INVEST in Your Volunteers

That has become the title of a digital booklet that five European partners (from Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK) have been working on during the two-year run of the INVEST project. 
In a nutshell, the booklet outlines how to encourage and empower volunteers by creating special learning opportunities for them.
The focus of our European Grundtvig project was learning through volunteering. The main objective was to identify and apply different methods and tools for facilitating learning opportunities for volunteers and share the experiments and experiences among the wider European community involved in volunteering.
The rationale behind the booklet is: volunteers can be empowered by raising their awareness of the many competences and skills they are acquiring during their voluntary activities and by supporting them in identifying these skills as well as by providing other learning opportunities to them, such as workshops.
In order to support and encourage volunteers in their development 25 tools have been described and displayed in the booklet via a format. Among these there are also sample portfolios, as they provide unique opportunities to stimulate volunteers to reflect on their broad experiences and achievements and in this way get to grips with assessing their own capabilities, increasing their quality of life, connecting this to their ambitions and their level of commitment to learning from volunteering.
The booklet includes five chapters and four appendices with additional resources.

Here's it is :

Would you like to get a flavour of the project and see its many participants in action, why not have a look at this set of pictures on flickr.com  ?



Capitalising on volunteer experiences

Sala Alessi, Palazzo Marino, in the heart of Milan: that was the venue for an open seminar that our Milanese partner Ciessevi had arranged as part of the 3rd partnership meeting of the INVEST project on November 12th. In this majestic location all eyes were first focused on the mayor of Milan who welcomed the many participants as well as the INVEST partners from Spain, Denmark, the UK and our country. An admirable way of underlining the importance of volunteering and supporting European cooperation !
Capitalising on volunteer experiences: that was to be our theme, we had decided, much in line with the INVEST project objectives (described here). The open seminar provided an ideal opportunity to disseminate the European experiences with competence development and portfolios for volunteers to local stakeholders.
A Grundtvig learning partnership makes EU cooperation accessible, focused and concrete, once you've drawn up a solid plan and got it approved. This type of European project facilitates face-2-face meetings, resulting in worthwhile talks and discussions enabling interaction that leads to new ideas and perspectives. During small scale workshops many issues can be discussed at a concrete and insightful level via focused and well prepared assignments, which is why everybody learns so much (see here what was learned at an event just like this).
Moreover, it also supports a European spirit of solidarity in these difficult times in the Eurozone.This time the two workshops were implemented by our Cibervoluntarios partner from Madrid and our own university. Finally, the visits to three volunteering organisations in the Milan area made the meeting an overall success among the 28 delegates.Here's a picture of nearly the whole group at the end of day 1.

On our way back to the airport we got confronted with one of the many protest marches taking place all over Europe that day; as it turned out, it was the biggest day of union-organised protests since the crisis in the euro first broke out three years ago, with trade unions from 23 European countries joining in this day of action.

 More photos of this 3rd European level meeting of the INVEST project on flickr via this link.



This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This blog post reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.

Wikipedia is research, or not ?

Wikipedia, the free, collaboratively edited and multilingual internet encyclopedia, is not only among the top 10 most-visited sites, but it has also grown to be the number one source for students. In fact, for many students it is more or less a one stop shop for information and students are said to stop research and change topics if it’s not on Wikipedia. Studies have shown that Wikipedia is almost as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica, all due to the efforts of the millions of volunteers who write, edit, and check its entries. This infographic by OpenSite highlights how Wikipedia has revolutionized research and how it has become an increasingly reliable fountain of knowledge over the years.
Interested in knowing why so many volunteer to contribute to Wikipedia? Listen to the founder Jimmy Wales:

