Organization and Co-Organization of Voluntary Activities

Contents:

• Introduction...... 3
• Summary of the report and outcomes………...... 4

ORGANIZATION AND CO-ORGANIZATION OF VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES

• Organization of short-term voluntary activities in Zagreb...... 7
• Support in the organization of long-term voluntary activities in Zagreb...... 9
• Organization of international voluntary workcamps in Croatia...... 12
• Implementation of international long-term volunteering………...... 16

INFORMATION, COUNSELING AND MEDIATION

• Information and advisory service...... 18
• Matching volunteers with volunteer organizers – Volunteer database ...... 19
• Matching volunteers with international organizations and projects ...... 20
• Mediation between the business sector and non-profit organizations...... 22

EDUCATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF VOLUNTEER ORGANIZERS AND VOLUNTEERS

• Education for volunteer organizers...... 23
• Education for volunteers...... 24

PROMOTION

• Promotional campaigns...... 28
• Volunteer Oscar...... 30
• Volunteer Internet portal ...... 31
• Press releases and promotional materials……………...... 31

ADVOCACY, NETWORKING AND PARTNERSHIP

• Participation in conferences...... 33
• Cooperation in Croatia...... 34
• International cooperation...... 36

ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT, VCZ TEAM AND SUPPORT

• Organization development...... 38
• VCZ team...... 39
• Donors, sponsors and other kinds of support...... 40

• INTRODUCTION

Volunteers' Centre Zagreb is a civil society organization which works on the development of volunteering. It implements activities at the local, regional, national and international level.

The beginning of VCZ’s work was in 1998, when International Voluntary Service (IVS) was formed. The aim of this Service was to develop voluntary activities on the international level. Voluntary projects outside Croatia increase the mobility of citizens through volunteering. They are also the perfect mixture of travelling and discovering new cultures, as well as philanthropy, which provides an opportunity to learn about the real life in countries where the projects take place. The IVS organizes a number of international voluntary workcamps all over Croatia and carries out long-term international projects.

Since 2007 VCZ has been intensively working on the development of volunteering in the City of Zagreb through the Zagreb Voluntary Service (ZVS). The aim of ZVS is to raise citizens’ awareness about the value of volunteerism, to develop voluntary activities in Zagreb and to enable participation in voluntary projects to as many people possible by matching them with organizations that need volunteer support. The program supports individuals, vulnerable groups and organizations in need by giving information, education and counselling, and also by organizing and co-organizing voluntary and promotional activities aimed at increasing social solidarity and unity.

Since 2009 VCZ has been also working as a Regional Volunteer Centre with the aim to extend a part of its activities to Central Croatia. We support citizens and organizations from the region through info-advisory service, education and organization of international voluntary workcamps. We also strive to support high schools from the region in the inclusion of students in volunteering. Serving as a Regional Volunteer Centre and expanding the scope of activities created the need for a different activity structure and affiliation of both programs (IVS and ZVS). Accordingly, local, regional and international activities have been grouped into 4 main fields:

1. Organization and support in organization of voluntary activities
2. Information, counselling and mediation
3. Education
4. Promotion and advocacy

Given the mission and purpose of it’s existence, VCZ gives great importance to the organization of voluntary activities and involvement of volunteers in it’s daily work. In 2010 VCZ included volunteers in almost all activities and achieved even greater and better results and made bigger impact on the community. 406 volunteers participated in different type of work on different positions and in various projects. Their contribution to the community reached 10169 volunteer hours. VCZ would like to thank all the volunteers for a generous support in 2010.

• SUMMARY OF THE REPORT AND OUTCOMES
  

ORGANIZATION AND CO-ORGANIZATION OF VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES

• Organization of short-term voluntary activities in Zagreb

- two voluntary actions organized on the occasion of International Day of Peace (21st September): "Colour your neighbourhood with a message of peace" and "Let's remove hate speech", were participated 54 volunteers and 6 students from X. Gymnasium in Zagreb (totally 1166 volunteer hours),
- two voluntary actions organized on the occasion of International Volunteer Day: "Fulfil wishes of the homeless" and "Volunteers, the homeless and street lamps "; with a total number of 38 volunteers and 43 students from 4 secondary schools in Zagreb (totally 418 volunteer hours),
- support organization of 4 voluntary actions for the business sector, with a total number of 52 employee-volunteers (236 volunteer hours),

- coordination of 40 volunteers on the event for children from lower income families (totally 193 volunteer hours).

