Gönüllülük ve Dayanışma Derneği

Volunteering and Solidarity Association is an educational, youth and sports association founded in Karabük. All the board members are young people under 30 years old. The members of the association are the local volunteers, the students of Karabük University and the individuals residing in neighboring cities. The average age of the members is 24 years. The association has 150 volunteers. The education level of the members is between the high school and master degree levels. Most of the members are university students with fewer opportunities. Most of them have never had the opportunity to visit abroad because of economic obstacles. The association has partnerships with NGOs and private sector institutions working on education, disability, environmental issues, lifelong learning, and active citizenship at the local level. In addition, partnership with the ministry of interior Karabük representative (the public institution working for NGOs on behalf of the ministry) a partnership with the Municipality and the Governorship of Karabük. The founders of the association organize training activities for their members and the local people. In all of the training, the founders of the association take a role as trainers.
The mission of the association is providing opportunities to young people and youth workers in order to develop their social, cultural and professional competences by organizing cooperation and partnership activities at local, regional, national and international levels in the field of education and youth. The target group of the association includes individuals with educational, cultural, economic, social and geographical difficulties. The mentioned difficulties are defined as follows:
1. Educational difficulties: young people with learning difficulties, early school- leavers, lower qualified persons, young people with poor school performance, etc.
2. Cultural differences: immigrants, refugees or descendants from immigrant or refugee families, young people belonging to a national or ethnic minority, young people with linguistic adaptation and cultural inclusion difficulties, etc.
3. Economic obstacles: young people with a low standard of living, low income, dependence on the social welfare system, young people in long-term unemployment or poverty, young people who are homeless, in debt or with financial problems, etc.
4. Social obstacles: young people facing discrimination because of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, etc., young people with limited social skills or anti-social or high-risk behaviors, young people in a precarious situation, (ex-)offenders, (ex-)drug or alcohol abusers, young and/or single parents, orphans, etc.
5. Geographical obstacles: young people from remote or rural areas, young people living on small islands or in peripheral regions, young people from urban problem zones, young people from less serviced areas (limited public transport, poor facilities), etc.
6. Disability (i.e. participants with special needs): young people with mental (intellectual, cognitive, learning), physical, sensory or other disabilities, etc.
7. Health problems: young people with chronic health problems, severe illnesses or psychiatric conditions, etc.
The association works under entrepreneurship, recognition of youth work, non-formal education, intercultural dialogue, and intercultural education, active politic participation, youth unemployment, and labor market competences (hard, soft and hybrid skills), active citizenship and activism, social citizenship, democracy, dialogue between young people and policymakers, human rights, diversities, and social inclusion, gender equality, equal opportunities. The association is organizing or participating in training about the mentioned topics above at local and national levels. In addition, the association directs and helps them to participate its members to events implementing at the international level. The board members of the association have enough knowledge and experience to organize training about the mentioned topics. They have been working individually for more than 3 years on the topics mentioned above.
The vision of the Volunteering and Solidarity Association is to be a multicultural non-governmental organization that offers young people equal opportunities at the international level and enables their active participation in political processes.
As mentioned above, the board members of the association are under 30 years old and they are actively working in the youth field. In the association, training and organization entity organizes local, regional and national training. This entity includes board members, members, and volunteers. About 30 trainers are involved in organizing training and events related to the scope of the association's work. All trainers in this entity are working as a volunteer. The main training organized trainers are:
1. EU opportunities and project writing training;
2. Project cycle management and logical framework analysis training;
3. Entrepreneurship and sustainable partnership training;
4. Non-formal education methods and training module preparation training;
5. Transnational democracies and active citizenship education;
6. Inclusion strategies training;
7. Civil society institutions and social citizenship education;
8. Erasmus Plus and European Solidarity Corps opportunities training;
9. Social media literacy and fighting with fake news training;
10. Policy-making processes at local, national and transnational level training;
11. Labor market competencies training (soft, hard and hybrid skills);
12. Rights-based approaches, gender equality, and human rights training;
13. Activism and fight against discrimination training;
14. Interview techniques and CV preparation training;
The training mentioned above implemented at the local level. Association makes the annual plan for all training and they implementing in a year. The plan is making with trainers.
In additionally the board members, members and volunteers participated events below:
15. “EU Projects and Opportunities Training”, Anadolu University Turkish Red Crescent Club Members, Eskisehir, 2016
16. Erasmus Plus Training Course, Mobility Taster for Inclusion Organisations, Denmark, 2016
17. Erasmus Plus Training Course, Minority Rights in Europe - Play and Change, Macedonia, 2016
18. Erasmus Plus Training Course, It's time to move! Transitioning From Youth Work To Social Entrepreneurship, Luxembourg, 2016
19. Erasmus Plus Training Course, The Power of Non-Formal Education, Netherland, 2017
20. Erasmus Plus Training Course, Youth Actors in Decision Making, Latvia, 2017
21. Erasmus Plus Training Course, No Hate, Norway, 2017
22. Erasmus Plus Training Course, “Embracing Diversity”- Training course on diversity management, Norway, 2017
23. Erasmus Plus Training Course, Tuning In - to Learning and Youthpass, Italy, 2018
24. The online course, organized by Boğaziçi University/Non-Formal Education Academy/Youth Work Association, The Non-Formal Education Training for Trainers, 2017
25. Transnational Cooperation Project under Erasmus Plus (TCA), “EVS Go Political: exploring political dimensions of the EVS cycle”, Antalya, 2017
26. Erasmus Plus Youth Exchange Project, “We need water and Energy” Gaziantep,2017
27. International Symposium on Youth Employment Challenges-ISYEC, organized by Abdullah Gul University, Kayseri, 2018
28. Erasmus Plus Training Course, Game of Cultures: inclusion of young migrants and refugees, Portugal, 2018
29. Social Media Literacy Training, Tepebaşı 19 May Youth Centre, Eskisehir, 2018
30. Financial Literacy Training, Habitat Association, Ankara, 2018
31. Erasmus Plus Training Course, WeMen, France, 2018
32. “New Initiatives of EU: European Solidarity Corps Training” Karabuk University Civil Life Association Members, Karabuk, 2018
33. “Erasmus Plus - School Education, Higher Education and Youth Training” Toros University Education İnstitutions, Mersin, 2018
34. The Ministry of İnterior Call “Şehre Vefa”, Kırıkkale, 2018
35. Erasmus Plus Mobility of Youthworks Project, “Did You Notice Youthpass?” Gaziantep, 2019