Managing Volunteers / Empowering People Erasmus Project

Project Title

Managing Volunteers / Empowering People

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project MAVEP – Managing Volunteers/Empowering People enabled us to employ European funding to further advance the support of our volunteers. Volunteers are the heart, the strength and the energy of the organisations involved in this project. Within this project, the development of the role of volunteers was our most important focus: teaching, coaching, making them welcome, getting everyone involved, building up a network, etc.

The full name of the project is ‘Managing Volunteers/Empowering People’. This encapsuled where the accent lies: intrinsic parts of the organisation of volunteer work are talent management and the stimulation of its growth. Our aim was to make stronger people through the elaboration of a powerful learning environment.

All the partners, Fo-Aarhus in Denmark, DAFNI-KEK in Greece and DINAMO in Belgium employ volunteers as teachers, coaches, mentors or in a range of support roles. The teacher training institute of the UCLeuven-Limburg, together with the partners, was using the knowledge available to create usable tools for the volunteers. The UCLL organised training sessions in a range of skills, such as instruments for language development, leadership, peer-to-peer coaching, appreciative lesson observation, didactic innovations etc.

context/background
Volunteers play an essential role in adapting the adult educational organisation to the diversifying society in which it operates. Volunteers from minority and economically deprived groups introduce new methods, new ways of dealing with these targetgroups that are based on proximity and familiarity and less on formal skills and scholing background. At the same time working with volunteers on the teaching and mentoring level introduces challenges for the payed staff and has to be sustained by a vision on the introduction and application of a “volunteer culture”.

The objectives of the project for every partner were situated on two levels:
1. volunteers as teachers, trainers, coaches and mentors – the volunteers are provided with skills and new didactical methods that they can use in their volunteer work.
2. volunteer culture in organisation – the organisations as such benefits from involved and skilled volunteers and rehances new and more difficult to reach targetgroups
+ 3. dissemination – we reached the attention of other organisations in our broad national and European network, they wonder how we still recruit volunteers spontanouisly in a context where voluntary engagement is changing

Number/type profile of participants
1. staff and volunteers of every single organisation – 625 staffmembers and volunteers of involved organisations
2. Target Group / audience – 5155 participants of involved organisations have direct access to the project results
3. dissemination of ideas and results – 205 participants at the both conferences
+ dissemination by every single organisation in their broad network
+ dissemination in new networks (national and European level)

Description of undertaken activities
Three Trainings and two conferences were implemented where new insights and information was shared and co-created by the participants. These insights, methodologies and practices worked as energizers for the IO development.
– Powerful learning environment (focus on learning, belief in growth) – teaching – coaching – learning communities
– Working with hard to engage learners
– Expressing talent
Each organisation organised a lot of activities so what we learned could seep into the entire organisation, from staff to volunteers and participants (sharing results in information sessions and digital (website, blog, social media, newsletters,…), what we learned was immediately implemented. In 2 organisations the appreciative way of working with volunteers and belief in growth became a priority in the long-term policy of the organisation.

Results and impact attained
We all may say that this Project has a positive impact on our vision of working with volunteers. When you believe in growth and can give appreciative feedback to volunteers, you will gain a lot of energy and sympathy, you see people grow and give the best of themselves.
During this project we all discovered this way of working with volunteers and vision on learning. After every training every single participant went home with a lot of inspiring thoughts and good practices. We used the periode in between two trainings as a test period and brought back experiences tot the group. In the end these findings found their way to the e-book and to the long-term policy of our organisations.

long-term benefits – The findings are now embedded in the policies of any organisation
Volunteers are now hard to find and bind themselves not so fast to one organisation. A good appreciative support is a sustainable way to bind volunteers to your organisation.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 112251 Eur

Project Coordinator

DINAMO – vzw Stroom & Country: BE

Project Partners

• UC LIMBURG
• FO-Aarhus
• DAFNI KENTRO EPAGGELMATIKIS KATARTISIS