic is an important one for us at ForEveryone, as we offer many creative adult learning opportunities. The grant will help us become the best workshop teachers and facilitators we can be.
We used the grant to take ForEveryone team members to Bologna, Italy to meet Tugende. This non-profit cultural association focuses on driving bottom-up social change through active, creative participation. Their name means “to go together”, and they embody that every day. Together, they are building a world focused on self-expression and care, where every voice has value.
Here’s what we learned.
Day one: CpF/Family Centre of Bologna
Tuesday morning, and it’s an early start at the Berlin airport, but the ForEveryone team is soon in beautiful Bologna. After several weeks of grey Berlin skies, it’s wonderful to be in a city where there is still sun.
This afternoon we are meeting some of Tugende’s team at the Family Centre of Bologna (CpF). Run by the Municipality of Bologna, this is a public service that provides mediation and support for local families with children under 18.
Tugende helps them in this mission by offering free classes based in psychomotricity. This is a healing discipline that takes a mind-body approach to wellbeing. Tugende uses it in parallel courses for parents and children – ensuring care for the whole family.
For those of us from ForEveryone, this all-ages approach is fascinating. Our workshops and events are welcome to all (with parental supervision for minors). Yet, our average attendees tend to be in the 20-45 age range. Understanding how support needs change with different age groups is a big learning experience for us. Tugende has already been inspiring, and we’ve been in Italy for less than 24 hours.
Day two, morning: The Networks Office and Child Protection Social Service/ Department of Welfare and Community Belonging of the Municipality of Bologna
We have a busy schedule for day two, meeting two of Tugende’s partners in different parts of the city. First, we head to The Networks Office and Child Protection Social Service. This is part of the Municipality of Bologna’s Department of Welfare and Community Belonging.
Here, Tugende helps us understand the challenges facing the local people. Many in this district are from an immigration background. They are building new lives in Italy, and have distinct intercultural needs. We learn how Tugende works with the municipal government to help meet these needs. Together, they’re building a strong, resilient, and deeply connected community.
This mission is very aligned with ForEveryone’s mission in Berlin. Both of our orgs share the idea that community-wide wellbeing is rooted in a collective sense of belonging. And, we both share a vision of creating this belonging through active participation. We both utilise movement, creativity, and expression to bring people together.
Collectively, we gain insight on how to work with local government on mutual goals. We also get perspective on what it is like to honour cultural differences in a shared environment. We head to lunch with our heads – and hearts – full.
Day two, afternoon: AICS and the Community Centre Scipione dal Ferro
After a stop for lunch and gelato (you can’t come to Italy and not have gelato!), we head across the city to Casa di Quartiere Scipione dal Ferro (the Community Centre Scopione dal Ferro). We settle in to learn about how Tugende works with AICS. This is a national non-profit focused on promoting sport, culture, and active citizenship.
It’s inspiring to hear how these orgs have united to create a true “third space” for local residents. This special building can be so many things for so many people. A place to learn Italian. A studio that hosts yoga and dance lessons. A venue for live music, comedy, and theatre. And a place where people of all ages can find good food and good company. It really is a community.
We’re blown away by how Tugende and the partner organisations have transformed the space. They took something functional and made a warm, cosy place where you immediately feel at home. This is something ForEveryone is trying to do too, both in our No. 52 Cafe and in the pottery space we share with the Bezirksamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. We leave with a ton of ideas about how to create this warm, Italian vibe back home in Germany.
Day three: Community Centre GRAF San Donato
Today, we’re headed to GRAF, an independent community centre in the San Donato neighbourhood. It’s the place Tugende was born.
GRAF is a community centre that operates much more independently than those we have met so far. Managed by locals, for locals, GRAF provides help with Italian bureaucracy, as well as movement classes run by our friends at Tugende.
Over a shared lunch, we also learn about Tugende’s projects outside of Bologna, like their primary school in Senegal. This proves that community building doesn’t need to be bound by international borders. We can have a EU address, and a global mindset. It’s a beautiful thought to close out our time in Bologna.
Day four: L’Altra Riva (and a little pasta)
On Friday morning, we meet at the train station to head out to L’Altra Riva, a community house in the mountains. A former hotel, this house now hosts yoga retreats and space for those needing time out from urban life. We’ll stay here for the weekend so that ForEveryone and Tugende can keep learning from each other.
Many of the Tugende team work as well as volunteer, so they will join us in the evening. While we wait, the ForEveryone team takes part in a pasta making workshop. We learn how to wrap a tortelloni, and how to cut the noodles for tagliatelle. The simmering sauces in the kitchen already smell delicious.
While the dough rests, the Tugende team arrives. We open a discussion circle about how our team members joined ForEveryone. Even for those of us who’ve volunteered together for a while, this is an informative exercise. We’re already comfortable with building belonging between our workshop participants. But now we’re building this belonging between each other, too. We continue to bond as a truly delicious pasta dinner arrives.
Day five: workshops on boundary setting and listening to the body
Saturday is our workshop day. We’ll explore topics around our shared EU project on Peer Support and Resilience. Today, we start with a session on how to communicate boundaries when volunteering. We all know boundaries are essential in our roles as teachers and leaders. But they aren’t universal. It is interesting to hear what the word “boundaries” means for different people.
Later, Tugende invites us to a movement-based workshop – one of their specialities! We try out a sample of different movement, improv, and dance-based activities. These are all designed to help us listen to our bodies. It is fascinating how refreshing this session feels. After a week of listening, a session for expressing is like a reset.
The day has been long but also full of togetherness and expression. It’s a reminder that community building is only possible when we take care of ourselves, too.
Day six: peer support and strength
It’s our final day in the mountains. Tonight, we head back to Bologna. In the morning, those of us visiting from Germany will fly home. For now though, we have time for one last workshop.
Today, we’re in small groups to give each other feedback on shared volunteering issues. We have so much to learn from each other, and this is a very meaningful way to do it. The small groups mean that feedback can be openly given and deeply appreciated.
It is a beautiful learning moment that wraps up a week of beautiful learning moments. Tugende have been such generous hosts and we volunteers have all grown in confidence and resilience.
The learning doesn’t stop there! We will keep the momentum going by implementing monthly peer-support exchange groups for our volunteers in both organisations. And next year, Tugende will come to Berlin. It will be ForEveryone’s turn to host a chance to grow together. We’re already excited.