The Project Activities in our
European Project "Volunteers4Europe"

Democracies thrive from the engagement of their citizens, their readiness to help in society, to feel a part of it and to take over resposibility. With other words:
Democracies need volunteers!

The importance of volunteering has long been recognised by the EU and a lot have already been done for it. In 2011 the European Year of Volunteering was designated. Since then the number of volunteers grew up, but by far not as much as expected. More promotion and education campagnes are needed in the european countries. In 2010 about 92 to 94 million adults were involved in volunteering in Europe (GHS Study, 2010, p. 57, http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/pdf/doc1018_en.pdf). Nevertheless, due to apparent differences in the data collection and the definitions of volunteering, the statistical data about volunteering in Europe must be treated with caution. The GHS study from 2010 emphasized that there exist big differences of the voluntary sectors between the european countries, influenced by their traditions, politics and history.

The objective of the project is to introduce and promote different knds of voluntary activities, to exchange examples of best practice in the field of voluntary work in Europe, to inspire people of all ages to become volunteers and to increase awareness, where volunteers could help. Furthermore organisations on regional/national level dealing with voluntary work could be inspired by the exchange of knowledge and best practice from organisations abroad.

The project started in September 2018 with a Kick-Off meeting in Nice. It will end in August 2020. During the project lifetime the project teams will make photographic reports from different voluntary work in their country With international exhibitions of the photos, the teams want to encourage people of all ages to become active as volunteers. Furthermore meetings and events will be conducted to exchange knowledge about volunteering.

Additionally those who are active in organisations dealing with voluntary work shall be invollved as a source of information and a multiplier for interesting practices from other countries. It is also important to promote, that volunteers profit enormously from their activities. According the german study "Freiwilligensurvey" from 2014, whic was conducted under the authority of the German Ministry for Family, volunteers are more integrated in society and in the working world, they learn new competences, feel that they are doing something useful.

December 2018


Even in his Christmas speech in December 2018 the german president Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized the important role of volunteering for democracies.

Here is a part of his speech: "....All the more I want to tell you what I experience every day as President: Our democracy is strong!
Millions of people take care of that. ... Many of you are involved, in the neighborhood, in clubs or in city council. In the main or honorary office.
By the way: in hospitals or police stations, at the fire brigade or in the nursing home, at home and abroad. I would like to thank all of you
who are serving tonight.They make us strong! Our democracy is always as strong as we do it...."