European Solidarity Corps member, Juan Manuel Báez is now a part of the CEV team as an ESC Project and Policy trainee funded through the Europe for Citizens Programme. Juanma is Spanish, he studied Social Sciences in Málaga and is now completing his degree in Economics. Welcome to the team!
The CEV Capacity Building Conference: Volunteering in Culture will take place on the 19-20 April 2018 in Rijeka Croatia. The main objective of this conference is to identify what are the specificities of volunteering in culture, where the beneficiaries of the activities are not as visible as in other kinds of volunteering eg in social service provision or youth work. It will also consider how these cultural projects promote intercultural dialogue, human rights, solidarity and social values. Participants will learn how the well-being of volunteers in culture can be protected and how the question of their skills development and validation of competencies gained can be best approached. Accommodation, travel suggestions and to register here.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: EUROPEAN VOLUNTEERING CAPITAL 2020: CEV launches the seventh edition of the European Volunteer Capital competition #EVCapital2020. The award is chosen from the applicant municipalities by an international jury of experts who assess the extent to which the recommendations as listed in PAVE and the “5R” policy priorities as identified in the PAVE 5 year review “Helping Hands”, are shown to be implemented. How the European Solidarity Corps will be supported and promoted is also part of the criteria. The European Volunteering Capital Competition aims to promote volunteering at the local level by giving recognition to municipalities that support and strengthen partnerships with volunteer centres and volunteer-involving organisations and celebrate and promote volunteering and the impact made by volunteers. Deadline: 29 June 2018. Find the ONLINE application form and more information here.
On 15-16 March CEV took part in the European Conference "The European Qualifications Framework" (EQF)organised by the European Commission in Brussels to celebrate 10 years of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The event shone a light on the achievements of a decade of cooperation on the EQF, looking at the challenges and opportunities of the future also in relation to the validation of non-formal and informal learning acquired through volunteering. You can find more information here.
On 20 March CEV participated in the Erasmus + Coalition meeting entitled “Mobility and the Role of Youth Information - Eurodesk Survey 2017” where Eurodesk’s first European-wide research report was presented. The report focuses on the level of access to youth information about mobility opportunities, including as volunteers, and tracks young people’s preferences in looking for, receiving and engaging with information (read the Eurodesk report here). It was also the occasion to share the latest updates and future steps of the Erasmus + coalition after the results of the mid-term evaluation. Find out more here.
On 1 March Gabriella Civico, CEV Director, contributed as a speaker in the first FEAD network meeting of 2018. The meeting focused on the role of volunteers in FEAD delivery. You can find details of the network meeting here and the Report of the meeting here.
On 23 March CEV Policy and Project Officer, Giulia Bordin, participated in the Volonteurope Capacity Building conference “Beyond volunteering: measuring the social impact” to raise awareness of how best to assess the value of volunteering. This event was the culmination of a three year campaign carried out by Volonteurope with the support of the Volonteurope Measuring Impact Working Group. The campaign has shared best practice and carried out research gathering evidence about the value of volunteering and measure its social impact You can find the research paper here.
On 27 March Giulia Bordin, CEV Project and Policy officer, joined the Youth Forum (YFJ) informal reception on the Future of the Erasmus+ Youth Chapter. The event was the occasion for YFJ Board Member, Ville Majamaa, to present Youth Forum’s findings and recommendations from the Shadow Report on the mid-term evaluation of Erasmus + and included input from MEP Milan Zver ,representative of the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the EU and Ms Florencia Van Houdt, DGEAC, Youth Education and Erasmus+.
With the end of the Erasmus + project Volcar, the three partners (Edos Foundation, Bonsai and CEV) are now publishing the Volcar booklet which supports the Volcar online and face to face training elements and explains validation, recognition, competences, & EQF. It explores the value of validation for volunteers and for volunteering organizations through the framework of career guidance using the CH-Q method and how employers deal with non-formal learning outcomes from experiences such as volunteering. Read it here.
On 27 March Juan Manuel Báez, CEV Project and Policy ESC Trainee, attended the panel “Is perception of migrants shaping mainstream policies in Europe?”, at the European Parliament co-organised by MEP Tanja Fajon, Out of the Box International and Tandem. The insight of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in our continent was discussed and presentation some findings of the research “New Forms of Citizenship in Migration Era” were presented.
CEV MEMBERS:
The Erasmus+ project Lever-up has a new website that you can find here. “Lever Up (Valuing informal learning and transversal competences experienced in the voluntary service to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility)” develops the legacy from the previous project ‘LEVER’ (2014-2016) and pursues two main objectives: enhancing the mutual trust area between VET, Volunteering and labor market and implementing a dedicated service, able to foster the whole system at international and national level. To know more click here.
The April 2018 Scult Newsletter is out!Here you can find reports of past events and upcoming volunteering opportunities in the field of sport. SCULT is an International Sport Volunteers Movement, connecting bright-eyed volunteers at all ages, sport event organisers and sport clubs around the world. CEV is a partner in the Erasmus+ project inSCULT.
