Volunteering in times of a pandemic: IYE-LABs experience flattening the curve & future steps

Lecce, IT

Villa Mellone- Via Giacomo Manzù, 73100 Lecce LE

25-26/06/2026

Despite all the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 emergency our local partners managed to convince young volunteers to go ahead with their projects, either by maintaining the original ones or by adapting them to the needs of social distancing.

This Conference will present the results of our project to other organisations working in the volunteering for the social inclusion and youth fields –at a local, national, European and international level- and also to policy and & decision-makers, particularly those ones working at an EU level.

The event will take place on Zoom next Tuesday 15 December 2020.  Registration is mandatory. Sign up for the conference here: https://bit.ly/33bbaJE

with José Castillo (President at Xul Foundation) and Marko Paunovic (CEO at Out of the Box International).

How our project enabled youngsters to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to undertake social volunteering projects through training activities, intercultural dialogue and their proposals: find out fieldwork partners’ vision!

Moderator: Camilla Smorra (Project Officer at garagErasmus Foundation)
Introduction: IYELABs objectives, outputs and outcomes. Reaching participants from disadvantaged backgrounds – Ana Rojas (Xul Foundation, Spain)

Readapting the project – Patricia Dragan & Stella Gelmini (Inco Association, Italy)
Local contribution to SDGs – Damir Muzina (Impact Hub Zagreb, Croatia) & Zek Dundar (Dinamik Development, Turkey)
Open discussion with two volunteers from Spain-Italy & Croatia

How alternative ways of volunteering helped us to overcome all the mobility difficulties during our implementation phase: Discuss it with our volunteers!

Parallel discussions lead by Ana Rojas (Xul Foundation, Spain), Sinem Kanmaz (Dinamik Development, Turkey), Patricia Dragan & Stella Gelmini (InCo Association, Italy) & Damir Muzina (Impact Hub, Croatia). The first three ones will be in their national respective languages and the fourth one, in English.

Presentation of IYE-LABs policy proposal. Debate & feedback from external stakeholders and policy-makers: contribution of volunteers to a reshaping EU moment.

Moderated by Eugenia Casariego (garagErasmus Youth Trainer & Facilitator)
Policy Proposal by Marko Paunovic (Out of the Box International)
Evaluation, Results, Quality Assurance and Impact on Participants by Carlos Moreno (Plataforma del Voluntariado de España)

Debate with Gabriella Civico (Director at European Volunteer Centre) & Michalis Moschovakos (Policy Officer at the Youth, Volunteer Solidarity and Traineeships Office – Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission)

with Niklas Nienaß (Member of the European Parliament -Greens/EFA Group-, CULT Committee) and José Castillo (President at Xul Foundation).

From Networks to Future Skills: Empowering the Next Generation

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