Organizacijos aprašas

The Public University of Navarre’s Social Action Unit is a social and support service serving the University Community which was founded at the start of the academic year 2004-2005. The Unit addresses any special needs that the members of the University Community may have. It offers aid to groups with specific needs so that they can access and remain in the university (people with disabilities, people belonging to minorities and immigrants, people with personal and social problems). It develops programmes and actions that aim to promote a healthy, sustainable, solidarity-based, all-embracing University. One of these programmes is the University Voluntary Work Promotion Programme (social, environmental, national and international), which works under the slogan Graduate in citizenship. The European Voluntary Service, falls within the framework of the University Voluntary Work Promotion Programme, the Social Action Unit acting as a sending organisation.
The Public University of Navarre fully shares the objectives of the European Voluntary Service: “To develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union. To promote young people’s active citizenship and to foster mutual understanding between young people”.
The Public University of Navarre (hereinafter UPNA) believes that its function goes beyond the preparation of professionals qualified in the different fields of technology, science and the humanities. The University is also fully committed to fostering and developing ethical values amongst young people, and promoting civic values, education for coexistence, respect for human rights, the culture of peace and intercultural dialogue, all in order to help build a fairer, more solidarity-based society.
The UPNA incorporated this commitment in its Strategic Plan and, in the academic year 2004-2005, launched a University Voluntary Work Promotion Programme.
Under the slogan Graduate in Citizenship, the voluntary work promotion programme is an initiative designed to boost and channel the voluntary work potential that exists within the university community and express the social commitment of Navarre’s young people. The UPNA regards voluntary work as a form of solidarity, an ethical force that drives non-exchange-based activity in a highly market-oriented society. It means sharing our education and time with other groups. It is based on individual will and freedom to serve the community. It is a way to express our social commitment, the part we play in social, public and community life. That is why we see it as akin to “graduating in citizenship”. The UPNA implements the University Voluntary Work Promotion Programme for all the reasons stated above.
The programme involves social and environmental work at local, national and international levels. It is within the international sphere that the Public University of Navarre’s Social Action Unit wishes to participate in the application the European Voluntary Service, as a Sending Organisation: the aim of our interest in the EVS is to offer young people in Navarre the chance to take a direct, active part in non-formal learning experiences that can contribute to their education in human, ethical and solidarity-based values, and the development of capabilities and competences that can favour their participation and strengthen committed, active citizenship.