Volontari Senior Professionali (VSP) was funded in 1986, by a group of retired managers, with the cooperation of Agnelli Foundation and Lions International. In 1998 VSP was officially qualified as non-profit (ONLUS) and is a volunteering organisation (OdV) whose main purpose is solidarity. Since 1986, more than 600 missions in over 30 countries have been accomplished in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America in support of public and private projects, with the objective to stimulate growth, fighting against poverty and unemployment.
Nowadays the mission is to promote intergenerational and intercultural solidarity by facilitating dialogue between qualified volunteers and the community/organisations involved in youth development, cooperation for the development and cultural integration. VSP volunteers come from different experiences, including managers, university and school teachers, layers, economist, who decide to donate their valuable knowledge and expertise to young people. Its three areas of action are youth development, social discomfort and international cooperation. This third area includes also the Erasmus Plus projects in which VSP participated.
- EST - European Seniors Together: transfer of experiences and best practices between Senior Expert associations from Germany, France and Italy to newly emerging associations in Eastern European countries: Hungary, Poland.(Two years project 2022/2023)
- LAB - Locally Across Borders: involvement of young people through Service Learning, a methodology for implementing learning in real-life contexts.(Two years project 2022/2023)
VSP’s activities in MAB
- Continuous engagement with partners on project progress
- Contribution to the website interface/brochure text
- Contribution to translations into Italian of video and platform
- Participation to MAB Info Day and Training Days
- Dissemination activities through social media, website, meetings
- Contribution to validation of the platform functionality
- Specific training for VSP Hub mentors (December 2023, January and June 2024)
- Development of a social campaign for mentees
- Recruitment of mentors (18 registered in the platform) and mentees (7 registered in the platform)
- Managing 3 mentoring collaborations
- Recruitment of 2 new hubs
VSP Team for MAB
Gianmaria Scapin (born in Vicenza, lives in Milan, works in Turin). Degree in "Economics" at the L. Bocconi University of Milan. He worked as Managing Director and Marketing Manager in different multinational companies such as Amplifon, Unilever and Corriere della Sera. He taught Business Games and Business Simulation programs in many Universities and Business Schools such as the MBA at the Cranfield University UK. He cooperates as a volunteer in programs with the United Nations Volunteers programme and EU in different countries: Albania, Belarus, Philippines etc. He is currently President of VSP Odv - Turin, and board member of CESES. In MAB he is the responsible of the project and the administrator of the VSP Hub.
Fabio Vezzi: Degree at the “Sapienza” University in Rome, then Master in International Marketing at the Tuft University in Boston. Former manager in international companies, like Pirelli, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé group, working in Italy, UK and France. Then founder of a management consulting group, Creative Business, that ran for over 20 years. Many experiences in voluntary missions for the European Community (Tacis program) and for United Nations Volunteers programme in emerging countries, like Cap Verde, Tunisia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Vietnam, Ukraine to support the growth of local initiatives. Former president of VSP ODV in Turin.
Marilena Vimercati: former teacher of sociology, currently collaborates with ISMU – Initiatives and Studies on Multi-ethnicity – Foundation, an independent scientific body, to carry out projects addressed to migrants, including career guidance and training of trainers interested in acting as mentors. She has a long experience of work placement and research projects in European programmes such as Petra, Lingua, Leonardo da Vinci and then Erasmus. She uses narrative methodologies in different contexts in which she worked/works (students and health professionals’ placements in Europe, migrants, people with chronic disease). In MAB she is a hub employee of the VSP Hub and acts as mentor co-ordinator to ensure a proper training and mentoring process.
