Volunteering
The definition of the Volunteering Hungary – Centre of Social Innovation for volunteering is as follows:
“Volunteering is an activity carried out individually or in groups, on a regular or occasional basis, domestically or abroad, for personal benefit, without financial consideration. Volunteering has no direct financial gain for the person who carries it out, nor does it replace paid labour. The volunteer does not primarily help his family, his work is an added value in the life of the host organisation. The activity may be carried out within the framework of a non-professional, non-governmental organisation, or a state institution, less often a for-profit organisation (companies, enterprises). It has the advantage of promoting social inclusion, contributing to the reduction of poverty, exclusion and full employment. Volunteering helps improve our environment and community.” [1]
Traditional volunteering
“In America, Western and Eastern Europe, secular or civic volunteering has gained an increasing social role alongside urbanisation and civic engagement. This early or traditional form of volunteering was mainly based on donations and charities. These activities are, and still are, performed mainly by middle-aged or older women who already have family and / or adult children, and include basic activities such as dress distribution, lunch distribution, various aid programmes, and blood donation. Many volunteers do this activity on religious grounds, along with solidarity or other personal values, to help the poor. This volunteering is rooted in traditional social values, middle-class care for the poor, humanitarian social engagement, and solidarity.” [2]
A new type of volunteering
“The focus is on the social values of the knowledge-based information society. In this type of volunteering, the focus is on skills, practical experience, retention, lifelong learning, etc. (…) (…)… in terms of motivation in a positive sense it is mainly based on interest as young people are driven mainly by a desire to acquire knowledge, to perform creative, innovative activities and not by the idea of charity based on civic values.” [3]
Historical Background – Europe
Since the International Year of Volunteers (2001), a great deal of documents have been devoted at UN and EU level to the definition of volunteering. These often abstract definitions and strategies have helped local decision-makers understand the significance of the area. This information contributed to the development of country-level development plans and the launching of local grants or specific programmes.
- According to a declaration by the Commission of the European Union in a paragraph of the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997: “The Commission appreciated the contribution made by voluntary service activities to social solidarity, in particular the exchange of experience and information, and the participation of young and old in voluntary activities.” [4] Volunteering was typified then, according to which the document distinguishes between formal volunteering, that is, organisation-wide, and informal, that is, directly provided to individuals. Another noteworthy document is the working paper of 2004 for the staff of the European Commission. According to an analysis by BARTAL, Anna Mária and her co-author [5], the working paper focused on strengthening youth volunteering based on a preliminary survey. In this, the concept of volunteer service is separated from the definition of volunteering. This means that any volunteer commitment can be considered as volunteering. Volunteering is characterised by the working paper “as being open to all, unpaid, self-directed, non-formal learning activities, a self-training and self-developing activity that provides added social value. Volunteer services, as part of volunteering, have additional criteria such as fixed duration, clear tasks, contents, structures and frameworks. Volunteers are entitled to adequate social and legal protection” [6]. The document identified volunteering as informal, while volunteer services as formal.
- The 2006 document of the European Economic and Social Committee [EESC] entitled ‘Volunteering: its role in European society and its effects’ [2006/C 325/13] [7]contains the following definition: a voluntary activity is open to all, it is unpaid, voluntarily undertaken, educational in nature (categorised as non-formal learning) and has an added social value. The Commission drew attention to, inter alia, the “need for reliable, comparable figures at European level on the scale, significance and socio-economic value of volunteering” [8], adding that the statistical offices of all EU Member States should have this information. The Commission considers it important to use a uniform definition, but notes that it is advisable to give volunteering a broader interpretation because of its colourful appearance. The ILO (International Labour Organisation) has also influenced the measurement of volunteering as a result of international cooperation within the framework of the European Year of Volunteering, with the Central Statistical Office launching the second survey on representative volunteering in the world. As a result, in 2012[9]and then in in 2016[10] a detailed report on the national scale of volunteering was provided.
- In Hungary, in 2005, the basic rules for volunteering in the public interest were defined at legislative level [11].By law, anyone over the age of 10 may be a volunteer if he performs activities appropriate to his age, physical-mental, and mental status. Volunteering is only what someone does for the benefit of the community, not for their own benefit or that of their family, without direct consideration. The law excludes volunteering from for-profit organisations.
- Shortly later, the European Council, on a proposal from the European Commission, declared 2011 the European Year of Volunteering [[12]. It did so ten years after the International Year of Volunteers in 2001.
