CIVCIL | Dobrovoľnícke centrá

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Competent in Volunteering, Competent In Life

The primary goal of the project Competent in Volunteering, Competent in Life was to involve young people with fewer opportunities into volunteering and thus integrate them into society. Within the project, we have planned to recognize competencies and skills gained through volunteering and increase the employability of these young people. Our aim was to also inform about tools for validation of competencies acquired through volunteering already existing within Europe.

Including Young People with Fewer Opportunities into Volunteering

During the project run, we have engaged 75 young volunteers from vulnerable groups in three countries. These young people were experiencing mental health issues, various types of disabilities, unemployment, but also the disengagement from family and school, or chronic economic and social disadvantages. They were doing administrative work, accompanied children with health issues in a hospital, worked on PCs, helped children from socially weak families to learn, participated in the organization of various events, etc. Information, experience, and recommendations related to the management and involvement of young people with fewer opportunities are summarized in a publication called Be volunteer inclusive. Recommendations about how to work with young volunteers with fewer opportunities.

Training in Volunteer Management of Vulnerable Youth

In project partner countries, we have prepared training materials and organized trainings for 36 coordinators of volunteers who can thus coordinate young volunteers with fewer opportunities in a more effective way. In Slovakia, we have created a 15-hour accredited training that will be offered to organizations working with volunteers as an extension of the certified training in volunteer management.

Overview of the validation and recognition tools in Europe

The website www.civcil.eu providing information about tools for recognition and validation of competencies and skills gained through volunteering already existing in Europe was also created thanks to this project.

Online Tools for Measuring, Recognition, and Validation of Skills and Competencies Acquired through Volunteering

In the project partner countries, we have created or improved online tools that enable recognition and validation of competencies gained through volunteering.

Slovakia: D-zručnosti pre zamestnanie is an online tool through which it is possible to get a certificate or confirmation about the volunteering activities a volunteer was involved into and skills acquired through volunteering. The Certificate of V-Skills of Employment is issued by the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. The confirmation is issued by the organization the volunteer was helping in. It is an online tool that helps volunteers to recognize, name, and verify competencies they gained or developed through volunteering.

The online tool V-Skills for Employment was one of the primary results of the VOLWEM (VOLunteering as a Way to EMployment) Project implemented from October 2012 till September 2014. Thanks to the two-year experience of the CIVCIL Project, we were able to improve this tool – we have added examples that help volunteers to better fill in a more accurate way. Thanks to the experience we shared with partners from Croatia and Romania, we have added the option for a volunteer to gain a confirmation about volunteering activities and skills they have acquired through volunteering from the volunteer organization they were working for.

Croatia and Romania: Thanks to the project, we have created online tools adapted to the conditions of both countries.

Croatian Online Tool: http://kompetencije.volontiram.info/

Romanian Online Tool: www.hartavoluntariatului.ro

The List of Project Outcomes

Publication:

Be volunteer inclusive. Recommendations about how to work with young volunteers with fewer opportunities (Slovak version)

Be volunteer inclusive. Recommendations about how to work with young volunteers with fewer opportunities. (English version)

Be volunteer inclusive. Recommendations about how to work with young volunteers with fewer opportunities. (Romanian version)

Be volunteer inclusive. Recommendations about how to work with young volunteers with fewer opportunities. (Croatian version)

Training Materials:

Training material for participants (SK), Training material for participants (EN)

Training material for participants (RO), Training material for participants (HR)