More than 700 volunteers have been crucial in delivering  the 2019 ice-hockey world championship (IIHF) in Košice, the European Volunteer Capital 2019. Read more here.

The EVCapital 2019 Košice organised special volunteering activities for employees of the City Hall and municipal companies. During the volunteering days in April and May, volunteers repainted 221  dustbins in the city centre and helped the renovation of Centre for Children and Families on Hurbanova Street 42 and the Centre for Children on Pollova Street 18 as well as the improvement of the area of the Historical Evangelical Cemetery.

Lucia Gurbáľová, the Vice-Mayor of Košice, attended the CEV Capacity Building Conference in Budapest where she met with Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Christina Rigman, CEV President and Gabriella Civico, CEV Director.

Register Now:  A study visit for members of the European Volunteering Capital Candidate Community (EVCCC), to gain a deeper understanding of the approach and practice of volunteering in Košice will be held between 15 and 17 September 2019 during the Košice Volunteering Days.  More information and registration here.

#EURegionsweek2019: Led by the current EVCapital 2019, Kosice, members of the European Volunteering Capital Candidate Community (EVCCC) will host a participatory lab   "Solidarity and Volunteering - European Rights and Values from the bottom up" on 8th October from 14:30 - 17:00 in the Committee of the Regions, Brussels.  More information and registration from 8th July here.

The Solid(arity) Volunteering conference: registration is open for the Closing Conference, of the Europe for Citizens project SolidalCiti - Solidarity Alliance for Citizen Engagement across Europe. This project involves several CEV members and  the conference in Brussels on 18 June 2019, will focus on three aspects: Volunteering and migrants; volunteering in times of crisis; volunteering and youth. #EUsupergirl will be speaking and performing at the event. Registration is mandatory but open for all. Register here.

Call for participants: The three CEV online Employee Volunteering training courses are taking  place from May - October 2019.  They are delivered in English and focus on three different modalities of Employee Volunteering (corporate volunteering), that can be realised in the context of a supportive employee volunteering policy.  They are based on the content of the EVEN workbooks for employee volunteering. Find out more about the courses, how to participate, and the deadlines for registrations here.  You can still join the first course that started in May.

A new European Solidarity Corps volunteer, Paco Clari Cabrerizo from Spain, joined CEV for a one-year-long volunteering placement.  His main focus will be on supporting the development of the European Volunteering Capital Competition.

Four  Erasmus Plus  summer interns from East Anglia University (UK) joined CEV, focusing on different research projects as well as providing additional support for the Tandem and Wish initiatives. Learn more about Alexandra, Amber,Sam & Dani here.

CEV engaged 3 ESC volunteers on short term placements as part of the Europe for Citizens “Solidalciti” project;  Fatma Elomrani, Maria Paez and Fon Brunstead will contribute to the dissemination of the results of the project and the success of the closing conference that will take place on May 18th in Brussels. A 4th volunteer, Chloe Limitsios, will also join them.  The project also counts on the support of an additional 8 ESC volunteers hosted by CSV Solidali, the project coordinator. More details here.  

Eleonora Andriolo and Luca Bianka Loth, ESC trainees at CEV, and  Paco Clari Cabrerizo, ESC Volunteer at CEV met Commissioner Tibor Navracsics who during his mandate supported the establishment of European Solidarity Corps Programme.

CEV, in collaboration with the Spanish organisation, Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL), hosted in Brussels on 6 -7 June,  a Workshop as part of the EU Aid Volunteers project "MPDL: Deplopment of Volunteers for Peace-building and Women's Rights.  Find out more about the project here and about EU Aid Volunteers here.  

Eleonora Andriolo, ESC trainee at CEV, attended the Developing  Diversity Circles training  organised by European Network of Migrant Women in the framework of the SMART, Volunteering for Female Migrants' project (AMIF). The meeting offered  Awareness Raising Training for businesses, company representatives, NGOs, civil society organisations and helped them in supporting female migrants in finding the right opportunities hereby increasing female migrants’ participation in educational and social activities and cultural life, as well as helping them to gain valuable work experience.

On 20 May, Giulia Bordin, Project and Policy Officer at CEV and Eleonora Andriolo, ESC trainee at CEV, attended the Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth 2019 organised by the European Commission. Every year, stakeholders, civil society organisations and policy makers from the EU and beyond, come to Brussels to discuss how to improve the social dimension of the EU. This year, the Convention focused on the future of Social Europe. During the Annual Convention Eleonora and Giulia took part in the Speed-Dating and in the Workshop 4: “Adapting to the future of work: shaping lives and jobs through inclusive lifelong learning”.

On 20 May, Luca Bianka Loth, ESC Trainee at CEV attended a workshop organised by Life Long Learning Workshop as a part of a European Project called Job Bridge. During the event participants discussed different ways in which organisations can assess, evidence and validate transversal competences and skills gained through volunteering.

Luca Bianka Loth, Research and Communication Trainee at CEV, attended the Erasmus+ coalition meeting where the Erasmusx10 campaign and the future of the Erasmus+ programme were discussed.

