CILENTO YOUTH UNION

"Cilento Youth Union" is a non-profit organisation created in Rofrano (SA) in 2015. Its target group is Italy’s youth as well as Europe’s, with a particular reference to Mediterranean Basin and to rural and inner areas, which Cilento can be assimilated to. The foundation is directly related to Youth Exchange “To be(lieve) or not to be(leave)?”, planned and carried out in Rofrano, by Connect Association, in June of the same year. The organisation was recently founded, as outcome of active local young people which want to be represented in Europe favoring the Life Long Learning process, both in formal and informal contexts, to increase awareness and know-how about the values of volunteerism and the European citizenship. The goal is to enhance, by European culture and youth learning mobility promotion, the untapped human capital. In fact it is strategic for the rural development and growth, especially in local context.This is coherent with the Italian national strategy for reversing the depopulation and marginalisation of inner areas, hinging on two key economic policy assets: to improve personal services and promote local development projects. Cilento is an inner and disadvantaged area, included in a National Park and naturalist high-value landscape, but still classified by Government as peripheral area, where the youth unemployment rate has reached peaks of 60% (ISTAT data). Cilento Youth Union aims: • To promote opportunities for intercultural learning and intercultural dialogue; • To develop research for the European dimension of vocational training and for the European project plannig sector; • To increase employment opportunities for young people within the European labor market; • To disperse any prejudice or stereotypes among the Southern and the Northern Italian and European regions; • To promote the values of non-formal education, European Voluntary Service, active citizenship, European mobility and democracy for the creation of a better future for the European youth.