Meanwhile: in Copenhagen

Having the best of both worlds: that was the driving force behind the decision to have the 2nd INVEST partnership meeting in May organised in conjunction with the CEV conference. The theme of the Copenhagen conference was in fact very much in line with the path that had been trodden in the run-up to the Grundtvig project application of INVEST, namely: cross-sector collaboration. The backdrop: the beautiful location of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) at Christiansborg Palace, on the island of Slotsholmen in the centre of the Danish capital. After enjoying the CEV conference, its workshops,seminar sessions and opportunities for networking and disseminating, the INVEST partners met on Friday May 9th to hold two workshops in the company of their volunteers, volunteering coordinators and colleagues. The workshops were a first try out in a European setting, leading to stimulating dialogue and exchange of experiences. The overall mission and goal of the INVEST project is to strengthen volunteering interventions by training volunteers on a regular basis in order to increase motivation for volunteering, encourage the quality and continuity of volunteer involvement and empower volunteers themselves in their competence development. In the workshops given by the UK partner (Roehampton University)and the Italian partner (Ciessevi) the focus was in fact on those issues. Having been identified as a major component of any learning activity, reflection took centre stage in the discussions and debriefing moments after the workshops. Many times you could hear participants saying: "come to think of it , I now realise that .....". Another interesting reflection was expressed during the finishing round of remarks: "it was so good to talk to people involved in volunteering within the wider scope of Europe; there is so much common ground but we've never realised this up to now in this European setting by sharing these thoughts with European counterparts". Mission completed ? Not yet, but we are well underway ! The Grundtvig Learning partnership that started its activities in September 2011 is more or less midway by now, so it was time to take stock of the progress made during the first project year. This was done on the morning preceding the general opening of the CEV conference. Taking the opportunity to finetune further steps in the project, the partners outlined more detailed plans for the coming months and the 3rd partnership meeting in November, in Milan. Hopefully, by the end of June we'll have finished a number of chapters of the digital booklet we are to produce, so that from September onwards the focus can shift towards volunteer portfolios.


Posted later, a short videoclip of the INVEST meeting:

We volunteer, we learn

Sharing inspiration, ideas and resources, exchanging good practices, building on each other's strengths: that's all part of our INVEST project, a Grundtvig Learning Partnership. In the mail today we were happy to receive the link to the visual recording of our recent first meeting in Madrid. Our Spanish partner Cibervoluntarios was the producer of this short video , for a longer video recording of the talk we had with two Spanish cybervolunteers, click here. For dissemination purposes Cibervoluntarios designed this poster and brochure cover: And here's the full brochure text of the INVEST project outlining the aims and activities of this Grundtvig Learning Partnership, financially supported by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.

INVEST brochure text

View more documents from Anja S.

First INVEST project meeting in Madrid

The first meeting with all the partners in the new European INVEST project is now behind us: time to look back !
In the run up to the meeting, an ambitious agenda had been designed in an interactive way and well in advance. To ensure that all the intended goals for this kick-off meeting were met the original application form had been studied intensively again and the essential ingredients were reviewed on the spot to refresh our memories.
All 5 partners had been preparing for the meeting and gave presentations to familiarise the delegates with the contexts they were working in and to share good practices in line with the aims of the project. Within the 2-day time frame we succeeded admirably to get the project well under way and to broaden understanding of the key issues in the project: volunteering and learning. Among others we discussed the draft list of contents of the booklet that the project members are working out as one of the major results of this Grundtvig learning partnership.
Many issues were clarified and important interactive and detailed planning was done towards the second meeting when the European volunteers will be involved and invited to the workshops the partnership will develop for them.
Towards the end of the meeting most of us had gained valuable new insights in the volunteering infrastructures, realities and experiences of the other partners. An interesting new insight to me was the distinction between intentional learning by volunteers, that is volunteering to learn, and unintentional learning, that is learning through volunteering without any intention at all to learning anything, on the other hand. This distinction may be two sides of the same coin, but they are worthwhile exploring in our approach, while applying a needs analysis and creating educational opportunities for volunteers.

Clipped from: www.plataformavoluntariado.org (share this clip)

And after the inspiring and productive visit to the Plataforma del Voluntariado de Espana we concluded our meeting, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. What had impressed us most however was the many efforts that our Spanish host had made, the Cibervoluntarios foundation, to make us feel at home in Madrid. It is hard to imagine a warmer welcome than the one we received from Yolanda, Angel and Jorge. Many thanks to them once more ! However, let's not forget that the other partners also deserve to be thanked for their many contributions and for establishing such a good and positive working atmosphere, so thank you Silvia and Glenda from Ciessevi, Milan, Steven from Roehampton University, London, and Ole, Kirsten and Rikke from the Center for frivilligt socialt arbejde, Odense, Denmark.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This blog post reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.
For a visual report of our meeting, click here .

