Seminar "Overcoming invisible barriers: Volunteering with homeless"

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The economic crisis in Europe has created conditions that favor the increase of homeless people and, what is most worrisome, is that there has been an increase in young people who fall into this situation. The main reasons are the loss of housing and the problems of access to it, unemployment, especially youth unemployment, as well as cuts in social aid and obstacles to accessing social and health services. The conditions faced by homeless are probably the worst face social exclusion in our societies. However, Homelessness is one of the less known phenomena, so it is essential that the response to this situation is, first of all, its visibility to overcome barriers. This visibility must be based on the human rights approach, that is, from a non-assistance approach and focused on the autonomy and dignity of the people.
 
SCI Madrid has 15 years of experience in volunteering with Homeless People. Since 2003, our most veteran local volunteer group, called “Bocadillos en la calle” (sandwiches on the street), every Sunday goes to the streets of the city of Madrid to carry out a work of accompaniment to the homeless as well as to raise awareness of the public about this problematic. Now, these volunteers decided to go a step further, calling European social organizations to an international seminar to share, exchange and extend good practices among the participants of entities with experience in this field.
 
The main objective is to promote the visibility of homelessness in European society through local and international volunteering. The specific objectives of the call are the following:

1. Promote awareness and reflection on the situation of homelessness in Europe and how to make visible their situation through local and international volunteering.
2. Learn from the experience and knowledge of the organizations and their participants to raise the visibility of homelessness through local and international volunteering.
3. Generate tools and institutionalized methods that are easy to disseminate for a subsequent replica in other organizations, networks, and platforms for the visibility of homelessness in the community through local and international volunteering.