NETHERLANDS: "Insight into Voluntary Work" workshop 

Local volunteering initiative, called "Insight into Voluntary Work", was organised on 11/04/2016 at the Volunteer Academy (Vrijwilligersacademie Amsterdam) in Amsterdam. Vrijwilligersacademie Amsterdam is the main partner of project Dutch partner Stichting VU-VUMC implementing V-CODE project activities. The Academy take care of volunteer training that they are able to provide best qualified volunteer services for Amsterdam citizens, for their care and welfare. 

Volunteering and refugees was chosen as a topic of this event as refugees are an important topic these days. Often they are perceived as ‘in need of care’. However, this does not apply for all refugees and there are plenty that are actually able to provide care. Vrijwilligersacademie Amsterdam opted to organise a workshop in which invited participants discussed this topic and explored what kind of voluntary work could be done by refugees. 

The objective was to trigger people to explore the idea of refugees volunteering. Participants reflected on their concept of what a refugee is: needing care vs providing care. This is important in current society in which we are faced with more and more refugees every day and in which we need to find a right way to co-exist. The workshop aimed to investigate new ways of thinking about caring for each other, and specifically focused on voluntary work for refugees. What does that involve and what possibilities are there? The workshop aimed to investigate new ways of thinking about caring for each other, and specifically focused on voluntary work for refugees. What does that involve and what possibilities are there? It is expected that this initiative has contributed to this goal. More people opened up to the idea of welcoming refugees as volunteers.

A workshop setting was chosen in which a refugee that has had experience with volunteering shared his story and directed the discussion about it. This way as much interaction as possible was gained and as many people as possible to join the initiative were engaged. 

The topic – refugees as volunteers, providing care for locals – is quite rare at this point and as such is innovative. The method of a workshop is, off course, well known and had proven its value.

The workshop was disseminated throughout social media (websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts of Vrijwilligersacademie Amsterdam and University), and amongst the wide network of the University and Vrijwilligersacademie Amsterdam. 

• 26 participants took part at the workshop.
• Contacts were made with different volunteering organisations to make more use of the combination of volunteering between refugees and locals, on different levels. 
• Numerous continuous local volunteering initiatives anticipated and will be implemented after the project ends.
• As the outcome of the workshop the solutions to the question "So how can we enable voluntary work for newcomers and refugees?" were provided: offer a guideline how to volunteer; explain the concept of voluntary work during the lessons at schools; focus on voluntary work for groups, not only individuals; use social media and create a ‘newcomers database.’ 

Invitation to the workshop >>>

Overview of workshop results (with useful links and photos) >>>