VOLEXPO - PROJECT

Why are we doing this project?

All around Europe, both at a national level and in European projects, education and volunteering professionals design every year an array of highly useful tools and methods for volunteer management. However, many of them are underused despite heavy dissemination efforts. At the same time, European volunteer managers and coordinators lack opportunities for professional development, as the Erasmus+ project FUTUR3 (www.futur3skills.eu) has discovered.

How will we achieve our goals?

The project consortium has identified a need to share, improve and localise existing tools instead of spending time inventing new ones. How this project aims to complement other projects lies in its unique pedagogical approach based on virtual mobility and testing, which also leads to adapting and localising the tools from other countries that are most likely to support volunteer managers in partners' countries to ensure that they will be used. This requires naturally a greater deal of work than simply sharing practices. The VolExpo project aims for longer lasting results than simply providing a guideline would allow it to.
Another way in which this project brings in new innovation is that the methods and tools shared are based on real future skills needs already expressed by volunteer managers. Through this approach the partnership sees that it is easy to engage the volunteer management community in each of their countries to participate in the project's activities and to gain new competences and methods that they can actually use in their work, and consequently improve the volunteering experience for numerous volunteers across Europe.
The project partnership will create four intellectual outputs: two ”expeditions”, online courses for voluteer managers (IO1 and 2), testing the tools in practise (IO3) and an online toolbox (IO4). There will also be face-to-face learning activity in Poland for volunteer managers prior to the testing phase.

Who are we targeting?

The participants are mainly volunteer managers (some may be also be volunteers in supervising position). Secondary participants include the volunteers whom these managers supervise in the testing phase.
In the transnational learning activity, each partner invites 1-2 people from their organisations or members/partners who are their learners who have experience in volunteer management and are also capable of training other potential users in the use of these tools.
For the virtual mobility projects for sharing and learning good practices in IOs 1-2, participants will be recruited among the partner organisations themselves and also the voluntary sector in each participating country through personal invitations and general dissemination. Our goal is to attract 8-10 learners from each country for each expedition,
The volunteers with whom the participants in the transnational learning and virtual mobility activities will be testing some of the tools (IO3) are volunteers they would normally supervise. The partners shall assist them in recruitment if they face a problem.
This group of volunteers should involve 20 ”participants with fewer opportunities”, i.e. participants facing situations that make their participation more difficult. The situations they might be facing include health problems, disability, economic obstacles, social obstacles, refugees and geographical obstacles.

What will the results be?

During its lifespan, the VolExpo project is expected to produce the following results:

Increased use of existing tools for volunteer management through translation, localisation, testing and publication; this is done through the project's VolExpo toolbox
Volunteer managers'/coordinators' increased knowledge of these tools and increasing competence to use them in their tasks
Increased networking opportunities for volunteer managers
Improved volunteering experience for volunteers (adult learners).

On its completion, the VolExpo project's aim is:

To provide a toolbox for volunteer managers where methods and tools are arranged thematically, and partly translated into 10 languages (English, Bulgarian, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish)
To improve partner organisations' and their stakeholders' abilities to offer volunteers better management and supervision, which eventually will also lead to improved informal learning outcomes.

Who is delivering this project?

Partners

This project was developed in association with all of the partners who provided feedback and expert input on its development and conducted research on the status quo regarding existing programmes and initiatives in their countries as well as culturally and socially specific needs to be taken into consideration. They have all agreed on the work plan and processes, responsibilities, budget, and schedules and have ensured their capacity to carry out the agreed activities. Each partner is bringing vital skills to the project.

