Summary of project results
The Policy Agenda for Volunteering in Europe, a European document undertaken by the Alliance of European Year of Volunteering and the European Volunteer Centre, emphasized the importance of each Member State of the EU to undertake the responsibility to build or strengthen the development of a volunteering infrastructure and promote volunteering as an important component of active citizenship. The Romanian nongovernmental sector was revealing some important issues of the volunteering movement: the lack of involvement in volunteering activities; the lack of official recognition of the experience obtained through volunteering; the lack of instruments to measure the skills the volunteers develop and the impact these activities have on the labour market; the low correlation between request and offer of volunteer activities on national level. To make steps towards solving these issues, the VOLUM Federation undertook the implementation of the Public Agenda for volunteering, 2012-2020. Therefore, within 7 months, a process of piloting the volunteering certificate VoluntPass was undertaken, together with 125 organizations at a national level. A functional system that recognises the skills and competencies acquired through volunteering was shaped and finalized during the piloting period. Thus it was promoted the volunteering involvement/work at national level, as a value of active citizenship. In pursuing this objective VOLUM Federation collaborated closely with relevant experts in the field of certification - representatives ANC (National Authority for Qualification), the Ministry of Labour, EQVET experts (European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training), representatives of NGOs, ANPCDEFP (National Agency for Communitary Programmes for Education and Professional Development), international experts (Slovakia, Scotland, France, Holland, Croatia) and representatives of the labour market. An online platform was developed that aimed matchmaking of the request and the offer regarding volunteering activities as well as to issue the volunteering certificate that is requested by law -
www.hartavoluntariatului.ro. A national caravan was developed in 12 cities, to promote the newly created instrument, as well as the NO Hate Speech concept. Over 400 NGO participates to the meetings organized within the caravan. At the same time, VOLUM Federation organized two trainings for its members, focused on online and offline communication and organizational management.