Description de l'organisation

This year the Volunteer Centre celebrates 22 years of its existence.
It is one of the founding members of the Council of Volunteer Centres, which has been operating since 2007 and brings together volunteer centres and other organisations that work with volunteers.
The Council's mission is to develop volunteering in the Ústí nad Labem region, to manage a network of partner volunteer centres and organisations that work with volunteers, to inform and motivate the public to volunteer and to systematically strengthen the prestige of volunteering and volunteers in the region. The aim is to create a mutually beneficial information and educational environment in the field of developing working methods in volunteer programmes and projects.
As a Volunteer Center, we are actively involved in planning the activities of the council and connecting volunteer coordinators in the Usti region to projects that promote and expand opportunities for volunteer activities.
We currently have 2,226 registered volunteers; an average of 270 active volunteers.
Our activities are governed by Act No. 198/2002 Coll., the Act on Voluntary Service and on Amendments to Certain Acts (Act on Voluntary Service) and we follow the rules and regulations of the Ministry of the Interior.
DC's intentions: to activate mainly young civil society through local and international volunteering. "A characteristic feature of the region is its relatively young population, with an average age of 42 years" (Statistical Yearbook of the CSO, 2019). Increase the share of young volunteers and young women volunteers in helping those in need, not only in social and health services. To develop volunteering in sport, culture, children and youth (mentoring programmes, tutoring), to develop inclusive volunteering, volunteering for the elderly, people with health or psychological disabilities and in cases of crisis situations (e.g. floods, Covid-19).
DC principles: inclusive volunteering = volunteering is for everyone. The VC s open to all those interested in volunteering without distinction of gender, age, race, religion, orientation, social background or nationality; even the foreign language of volunteers is not a barrier for us. We recruit and train volunteers from the age of fifteen.

There are three target groups (CS):
1. Volunteers who have decided to dedicate their time to selflessly helping those in need.
2. people requiring help from our volunteers: children and youth, families with children, organizers of sports and cultural events, seniors and disabled people, migrants, long-term unemployed people.
3. Young people (15-30 years old) who need to improve their social, economic or, for example, relational and stimulating environment.

At the national level, we are a member of the National Association of Volunteering and represent volunteering in the Government Council for Non-State Non-Profit Organizations of the CZ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rwWlb28KCs

On the international level, in addition to the Strong Neighbours 2.0 project, we send young Czech volunteers abroad within the ESS (formerly EDS) and implement a number of cross-border projects with German organisations. We implement Erasmus+ KA2- Strategic Partnership projects, we are a member of the Consortium of Volunteer Centres, we implement the project "Development of volunteering in the North-West region", number 2019-1-CZ01-KA104-06058, supported by the Erasmus+ programme.
Erasmus+ KA2 partnership - project, Wake Up - in cooperation with eight European countries we develop tools for young people's activation in the field of: active democratic citizenship, European and informed citizenship.

Main activities.

Our successful projects include youth mobility projects Fit for Life, Fit for Life II funded by OPZ. The project specifically supports international mobility and social inclusion of disadvantaged unemployed youth. We have had three very successful runs in which we have helped 21 young people (15-30 years old) to start new careers and have one more run to go.
Another successful youth project is the Fit for Life Prevention Programme (ITI), which aims to prevent young people (15-26 years) from committing crime by making them less likely to do so. To show them how to spend their leisure time in a meaningful way and to support them to actively address their social exclusion. We are in the evaluation phase.
We have been successfully running the HFt project for a year, which focuses on housing not only young individuals but whole families who are homeless. We help to find suitable housing.
https://www.facebook.com/354420654916075/photos/a.354425294915611/1524575817900547/
In inclusive volunteering, we are launching the IMPROVE project no. 2021-1-CZ01-KA220-ADU-000035109 - training volunteers with PWLD and testing new methods of training volunteers with d disabilities. In IT, LT, Germany, CR-training in the sending org. Developing methodologies for training volunteers with PWLD at European level.