In all of those voluntary actions were included 233 volunteers, who worked in total 2013 volunteer hours.

• Support in the organization of long-term voluntary activities in Zagreb

- support volunteer organizers: VCZ provided constant support for 9 organizers from Zagreb region;

- support volunteer organizers through system "Taylor made Voluntary management"; that included 14 organizations (11 institutions, 2 public authorities, 1 Association) and 78 volunteers;
- development of long-term volunteer program "Volunteers and the homeless": 12 homeless beneficent of the program; 39 creative workshops, 9 visits at cultural and sports events, 7 sale and info stands, 4 long term and 20 short term volunteers who worked in total 532 volunteer hours.

• Organization of international voluntary workcamps in Croatia

- preparation and implementation of the camps: totally 10 camps in 9 communities (Zabok, Kuterevo, Samobor, Kastel Stari, Karlovac, Supetar, Slatina, Mrkopalj, Zagreb) were participated 83 international volunteers (totally 4517 volunteer hours) and 12 camp leaders (2080 hours), which makes a total volunteer hours number 6597;
- volunteer evaluations of the camps: the general average for season 2010: 4.23 points on maximum 5.00 points

• Implementation of international long-term volunteering

- EVS project "Colours of Volunteering": volunteer Chris Carey, Ireland, 3 months of volunteering in Zagreb (220 volunteer hours) and 12 volunteer hours collected by volunteers that supported the project.
- EVS project "VIVA - Volunteer to Improve Volunteering Activities": volunteer Anna Walczak, Poland, 12 months of volunteering in Zagreb (15.11.10 to 15.11.11), 60 volunteer hours in 2010 and 36 collected by volunteers that supported the project.

INFORMATION, COUNSELING AND MEDIATION

• Information and advisory service

- Services were used by 188 organizers of volunteering and other interested stakeholders as well as more than 800 volunteers.

- Regularly VCZ maintained 8 info points in different locations in Zagreb, plus 1 constant info point in VCZ office.

- 23 Info days held on international voluntary camps in which participated a total of 195 citizens.

- VCZ hosted the 7 study visits for Croatian and international organizations.

• Matching volunteers with volunteer organizers – Volunteer database

- 3387 registered volunteers (2017 in 2010)

- 136 volunteer organizers (60 in 2010)

- 287 local voluntary projects published (161 in 2010)

• Matching volunteers with international organizations and projects

- more than 2.500 international volunteer camps were published in on-line database,

- a total number of 108 volunteers participated in 111 international camps around the world

- 5 volunteers, volunteered or even now volunteer in the long-term projects abroad

- 61 people were thoroughly informed about the projects of international long-term volunteering

• Mediation between the business sector and non-profit organizations

16 volunteers volunteered at info points and maintenance of Info days, which gave a totally 128 of their volunteer hours.

EDUCATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF VOLUNTEER ORGANIZERS AND VOLUNTEERS

• Education for volunteer organizers

- Organization of 6 days training about Volunteer Management (according to a national curriculum) on which 19 volunteering coordinators were trained,

- 2 workshops focused on the law regulations about volunteering; 32 representatives of associations and institutions took part,

- education about the initiation of voluntary programs; 40 participants - employees of the Zagreb City Library,

- lecture about voluntary work, volunteering in museums at the conference for museum pedagogues in Sisak,

- 3 days training based on system of support named "Taylor made Voluntary management“, 13 participants – assistants and 10 voluntary work coordinators.

• Education for volunteers

- training for volunteers participating in Festival of Equal Opportunities, number of participants - approximately 100 volunteers,

- training for volunteers from Hospice Association Zagreb, participants - approximately 30 volunteers,

- 6 workshops for elementary and secondary schools, participants in total - 116 students and 5 teachers,

- 4 trainings in colleges (Faculty of Teacher Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Business and Faculty of Agriculture), 120 students participated,

- 3 days training for the workcamp leaders, participants - 12 volunteers,

- 2 preparation workshops for international volunteer camps, participants - 33 volunteers,

- orientation workshops about International Volunteering for 17 participants,

- 11 volunteers participated in the trainings abroad.

