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Description
The aim of the project is to support volunteers during the campaign to help Ukrainian refugees.
To help refugees from the war in Ukraine, the association "City for People" launched a bicycle donation campaign, which was responded to by many Latvian citizens. The donated bicycles are repaired and put into working order by the organization''s volunteers.
The project will include 10 bicycle maintenance workshops and bicycle distribution events for Ukrainian refugees. Volunteers will also be involved in these events. Volunteers will also be the ones who will go to several bicycle donation points to pick up the bicycles and deliver them to the workshops. It is expected that the project will attract around 50-60 people to volunteer in all activities.
Attracting, coordinating and supporting volunteers is a challenge for an organization that has not carried out activities of this kind on such a large scale in such a short time.
The implementation of the project activities will improve the involvement of the members as well as new volunteers in the work of the association. It will bring together volunteers by engaging in common civic activities of how refugees can move around the city on bicycles, an environmentally and nature-friendly form of mobility.
Summary of project results
In order to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to move around Riga, the City for People has launched a major cycling campaign this summer. Involving more than 80 volunteers, more than 600 bicycles were issued to Ukrainian residents during the campaign. The organisation had the opportunity to attract a separate employee to the coordination of volunteers, which was crucial for the active and high-quality involvement of volunteer assistants. It was also possible, through the financing of the project, to address supporters, to publish calls on social media accounts of the association, and to coordinate the acceptance, storage and delivery of donated bicycles to repair workshops and service sites. No less important was the opportunity to support communication with Ukrainian people about the arrival of bicycles, with each who had applied for a bicycle individually seeking the most accessible reception time and place.
The organisation''s representatives are pleased that the project not only allowed support for Ukrainian people, but also strengthened the organisation as a whole, since it helped attract new supporters, strengthened the public image of the organisation, inspired new ideas to support Ukrainian civilians, and in the short run helped to gain experience in organising a large-scale donation campaign. It is important that the project has also attracted widespread media attention: more than 15 different media reported on the closing of the stake and the support of the AIF for the project.