Voluntariat - Zavod Voluntariat

Voluntariat is the Slovenian branch of Service Civil International (SCI), a worldwide peace movement started in 1920 in the aftermaths of the First World War. SCI is a network with more than 35 national branches on five continents and works together with more than 80 partner organisations throughout the world. SCI has consultative status with the European Council, operational relations with UNESCO and is a member of: Coordinating Committee of International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), Youth Forum Jeunesse (YFJ), Association of Voluntary Service Organizations (AVSO) and UNITED for Intercultural Action. Voluntariat was founded in 1991 aiming to promote social justice, sustainable development, international understanding and solidarity through voluntary service. The main activities of the organisation are international work camps and youth exchanges, long term volunteering, seminars and training courses, global education and peace and development education. Voluntariat aims to promote global issues; climate change, sustainable development, migrations, Millennium Development goals, peace, human rights, intercultural communication, social justice etc. through involvement and active participation of (mainly young) people in diverse project activities, mainly supported by Youth in Action, Europe for Citizens, EuropeAid, ECHO-EVHAC, Lifelong Learning Programs, Anna Lindh Foundation, and youth national programmes. Various program activities and memberships: 1) Organization and coordination of voluntary programs, summer camps, non-formal educational activities, trainings, seminars, etc. for various groups of volunteers (throughout the year) 2) Developing materials for trainings of volunteers and quality global volunteer management (Toolkit for trainers of volunteers in sending organizations; guidelines for sending volunteers in sending organizations) 3) Active membership in Slovene NGO platform Sloga and coordination of the working group on global volunteering with an aim of advocacy for creating a systematic and holistic global volunteer management scheme in Slovenia 4) National coordination and steering committee membership in European network GLEN – Global Education Network of Young Europeans - which aims at contributing to a better understanding of global interdependency, fair and sustainable ways of living, to a responsible development policy and to North-South relations based upon equal partnership and mutual respect through engaging young people in multipliers’ training cycle on global issues. Web page: http://www.glen-europe.org/ 5) Voluntariat is a member of YUWG, a working group in SCI. Its members are from different European branches or partner organisations of SCI, who have in common the fact that they organise special inclusion activities for young people with fewer opportunities. They try to reach people from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are marginalised in society.