Volunteering for Refugees: best practices for ethical volunteering programs and management Erasmus Project

Project Title

Volunteering for Refugees: best practices for ethical volunteering programs and management

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Integration of refugees; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND
The project was born after a careful analysis of the employment of volunteers in dealing with the reception and assistance of refugees in Europe (see also (https://europa.eu/youth/eu/article/46/234_en and A LOOK AT THE “REFUGEE CRISIS” ACROSS EUROPE: CHALLENGES, DEBATES AND PROJECTS, European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth ; Volunteering & Refugee Resettlement | European Resettlement Network).

The project aims to collect good practices from partners from different EU countries; from those at the forefront like Greece, and those like Germany, UK and Norway as countries that most of the refugees see as final destination. Volunteers represent a great for-free resource for organisations, but in relying on them they have to be able to protect their welfare and of the refugees themselves. We want to promote an ethical approach to manage and coordinate volunteers, which avoid volunturism or expoiting them at any level, implementing the right system of selection and induction pointing on self-help and local community based practices to guarantee assistance and promote integration putting the refugee person at the centre.

OBJECTIVES
– Pointing out good and bad practices and to share the best ones between organizations in Europe relying on volunteer force when assisting refugees.
– to point out possible issues which could arise in the local communities experiencing the growing amount of refugees and foreign volunteers
– to develop suggestions for local and authorities to rely on guidelines on volunteers involvement.
– training 16 key figures on ethical volunteering and best practices for volunteers’ coordination, management and welfare.
– promoting ethical approaches in dealing with challenges and opportunities in multicultural and pluralistic societies and empowering participants to work on reflective competences and tools for social change
– Promoting the importance of EU values, democracy and active citizenship
– Building bridges between schools, local communities and authorities

PARTICIPANTS
– staff members participating at the international training, will be 4 people selected by each participating organisation, according to the partners expertise. A minimum of 1 manager profile and the involvement of only long term volunteers is individuated as compulsory criteria to ensure training quality.
– minimum 10 organisations for each country including schools, charities, NGOs, local authorities will be reach through project participants and results dissemination and the direct use of the toolkit by counselors,former refugees,teachers and trainers, including use of the social media pages.

ACTIVITIES
– Creation of the web site and social media profile of the project
– Creation of a toolkit for organisations,volunteers’ coordinatorsmanagers, local authorities, community workers and volunteers
– International training activity in Germany
– National events with local refugee centresorganisations and local authorities in each of the partner countries.
– Review and publication of the toolkit based on the feedback received

METHODOLOGY
-Helping people to build the management and coordination skills they need to organise volunteers work, with a focus on practical results and ethical guidelines.
-Acquiring new skills and establish an informal cooperation network stretching beyond national borders;
-Learn how groups and civil society, including volunteers, can influence decision-making;
-Develop a more positive and accepting attitude towards practical involvement in volunteer activities in the local community;
-Encourage exchange among partners through practical exercises: presentations and analysis.
-Increase knowledge of and insight into how ensure volunteers and refugees welfare in their working routine and to establish ethically oriented volunteering programs, avoiding exploitation and ensuring safety of refugees.
-To provide practitioners with an accessible explanatory framework for how act positively in leadership/teaching/supervision style, teamwork, conflict perception, and problem-solving styles including cross-cultural communication.

RESULTS, IMPACT AND LONG TERM BENEFITS
-To build up a network where different organisations working with the target group (schools, refugee centres, community centres, local authorities,etc.), within each participating country or from different countries, work together for:
– Sharing good practices with respect of the integration of refugees relying on volunteer based work.
– Develop new pathways in order to find tools to face the challenges posed by the displacement of millions of people
– Educating the target group on the opportunities and threats posed by the wrongdoing in involvement of volunteers.

Project Website

https://www.facebook.com/Volunteer-Management-Toolbox-100152278269651/?ref=page_internal

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 25950 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stand by me Lesvos & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Northern Lights Aid
• Indigo Volunteers
• Wadi e. V. Association for Crisis Assistance and Development Co-operation