ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE STRAUSS Italy
MUSSOMELI
Website www.arcistrauss.it
Associazione Culturale Strauss is a non-profit organization founded in Mussomeli, a small and geographically isolated town in the centre of Sicily, in 1999. Strauss has as main objectives the promotion of a multicultural and multiethnic society, the dissemination of the culture and values of the European community and volunteering in peripheral and marginal area. Strauss has around 150 affiliates in Mussomeli and in Sicily.
The activities promoted to support young people range from the local to the international level. Strauss manages the following services and activities:
- Info-youth desk; Crea-Impresa desk (entrepreneurial and professional skills development)
- digital and IT laboratories, languages, art and multimedia laboratories; journalism;
- sports and healthy lifestyle workshops and activities
- Ecological and green activities
- European Youth exchanges such as HO, SO and CO;
- Seminars, Training Course, Study Visits such as HO, SO and CO;
- Volunteering activities in HO, SO and CO;
- European Solidarity Corps projects in HO, SO and CO;
- Worldwide international cooperation projects;
- youth animation projects of various themes at primary and secondary schools, children’s housing communities, communities for disabled and disadvantaged youth;
- tourism promotion projects and internationalisation of the territory;
- organization of seminars, conferences, anti-mafia caravans, exhibitions and various events at local level;
- promotion of green and healthy lifestyle in youth and Societies:
Among the affiliations and networks:
- ARCI – with extensive experience in activities with refugees and migrants;
- EURODESK – Strauss has also been an active member of the Eurodesk network since 2006;
- RIVE – Italian European Volunteer Network – brings together many of the most active organisations in Italy in the field of Voluntary Activities.
Strauss has extensive and decades of experience in the management of complex international projects and events, for which it oversaw detailed coordination and assumed financial responsibility. Its staff is comprehensive and experienced in all areas of project management and coordination, thanks to the dozens of projects implemented, including several KA2 Capacity Building in the field of Youth, Strategic Partnership and several KA3 under the Erasmus+ Programme and various actions within the programme Europe for Citiziens. All the activities implemented and realised for youngsters allowed Strauss to become deeply rooted in its territory and to carve out a role of primary importance in civil society, in which
Strauss is identified as an important stakeholder in the field of youth. The association boasts numerous experiences in the field of entrepreneurship, green economy and social
enterprise, thanks to various specific projects on the subject such as Training Course carried out under the aegis of Erasmus+, both as a coordinator and as a simple partner, and a specific KA2 Capacity Building in The field of Youth which has been realized in the field of social entrepreneurship. The association is located in Sicily, in the so-called “Area del Vallone”, one of the most depressed areas at economic, geographical and social level. Finally, for more than 5 years, Strauss has been running the European Centre of Culture “Francesca Sorce” where it finds its raison d’être, since it is there that hosted volunteers do activities, multidisciplinary workshops for local young people are carried out and a more inclusive and active society is promoted