Camp - Resident Group 24-25: looking for residents!

Dates
When: 2024-02-20 - 2024-03-18
Arrivals from 00:00 of the 20 February
Ends at 00:00 of the 18 March

Join the Agape Resident Group!

Agape Ecumenical Center offers the possibility of carrying out a period of residential volunteering in a place that for seventy years has been dedicated to community life, training and meetings between different cultures and faiths. The service provided to Agape allows the structure to organize and carry out its summer and winter camps, for minors and adults, as well as welcome groups who come to carry out their activities at the Center.

Agape is an ecumenical meeting space : the Waldensian Church – Union of Methodist and Waldensian churches, has managed the Center since its inauguration (1951) at the request of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Europe. Over time the term has taken on a broader value, including the meeting between believers of different religions, faiths and spiritualities but also between non-believers, through listening, knowledge and dialogue, valuing their diversity in mutual respect.

Agape is a reality committed to social reflection: the activities proposed by the Center offer a space for discussion on various themes related to political, social and environmental current affairs, gender issues, spirituality and theological debate, informal and non-formal training formal.

The name Agape comes from the first letter to the Corinthians which says: “Love (Agape) never grows less”+ (1. Corinthians 13, 8). Our commitment is also to authentically offer a spirituality to all those who do not usually cultivate a spiritual or religious dimension in their daily lives. In particular, at Agape an encounter with the Gospel is also possible for all those subjectivities who, throughout history, have been excluded from the traditional churches and who have experienced the Gospel for centuries as the ax through which all non-normative identities were marginalized, discriminated against.

The international dimension is present in various aspects of the Centre: all groups of volunteers are made up of people from all over the world. Every year the General Program includes a series of international meetings involving people from five continents. This dimension has characterized the Center since its foundation by young people from all over the world, immediately proposing itself as a place for dialogue, discussion and concrete experimentation of an inclusive and sustainable life practice.

Agape was designed by the pastor Tullio Vinay and the architect Leonardo Ricci, built immediately after the Second World War, between 1947 and 1951, by young volunteers with the precise intention of experiencing reconciliation between peoples together.

We are located upstream of Val Germanasca, above the Ghigo di Prali, at an altitude of 1,500 meters, immersed in alpine nature and in close contact with the local population. A marginal area compared to large population centers such as Turin or Milan, but, precisely for this reason, central in its desire to be a place in which to rediscover the meaning of community life, solidarity and commitment towards others.

What is a resident?

Agape is carried out by volunteers: in particular, the Resident Group is made up of around ten young people, who dedicate a period of their lives to the project and, in exchange, receive food, accommodation and pocket money. The Resident Group is made up of male and female volunteers, the director and the deputy director.

The Resident Group lives in Agape all year round and is responsible for managing the Centre. Specifically, the residents are responsible for hospitality management: they coordinate and work in the kitchen, service, cleaning, maintenance, bar and office, assisted by the campolavoro (volunteers who come to Agape only for short periods during the camps). Each resident receives specific training for the sector they are called upon to manage and coordinates the relevant fieldwork group. We cook for small and large groups of people (even up to 100), we manage the dining room service, the cleaning of the rooms and the toilets; the structure is taken care of with small ordinary maintenance works, the internal bar is managed, the office is coordinated for the entire organizational part of the various sectors, the finance department and the reception. The Resident Group presents the structure to visiting people and organizes reflection meetings on current issues.

The residents also engage in Agape’s projects, being part of the camp entertainment staff and maintaining contact with the various groups that collaborate with the Centre.

In the residents’ home we live in a community dimension in which we take turns cooking, cleaning the common areas together and everyone takes care of their own room. Moments dedicated to the management of group dynamics, trips and cultural and recreational activities are organised. The weekly assemblies, experiential activities and two intensive training seminars guarantee the construction of a group capable of working and growing together.

How do you apply for residency?

You can request to be part of the Resident Group for a period of one year; the availability to renew the candidacy for another year will be discussed at the end of the first.

We encourage you to apply from wherever in the world you live!

Contact us via email so we can provide you with more detailed information.

Write to:
vicedirezione@agapecentroecumenico.org
direzione@agapecentroecumenico.org

To apply we need your CV and a letter of motivation explaining why you want to be part of the Resident Group, to be sent by 18/03/2024.

The residency year begins at the end of September.

We are waiting for you!