Europass Advisory Group: CEV has continued to contribute to the development of the new Europass.  Read more here. As a part of this cooperation, we ask you as a CEV member to share your experiences with us and the Europass Advisory Group to improve the ways in which  the platform can support volunteers and volunteering across Europe prepared Fill in the survey here.

The draft summary report of the EQF AG Peer Learning Activity Validating and Valuing transversal skills and competences acquired by adults through volunteering, and other non-formal learning opportunities held in Brussels and jointly organised by CEV and LLL in collaboration with DG EMPL on 22-23 January, has been published. Read it here.

CEV and other LEVER UP Erasmus Plus project partners met in Madrid from 20 to 22 May 2019. Partners discussed the current implementation of the project, in particular the state of play in the ongoing pilot implementation and preparation for the final LEVER UP International conference, scheduled in Brussels on 20 November 2019.  Find our more about how to participate in the Pilot projects for the Lever Up tool here.

On 13 June, Luca Bianka Loth, ESC trainee at CEV, presented the Lever up project during a webinar organised by the Platform of Volunteer Centres and Organisations (Slovenia) as part of the Improval project focusing on validation tools for volunteering experience in the EU. 

CSV Padova from Italy, Mladiinfo Montenegro (Montenegro), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bulgaria Association joined CEV as full members as of 2019. CEV welcomes the new members in its European network and looks forward to working with them.

The 18th edition of the Romanian National Volunteering Week took place between 13-10 May 2019. The theme for this year was “Volunteering for Sustainable Development” aiming to raise awareness about the 2030 Agenda in Romania and  to involve volunteers from all over the country, and the Republic of Moldova, in over 150 activities. Find more details here.

This National Volunteer Week  2019 took place in the United Kingdom from 1st June to 7th June to celebrate the millions of volunteers who contribute in different ways to the society in the UK. Read more here.

The Irish National Volunteering Week 2019 took place from 13th – 19th May 2019. This year’s campaign focused on raising awareness about volunteering engagements. Volunteer Centres and Volunteering Information Services around Ireland organised events like coffee mornings and open days to celebrate volunteers and spread knowledge about their activities... Check out the hashtag #WhyIVolunteer to learn more about their campaign.

A new study conducted in cooperation with Citizen Forum on the topic of  youth volunteering in Europe has been published. Finnish students Milla Sallinen and Niina Lehtimäki from Laurea University of Applied Sciences examined four different European NGOs and how they promote the participation of 15-18-year old students in voluntary work. The study is in Finnish, but it includes a summary in English. Find more information about the project here.

France Benevolat published the fourth edition of the Barometer of Volunteering 2010-2019 describing the current volunteering trends in France. The study which was carried out with the support of Recherches & Solidarités and the support of Crédit Mutuel, confirms that volunteering continues to increase among the youngest and decrease among the oldest. The number of people who do not volunteer, but would be willing to do so or return, remains high, especially  among those with higher education level. Read the study here.

The European Solidarity Corps 2019 Call for project proposals launched with a budget of more than €96 million available to support solidarity activities for young people in 2019! Deadlines for submission of projects fall between 5 February and 1 October 2019 depending on the type of activity. More information is available here.

The new call for proposals for Technical Assistance and Capacity Building projects of EU Aid Volunteers is now open. The deadline for applications is 04/07/2019. Read the EU Aid Volunteers newsletter here.

European philanthropy has been recommended by the European Economic and Social Committee to Member States as a societal engagement. In this way, establishing an enabling environment for philanthropy promotes transparency, the free flow of capital and improves the complementarity and capability of these organisations. Read the exploratory opinion at the request of the Romanian Presidency here.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has launched its Civil Society Prize for 2019. The theme is More women in Europe's society and economy, honouring innovative initiatives and projects that fights for equal opportunities for women and men and their equal treatment in all spheres of economic and social life. The deadline for entries is 10 a.m. on 6 September 2019. The award ceremony will take place on 12 December 2019 in Brussels. Read more here.

The Secretariat of the Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be hosting online conversations to discuss ideas on how different stakeholders can collectively shape the future of volunteering and its impact on sustainable development. There are different topics open to discussion such as Re-imagining youth volunteering, Volunteers as SDG accelerators and Future of volunteering. Join the discussion here.

Bertelsmann Stiftung has published the Berlin Declaration of the 3rd Validation of Prior Learning  Biennale. The declaration addresses policy makers and defines standards in six policy fields from organisational arrangements, financing, instruments and procedures, to support structures, post-validation pathways and legal foundations that could advance and establish an effective validation system. Read more here.

FEBA Annual Convention 2019  titled “Towards the next decade, together”  took place from 15 - 18 May in Rome. The event brought together more than 100 participants from 31 countries, including food bank staff and volunteers, policy-makers, business partners, leading experts and other NGO representatives. Read more here.

The report on the Transformative Impact sustained change through corporate volunteering has been published. Over 200 participants from 23 countries attended the event back in April to discuss best practices and the sustained change that employee volunteers can bring to international projects. Read the report here.

The NGO “Movimiento por la Paz” is looking for people interested in becoming an EU Aid volunteers in Guatemala or Columbia, starting on November 2019. Strong command of the Spanish language is required, you can check all the information on this website.