The Conference “Volunteering in Latvia – Experience and Prospects”
Local volunteering initiative, organised by the partner in Latvia – University of Latvia represented by the Faculty of Economics and Management
The Conference “Volunteering in Latvia – Experience and Prospects” took place on October 30, 2015 from 10:00 to 16:30 at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Economics and Management, auditorium No. 324.
Being one of the academic partners of the project, University of Latvia decided as for its Local Volunteering Initiative to organize an academic event and to explore the topic of volunteering with the involvement of academic discussions – as a result the most appropriate manner was chosen to be the Conference “Volunteering in Latvia – Experience and Prospects”. It was planned initially that under the `academic umbrella` the Conference would bring together various actors of the organized civil society – mainly the very NGOs (volunteering organizations) and representatives from different regional municipalities of Latvia, which have quite a lot of coordinating competencies overlooking capacity of the social participation activities in their regions; the Conference was open and attended, of course, also by general public. In this way, the Conference facilitated the discussions about volunteering to all social parties involved. It is also to be emphasized that the Conference being University of Latvia Local Volunteering Initiative of the project was organized with a vast involvement of volunteers – people attracted and recruited as volunteers by the University of Latvia for the purposes of organizing the Conference and its follow-up activities.
The main actions used for implementation of this initiative was cooperation with regional municipalities and networking among volunteering organizations (NGOs) in Latvia, as well as information dissemination toward general public and representatives of academic environment. This led to the creation of pool of organizations and communication platform for the facilitation of discussions and development of further cooperation, including, the project`s research about the comparative analyses of volunteering in Latvia to be conducted at a later stage of the project. Main methods used to implement this initiative included basically targeted communication with regional municipalities and volunteering organizations, public appearances in social media, through press releases as well as presence on national radio broadcast and television to reach wider circles of general public.
Achieved results of this initiative
The Conference being University of Latvia local volunteering initiative of the project was organized with a vast involvement of volunteers – more than 20 people were attracted and recruited as volunteers by the University of Latvia for the purposes of organizing the Conference and its follow-up activities. The project`s leadership team at the University of Latvia provided the methodological and administrative support to the volunteers starting as of recruitment procedure and by structured task assignment and involvement in organizing the Conference and its follow-up activities, mainly, the project`s research about the comparative analyses of volunteering in Latvia to be conducted at a later stage of the project.
More than 20 people - the local volunteering initiative`s direct participants - were attracted and recruited as volunteers by the University of Latvia for the purposes of organizing the Conference. Overall, more than 70 people – citizens, members of general public representing different social groups, representatives from volunteering organizations, regional municipalities and state institutions of Latvia – took part at the conference and shared their experiences, learned and participated in the discussion panels and parallel working groups of the Conference.
As for the indirect impact, the Conference facilitated and contributed to the public discussion about the growing topicality of active citizenship through volunteering by targeted communication and networking with volunteering organizations and regional municipalities, as well as by public virtual appearances in social media, through press release and through presence on national radio broadcast and television to reach wide circles of general public. The estimated number of audience reached through indirect impact most likely reached several thousand people.
Innovative aspects of the initiative
The innovative aspect of this initiative lies in the fact that the initiative was organized by the academic establishment forming an `academic umbrella` that brought together main actors of the organized civil society related to volunteering topic – mainly the very NGOs (volunteering organizations) and representatives from different regional municipalities of Latvia – this has not been done earlier in Latvia. The “best practice” aspect in this initiative, in its turn, is the fact that University itself attracted and recruited more than 20 people as volunteers for the purposes of organizing the Conference and its follow-up activities, which on one hand shows “leading by example” approach and on the other hand gives also credibility to the University as a committed academic partner to encourage local volunteering initiatives and facilitate the debate among the main actors of the organized civil society and general public.
The continuation of the initiative
The main continuation activity of the initiative is planned research and the comparative analyses of volunteering in Latvia. The aim of the research is to explore the volunteering experiences in Latvia, characterizing volunteering organisations that are active in Latvia by a number of criteria such as activity area, age of members, their goals, tasks and motivation as well as to conduct a comparative analysis in relation to volunteering experiences of other countries. The research is explorative by design and within its conduct it will both, involve the already attracted volunteers for organization of Local Volunteering Initiative – the Conference, as well as will put in use the created pool of organizations (NGOs and regional municipalities in Latvia) and their communication and networking platform to collect, structure and disseminate the researched information thus even more strengthening the cooperation. The results of the research are planned to be disseminated to wider general public through a conference, article, press release and media appearances.
Given the fact that the time of the implementation of this project happened to coincide with the adoption of the first Latvian Law on Volunteering Work (adopted on June 18th, 2015 and will come into force as of January 1st, 2016) it is safe to predict that the project`s imitative and information dissemination activities of the University of Latvia as a project partner will raise the awareness of the volunteering topic among the general public.
Dissemination activities
Project`s planned and implemented activities as well as its` results are being and will be disseminated to a wider general public through communication with volunteering organizations, public virtual appearances (at least 17 times in total) in social media (at least ten times e.g. on the Facebook, Twitter, Draugiem.lv), through press releases (at least four times e.g. on WEB pages and news portals) as well as through presence on national radio broadcast and television before the Conference (from October 9 till October 30, 2015). The information is being disseminated in English, Latvian and Russian languages.
Programme of the conference >>
Photos from the event >>