Pas à Pas

Pas à Pas is an association born in 2014 with the aim of carrying out promotion and social activities towards members and other users, without profit goals and fully respecting freedom and dignity of all people with whom it interacts, in respect of democracy and equality principles. Pas à Pas born with the aim of making people closer to diversity, to promote a model for social cohesion and coexistence, starting by language as a tool of knowledge and exchange. Pas à Pas aims at facilitate individuals in the acquisition of necessary tools to reach individual autonomy (linguistic and social), with the goal of promoting knowledge between people and the creation of bounding relations based on mutual responsibility allowing the exchange of experiences, sharing and full socio-cultural participation. Pas à Pas is also committed to increase people’s capacity to actively manage their own life, profiting from opportunities and resources of the context and trying to eliminate obstacles impeding their participation in the society, in respect of each person’s choices. As wider scope, the Association is involved in the fight against every type of marginalisation and isolation and for this reason it promotes social inclusion and works to sensitize the public opinion about the issues of hospitality and meeting with other people. For this reason the Association activities are mainly carried out in the field of language classes (Italian and not) and of all those occasions of socialization and meeting, where the language plays a fundamental role. Together with other groups active in the local territory, Pas à Pas comply with the increasing demand and need of learning the Italian language. In fact, the education offered by schools and institutions to the students with foreign origins (for example the CPIA schools) is often unable to meet the demand that is too high and distributed through the whole year period. Pas à Pas offers educational paths adequate to the primary linguistic needs of its students. These paths are developed by trained voluntary teachers and they aim at bringing the students to reach a level of independence in the use of the language and in the interaction with local people and society. From January 2014 to present, the Association has organized more than 30 courses of languages, directing its training proposals to more than 1000 students using a network of almost 200 volunteers. It has also promoted and participated to events organized at local level, contributing to living up and enriching the life in the area. For the year 2018/2019 the school had over 300 students; almost 90 volunteers are employed in the courses of Italian and foreign languages (previously trained in languages didactic by the Association itself) and other 10 volunteers in the organization of events and other activities. Inside the Association, there is also one trainee from the Department of Languages of the University of Genoa (ex Faculty of Languages and Foreign Cultures of Genoa). In particular, Pas à Pas conducts these activities: - Courses of Italian language L2 (for adults and minors) ; - Courses of foreign languages (French, English, Wolof, Arabic, Spanish, German, Russian); - Training courses for the teachers of the Association; - Participating in the “Migrants Network”, coordinated by CELIVO – Centro Servizi al Volontariato; - Organizing events (Pas à Pas has organized a great number of events, open to the public, together with the initiatives proposed by other associations active in the local territory; among these: activities aimed to discover the local environment and sport events; - Activities fostering the meeting and exchange among people and groups coming from different Countries (dinners and social happy hours; informal monthly meetings promoting socialization among students, teachers, associates and volunteers); meeting aiming at inform and sensitize the locals, fostering the culture and respect of Human Rights; theoretical and practical