COMMUNITY BUILDING THROUGH SELF-MANAGED VOLUNTEER GROUPS Erasmus Project

Project Title

COMMUNITY BUILDING THROUGH SELF-MANAGED VOLUNTEER GROUPS

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: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Many NGO-s are frustrated by the fact that while they play an essential role in society by tackling important social issues (they fight against poverty, prejudices, inequlaity, mental health problems, social isolation, unemployment, etc), and while they also have a range of tested and effective methods to deal with these issues, they have limited human and financial capacity to fill the need that arise in these fields. They can expand their reach to an extent by involving and managing volunteers, but even this solution consumes part of their already limited resources. Other NGOs, social and educational services in particular in not geographically central areas may suffer from HR shortage and the lack of educational/cultural opportunities and resources.

On the other hand, there is potentially a mismatch between what volunteers want to do/are capable to do and what organizations looking for volunteers offer them to do. Compared to traditional ways of volunteering, a more active role could be more appealing/motivating for many volunteers.

The COBU project offers a possible solution to this problem by creating a network of self-managed volunteer groups, that can act more or less autonomously and independentley from the „host/initiator” organisation. To be able to do so, partners need to prepare these volunteers adequately, to offer them supervision/mentoring – at least in the early stages – , and to create a platform for them where they can connect to each other. The partners’ intention is to keep only a minimal level of control over these self-organised volunteer groups – only to ensure that their activities are in line with our values and missions.

To our knowledge there is no such model in the participating countries (Hungary, France, Netherlands, Spain). Despite this we think that this idea is viable, as there are some movements/initiations in the UK (University of the Third Age organised as a self-help based network of senior volunteers), or in the US (self-directed volunteer teams assisting medical facilities) that we can learn from. We also plan to take inspirations from social innovators/entrepreneurs and community developers.

Concretely, we will
– write a research study that will offer an introductory test about different models of self-organised volunteering and will provide the basic methodological material for the development of the necessary training materials (IO1: Self-organised volunteering: an introduction)
– create local online platforms for self-organised volunteers with the help of which they could get access to resources, could share experiences with each other, support each other and promote their own projects and events (IO2: COBU Local platforms)
– prepare volunteers to be able to assess their own skills, strengths, experiences, and based on their interest and motivations to come up with their own initiatives and to be able to turn their ideas into a reality (IO3: Guidebook for setting up self-managed volunteer groups)
– put together local case studies documenting the whole process (by using written analyses and short video reports) that would help others (persons and organisations) to adapt this model by presenting the different steps/activities in context and by describing the journey of all involved parties (partner organisations and their volunteers) (IO4: Case studies)

Primary target groups: adults who wish to participate in this new way of volunteering.
Secondary target groups: adult educators, other NGO-s, organisations working in the field of volunteering/community development/civic engagement who could adopt our method to engage self-directed volunteer teams that could extend the reach of their mission.

Impact on the target groups:
– Adults who take part in self-organised volunteer groups as leader or as active contributors will experience the development of their soft skills/entrepreneurial skills/digital skills, will be more empowered to act on their own ideas. In the longer run this role raises their self-esteem and their involvment in society.
– Adult educators/organisations who adopt our model could expand their reach and could multipliy the impact of their activities.

During the project’s lifetime we would involve 48-60 volunteers as co-constructors in the development of the training materials and online platforms, an additional 270 people from our target groups through local and international multipliers, and we aim to reach more than 1000 secondary beneficiaries through further dissemination and exploitation activities.

The concern about sustainability is at the core of COBU’s project design. We see self-managed volunteer groups as key actors in keeping alive, spreading, maintaining educational methods developed throughout the project. The COBU Local platforms will remain active after the project ends: all materials will be available here free of charge, and it will also offer a space for volunteers to communicate with each other and towards the outside world.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 237825 Eur

Project Coordinator

Képes Alapítvány – a szociális és érzelmi készségfejlesztésért & Country: HU

Project Partners

• ELAN INTERCULTUREL
• Storytelling Centre
• Associacio La Xixa Teatre