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Count Me In: Volunteering for a Global Community
Count Me In: Volunteering for a Global Community
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Nov 30, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project "Count Me In: Volunteering for a Global Community" is an EVS project that will be implemented between October 2015 and October 2016, with two volunteers coming from Greece and Ireland. The two volunteers will be hosted by the Association of Service Civil International (SCI) located in Antwerp, Belgium.
Social Inclusion is a very important theme in the work of SCI and is among our Strategic Goals; “To stimulate solidarity and value diversity”. We are currently in the process of building a Campaign on Social Inclusion in Europe and beyond, to give voice to marginalized groups, so that their stories can travel beyond national borders thanks to our international network. Raising awareness can contribute to the reduction of stereotypes and prejudices and create more respect for vulnerable groups of people. We believe that these groups that are marginalized, excluded or face discrimination should be empowered to play an active role in society, instead of being just a target of solidarity.
It is against this background, that SCI will invite two volunteers to work at the International Secretariat in Belgium on various awareness raising and communication tasks. The two volunteers will focus on the topic of social inclusion throughout their project,, creating online content and helping to collect and share the stories of youth with fewer opportunities. They will use various media and means of communication such as text, video and image. Apart from collecting and contributing content for the campaign on Social Inclusion, the volunteers will also have close links to activities going on in the field. The volunteer from Greece will provide close support to the Youth and Unemployment working group that focuses on promoting volunteering for youth with fewer opportunities and raising awareness on youth issues. The volunteer from Ireland will be supporting the Better Evaluations and Exchange Support (BEES) Working Group. Both a thematic and regional working group, BEES aims at improving the effectiveness and quality of the process of exchanging young volunteers for workcamps in Europe, promoting volunteering and raising awareness on the benefits of volunteering for all.
Finally the volunteers will have the opportunity to be involved locally, with Flemish volunteers, and by organizing workcamps in Flanders during the summer months. The volunteers will be encouraged to keep a blog or use other social media such as short videos on youtube or storify to communicate and share their experiences of their EVS project.
For the two volunteers the impact will consist of increased skills, competencies, experiences and professional growth which will add to their employability. They will have the opportunity to work in a busy, international office which will give them a challenging but very fulfilling experience. The expected impact on target groups is that many young people in the European Union become aware of issues related to youth mobility, unemployment, etc, and how they can personally get involved and contribute to a larger Social Inclusion Campaign. Young people will have the knowledge of volunteering as a form of active citizenship. The Partner Organisations from Greece and Ireland for this EVS project will benefit from this project as well as through the work of the EVS volunteers in the office, as the volunteers will bring back and share their knowledge, experiences, skills and networks with their sending organisations. Once back the volunteers will be asked to join activities at local level, thus contributing to multiply the results and effects of the project.
The volunteers will also become part of a broader, international network bringing with it many new friends, fresh perspectives and alternative ways to actively contribute to a world of peace, which they will take with them after their EVS experience has ended.