At the Osijek Volunteer Centre, Croatia, now there are two ESC/EVS volunteers sent by CEV: Debbie and Roxana.Their volunteering activities are focused on supporting unaccompanied minor refugees during after school activities and with refugees hosted close to the city of Osijek. They have also started to teach Dutch and French to those volunteers interested in learning new languages. On their side, they are studying Croatian. You can discover more about their activities by clicking here.
CEV memberFORUM from Sweden has built on CEV’s policy about Volunteering in music events and festivals contributing an article in response to the phenomenon of charging volunteers a deposit to volunteer in a festival in Denmark. Read CEV policy here. You can find the article here.
Pour la Solidarité (PLS) is organizing the EuroVIP Final conference in collaboration with CEV member, Volum, on April 26, “Volunteering experiences: A lever for social and professional inclusion of youth” at the EESC in Brussels. To register click here.
France Benevolat volunteers are working to support the social inclusion of 'NEETS' (Youth not in Education, Employment or Training). The project has been co-financed by the Île de France Region through the European social Fund. France has around 1.900.000 'NEETS'. You can find detailed aspects of the project here.
About 30 initiatives are going to be held in the framework of the Russian Volunteer Year 2018 in collaboration with the United Nations. CEV Member, Perm Centre for Volunteerism Development, co-organised two of them: the annual International Forum “Volunteer of Russia 2018” in October and the International Film Festival of Socially Oriented Short Films (LAMPA), where Giulia Bordin, CEV Project and Policy Officer, participated in November 2017. In addition, the 5th of December has been established as the Russian Volunteer Day in order to support the International Volunteer day.You can find more here.
Through NCVO’s blog, we can have some data from the UK Civil Society Almanacoverview of the UK voluntary sector with a lot of information on finance, workforce and volunteering. Here you can find a preview of the latest data on motivations and barriers to volunteering. You can find the article here.
EU NEWS:
From January 2018, “Erasmus+ Volunteering Activities” replaced European Voluntary Service (EVS) in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide. Regarding the European Solidarity Corps, a transition period has been put in place ahead of the adoption of its legal framework, which is to take place later in the second half of 2018. Find out more here.
CEV would like to thank the EP Rapporteurs Helga Trüpel and Brando Benifei for their efforts in securing that the European Parliament adopted far reaching and important amendments to the EC’s proposal for a regulation on the European Solidarity Corps. You can find more here.
Civil Society Days 2018 (24-25 May) will take place following the plenary session celebrating the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) 60th anniversary. Entitled Citizenship, Democracy & Culture in digitalised Europe, the event will focus on contributing to the current debate about the future of Europe, and on highlighting the important role of civil society organisations across Europe. CEV, in collaboration with EFIL, will run a workshop on “Identities and Polarisation”. Read more and follow #CivSocDays.
The Report on Social Inclusion: "Inspiring Trends in European Funded Projects on the Conclusions of the EACEA Thematic Cluster meeting" is now available! During the event it was also “stressed the important role of the volunteers who must be trained too”. You can find the Report here.
The Council of Europe and the European Commission have published the revised edition of the Tool-Kit “Intercultural learning”. This Tool-Kit was developed for the context of youth work and non-formal learning with young people, both of which are tools for personal development, social integration and active citizenship of young people. Find out more here.
The European Commission will organise another webinar for sharing knowledge on and develop the EU Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals. This webinar will focus on specific needs in using the Tool for different groups of stakeholders (like asylum centres, public employment services or guidance centres). The webinar will take place on 5 April on 15.00 pm CET. If you are interested in following this webinar, please send an email to EMPL-E2-SKILLS-PROFILETOOL@ec.europa.eu and you will receive further instructions.
OTHER NEWS
The new SDG Watch Europe website is out! Check it in order to follow the latest news of the network. You can find out more about the SDG Watch Europe and its new website by clicking here.
Eurodesk Brussels Link launched the online tool “Eurodesk chatbot”. If you are a young person looking for information about volunteering opportunities, don't hesitate to ask EMA. All you need to do is go on the Eurodesk Facebook page and start the conversation on Messenger. You can find a presentation video here.
25th IAVE World Volunteer Conference Call for Presenters is now open! You are invited to submit a presentation to be considered for the 25th IAVE World Volunteer Conference. For submitting a proposal click here.
During Flander’s volunteer week 2018 TEC Alliance, part of the House of HR group, took the initiative to recognise and support their staff who volunteer in their free time for a variety of causes. Read more here about how this was done here.
On 21 March the Report on International Protection in Italy 2017 was presented in Brussels. The event focused on forced migration in the world and in Europe, on reception and integration of asylum seekers in Italy, and on the Italian Protection System for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (SPRAR), analysing how different stakeholders are dealing with the situation particularly NGOs. You can find a summary of the report here.
