Although the European Year of Volunteering came to an end in December 2011, the work to ensure recognition, support and an enabling environment for volunteers and volunteer organizations continues.

During 2011, volunteers and volunteer-involving organizations across Europe worked together to develop the Policy Agenda for Volunteering (PAVE) which presents a number of recommendations for better volunteering policies towards the European Institutions, national governments, employers and trade unions and civil society.

As part of the process of implementing the recommendations contained in the PAVE, the EYV Alliance project partners (which include the Europe Region WAGGGS and WOSM-European Region) want to organize meetings at national level to focus on the recommendations which have been developed towards EU member states and to discuss how they could be implemented in each national context.  The EYV Alliance is therefore seeking organizations that would be willing to host a national PAVE implementation event before the end of March.

Would your NSO or MO be willing to organize one of these meetings?

The specific criteria to host these meetings are as follows:

1) Be present in an EU member state and willing to organize the logistics and participation in a one-day meeting of up to twenty key volunteering stakeholders in their country.

2) Be a volunteer-involving organization and member of an EYV2011 Alliance Steering Group member organization (such as the Europe Region WAGGGS or WOSM-European Region);

3) Able to submit an invoice to the EYV2011 Alliance for the costs of organizing the event;

4) Able to advance the costs of the event (between €800 and €1,800) and be re-funded in the second half of 2012 from the EYV2011 Alliance.

If you would like to apply to host one of these meetings, proposals should be sent to the EYV2011 secretariat as soon as possible but at the latest before 5 March 2012, copying the European offices of WAGGGS and WOSM. The written proposal should include a detailed draft agenda, invitation list, proposed venue and other logistical details. It should also contain the reasons why your organization wishes to be responsible for organizing this meeting.  If you have any questions or require further information please do not hesitate to contact Rosemary Hindle or Alix Masson in the European offices.