Our vision and our work
Our vision and our work
Giving a voice to volunteers and volunteer organisations in Europe...
The European Volunteer Centre (Centre européen du volontariat, CEV) is the European network of nearly 100 national, regional and local volunteer centres and volunteer support agencies across Europe, that work together to support and promote voluntary activity. Through our network we reach out to over 17,000 volunteer organisations, associations and other voluntary and community groups. CEV channels the collective priorities and concerns of its member organisations to the institutions of the European Union. It also acts as a central forum for the exchange of policy, practice and information on volunteering.
CEV’s vision is a Europe in which volunteering is central in building a cohesive and inclusive society based on solidarity and active citizenship. Our mission is to create an enabling political, social and economic environment in Europe for the full potential of volunteering to be realized.
Together with our members we work
- To be a representative voice for volunteering in Europe
- To strengthen the infrastructure for volunteering in the countries of Europe
- To promote volunteering and make it more effective
Our strategic objectives
- To promote and win recognition for volunteering as an expression of active citizenship in Europe to the general public, the media, businesses and policy-makers on all relevant levels of government
- To act as a bridge for communication between volunteer organisations and the work of the European institutions
- To develop policies and promote and support the role of volunteering infrastructure in advancing volunteering as an expression of active citizenship in Europe
- To serve as a knowledge and research resource for volunteering in Europe
- To promote innovation and good practice in the field of supporting and reinforcing volunteering, participation and active citizenship through exchange, structured dialogue and network-building
- To develop strategic partnerships and alliances with key stakeholders across all sectors
CEV’s initiative and facilitating role has been a crucial element in the civil society campaign achieving the European Year of Volunteering 2011 together with all our partner networks active in volunteering at the European level. These networks form the ‘EYV 2011 Alliance’ and CEV has been mandated to host the Secretariat for the implementation of the civil society strand of the European Year of Volunteering 2011.
CEV is a member of the 
and IAVE. 
Our services to CEV members and to the general public
- To gather and provide information on developments within the EU on volunteer related topices
- To represent the needs and concerns of CEV members within EU policy and with international institutions
- To conduct research on volunteering
- To encourage networking between organisations and to facilitate the exchange of good practice and innovation
- To provide a forum for our members to find partners for European-wide projects
- Bi-Annual General Assemblies, conferences, seminars, workshops and meetings
- CEV News (CEV’s monthly electronic news bulletin)
- An interactive CEV Website
Our history
CEV’s origins lie in an initiative by the two Belgian Regional Volunteer Centres, Vlaams Steunpunt Vrijwilligerswerk and l’Association pour le Volontariat who, together with le Centre National du Volontariat (France), the National Centre for Volunteering (UK), and el Centro Nazionale per il Voluntariato (Italy) organised a Meeting in Lucca, Italy 1989 for the representatives of National and Regional Volunteer Centres in eight European countries. The outcome of the meeting was a joint declaration for increased European cooperation. The European Volunteer Centre (CEV) was founded in February 1990 on the basis of this declaration, and in 1992 was officially granted the status of “international non-profit organisation" registered under Belgian law. On 5 December 1995, CEV organised the first ever European Day for Volunteering in the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, with the active support of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and UNESCO.
Between 1993 and 2001 CEV administered as Technical Assistance Office over 13 contracts of the European Commission’s PHARE and TACIS-LIEN Programme in Central and Eastern Europe and CIS and released a series of publications within these programmes.
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