More than 100 representatives of non-profit organizations participated in educations and lectures for the organizers of volunteering. About 455 volunteers and potential volunteers participated in training for volunteers. 9 volunteered in the trainings (total number of volunteer hours – 29).

PROMOTION

• Promotional campaigns:

- campaign for voluntary workcamp season: 2 000 printed leaflets, 4 press release sent to media, a radio spot about the camps emit in 4 radio stations; promotion through Facebook and info point;

- celebration of the European Day of Solidarity Between Generations: 100 posters distributed, broadcast of promotional radio spot, 7 volunteers (21 volunteer hours);

- celebration of the International Day of Peace: promotional materials distributed, VCZ organized also concert in Zrinjevac Park in Zagreb, showed movie and gave lecture at the Social Centre Kino Mosor;

- celebration of the International Volunteer Day: organization of volunteer weekend in Zagreb (informational activities and celebrations), volunteer meeting, the Volunteer Oscar Award and info stands.

• Volunteer Oscar Award – a competition for the best volunteers, organized and conducted by VCZ:

- From 9 submitted applications expert committee selected three candidates.

- Winner was decided by 1218 of citizens votes.

• Volunteer Internet portal

- 40 short news and 6 volunteer stories published;

- a total number of 95 408 visits from 1st January 2010 to 31th December 2010 (261 visits per day)

• Press releases and promotional materials

- 165 appearances in medias

- a large number of promotional materials printed (T-shirts, brochures, posters, postcards, leaflets, badges)

The promotional activities included 88 volunteers who had volunteered for 419 hours.

ADVOCACY, NETWORKING AND PARTNERSHIP

• Participation in conferences - VCZ representatives participated in 10 events in professional meetings in Croatia and abroad;
• Cooperation in Croatia – executed by and/or improved in collaboration with various stakeholders at local and national level (Ministry of the Family, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity, Croatian Volunteer Centres Network, City of Zagreb - City Office for Social Protection and People with Disabilities, the Croatian Employment Service, Office for Cooperation with NGOs, Croatian Youth Network, etc.)
• International cooperation - established by and/or improved in cooperation with many international organizations and networks in Europe and worldwide (SCI - Service Civil International, SEEYN, CEV - European Volunteer Centre, UNV, Alliance, UNITED, etc.)

ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF VCZ TEAM WORK

• Organization development

- Strategic Plan for the period from 2011 to 2013 build

- Operative plan for 2011 created

- A three-year institutional grant from the National Foundation for Civil Society achieved

• VCZ team:

- 5 members of steering board

- 4 full time and 3 part-time employees

- 5 employees hired for a limited time to support the implementation of activities

- 22 active members in 2010

Active members, Steering board and other volunteers have invested 123 volunteer hours in the organizational development.

• Donors, sponsors and other kinds of support

- the financial support of many donors and partners received

- support from companies, associates and individuals given in services, materials and human resources

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ORGANIZATION AND CO-ORGANIZATION OF VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES

• ORGANIZATION OF SHORT-TERM VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES IN ZAGREB

Short term voluntary activities are voluntary actions and one-day activities that last from a couple of hours to few days. Below, we are describing voluntary actions, but we consider important to mention that the short-term volunteering includes volunteering at social events such as festivals, multi-day conferences and other event. As part of short-term projects volunteers help in various organizational activities both in preparation and in the implementation of the event.

VOLUNTARY ACTION is a very effective way to achieve VCZ mission. It’s characterized by:

- contribution to solve concrete problems in the community in a very short time frame;

- possibility of achieving very diverse goals and possibility of supporting various targeted groups;

- possibility of including a large number of volunteers of various profiles and other actors in the community;

- powerful mechanism of connecting and networking citizens, local administration, organizations, institutions, etc.

- high visibility of results;

- very efficient way of promoting volunteering – concrete example and results encourage other actors to become included.

