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About Us
ARCI Strauss
Cultural association "Strauss", is a non-profit organization that began in 1999 in Mussomeli, a town in the centre of Sicily,
in the province of Caltanissetta. It is a self-financed organization and subsidiary to Arci, committed to promoting a
multicultural and multiethnic society.
Our organization’s main objective is to meet the needs of young people, to hear their voice and provide them with useful
services for their cultural and personal growth.
The target with which the association is working normally consists of young people aged between 15 and 30 years.
The association Strauss manages a INFO-GIOVANI center (INFO-YOUTH), providing information to the community
(especially youngsters) on matters as work, education and school, cultural activities, sports, etc. .. and besides it offers
Internet point, print and fax services.
Info-Youth desk is open from Monday to Friday.
In addition of Info-Youth there is also Info-H, a support help desk for people with disabilities, opened 2 days a week (on
Tuesday and on Thursday) that has often became spokesman of popular complaints (for example through the editing and
publication of a Newspaper titled "L’Urlo", a (The Shout) a report newspaper against the architectural barriers in
Mussomeli and surroundings).
Moreover, from some years, the association has taken a well defined European dimension, involving in many projects
funded under the Youth Program (now Youth in Action) in various parts of Europe (hundreds of youngsters thanks to the
association could live an experience of this kind), and organization and realization of 4 projects in Mussomeli (a cultural
exchange and 3 seminars), and the last one of these ( "50 years of EU: a look bin the past to build the future ") has
involved associations and participants from 23 EU countries, to celebrate the fiftieth of the Treaty of Rome.
The experience gained in European field , has moved us to the opening of the "Europe-desk", a help-desk which aim is to
provide information and advices on the European policies and in general on the opportunities that the EU offers to young
people. This desk now count on the contribution of PLD ( Decentralized Local Point) Eurodesk of Mussomeli : in fact, in
2006 our association has been accredited as PLD Eurodesk and also has 9 territorial relays spread in the territory which it
refers.
The "Europe-desk", is opened from Monday to Friday.
The association Strauss is also responsible for the editing and publication of the magazine “ L’ALTERnativo” : a local
free bimestrial magazine which analyze subjects of local interest with a youth and ironic style .
Weekly meetings are planned between the members of the editorial staff to discuss the issues that must be treated in the
various issues of the magazine and to deal with the many aspects that the management of a newspaper implies.
L’ALTERnativo can count on the support of Gianfranco Belgrano, an international renowned journalist, member of our
association and director of our newspaper.
Besides , from some years, our organization has worked with high schools institutes of Mussomeli in the project "A scuola
d’ Europa", an initiative that aims to bring young people closer to a European dimension, giving them key information
about the EU, its institutions and its policies. This project sees the association committed every year, in different periods
agreed before with the schools.
Since this year, in addition, the association Strauss is part of the project “Una rete per la vita”, funded under the Act 328 of
2000 and managed by the Health- district D10.
Under this project , “Strauss” manages the service "Borsa Lavoro", which aims to promote the reintegration of children
who have had problems with the penal code (these are followed by young tutor put at their disposal by our association),
and ( in cooperation with the CIS) “the Recreational Center for Youth”, open 2 times per week in a place of the
municipality, with the aim of giving young people aged between 15 and 25 years an alternative to the road, organizing
them different kind of recreational activities .
Finally, the Strauss also aims to create moments of meeting and socializing in a constructive and stimulating way. Among
the activities carried out in the past, there are: the Festival of Music, the Anti-Mafia Caravan, the “Writing and Hip hop”
meeting.
The staff of cultural association Strauss is composed by 3 part-time workers and 3 volunteers, performing the following
tasks:
1 operator for the Service Infogiovani and INFO H, 1 operator for Europe- desk, 1 contact person for the PLD Eurodesk, 4
members of the editing of the ALTERnativo, 2 tutors for the Borsa Lavoro.
In addition to the staff, the Strauss have the backing of several members who assiduously attend the center and participate
in its activities.
History of project
This project is new ,but three last years there is project Scuola Europa ,which is the first project what ARCI Strauss made in school and this year 2009 is about inovation and for this OUR TEAM decide made new project with new topic .
Project will be about MASSMEDIA