DIVE project

European volunteering understood as all volunteering activities at home or abroad integrating a European dimension is far from being accessible enough to all young people. This is a shared analysis of many European-minded youth organisations.

Three European youth networks, JEF Europe, ESN International and AEGEE Europe, along with six of their local and national members are coming together, supported by YES Forum, a platform of organisations working with and for young people with fewer opportunities to work on the topic of diversity in European volunteering. Partners have assessed that their activities, all European by nature (support to student mobility, European integration, European active citizenship), are not allowing full participation of young people as volunteers due to several perceived or real barriers. The project aims at identifying these barriers and at collectively reflecting on how to take them down. The final goal is to make sections of JEF, ESN and AEGEE more diverse and ultimately to make European volunteering more accessible and inclusive.

The project will take the form of 3 trainings where member of local and national sections, along with members of the European platforms will identify these barriers and build together the tools to take them down.

The project will also seek to create 2 operational tools for member of European-minded organisations:

  • A workshop methodology to raise awareness and train local volunteers towards greater diversity
  • A guide of good practices of existing initiatives and good practices towards higher diversity

The last stage of the project will see the local and national sections of JEF Europe, ESN International and AEGEE Europe engaging in volunteers’ recruitment campaigns integrating the principles developed during the lifetime of the project.

  • 13-18 Feb – Training #1 in Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 10-15 Jul – Training #2 in Athens, Greece
  • January 2019 – Training #3 in Malmö, Sweden

While the first training in Sofia was an introduction and as a chance for reflection for the participants, the second training in Athens had a more ‘hands – on’ approach. The 20 participants from all three networks, focused on how to strengthen diversity in our networks by improving our activities, recruitment and HR policies. The participants are expect to develop similar trainings in their local sections to sensibilize their colleagues. After Training #2 the three networks started working together on the production of tangible outcomes, namely, an organizational assessment questionnaire, a tool kit of best practices and a workshop methodology. These products will be tested in the final phase, during Training #3.

You can find the final outcomes of the DIVE project featuring the best practices