Sharing my European Solidarity Corps experience with Europe Direct Genova
At a webinar opening the European Year of Youth in Genoa, I spoke about European volunteering and the practical value of the European Solidarity Corps.
On 9 February 2022, I joined a public webinar organised by Europe Direct Genova for the European Year of Youth. My contribution, La mia esperienza come Volontario nel Corpo Europeo di Solidarietà della Commissione Europea, focused on what European volunteering looks like from a participant’s point of view.
Turning a programme into a lived experience
The European Solidarity Corps can be described through eligibility rules, funding, and project formats. I wanted to add the part that those descriptions cannot fully convey: what it means to enter an international group, take responsibility for a shared project, learn through everyday cooperation, and return home able to explain the opportunity to someone else.
That personal perspective sat alongside contributions on Erasmus+, volunteering and citizenship skills, the European Parliament’s together.eu community, Enterprise Europe Network, and the role of public libraries as digital resources. The programme brought institutions, civil society, education, and lived experience into one conversation.
A bridge to the European Year of Youth
The webinar took place several weeks before the Italian European Year of Youth Ambassador Network was officially presented in Rome. It was not yet an ambassador activity, but it belonged to the same path: making European opportunities easier to understand by connecting institutional information with a real story.
That principle later became central to my work as an ambassador—speaking with young people about Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps, participation, and active citizenship in language grounded in experience.
View the official event programme and learn more about Europe Direct Genova.