EUROPEAN VOLUNTEERING CAPITAL 2021 CANDIDATES' VIDEOS

The two candidates for the European Volunteering Capital 2021 title Berlin (Germany) and Strovolos (Cyprus) have realised their nomination videos showcasing their work in the field of volunteering and why they should win the competition. Watch the videos of Berlin and Strovolos now.  

#EURegionsWeek2019: 

Led by the current EVCapital 2019, Košice, and supported by CEV, members of the European Volunteering Capital Candidate Community (EVCCC) hosted a participatory lab  "Solidarity and Volunteering - European Rights and Values from the bottom up" on 8th October in the Committee of the Regions, Brussels. During the workshop participants discussed and debated how the EU could be brought closer to the Citizens through Volunteering and Solidarity. The event was followed by a networking cocktail at the Kosice Regional Office in Brussels.  Check the Agenda of the session for more information. Report will be available soon.

EVCCC KOSICE STUDY VISIT

Study visit to the #EVCapital 2019 – Košice took place between 15 - 17 September 2019. 18 representatives of the European Volunteering Candidates Community (#EVCCC)  from Aarhus; Berlin (EVCapital Candidate 2021); Cascais; Lisbon; Padova , Ringkøbing-Skjern; Stirling; & Strovolos (EVCapital Candidate 2021)  visited Košice, together with representatives from the Portuguese and Croatian Employee Volunteering Networks and Vipava (Slovenia),  to learn about volunteering in Košice and Košice Region. During the visit, the participants visited different organisations, exchanged views and brainstormed future projects and plans for collaboration on the topics of volunteering and solidarity. See the pictures here.

PADOVA EVCAPITAL 2020

On September 23rd Gabriella Civico, CEV Director, represented CEV in the opening ceremony of the SOLIDARIA 2019 event in Padova, EV Capital 2020. A week where, under the ‘fil rouge’ of "Crossing" volunteering realities, public institutions, for-profit representatives and academics, had the chance to explore common future paths of cooperation towards a more cohesive society based on solidarity. On September 29th Giulia Bordin, CEV project and policy officer, presented the network EVEN at the same event, exploring with civil society organisations representatives, entrepreneurs, representatives of the municipality of Pavoda and of the EESC the crucial value of volunteering under the form of employee volunteering.

AUTUMN VOLUNTEERING CONGRESS

OPEN Registration! The CEV Autumn Volunteering Congress 2019 will take place on 20-21 November. The Congress will consist of the following events: the Lever UP International Conference, the #EVCapital 2021 Candidates Presentations, the CEV General Assembly & Elections, and the European Conference  “Impact and lessons of ESC - Legal status, traditions and cultures of Volunteering and Solidarity in Europe”. It is supported by the Europe for Citizens Programme, Erasmus+, The Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU, and by Košice, European Volunteering Capital 2019. Volunteers and representatives of civil society organisations, municipalities, and EU institutions are expected to participate. Register here and join us!

RESEARCH & STUDIES ON VOLUNTEERING

The four Erasmus+ interns at CEV from University of East Anglia created a new section of the CEV website to serve as a repository of studies and reports focusing on the impact of volunteering. Find it here. 

NEW STAFF at CEV

Fady Alghorra joined CEV as a new Communication Manager. Alice Coden joined CEV as an Erasmus+ intern from University of Padova . During her internship at CEV, she will mainly work on creating a background document for the Autumn Volunteering Congress. Maria Páez Guerrero joined CEV part-time as an Erasmus+ intern focusing on event management and part-time as a European Solidarity Corps Communication Trainee. Learn more about them here.

EXPERT GROUP

The European Commission appointed CEV as a member of the sub-group ‘Mobility of young volunteers and cross-border solidarity’ under the ‘Expert group in the youth policy field’. The Expert Group supports the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-27 to and its Work Plan 2019-21 in the field of youth and volunteering and CEV will provide valuable expertise on the topic. 

LIFELONG LEARNING INTEREST GROUP

On 25 September Sara Fasoli attended the LLL Interest Group meeting  at the EP. This meeting, hosted by MEP Ward (S&D, UK) , focused on “life skills” and addressed the following questions: Do our education and training systems promote the ongoing and holistic development of such skills? What policies are needed to help citizens of any age or background acquire a strong set of life skills and how can European cooperation further support this? What are some of the good practices that may support the implementation of current policies and inspire new ones? Representatives from the Finnish Presidency, EC (DG EAC and DG GROW) and CSOs shared their experiences and challenges. 

ESC STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION

Gabriella Civico, CEV Director, attended the  stakeholders’ meeting and consultation for the European Solidarity Corps  on 30 September 2019 at the DG Education, Culture, Youth and Sport in Brussels.  During the event organisations in the current implementation of the European Solidarity Corps shared their insights on the programme and discussed the future of ESC and the soon to be introduced humanitarian aid strand. 

