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VolunteerVista: Empowering Youth, Transforming Communities

2024-3-TR01-KA153-YOU-0002839352024Mobility of youth workersongoing
Countries: TR|SI|UA|CZ|LT|NO|BA · Grant: €39,010
Tackling geographical remoteness and involving rural areasYouth employabilityQuality and innovation of youth work

Objectives

VolunteerVista Project The VolunteerVista project was designed under the Erasmus+ KA153 Youth Workers Mobility activity to strengthen the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of professionals working in the field of volunteering; to make visible the role of volunteering in young people's personal, social, and professional development; and to develop more inclusive, accessible, and innovative approaches in this field. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the development of higher-quality volunteering programs, particularly those including disadvantaged youth, by increasing the competencies of 37 youth workers from 7 different countries in the field of volunteering. Data and reports from across Europe showed us this: Young people participate in volunteering, gain significant skills from it, and obtain employment advantages; however, both employers and young people are unaware of this value. Especially for disadvantaged youth, volunteering remains an area they either cannot access at all or where they do not feel they belong. With our VolunteerVista project, we tried to contribute to making these problems visible. In line with this general purpose, our objectives were briefly as follows: - To strengthen and make visible the role of volunteering on young people's skill development and employability. - To develop inclusive and creative approaches to increase disadvantaged youth's access to volunteering activities. - To increase youth workers' capacity in volunteer-based project design, implementation, volunteer management, evaluation, and dissemination. - To spread the use of digital tools in digital volunteering and volunteer management and to develop innovative models. - To establish a sustainable European cooperation and learning network covering 7 countries among organizations working in the field of volunteering. To achieve these objectives, we implemented a training program in Silivri. At the beginning of the program, through the "Introduction to the Training," "Getting to Know Each Other," and "Team Cooperation, Expectations, Contributions" sessions, we established a foundation where participants got to know each other, a trust environment was created, and the week's objectives, methods, and rules were clarified. Then, through the "Objectives of the Erasmus+ Youth Workers Mobility Programme" and "What is Volunteering?" sessions, both the Erasmus+ framework and the concept of volunteering, its types, motivational sources, and social impacts were addressed through international examples. To strengthen the skill and employment dimension of volunteering, the "Volunteer Value Map," SWOT analysis, Johari window, and skill-focused group work were applied; competencies gained through volunteering were made visible. Through the "Skill-Job Matching Game" and "Translating Competences into Business Language" sessions, these skills were matched with job positions and expressed in employer language. In the "Europass & Youthpass Workshop," how to document these achievements through Europass CV and Youthpass was worked on practically. To increase disadvantaged youth's access to volunteering, in the "Designing Inclusive Volunteering Models & Inclusive Communication" and "Design Thinking Sprint: Accessible Volunteering" sessions, barriers were analyzed, inclusive volunteering models and applicable solution proposals were developed. In the digital volunteering dimension, existing platforms were examined; new digital volunteering ideas and digital volunteer management workshops were created through "Digital Volunteering Platform Prototype" and "Volunteer Management with Digital Tools" work. For sustainability and cooperation, possible joint projects were designed through the "Project Lab," the project's short and long-term effects were mapped through "Ripple Effects Mapping," and the strategy for sharing results was planned in the dissemination session. Through daily evaluations and Youthpass reflections at the closing, all these activities were transformed into a holistic learning process. During the project process, participants first became concretely aware of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes produced by their own volunteering experiences. They learned to identify their horizontal skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, planning, problem-solving, crisis management, and intercultural interaction, and to express them in business language; they gained practical experience on how to document these achievements through Europass and Youthpass. Thanks to the inclusive volunteering sessions, they better analyzed the barriers faced by disadvantaged youth and designed new, accessible volunteering models for these groups. Digital volunteering and digital tool use studies made them more equipped in online platforms, hybrid participation models, and digital volunteer management.

Project partners (7)