The young people serving in the Municipality of s. Ferdinando di Calabria belong to those 166,670 young people who have dedicated at least 10 months of their lives to community service in the four-year period 2020-2024, particularly in the areas of care and education.
The data, updated as of Sept. 25, refer only to the ordinary calls for applications, not including the various experiments launched over the years such as the Civil Peace Corps, the Digital Civil Service, the Environmental Service and the Jubilee 2025 Catholic Church.
The Civil Service is an important opportunity for training and personal and professional growth. “Young people are the great resource of our country. We can count on their enthusiasm, their creative force, the generosity they often manifest.”
Italian President Sergio Mattarella stressed this in his end-of-year speech. A generative potential that the 18-28 age group can also express through Civil Service, which is both formative and useful.
The Civil Service is open to all young people in the age group indicated, including foreigners legally residing in Italy.
The areas of intervention in which the bodies registered in the Roll of Universal Civil Service propose projects are: assistance; civil protection; environmental heritage and urban regeneration; historical, artistic and cultural heritage; education and cultural, landscape, environmental, sustainable and social tourism and sports promotion; agriculture in mountain areas; social agriculture and biodiversity; promotion of peace among peoples, nonviolence and unarmed defense; promotion and protection of human rights; development cooperation; promotion of Italian culture abroad and support for communities of Italians abroad.
We collected the testimonies of young women who served at the diocesan Caritas Canteen, which operates in the house of the Sisters of Charity in San Ferdinando di Calabria:
Community service: An opportunity to make a difference
“We girls of the Civil Service, in force at the Municipality of S. Ferdinando, have prepared, for the immigrants of the tent city, more than two hundred meals of rice and chicken, according to an African recipe, at the diocesan canteen operating at the Colonia Nunziante of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide. We also went there ourselves to deliver them, together with the operator and the boys of the Universal Civil Service in force at the diocesan Caritas.
We are really happy to have had the opportunity to have such an intense and profound experience.
Often, in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we are so focused on what we lack or what we worry about that we fail to recognize the many things we are fortunate to possess.
The fact that we were able to empathize with people living in situations so different from our own certainly brought out a sense of gratitude that was perhaps harder to grasp before.
It is amazing how a small gesture of solidarity can change someone’s day, especially when they are going through difficult times.
Sometimes what seems like a simple action for us, such as smiling, making a gesture of solidarity or offering a little help , can be a sign of hope, of human connection, for the other person.
The fact that we want to repeat this experience is a testament to how much it has enriched us more than we imagined.
These kinds of experiences can really change our perception of the world and the people around us through small everyday actions, such as being more attentive and present toward those around us or trying to do something concrete, confident that even with the small gestures, we will continue to make a significant difference.
So this experience is not just a memory, but a starting point to live with greater awareness, empathy and gratitude, committing ourselves to make every day an opportunity to make a difference, in our own small way and for those around us.”
The girls of the St. Ferdinand Civil Service, Jan. 30, 2025
