VOLUNTEER - KEY TO THE FUTURE

Don Bosco Youth-Net ivzw is an international network of Salesian youth work offices and youth organisations which work in the style of Don Bosco.  The network assemblies over 1.000 employees and 17.000 volunteers which cater for 150.000 children and young people in 13 EU countries.  The task of the network is to create and promote international activities for and by young people (youth exchanges, EVS, seminars, training courses, study visits, ...).

One of themes DBYN is focussing on as a network is voluntarism: :  Volunteers are catering for young people in all our member organisations.  Don Bosco Youth-Net strengthens this practice by creating opportunities for volunteers on an international level.  Furthermore we help with youth work development.  By creating opportunities where our partners can exchange experiences and good practice, we support those partners who are just starting up or are looking for answers to the challenges they are confronted with. 

There are 2 types of volunteers which we can identify in our network, which we both want to engage in the this project:

1. Local volunteers are young people which are active as a volunteer in a local youth club, youth centre, oratorio, playground, summer camp, etc.  Often these volunteer have run through different stages of involvement: starting as child taking part in the activities, becoming an animator, taking on more responsibility as trainer or responsible for the local centre, …  Most of the time they are strongly involved in their local organisation, which makes it difficult to motivate them to take part in international activities. Choosing to take part in an international activity means choosing not to take part in a local activity.
   
2.  International volunteers are young people who go abroad for a voluntary service.  This can be short-term (a few weeks) or long-term (a year or more).  The voluntary service can take place in an European country or in other continent.  Out of legal reasons these volunteers are 18 years or older.  Not all of them are involved in their local organisation before going on voluntary service.  This means that many of them take part in an activity of the organisation, which they consider as an opportunity.  Our member organisations take efforts to keep these volunteers involved in the organisations after the end of the voluntary service, but this is not always so easy.
   

DBYN has its own pool of trainers which have been trained specifically for carrying international youth projects.  Some of the trainers will be active on the European Youth Congress as facilitator.  All trainers in our pool of trainers are volunteers as well, even though most of them have a professional background in education or youth work.

The international secretariat of DBYN has experience in organising Youth in Action projects, and has been supporting application procedures of its member organisations since 2001.  The international secretariat will set-up a coordinating team which includes the international secretariat, a member of our Administrative Body, the facilitators and the host team.