A Safe Space to Discover the World — and Yourself
Since 2020, Associazione Mani Tese Veneto has been running a summer camp for adolescents in the province of Treviso that is, in its own modest way, quite extraordinary. Called E-state in Campo! — a wordplay on “summer in the field” — the initiative brings together around 25 young people aged 14 to 18 for ten days of training, volunteering, and community engagement every summer. It is the only summer programme of its kind in the area, and its importance goes well beyond the activities it offers.
Mani Tese Veneto was founded in January 2020 as an association of social promotion. Its mission is to spread the values of Mani Tese — economic, social and environmental justice, solidarity, and intercultural respect — while drawing on the specific resources and networks of the Veneto region. Volunteering and global citizenship education in both formal and non-formal contexts are at the heart of its work.
Ten Days of Learning and Volunteering
During the ten days of the camp, participants move between two parallel dimensions: moments of global citizenship education, delivered as group training sessions, and voluntary activities carried out in cooperation with several local associations and social cooperatives. The volunteer activities are not standardised — each young person chooses their experience from a menu prepared by Mani Tese Veneto, according to the realities involved in the project. Each partner organisation can host up to four or five young people per day, ensuring that the experience remains personal and substantive rather than superficial.
The themes addressed are diverse: the environment and the climate crisis, social agriculture, inequality, and the challenges of borders and migration. The combination of theoretical exploration in the morning training sessions and concrete voluntary engagement in the afternoons creates a learning dynamic that young people find genuinely activating — especially because they get to do things they have never done before.
Partnerships and Community Rooting
The success of the camp depends on a web of alliances: with families, who are essential partners in making participation possible; with the local health authority and adolescent services; with the Volunteer Service Centre; with schools that collaborate in promoting and supporting the initiative; and with the many local associations and cooperatives that open their doors to young volunteers. This network is one of the camp’s greatest assets — and also a measure of how deeply rooted it is in the community.
A Space for Vulnerability and Growth
One of the more complex aspects of the camp’s experience is that it has become something of a go-to resource for young people in situations of fragility who are not otherwise supported. The risk, as the organisers acknowledge, is that the camp becomes a temporary solution to problems that require more systemic responses. This honest self-assessment reflects a mature understanding of what a ten-day summer camp can and cannot do — and points to the need for complementary support structures in the area.
Many participants return in subsequent years, and some go on to volunteer with the associations they first encountered through the camp — a testimony to the transformative potential of the experience.
Relevance for Sustainable Learning
E-state in Campo connects to a wide range of SDGs, including SDG 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, and 13, and demonstrates how summer volunteering can become a genuine laboratory for global citizenship education among adolescents.
Website: manitese.it
Contact: Chiara Cecotti – cecotti@manitese.it
