VISION 21-Volunteerism and Social Services in the 21st century

Initiated by a Polish Institute, this European project under the Grundtvig programme means to tackle social inclusion in the 21st Century thanks to volunteering. Four countries are concerned : France, Italy, Poland and Spain.
The results of the project are on line : www.vision21.neostrada.pl -

Presentation
This two-year project is designed to facilitate cross-national exchange and dissemination of good practice in the cooperation between social services institutions and voluntary organizations. It will focus on ways to effectively recruit, train and supervise volunteers for the purposes of social work. Teaming up with the voluntary sector can substantially increase the capacity of social work bodies to cater for the needs of disadvantaged groups (the poor, the disabled, the elderly). This, in turn, should aid social inclusion and improve quality of life of the socially marginalized, thus contributing to greater social cohesion. First, partners will hold meeetings at country level to pool local knowledge and prepare contributions to the main seminar. Then, representatives will hold a preparatory meeting in Warsaw to thrash out the programme of the main seminar. Next, the main international seminar on good practice in volunteer-aided social work will take place in Warsaw. In the second year partners will develop a new handbook for social workers on how to work with volunteers. The handbook will be drafted in English and subsequently translated into the languages of project participants. Another end product will be a web portal bringing together social workers and voluntary sector activists.

Objectives

(1) Pooling knowledge and experiences in cooperation between the social services sector and voluntary organizations;

(2) collecting and disseminating good practice examples;

(3) strengthening the capacity of social work bodies to deliver quality assistance for disadvantaged groups (the poor, the disabled, the elderly, ethnic minorities;

(4) facilitating social inclusion and an improved quality of life for marginalized groups to achieve greater social cohesion.

Methodology

The project will achieve the following specific objectives:

1. Cross-European exchange of experiences and good practice in setting up successful cooperation between social services institutions and the voluntary sector.
2. A comparative assessment of volunteer-aided social work in countries representing alternative social policy models (post-communist, Mediterranean, Northern European).
3. Developing a new handbook for social workers on how to recruit, train and supervise volunteers, encompassing good practice examples from the participating countries.
4. Setting up an international web-portal for a day-to-day exchange of ideas between social workers and voluntary sector activists. It will feature, inter alia, articles, reports from interesting events, a discussion forum, links to social work agencies and voluntary organizations in the participating countries etc.

Targets
Social workers and associations

 

Expected impact

 

(1) By confronting their own experiences with those of their counterparts from other countries, social workers and voluntary sector activists will become better equipped to successfully tackle social exclusion and other problems facing the clients of social work agencies: the poor, the disabled, the elderly, ethnic minorities. A new handbook and a web-portal will provide valuable reference tools, and ensure a lasting impact.

(2) Providers of social worker training will have an opportunity to enrich their course programmes with good practice examples and experiences from abroad. This will improve course quality and, consequently, boost the prestige and popularity of these institutions.

Volunteer organizations will get a chance to develop valuable links with social services institutions, and therefore to extend their sphere of activity and broaden the range of volunteer placement possibilities.

Research bodies will gain valuable insight into the practicalities of volunteer-aided social work in different countries, which may prove an interesting object of study for social policy and volunteering research.

Partners

The Institute for the Development of Social Services (IRSS, www.irss.and.pl ) is a research and vocational training organization Second, established by, but no longer affiliated with the Poland's Ministry of Economy, Labour and Social Affairs. Drawing on the vast expertise of our research and training staff, which includes former government ministers and high level academics, we provide a range of educational, consultancy and research services for the social policy sector.From in-service training programmes for social workers, think-tank services for social policy-makers, through specialist journals on various aspects of social and disability policy and a range of research programmes - our Institute provides valued, multidisciplinary contribution to the shaping and analysis of Poland's social policy.

The Institut de Recherche et d'Information sur le Volontariat (IRIV, Paris, France) -The Institute is a permanent structure making studies, providing councils and organising training on volunteering created in 1997..

The Instituto de Educacion Secundaria San Isidro (Azuqueca de Henares, Spain) is a public Secondary and Vocational School located in Azuqueca de Henares, a little town near Madrid (Spain). It offers different courses, one of them related to Social Work. This one is a Ruled Vocational Training course named "Social Integration" addressed to students aged 18 and over. After school, the "Social Integration" students are going to work helping the disabled and disadvantaged people, the immigrants, the elderly, etc.

Lunaria (Rome, Italy)- Lunaria is an association started in 1992 carrying out research, information, training and action on the social economy, immigration, globalisation, youth programmes and voluntary service. Activities include: campaigns, building coalitions of civil society groups for alternative priorities in public expenditure, expanding the third sector, North-South solidarity, integration of immigrants, research, with projects on public expenditure, employment and work in the social economy, ethical finance, immigrants, globalisation ; communication and information, with the newsletter "Infoluna", the website and collaboration to newspapers and magazines ; services, advising non profit organizations on law, fiscal and financial opportunities ; training, with courses on the social economy, managing non profit organizations and understanding globalization ; voluntary service, with activities for the European voluntary service ; workcamps for youth and solidarity activities

 

Pologne    Institute for the Development of Social Services(IRSS) Piotr Matela Marszalkowska 34/50 00-554 Varsovie Tel.: + 48 22 6210423 Fax: + 48 22 6294018 irss@and.pl www.irss.and.pl	France   Institut for Research and Information on Volunteering (IRIV) Bénédicte Halba 26 boulevard Raspail, 75007 Paris Tel.: +33-1-42840825, Fax: +33-1-42840825 contact@iriv.net www.iriv.net
Espagne   Saint Isidore Institute of Secondary Education Begona Cruz Fernandez Calle Poeta Manuel Martinez 2 19 200 Azuqueca de Henares Tel.: + 34 949261181, Fax: + 34 949262406 orientacion@sanisidro.com www. sanisidro.com	Italie   Lunaria Davide Di Pietro Via Salaria 89 00-198 Roma Tel.: + 39 68 884 1880 Fax : + 39 6888841859 Dipietro.lunaria@tin.it

 

© IRIV , Paris, 2004-2006