YOU::VOL - Youth volunteering policies in Europe

Timeframe and Objectives
Partners
YOU::VOL Seminar
Final report

Timeframe: 1st November 2006 - 30th April 2007

Objectives:

To encourage cooperation between the participants and particularly between EU countries participants and participants from South-Eastern Europe;
To establish and support a new partnership between the representatives in South-Eastern Europe and those that work and volunteer in EU Member States;
To bring together representatives from volunteer centres, volunteer organisations, youth organisations and policy makers from all over Europe to discuss ways forward to promote youth volunteering and volunteering within mainstream volunteer organisations and through targeted youth volunteering policies both on government and volunteer organisation’s level;
To exchange ideas, methods and good practices about youth volunteering in different European countries. The skills and qualifications of the participants will help enhancing information sharing in a good way;
To identify criteria for good practices and their transferability in order to add value to the work of volunteer organisations and public authorities;
To present good practice on how to enhance the participation of young people in youth volunteering and to make youth volunteering more effective and to stimulate the participation of young “active European citizens”;
To determine targets for national action plans and how to declare these suggestions to authorities;
To encourage cooperation between the volunteering sector and public authorities;
To draw conclusions at European level.

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Partners:

European Volunteer Centre (CEV), Europe (project coordination)
European Education Exchanges - Youth for Understanding (EEE-YFU), Europe;
Association of Voluntary Service Organisations (AVSO), Europe;
European Youth Forum (EYF), Europe;
Osmijeh, Bosnia and Herzegovina;
Youth Communication Centre (OKC), Bosnia and Herzegovina;
South East European Youth Network (SEEYN), Bosnia and Herzegovina;
Volunteers’ Centre Zagreb (VCZ), Croatia;
SMART, Croatia;
Volonterski Centar Osijek (VCO), Croatia;
Pan Cyprian Volunteerism Coordinative Council, Cyprus;
Nicosia District Volunteerism Coordinative Council/Nicosia Volunteer Corp, Cyprus;
Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerschaftliches Engagement (BBE), Germany;
Bundesvereinigung Kulturelle Kinder- und Jugendbildung (BKJ), Germany;
Deutscher Caritasverband, Verbund Freiwilligen-Zentren, Germany;
Youth Action for Peace (YAP-CFD), Germany;
Önkéntes Központ Alapítvány (ÖKA), Hungary;
National Employment Foundation, Hungary;
Volunteer Centres Ireland, Ireland;
SPES, Italy;
Youth Forum Eye, FYR of Macedonia;
Council for Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (SPPMD), FYR of Macedonia;
Ministry for Education, FYR of Macedonia;
Youth Cultural Centre Bitola, FYR of Macedonia;
Malta Resource Centre, Malta;
Association for Democratic Prosperity- Zid, Montenegro;
MOVISIE, The Netherlands;
National Council For the Promotion of Volunteering, Portugal;
Slovene Philantrophy, Slovenia;
Barcelona Voluntaria, Spain;
ICVolunteers, Spain;
Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG), Turkey;
Volunteer Development Agency Northern Ireland, The UK;
Volunteer Development Agency Scotland, The UK;
Volunteering England, The UK.

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YOU::VOL seminar
7 to 11 March 2007, Skopje FYR of Macedonia

Seminar programme

Main conclusions:

While wide range of participants represented very different realities of youth volunteering and its framework, the identified barriers towards youth volunteering, criteria of good practice to overcome these and the recommendations towards policy makers have shown some commonalities as well. In many countries there are excellent examples of good practice, but there is still a lot to be done to keep volunteering in accordance with the needs of contemporary societies and its youth.The experience of organisations active in the promotion of youth volunteering shows that if young people are well informed about volunteering and have successful first volunteering experiences, they are likely to continue to be active all through their life. It is, thus, crucial to get citizens interested as young as possible to volunteer.
Some of the main recommendations:

Governments must be supportive of the role that youth volunteering plays in our society and make clear statements in this regard.
New policy frameworks need to take into account all forms of youth volunteering: fulltime voluntary service as mentioned in the EU common principles, but also shorter term engagement and volunteering for one’s own community.
Youth volunteering policies have to take into account all different forms of motivation of young people to volunteer; there is no “one fits all” approach: What appeals to highly educated youth does not necessarily put on youth with fewer opportunities.
The message ‘you can make a difference – to society and to your own life’ must be adapted to each of the target groups such as migrant youth, unemployed youth, high school students, etc and volunteer activities might differ between these groups accordingly.
The voluntary nature of volunteering is crucial when developing policies to promote youth volunteering.
There is a clear need for a volunteering infrastructure: While volunteering is an activity that ‘happens’ out of young person’s free will and initiative, an infrastructure will help many of them to find their way into volunteering – and stay involved.

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This project is supported by the European Commission in the framework of the Youth Programme.