ESC CONTACT SEMINAR

Luca Loth ESC Trainee at CEV and Paco Clari ESC Volunteer at CEV attended a KA1 Contact Making Seminar  for future ESC projects in Alzira (Spain). The event served as an opportunity to discuss ideas and challenges that organisations encounter during Erasmus+ programs and ESC projects. 

 RED CROSS & ESC

On October 2nd, Giulia Bordin, CEV Project and policy officer, presented the work of CEV within the European Solidarity Corps programme from 2016 till today at the Red Cross EU representatives meeting over the different volunteering programmes EU offers.

 NEW EUROPASS

As part of the responsibilities as member of the Europass Advisory Group CEV has contributed to the testing the prototype of the new Europass platform. Over 200 people from 35 organisations participated and gave feedback on the Europass functionalities and their user-friendliness. This feedback will serve as key input for the further development and improvement of the platform.

STAFF VOLUNTEERING DAY

Andreea Nagy, CEV Projects & Training Manager, volunteered during the Feminist Futures Festival on 12-15 September 2019 in Essen, Germany as part of the employee volunteering programme for CEV staff. She helped with logistics and setting up the info point for participants. CEV supports its staff to volunteer two days per year in a project and/or for a cause they choose. Andreea is an advocate for social justice & self-determination, a feminist and a human rights defender. While being passionate about citizens' participation, she is also involved in activities focused on protecting the environment, on gender equality &the empowerment of women and girls.

SOVOL - Volunteering in Social Institutions

Volunteering Hungary - Centre of Social Innovation in the framework of the Erasmus + project, the so-called SoVol, developed useful tools on how to set up volunteer programs in social institutions. The project partners have elaborated handbooks for trainers to deliver a series of sensitising workshops for beneficiaries, local community and employees of  social institutions on how to cooperate with volunteers. The handbooks are available here in six languages. 

MAKING IT MATTER MULTIPLIER EVENT

The Making it Matter second multiplier event took place in Slovenia on 24-26 September 2019. CEV staff Luca Loth and Andreea Nagy joined the activities and the project partners' meeting on 25 September 2019. The aim of the project is to enable the creation of methods and indicators for impact measurement that will help volunteer involving organisations to understand the key benefits, and shape the most inclusive volunteer programs to engage disadvantaged youth. Making it Matter is financed by Erasmus+ and is a partnership between Slovenska Filantropja (Slovenia), FriSe (Denmark), CEV (Belgium), BBE (Germany), Volunteer Centre Osijek (Croatia) and Volunteer Ireland.  Find the photos here. 

DE WARMSTE WEEK

Vlaams Steunpunt Vrijwilligerswerk vzw launched its campaign for the 7th of edition of the De Warmste Week which is the largest solidarity movement in Flanders. Read more about the event here. 

SERVICE LEARNING

CEV Board member Gianpiero Farru,  attended the 2nd European conference on Service-Learning in higher education. The conference took place  from 19th to 21st September at the University of Antwerp.

SURVEY on CROSS BORDER SOLIDARITY

On behalf of Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission (DG EAC), PPMI has launched the survey on the obstacles to youth cross-border solidarity as part of their study “Removing obstacles to cross-border solidarity activities. The deadline for participation is 15 October. Access the survey here. 

EUROPEAN YOUTH CENTRES 

The European Youth Centres published a call for proposals for events to be held in the second semester of 2020. The deadline is 15 October. More information here. 

AMIF PROJECT CALL

The European Commission published a call for proposals for transnational actions foreseen in the 2019 work programme for Union actions in the framework of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), with a special focus on the role and importance of volunteers and volunteering, amounting to € 58.3 million. Application deadline 30 January 2020. For more information visit their website. 

CALL for PROPOSALS

The call for proposals for the sixth phase of the TR-EU Civil Society Dialogue Programme implemented by the Directorate for European Union Affairs has been published. The Directorate is looking for applications aiming to develop projects jointly carried out by civil society organizations from Turkey and the EU Member States on issues related to the chapters of the EU negotiation process. Application Deadline 12 November 2019. More information. 

EESC LIASION GROUP 

The newest edition of the EESC Liaison Group with European civil society organizations and networks’ newsletter has been published. Read it here.

INCLUSIVE ESC TRAINING 

Inclusive ESC II  training will take place between 2 and 6 December in Zagreb Croatia to support the development of inclusive European Solidarity Corps Programme. Application deadline 18 October 2019. More information here. 

VOLUNTEERING for MIGRANT WOMEN

Final Conference for the Smart Volunteering Project will take place on 21 November in the European Economic and Social Committee. The event will present the findings of the multi-agency cooperation project, between civil society, the business community aimed at the better integration and active participation of highly skilled migrant women in socio-economic life of European societies. Read the agenda and register here.

CONFERENCE of INGOs

In preparation for the upcoming session of the Conference, the Conference of INGOs published  3 reports Italy, Romania, and the United Kingdom focusing on the participation of civil society in the decision-making process, including interactions between public authorities and NGOs and other issues that are relevant in the given countries.