The need to implement EVOLVE project emerged from the current economic recession, which has forced local authorities and civil society to intensify community relief activities with a social welfare character; activities, which are supported/facilitated to a large extent by volunteers. However, voluntary work is rarely well organized in terms of effective volunteer recruitment and local authorities/organizations and civil society organizations offering social welfare activities are often lacking in trained and skilled volunteers. Evidence from the EC Survey on Adult Skills demonstrates that adults who volunteer have a higher proficiency in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments, than the ones who do not volunteer. The Commission's 2015 Education and Training Monitor shows that one in four adults in Europe is caught in a low-skills trap — one that limits access to the labour market while simultaneously closing avenues to further education or training. Therefore, there is a need to improve the proficiency of adults in literacy, numeracy and technology so that their ability and motivation to volunteer is enhanced. To address the above, EVOLVE aims to promote the cooperation between local authorities and NGOs/CSOs, to address the issue of non-organised management of adult volunteers for social welfare activities, as well as the issue of adult volunteers not being motivated to participate in volunteer activities due to their lack of proficiency in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments. More specifically, the project will aim at: - Developing the literacy, numeracy & digital skills, as well as key soft skills of low-skilled/low-qualified adults necessary for volunteering activities, thus enhancing their self-confidence and motivation as active citizens and possibly their employability; - Enabling low-skilled/low-qualified adults to identify volunteering opportunities at local level that match their skills and interests, as well as facilitating social service providers (local authorities and NGOs/CSOs) to organise in a structured way their voluntary activities matching correctly the skills of potential volunteers with their practical needs. - Creating and expanding a pool of trained volunteers for local authorities and NGOs/CSOs providing community relief services; - Increasing adult recruitment and retention in volunteering activities for social welfare; - Improving the quality of voluntary social welfare activities also through enhanced cooperation between local authorities and civil society. The above will be achieved through the implementation of the following activities: 1 - Capacity Building course 1.1 Skills gaps and needs assessment 1.2 Specification of the didactic methodology 1.3 Content Development of capacity building course 2 - Web platform for Capacity Building and Volunteer Guidance 2.1 Development of web platform 2.2 Pilot testing 2.3 Fine-tuning and operation of the platform 3 - Comprehensive Capacity Development Methodology of Adult Volunteering for Local Social Welfare 3.1 Capacity Development Methodology of Adult Volunteering for Local Social Welfare Guide 3.2 Selection of volunteers 3.3 Development of volunteer career paths 3.4 Delivery of skills building on literacy, numeracy, digital & volunteering soft skills 3.5 Organisation of informal internship programmes of trained adults at local authorities/organizations and NGOs 3.6 Compilation of Transnational Report with recommendations At the local/regional/national level, the project will develop the skills and competences of at least 45 low-skilled adults, which will not only contribute to enhancing their participation in social welfare volunteering activities and civic engagement, but potentially their employability. Moreover, the validation and certification of skills/competences acquired through volunteering will be promoted, further enhancing the “attractiveness” of volunteering among low-skilled persons. CSOs, NGOs, local authorities, and other relevant local organizations implementing social welfare activities will be in a position to improve the recruitment, support and retention of volunteers, which will ultimately enhance the quality of volunteering activities and the benefits for local communities. The availability of the web-platform and Capacity Development Methodology in several languages, and their dissemination to stakeholders at local/regional/national and EU level will ensure that the impact of the project will continue. By supporting the development of the skills and of low-skilled adults, and by promoting volunteering, the project will contribute to the Erasmus+ Programme objectives, as well as to the implementation of the objectives of ET 2020 set in 2009, and the new priority areas for further work up to 2020.
The EVOLVE project emerged from the economic recession, which forced local authorities and volunteering organizations to intensify welfare services to the community, and impacted on the Covid emergency, which made the same needs more urgent due to the new economic recession and social crisis addressing all Europe and the partner countries, Italy, Greece. Luxemburg and Cyprus. The project reached its goals implementing tools for the 2 key target groups totally interested by the emergency, both low skilles adults/ disadvantaged people and volunteering organizations/local authorities, whose role increased for each community, ensuring social services at the local level. For these reasons the project created, tested and delivered tools which will be very useful in the next future in many Eu countries. The e.learning platform for low skilled adult aimed at volunteering is an important educational product to support the increasing number of people not enough skilled (e.g. young people), while the volunteering is a mean to give them selfconfidence and a reason to integrate them in the community. The matchmaking tool for demand and supply on volunteering will certanly continue to be used by the increasing requests of people to be recruited as staff by the organizations. On the other hand the restrictions and safety rules stated by the governments for the emergency (2020 and 2021 years) caused a slight reduction of the planned impact and dissemination. Despite the difficulties in their countries the partners maintained a strong cooperation, which overcame the hard problems of the pandemic emergency, matching the project’s goals: - Developing the literacy, numeracy, digital and soft skills for low-skilled/low-qualified adults necessary for volunteering activities, enhancing their self-confidence, motivation to be active citizens and their employability; - Enabled the low-skilled/low-qualified adults in IT, GR, CY to identify volunteering opportunities at local level that match their skills and interests, and facilitating the social service providers to organise in a structured way their voluntary activities - Creating a pool of 39 trained volunteers for local authorities and NGOs/CSOs providing community relief services; - Increasing adult recruitment and retention in volunteering activities for social welfare; - Improving the quality of voluntary social welfare activities also through enhanced cooperation between local authorities and civil society. The above were achieved by the creation, testing and delivery of the three Intellectual Outputs: 1 - Capacity Building course, a program built gathering the needs of target groups directly involved in the project (19 low skilled adults, 23 organizations/public bodies in IT, CY, GR), pointing out the proper methodology based on a literature rivew and good practices; implementing a course covering the 4 main areas requested (literacy, numeracy, digital and soft skills) 2 – Web platform created as an open source tool, developing an e.learning path, testing the course involving 39 beneficiaries and 6 organizations in IT, GR, CY 3 - Comprehensive Capacity Development Methodology of Adult Volunteering for Local Social Welfare has been implemented as methodological guide including all the steps to ensure a recruitment structured tool for volunteering organizations and for people aimed at volunteering at the local level: the selection of volunteers, the development of a career paths, the delivery of skills building on literacy, numeracy, digital and soft skills, the organisation of informal internship programmes of trained adults at local authorities/volunteering organizations, the production of a Transnational Report with recommendations. The methodology has been tested implementing all the activites during the piloting in IT, GR, CY, which involved 39 low skilled adults in the learning path, 38 in the career paths and in the internships programs in 6 organizations, moreover other 11 organizations used the matchmaking tool, included in the platform to favour the demand and supply for volunteering. At the local/regional/national level the project developed skills and competences for 39 low-skilled/qualified adults, a small group of which is still volunteering, contributing to their participation to social life, integration and employability. 40 CSOs, NGOs, local authorities, and other relevant local organizations were involved in the project implementation improved their tools for volunteers recruitment for social welfare, increased their staff (some among them are still volunteering) and enhanced the quality of their services to the community. The web-platform and Capacity Development Methodology is freely available in IT, EN, GR, and all the tools were disseminated to 210 people in the events, to more than 3.500 stakeholders and partners networks, and reached about 17.000 people to the web and social channels.