SoliDARE - European meeting for organisations in the Solidarity Corps

The European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre together with Romanian National Agency (Agenția Națională pentru Programe Comunitare în Domeniul Educației și Formării Profesionale) and Polish National Agency ( Foundation for the Development of the Education System) is developing the international blended event “SoliDARE”

Context 

The European Solidarity Corps is the EU’s one-stop-shop for volunteering opportunities for young people. Organisations that benefit from the program are an important actor and they have specific needs that should be answered by creating a place for networking and exchange of experiences. 

SoliDARE is built up to be the European meeting of active organisations and Solidarity projects youth leaders, from in the programme. We aim with SoliDARE to create in time a strong community of organisations, which is part of a larger network of communities that connects with the European Solidarity Corps programme, together with Europeers, TEC, mentors, and others.

The process is coordinated at the European level by the European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre and supported at national level by the National Agencies. This event aims to be the space where European topics which are of interest to organisations active in the Corps can be addressed. The programme, under TEC, offers the possibility to every National Agency to organise at national level, meetings with organisations. SoliDARE is the space where organisations (and leaders of solidarity projects) meet at European level.

Why and how of the event 

Objectives:

• To allow space for networking and creation of future partnerships
• To bring inspirations
• To build a sense of membership for a Solidarity Corps programme community
• To boost quality in European Solidarity Corps implementation 

The event will include inputs from experts, open space for participants and space to exchange solutions to the challenges that the organisations are facing in implementing actions supported by the Corps. The participants are expected to contribute to the program with their expectations, needs and workshop proposals. The event will be a mixture between sharing experience and community building for active organisations and informal groups and young people.

Who 

150 participants with the following roles:

• ESC Project managers of sending and hosting organisations in the Corps, having a Quality Label (all roles) and members of the teams managing the volunteering activities
• Yount people involved in managing solidarity projects (project coordinator or team member)
• The event is open for NAs representatives

When and what
Arrival day: 20.09.2022
Working days 21 – 22 – 23
Departure day: 24.09.2022

The draft program with each topic per session is available HERE.

Main topics approached: needs, contributions and support in order to develop a SoliDARE sustainable community, challenges and good practices in European Solidarity Corps projects, crisis management, strategic planning, mentoring and coaching.
 

What else - MeetUPs

Due to the current situation, as a direct answer to the needs of organisations active in the Corps, under SoliDARE, there will be three online meetings offered, where we will discuss challenges that the organisations are facing due to the war in Ukraine. We will address topics such as “how to talk about the war with your volunteers”, “volunteering and aid volunteering” and other topics that the organisations might express the wish to address. 

• 22.04.2022, from 11:00 - 13:00 CET - register HERE
• 27.05.2022, from 11:00 - 13:00 CET - register HERE
• 24.06.2022, from 11:00 - 13:00 CET - register HERE

The online meetings will remain as long as there is an expressed need to meet and exchange.