Voluntarily across the borders

Volunteering as a tool for connecting and enriching the neighboring border communities in Central Europe

The International Conference “Voluntarily across the borders “ was held in Prague in June 22nd and 23rd. The conference was one of the key activities of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 in the Czech Republic and was attended by more than 90 participants from 15 countries in Central and Western Europe.

The main objective of the conference was to encourage the emergence of new opportunities for international (cross-border) volunteering and to initiate or strengthen the development of cooperation among local communities in the neighboring border regions of Central Europe.

Conference was opened by the panel, which was dedicated to the importance and value of the across-border volunteering from different perspectives. Further program was designed so that participants got the opportunity to go through the emergence of a new quality project. This way they could get inspiration and know-how about existing projects, it enabled to match suitable partners for implementation. Consecutive blocks of the program met each stage of this process. There were presented selected foreign and domestic inspiring projects in three rooms simultaneously, so that participants could see examples of good practice and high-quality projects. Another part of the conference was a “market of organizations." Participants had the opportunity to present their project or organization, to get information about other organizations and projects and establish contacts with their potential partners. This activity resulted in a pleasant social evening.

The program of the second day started with the panel discussion again - this time it was dedicated to resources of support of volunteer across-border projects. Panelists were Jiří Sýkora – Vysegrad International Fund, Michal Urban (Director of the Youth dept of the Ministry of Education), Martin Hořák - Czech-German Fund of the Future and Lucie Jarolímková - Head of the Czech National Agency for EU Youth in Action Program). Participants appreciated particularly the clear structure of the information and an open and supportive approach of all panelists.

In the final part of the program there was a space for emerging of new ideas and project goals. Experienced facilitators guided participants through method of operational planning that uses motivation and initiative of participants. Participants had the opportunity to discuss 12 projects and initiatives they designed.

In the end of the conference, there was a brief presentation of outputs generated during the operative planning part. Mr. Jan Kocourek, Deputy of Minister of Education, gave the final speech, in which he underlined the contribution of the conference for development of across-border volunteerism, which is a significant and long-term priority for the Ministry of Education worth of further support.