Professional volunteering (ProVol) Crossborder Erasmus Project

Project Title

Professional volunteering (ProVol) Crossborder

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Regional dimension and cooperation

Project Summary

Volunteering and NPOs hold an essential place in society and economy and also have a positive impact on the volunteers themselves and their employability. But usually these skills are acquired incidental, occasional or indirect. More general trainings for skills development in volunteering were missing so the German partner GLL had developed the training concept “Professional volunteering” for volunteers and NPOs. This training program had been pilot-tested successfully by volunteer organisations in the UK, Romania, and the Czech Republic with various target groups and had been further developed in a first version of a “European format”. The former partners from DE and CZ (Volunteer center Usti Nad Labem) formed a new partnership with known and experienced partner organisations in their neighbouring countries Austria (eb projectmanagement, as an expert for project management) and Slovakia (Centrum Dobrovolnictva Banská Bystrica, a well-known volunteer centre) to transfer the ProVol training in these countries. Within this new partnership, they reached 4 objectives:
a) Disseminating the European format of the training program “Professional Volunteering” to neighbouring countries in central Europe and improved it and adapted it to ECVET criteria.
b) Crossing other “borders”: people with learning or mental disabilities as well as migrants and refugees with insufficient second language skills (meaning understanding and speaking the language of the country they live in) usually are not engaged in volunteering and therefor miss the opportunities volunteering offers. With our project we developed and pilot-tested an easy language version of our training to increase the volunteering rate of these disadvantaged target group and empower them to become more active citizens in the community they live in.
c) Setting up a professional ProVol network and ProVol quality system in order to deliver high quality volunteer trainings across Europe beyond project funding.
d) Improving cross border volunteering between the four participating neighbouring countries, joint volunteer projects and activities in the future.
Additionally, the partners aim to strengthen volunteering in their respective countries by qualifying volunteers and volunteer coordinators through professional trainings, involved NPOs benefited from efficiently working employees and volunteers. Thus, the lack of resources was addressed by progressing effectiveness. On the other hand individual participants benefited also on a personal level: Involved volunteers gained valuable skills they need to face challenges on the job market, but also in the social integration process. The project facilitated their attempts of consolidating their competitiveness, also through providing them a clearly structured, solid and convincing reference according to an agreed reference format. Altogether 76 volunteers and 31 coordinators were trained, and about 685 multipliers have been reached directly. A further developed “European” format of the ProVol training, for volunteers and volunteer coordinators was the result of a large number of managerial, volunteer, lecturing and expert hours. An additional handbook with practical recommendations for implementation plus This intensive work, supported by bilateral project meetings, has shown many needs for innovations on the subject of inclusion.
Its handbook and pedagogical material was pilot-tested in Slovakia and Austria, adapted to national contexts, and then translated (English, German, Czech, Slovak), produced and printed. The newly developed ProVol training and handbook with relevant pedagogical material in easy language was pilot-tested in Germany and Czech Republic before. It also included recommendations for the practical implementation of the training.
Throughout dissemination activities by the four partners and their national and international networking partners the results and experiences were distributed across Europe. On their project website results, Epale, and the EU result platform results were also disseminated, in order to support volunteering across Europe and enhance professional skills development of staff in NGOs and volunteers, especially volunteers, who are disadvantaged and with little or no access to formal trainings or work experience. A concept and memorandum of understanding for a “ProVol-Network” were developed. The newly formed “ProVol”-consortium under the umbrella of “Volonteurope” (a European wide umbrella organisation for volunteer organisations) plans to deliver high quality ProVol train-the-trainer programs and volunteer trainings in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 161589,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gemeinsam leben und lernen in Europa e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• EB projektmanagement GmbH
• Centrum dobrovolníctva
• Dobrovolnické centrum, z.s.
• Centrum dobrovolnictva n.o.