IAVE launches new Youth Volunteer Office

January 2008 | IAVE

At its 2007 meeting, the IAVE Board of Directors accepted a proposal from the Government of Catalonia to open under its sponsorship the IAVE Youth Office in Barcelona. This is a tremendously important development for IAVE as explained in this article prepared by the office team. Following is a message from the director of the office, Lluc Marti, about the office's e-newsletter. We are pleased to welcome Lluc and his team to the IAVE family.

Why youth volunteering?

According to the World Bank, there are currently 1.5 billion people aged 12–24 in the world. This fact clearly shows that young people are not only the future, but also the present of our societies and must be considered as key actors for the progress and development of our communities.

Besides that, young people are in a crucial moment on their lives and their actions have a deep influence on their own future and on the future of the whole society.

We believe that there is a relevant strategic value to reinforce youth volunteering world wide and to assist and support volunteer organisations which are offering volunteering opportunities among youth, ensuring and recognizing that their active participation and engagement in volunteer activities has a strong value for the whole community and for young people themselves.

The IAVE Youth Office (IYO) plans to support organisations and other actors involved into volunteering activities giving a response adapted to their situation, dreams and enthusiasm meanwhile answering to the specific situation and changing challenges in our communities.

IYO is meant to be a point of reference for the promotion of youth volunteering world wide and a physical and virtual space ready to satisfy the needs and expectations of its main target group: IAVE member organisations that are providing opportunities of youth volunteering.

Why an IAVE Youth Office?

The IAVE Youth Office (IYO) will support IAVE in the achievement of its strategic aims with particular focus on the following ones:

• To reinforce IAVE leadership world wide.
• To reinforce strategic relevance of youth volunteering world wide. Promoting a better understanding and appreciation of the value of youth volunteer actions and its positive impact on the life of our communities.
• To advocate for youth volunteering and to give strength to the voices of youth volunteering world wide.
• To assist and support IAVE member organisations and other actors in providing new volunteer opportunities among youth and in improving the quality, impact and recognition of youth volunteer actions, among volunteers, volunteer organisations and community as a whole.
• To increase IAVE membership among youth organisations and young people.

IYO plans are to bring added value to IAVE mission assuming the following tasks:

• To advocate for youth volunteering, with special focus on those regions where is not so far developed.
• To search for the recognition and valorization of youth volunteering in our societies, from various perspectives: social, cultural, institutional, professional and academical.
• To create fruitful synergies of cooperation and mutual learning among organisations active in the field of youth volunteering at national and trans-national level.
• To assist and to empower organisations to set up new national and trans-national youth volunteering programs and projects with a coherent thematic content.

Why in Barcelona – Catalonia?

Because of the long tradition of volunteering and the vitality of the civil society in Catalonia, where thousands of non governmental and non profit making organisations and thousands of youth organisations, based on volunteer work, are doing a relevant task in supporting risk groups and in organising all kind of events and activities.

Because it is the strategy of the Government of Catalonia to support the initiative of the volunteer organisations and civil networks, recognize its value and expertise and promote the image of Catalonia at international level.

Because Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, is a multicultural, open, tolerant and dynamic European and Mediterranean city and an international meeting point.

Vision

The vision of the IAVE Youth Office in Catalonia is to help to build up a world where all young people, without any kind of discrimination, can devote their time, energy and effort to volunteer actions, contributing to the improvement of their communities while building up their own future.

We want to promote a new concept of youth volunteering among our communities, where young people can take a more active, participative, responsible and inclusive role.

Mission

The mission of the IAVE Youth Office in Catalonia is:
To build up a new concept of volunteering, meaning

• To promote youth volunteering as a tool for social change (encouraging initiative, responsibility and leadership among youth).
• To promote youth volunteering as a tool for personal growth and development (providing learning experiences and opportunities to acquire and to develop skills and competences), boosting for employability and social inclusion.
• To promote youth volunteering as a tool for active citizenship (advocating for social values of democracy, solidarity and civic engagement).

Objectives

The main objective is to support IAVE to achieve its strategic aims and to answer to the actual challenges of organisations active in the field of youth volunteering.

The IYO plans to take the leadership in the promotion of new youth volunteering actions, programs, projects and services world wide.

The following objectives have been established:

• To create fruitful synergies of cooperation among volunteer organisations from different countries and with stakeholders.
• To create new spaces, both physical and virtual, to communicate, share and exchange information, ideas, experience, proposals and resources related with youth volunteering.
• To set up new trans-national youth volunteer programs and thematic networks of youth volunteering in various fields.
• To develop the capacity of the organisations, its leaders and responsible persons, according to their needs, with the aim to increase quality and quantity of volunteer projects at trans-national level.
• To organise international youth volunteering events world wide with a high impact in public policies.
• To strength IAVE global youth campaigns like Global Youth Service Day or Youth Employment Summit Campaign.