The two-year lock-down significantly suspended the voluntary activities of the organisations, while at the same time widening the gender equality gap. Our need to create actions that bridge gender equality and volunteering led us to collaborate with Servicio Civil Internacional from Spain to create the VOLUMEN – VOLUnteering for inclusive DevelopMENt project.
The project aims to promote and encourage non-profit organisations in gender mainstreaming in all their voluntary activities, through the development of an action plan that will contribute to sustainable gender equality.
The project includes:
- Seminars for professionals
In the context of strengthening the knowledge and skills of professionals involved in voluntary management, training seminars will be held in Spain and Greece. - A toolkit for gender mainstreaming in volunteering
A key pillar of the project is the creation of a digital toolbox of good practices for gender mainstreaming in volunteering. It will be addressed to professionals working with young people and civil society organisations. The content of the toolkit will benefit youth workers, human resources managers and NGO staff. It will provide the target audience with innovative tools to carry out in a more inclusive way their tasks concerning the voluntary community of the organisation they represent. - Workshops for volunteer communities
Five (5) workshops will be developed for young people aged 18-30 years old belonging to voluntary communities, focusing on understanding gender mainstreaming through non-formal education
Objectives:
– identify and reflect on existing factors of inequalities in volunteering in partner countries
– train individuals to interact on the basis of equality and non-discrimination
– support and integrate the gender dimension in projects involving voluntary action
– ensure that volunteering serves to advance society towards equality
– strengthen transnational cooperation through the exchange of knowledge and good practices
– raise awareness among young people, the educational community and the general public of the sustainable use of the voluntary community in the light of gender equality
The project will run for 22 months (March 2022-December 2023) and will be implemented under Erasmus+ with EU funding.