Sivis Study Centre (Opintotoiminnan Keskusliitto ry)
Opintotoiminnan Keskusliitto ry maintains a nationwide non-formal adult education centre Opintokeskus Sivis (Sivis Study Centre), whose mission is to support active citizenship and wellbeing through adult learning in a voluntary sector context. We provide training in the fields of active citizenship, NGO management, training skills, basic skills, ICT skills and various other areas. Most of our training activities are organised in tandem with our 73 member NGOs.
Main contact person: Sirpa Silku, sirpa.sulku@ok-sivis.fi

Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Lodzi (AHE)
The University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz (AHE) is an accredited higher education institution, which in addition to traditional university programmes (BA. MA, MSc, PHD) provides also postgraduates studies and courses for various target groups, included adult unemployed job-seekers, youth, students, disabled, seniors, teachers, trainers, people of various professions, migrants, children, disadvantaged youth, unemployed. AHE one of the largest private universities in Poland and has 23 faculties.
Main contact person: Magdalena Tomczak, mtomczak@ahe.lodz.pl

Cooperazione Paesi Emergenti (C.O.P.E.)
CO.P.E. is devoted to the international voluntary service, development cooperation, European projects, and management of awareness rising and active citizenship campaigns. C.O.P.E. is engaged in e.g. cooperation programmes in favour of communities in developing countries, training and community capacity building; capacity building, alphabetization and VET training of peoples from developing countries; training of national and international civil service volunteers and VET training of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Main contact person: Gianluca Scerri, progetti@cope.it

Foundation for Society, Fonds Sabiedrībai (FS)
Foundation for Society is working in the support of vulnerable groups by providing educational and integrative activities in order to reduce social tensions and to promote the unification of society and the development at Latvian and also European level. The mission of the foundation is to promote socially active and responsible society in Latvia and care about the less advantaged groups of the society.
Main contact person: Aija Lokenbaha, aija@latconsul.lv

ASPECT - MANAGEMENT AND INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS
ASPECT - Management and Intercultural Relations (ASPEKT-Management I Mezhdukulturni Otnosheniya) is a private adult education and research organisation. ASPECT portfolio comprises training, courses, seminars and meetings, specific project management and researches in the field of Entrepreneurship, Human Resources Development, Corporate Strategy, Sustainable Tourism Development and Intercultural Relations.
Main contact person: Krasimira Bakardzhieva, krasimira.bakardzhieva@gmail.com

Asociatia Centrul European pentru Integrare Socioprofesionala ACTA
The European Centre for Socio-professional Integration ACTA (AbilitiesCareerTrainingAttitude) promotes educational activities, professional and social skills development of young people and adults in order to be able to adapt and to integrate effectively in a dynamic society. ACTA is also committed to social integration and gives equal opportunities to vocational skills learning for the most disadvantaged groups of people, those with special educational needs, social problems, and those with a high risk of social exclusion.
Main contact person: Mihaela Popovici, info@actacenter.ro

KERIGMA - Instituto de Inovação e Desenvolvimento Social de Barcelos
Kerigma – Innovation and Social Development Institute of Barcelos, is a non-profit organization founded in 1996. Its aim is to promote the integrated development of people, organizations and the community, creating services, solutions and products of excellence that contribute to an active citizenship, solidarity and social cohesion. Oriented by the values of equality and social responsibility, innovation and empowerment of people and organizations, it develops its action on the domain of Promotion of Lifelong Learning, Recognition of Prior Learning, Psychosocial Support and Support to Employment and Entrepreneurship.
Main contact person: Natália Correlo, Nuno Aldeia, europa@kerigma.pt

Büyük Ortadoğu Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı
Büyük Ortadoğu Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı (BOSEV) was founded as an umbrella structure in 2009 by a group of professionals working in the medical field. BOSEV aims to support research developments in the medical sector with its rich staff capacity and high profile background. In regards to this aim, BOSEV hosts medical publications with periodical medical magazines; has 50 management board professionals and 100 members providing ongoing, varied voluntary support; and transfers experience and capacity of over 500 staff working in hospitals, medical centers and clinics.
Main contact person: Ercan KÜÇÜKARSLAN, ekucukarslan@gmail.com

Tudás Alapítvány
The Foundation of Knowledge was established in 1994. Its strategic aims are