The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, has issued the following declaration:
"The 33rd International Volunteer Day is celebrated today in the world and in Italy. This year, the United Nations draw attention to the ability of volunteering to build resilient communities: collective realities that can guide challenges and changes in a positive way, due to the social ties between people who make them up. Volunteering is therefore honored as a force for communities transformation.
A Country where the threads that unite people are broken, undermining social cohesion, is a frightened and fragile Country. On the contrary, volunteering is an antidote to the closures and the selfishness that can arise in moments of personal or collective difficulty.
Volunteering focuses on the person but goes beyond the individual: it is a way of thinking big, a push to put oneself in the shoes of others and, nevertheless, a source of subjective as well as collective well-being. In fact volunteers, whether at the service of their values or in search of relationships and opportunities for professional growth, cultivate and transmit a sense of personal satisfaction and optimism for themselves and for the world.
It should not be forgotten that volunteering also attracts young and very young people to its forces, giving voice to new themes. Because of its ability to build networks, volunteering is an important space for civic leadership, a valuable ally in the reconstruction of the desire for political and civil commitment”.
