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Meritxell Prados

After three years of work, the VERSO Project (Volunteers for European Employment) comes to an end in 2014. The project concludes with a Collection of Good Practices and a series of Political Recommendations in order to strengthen the policies on volunteering promotion and, consequently, to increase occupation and reduce unemployment.

Volunteering enables the people it assists by providing them with tools and resources, knowledge and skills that support them in accessing the labour market. This implies that volunteering emerges as a kind of “human bridge” between people at social risk and the labour market. It is a relationship of mutual benefit, because the volunteer furthermore acquires the social skills to be applied in his task. This in turn increases his/her chances to find a job in the future.

This premise is the starting point for the Political Recommendations –grouped in 4 areas– that the governments should take into account. Here we introduce the most outstanding ones:

Measures to acknowledge and promote volunteering:

  • To promote the values of volunteering among minors of age
  • To promote activities that tend to make visible volunteering in order to generate a more active and participative citizenry
  • To elaborate a governmental strategy on volunteering that reflects its values and philosophy
  • To promote the acknowledgement of the volunteers’ skills by the business world

Measures to support volunteering

  • To provide economic and material support for organizations promoting volunteering for society
  • To develop a system for the formal acknowledgement of the skills, know-how and learnings that volunteers acquire, agreed-upon by all administrations
  • To assist entreprises in finding possible ways of collaboration with the Third Sector

Measures to promote volunteering:

  • To promote networking among businesses and volunteering organizations
  • To promote the incorporation of volunteering commitment in the high-school educational program
  • To promote practices of organized volunteering at a local level as a means to ensure employment and to prevent social exclusion

Measures to advertise volunteering

  • To broadcast campaigns to attract volunteers
  • To promote online bulletins and websites specialized on volunteering
  • To help enterprises to make their policies on Corporate Social Responsibility public

In conclusion, the VERSO Project encourages the public administration to carry out a double action: to bet for social policies on promotion and support of volunteering, together with policies on workforce integration that make occupation a reality.

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On December 4th, during the closing day of the VERSO Project (Volunteers for European Employment), a list of recommendations on public policies was presented. These policies focused on the promotion of volunteering to enhance occupation opportunities.

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