VOYCE project participated with its stand in the European Validation Festival organized by the European Commission in Bruxelles from 14 to 15 of June 2018.

The Festival gathered around 250 participants from the worlds of employment, social partners, adult education and VET, youth, higher education, to showcase policies and practices, discuss the shape of validation of informal and non-formal learning in Europe, and reflect on the future.

VOYCE was selected by the Commission and by the European Volunteer Centre as one of the 40 European best practices which demonstrated the richness and diversity of local, regional and national validation practices.

For the project partner, the Festival was an excellent chance for disseminating manual and web platform (output O2 and O3 of the project) and for broadening the transnational network of organizations and public institutions that are interested in using these tools.

The manual, one of the main output of our project, focuses on the validation of the eight key competences of the EU and proposes a model that is easy to use even for non-experts.

It is an instrument that is flexible and adaptable to the different contexts in which the volunteers are engaged, a specific tool that will help volunteers and organizations to enhance  the competencies acquired thanks to volunteering activities.Youth workers from different countries have already tested it with 100young volunteers.

Today in Europe, more than one in five young people carry out voluntary activities, but they often underestimate the value of this commitment for themselves and for society. Volunteerism brings together a set of conditions that will enable young people to participate in the local community, to give sense to this action, and thus take their place in society.

The richness of this experience comes as much from the quality of the experience as from the analysis of this process. This is precisely what VOYCE project’s pedagogical materials propose to work on. The experience of volunteering is formative only if it is conscious. That’s why VOYCE helps young people to formalise their learning, but also their values, their involvement in the host organisation and the cause they wish to defend.

Learning to live together through awareness of a democratic culture enables young people to make life choices and give sense to this volunteering experience in their life path. It is also a space for meetings and networking that makes them feel physically their inclusion and provides them resources for their future projects, whether they are professional, personal or activist. Volunteering is an existential journey that allows young people to become aware of their value, their aspirations and their social utility and thus participates in their social inclusion.

Read the complete article at http://voyceproject.eu/the-social-inclusion-dimension-of-volunteering/

On June 29th VOYCE tools were presented in Lisbon (Portugal) during the “Voyce – Recognizing competences in volunteering” day organized by the Clube Intercultural Europeu in cooperation with the “Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth” and “New University of Lisbon”.

Event gathered national third sector representatives and young people from Portugal, Spain, France and Poland. During one day participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with VOYCE tools, explore Learning (Badge) Map and get inspired by the documentary “Portugal is Great–A Gap year Story”. Discussion on non-formal skills, their importance and validation, relation between them and job market, techniques of adequate volunteers accompaniment and ways of effective communication, was fostered through four seperate workshops, designed by the specialist from the CLUBE, Dypall, Inducar and New University of Lisbon. Event gave Voice to the main VOYCE stakeholders, contributing to the general debate on volunteering in Portugal.