VOLUNTARY ACTION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

In occasion of the International Day of Peace (IDP), Volunteer Centre Zagreb implemented a promotional campaign that last from September 12th until September 22nd trough. It conducted multi-day voluntary action. The purpose of the campaign and the action was to promote the International Day of Peace, building a culture of peace among the citizens of Zagreb and the fight against various forms of hate speech and discrimination that occur in the form of graffiti and inscriptions on the facades of buildings in the city of Zagreb. Within the campaign the first International volunteer camp in the city of Zagreb was organized. 54 volunteers and 6 students of X. gimnazija (high school) were involved in campaign implementation, and four of them were part of the VCZ organizational team and engaged in the design and preparation of the campaign. In the campaign and action 1166 volunteer hours were collected. Within the campaign, two actions were organised:

„COLOR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD WITH A MESSAGE OF PEACE”, 13th - 14th September 2010

Voluntary action placing posters of peace – main poster: „WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR PEACE“, accompanying posters: „I will help old people“ – even if they don’t expect me to do it, „I'll stop and talk to the homeless“ – although I’m in a hurry, „I'll help a colleague in his work“ – even if he can't help me, „I'll spend the day volunteering“ – although I could lie on the sofa. 1300 posters were placed in schools, libraries, cultural centres, shopping centres and other crowded locations in the city of Zagreb.

„LET'S REMOVE HATE SPEECH ", 15th, 16th, and 17th September 2010

In this action high school students from IX. and X gymnasium participated together with VCZ volunteers. Action took place in 5 different locations:

- Home for Elderly person and infirm St. Ana – removal of the labels and painting messages on three walls: "Peace begins with a smile" (Mother Teresa), the dove of peace (logo) 1mx1m, Mural - nature and pigeons

- Administrative and office school in Varšavska St. – painting quote on the inside stairs of the school: „Give peace a chance“(J. Lennon)

- IX. gimnazija (high school) - removal of the labels, painting walls and the message on the front of the school and playground: "If you think something small can't make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room" (Anita Roddick), colouring panels on the court and painting 6 doves of peace

- X. gimnazija (high school)- removal of the labels and painting the messages on 2 walls: "Be the change you want to see" (Gandhi), "Wisdom and Understanding" (X. gimnazija students)

- Social Centre Kino Mosor - removal of the label of hate messages and paint the entrance to garage: peace sign was filled with coloured hands and message "Through culture to Peace"

VOLUNTARY ACTION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY – 5th December

In occasion of the International Volunteer Day (IVD), Volunteers’ Centre Zagreb implemented a promotional campaign called "Volunteering is solidarity in action" from 2nd to 20th December 2010.

In the framework of the campaign 2 voluntary actions were organized for our poorest citizens– homeless people, to meet and make citizens aware of this issue. In total, the campaign included 38 volunteers and 36 students from 4 Zagreb high schools and they volunteered an amount of 418 volunteer hours, not including the multitude of students from 4 high schools who took part in the action "Fulfil wishes of the homeless."

Voluntary action 'Fulfil wishes of homeless people', 2nd December 2010.

In the second half of November volunteers and VCZ staff listed the desire of 74 homeless people. List of desires included a variety of supplies. Specific objectives of the action were to provide homeless people gifts that was truly needed and cheer them up, and to include the largest number of high school students and make them aware of the topic of homelessness. The largest number of homeless people wished tracksuits and sneakers, and also medicines, cosmetics, tickets to visit relatives, underwear, winter socks, etc. In this action high schools were involved Zagreb, too: IX. gimnazija, X. gimnazija 'Ivan Supek', Vladimir Prelog Science School, and American International School of Zagreb. Gift delivering was organized on 2nd December in IX. Gymnasija. It was add splendour by performance of choir of IX. Gymnasija. At the delivering there were 39 homeless and many students from 4 high schools. On 7th December volunteers and representatives of schools visited Zagreb shelter for the homeless and distributed gifts to the homeless who were not able to attend to the previous event.

In the preparation and implementation of action were involved more than 50 students from 4 High schools in Zagreb.

''Volunteers, homeless and street lamps”, 4th December 2010

Another promotional activity was organized with volunteers and homeless people who were selling the magazine "Street lamps" and were informing citizens about the problems of homelessness. 14 volunteers and 11 homeless took part in the action. Despite the cold, volunteers and homeless people were bravely endured a big minus, and sold 215 magazines and informed a large number of citizens about the existence of magazine. After the action there was meeting with food and hot drinks, organized to socialize and share stories about nice and less nice situations happened during the sale of magazines in Zagreb. During the meeting, volunteers and sellers themselves shared their experiences on the choice of locations and ways of selling. Thanks to this VCZ could collect new ideas how to successfully sell the magazine.