VoluntLearn is a project involving 6 organisations from 6 different countries and 2 continents.VoluntLearn, as the name suggests (Volunt from the Latin verb “will to”), is a project in which the partners in the project want to learn from each other and develop a structured network which can work together on the qualitative and effective volunteer projects which follow the principles of a European Voluntary Service, but are not necessarily funded through the Erasmus+ Programme.To do so, it is important to involve the stakeholders (NGOs, public and private entities, as well as young people) in the project to allow them to have a say and an opportunity to learn.The project will promote volunteering both among young people and private enterprises as a means of skill development and social cohesion.
It aims at developing cooperation between the partner organisations from different areas of the world, to reach a common agreement on the methodology behind the implementation of a voluntary activity with young people. At the same time focus will be put on the collaboration between private and public authorities and the NGOs involved on how to recognise the voluntary work carried out by volunteers. The project will have different phases to allow firstly the partners to get introduced and reach a “common page of work” in regards to Non-formal learning (NFL) and volunteering. Following the initial meeting study visits will be carried out in each country to allow an external eye on the Hosting Organisation’s activities and for the participants in the study visits to understand the social and cultural context in which future volunteers could be volunteering. The study visits will be followed by two practical experiences hosting and sending volunteers, in the form of EVS to allow a hands-on experience both for the organisations to work together as well as for the volunteers themselves.At the end of the project a Toolkit will be produced including results from the Study Visits and the project in itself, as well as tips for Hosting Volunteers and how to plan a good volunteer project, as well as guidelines for collaborating with private donors which is always difficult for NGOs, in particular small ones.To summerise, the key activities will be as follows:1. Kick-off Meeting and (France, April 2015)2. Training Course on Volunteering and NFL, and Strategies for Collaboration with the Public and Private Sector (Kuala Lumpur, June 2015)3. Study Visits of working staff in different partner countries (All countries, May - October 2015)4. Local Info Workshops with Stakeholders (Local in each country, December 2015)5. EVS (8 months per service) volunteers to each of the following countries: Malaysia (12 volunteers), East Timor (4 volunteers), Philippines (4 volunteers) and France (4 volunteers) (June 2015 - January 2017)6. Evaluation (Italy, January 2017)7. Best practice toolkit for different stakeholders (Organisations working with volunteers), (November