MaS in the spotlight, in retrospect

An interesting concept: a national conference, also accessible to international guests by developing concurrently an international programme in English . The focus was on civic internships, or service learning, MaS (maatschappelijke stage)for short in Dutch, a recent development in the Netherlands. It was one of a series of activities held within the programme of the NL tour of the European Year of Volunteering.
A tour organised to provide volunteers with an opportunity to exhibit their achievements, meet one another, share their concerns with citizens and convey their energy and enthusiasm and discuss key issues for the future of volunteers.
But what is MaS ? This was how it was explained to the international audience: a mandatory 30 hour school-based (community) service for all secondary education students (12 - 18 years), regulated by Dutch law. It's often NGO's which offer these civic internships to students, 195,000 all in all, from around 650 schools ( head locations) and 1950 sublocations. A quick calculation leads to 6 million hours of service done each year !

Many fine examples and achievements were demonstrated and discussed in separate rooms for the many (Dutch) participants ranging from students and teachers to internship agents and non-profit organizations.
The international guests could listen to talks from Spain, Germany, Croatia and the Unites States, showing a rich caleidoscope of examples of how service learning is implemented in their countries and the way it was developed.
Intriguing question for discussion afterwards was: what was the spark for the beginning of the initiative to get service learning on its way ? was it a volunteering starting point or an educational one ? Responses amounted to partial answers and comments but no clear comparisons, nor definitive conclusions. This highly informative part of the programme ended with an appeal to keep on examining, documenting and researching how service learning is developing.

Learning and networking

With the CEV symposium in Brussels just behind me, I’m looking back here at the experience. It was well announced as an event on “Volunteering as a means of empowerment and social inclusion”. The week before we received all the information by mail, among which a list of participants. It’s always interesting to know in advance who will be present at such an occasion. Not to my surprise, I read that I was going to be the only representative from a university , even though we are a university of applied sciences.
Learning and networking: those were my goals. Learning about the great diversity of voluntary activities within Europe and familiarising myself with the landscape of volunteer initiatives but also barriers to voluntary action. And networking in order to get acquainted to a number of European players in the field of volunteering and, secretly, hoping to find some partners to start up a small scale European project, a Grundtvig Learning Partnership.
I am happy to say that many of my expectations have turned out as I'd hoped. Enthusiastic, open and committed people I met, quite a large group from all over Europe (and a few from beyond), all with their own experiences and input. Many of them are members of the European Volunteer Centre and have known each other for quite a while, but the other half of the audience present on the first day was not, CEV director Markus Held established.
On day 1 I particularly liked the dialogue café: a wonderful way of getting to talk to a variety of participants in a short period, with a specific question as the starting point. On day 2 it was the workshops that I enjoyed most. I listened to Anne Sophie van der Bracht who related how young people were involved in activities that support their mental, physical and ethical development in 3 years at a stretch, moving from bronze to silver to gold in the process, each year for them being more difficult than the one before. Volunteering is (only) part of that. Next to that they do sports, study and go on an annual expedition. The overall aim is to teach these 15 to 19 year olds that through dedication and commitment to tasks and by working systematically, they can exceed themselves. It’s an intensive type of youth work performed by the foyer (Jongerenwerking Brussel). As for volunteering, they hope that these youngsters (all from non-Belgian backgrounds) will maintain their voluntary work as a structural thing.
Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and the role of international partnerships was another workshop that attracted my interest. In the huge organisation that VSO is and based on the wealth of experience they have gained through the years, they have developed their theory of change and demonstrated the potential of volunteering in the improvement of the lives of people experiencing poverty and marginalisation. The Chief Youth Officer at the Kenyan Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports then illustrated their National Youth Volunteer Scheme, established together with VSO.
The final part of day 2 was dedicated to the Brussels declaration on the role of volunteering in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, making a bridge between the themes of the two consecutive European years.

Day 3 was meant as an opportunity to meet volunteers and voluntary organisations in a large tent by way of a continuing fair that will be travelling around Europe in the course of 2011, the European Year of Volunteering.

To end this post , just a few encouraging facts:
• Volunteering improves self-confidence. Over 80 % of English volunteers report that engagement in voluntary work makes them happy and improves their self-esteem.
• Research shows that the unemployed, people coming from minority ethnic groups and unskilled workers are underrepresented in the “volunteering force” of Europe.
• According to a study among job seekers in England, 81% of respondents said that volunteering gave them a chance to learn new skills.
• Almost 75 % of employers prefer to recruit candidates with volunteering in their CV.