Abstract

In this article, the Authors aim to verify the efficacy of a volunteer service experience, which included a period of training and tutoring experience with minors at risk, in increasing the level of empowerment of youth involved as tutors. The subjects involved were 164, aged between 18 and 28, all resident in Florence, Pontassieve and Campi Bisenzio; 82 subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental group (they who took part in the project) and the remaining 82 to the control group. Zimmerman and Rappaport's Empowerment Scale, validated in Italy by Francescato and Perugini, was used to measure the level of empowerment of both experimental and control groups in three different moments (before training, at the end of training course and after tutoring activity with minors). ANOVA shows the level of empowerment of the experimental group increasing in the second and third measurements, that is after the training course and the tutoring activity with minors.