Historical background – Hungary
In today’s sense, volunteering communities, associations (reading circles, student societies) formed at the end of the 18th century can be regarded as the forerunners of volunteering under the influence of the Enlightenment. Organisations appearing in the spirit of common fun, primarily in cities (but also in large numbers in the villages), were maintained by their members. In the absence of state regulation, organisations that emerged as a special form of self-determination and embedded reform ideas proliferated rapidly in the Reform Age. They were first established (very early in Europe!) by Act 44 of 1868, and ten years later, almost 4,000 associations were operating. Between the two world wars the number of associations with extraordinary diversity (culture, sport, interest protection, youth) for the purpose of their operation already exceeded 14 thousand. The dictatorial power that emerged after 1945 gradually eliminated forms of self-organisation by the end of the 1950s, essentially eliminating them. Just before the change of the political system (1989) it was possible to establish civil organisations again. In 2001, the United Nations declared the International Year of Volunteering as a conscious start to develop volunteering. In 2002, the Volunteering Hungary – Centre of Social Innovation (ÖKA) was established, which set out the overall development of domestic volunteering. Three years later, Act LXXXVIII of 2005 on Volunteering in the Public Interest was promulgated, which regulates volunteering to this day. In 2006, ÖKA published the document entitled Hungarian Volunteering Development Strategy 2007-2017 [13], which provided a comprehensive summary of the development tasks of the area.
In Hungary, coinciding with the EU presidency of the country, the European Year had a very important impact, which was mainly reflected in the rise of the prestige of volunteering and its acceptance on the social level.
Two of the important governmental steps taken in the framework of the European Year are the following:
- Preparation of Hungary’s National Volunteering Strategy 2011-2020: The Hungarian Government, among the first in Europe, has committed itself to adopting a ten-year strategy on the basis of proposals from NGOs and the National Committee of the Year. This strategy summarises the work on the development of domestic volunteering by 2020, along the axes of several priorities and measures.
- The document states that “Volunteering is an activity that is freely undertaken by a person, at their own choice and motivation, without the intention of gaining financial gain, for the benefit of another person, individuals or the community. It carries specific values that distinguish it from paid work. In itself, it is good and valuable, a way of empowering citizens to play an active role in both wider geographic and narrower communities of interest, which at the same time benefits those in need and volunteering. Volunteering is one of the tools for developing equal opportunities, it contributes to reducing poverty, exclusion and employment, it can help the unemployed to return to the labour market, but it cannot be a substitute for paid labour [14].[
- Introduction of the School Community Service (IKSZ). In Hungary, Act CXC. of 2011 on National Public Education set out the tasks of a 50-hour community service. Introducing the concept and institution of community service, the auxiliary activity was made conditional on the issue of a GCSE.
International outlook
Museum volunteering
Not surprisingly, looking at the map of Europe, it was only in the 1990s that the formalisation of organising volunteering began in Slovenia, Romania, Hungary, Latvia and Russia. Museums in Central and Eastern Europe are lagging behind their Anglo-Saxon counterparts: the St. Petersburg Hermitage launched its Volunteer Programme in 2003 and the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts in 2006. This trend began in the Anglo-Saxon countries decades earlier: in 1977 at Tate Britain in London, in 1978 at the Field Museum in Chicago, in 1984 at MOMA in New York, and in 1989 at the British Museum in London.
Library volunteering
In the Czech Republic, 36% of libraries have experience with volunteers. 75% of the libraries would welcome volunteers, most would teach them specific activities, and 25% would require legal regulation. No library believes that the presence of volunteers degrades librarianship. According to the surveys, the options of employing volunteers are not clear. In most cases, libraries would only use volunteers for ancillary activities (e.g. copying) or cleaning. Volunteering opportunities in Czech libraries are limited. There are good examples of libraries, but the lack of application is often associated with a narrow focus and insufficient managerial knowledge [15]. Involving volunteers in English public libraries is not a new phenomenon. Based on the results of Delphi’s survey of 15 library leaders, opinions vary widely. Respondents generally find volunteer involvement good for improving services and community involvement, but they also raise a number of concerns. The concern arises mainly when volunteers are used to replace paid staff rather than to improve services. Other issues are the quality of services, the sense of involvement of volunteers and the capacity of municipalities [16].
Community cultural volunteering
In France, in accordance with the 1901 Act on Associations, community centres operate in the form of associations and function as community centres. Based on a ‘model’ of more than a century, the 66 million inhabitants can choose from around 1.3 million associations, so nearly 20 million volunteers work in France. The form and content of volunteering is constantly changing, and volunteering is shaped by the needs of the world around us. The Association of Cultural and Youth Houses provides training for volunteers, which is supported at county, regional and national levels. They also try to involve the younger generation in the life of the association, so it is possible to form an association in the age of 16, and although these organisations do not yet have all the powers, they are important milestones in the democratic development of youth. In France, work experience gained through long-term volunteering can also result in credible qualifications when summed up in a scientifically sound thesis [17].
References:
- [1] Önkéntes Központ Alapítvány: Mi az önkéntesség? Budapest: http://www.onkentes.hu/cikkek/mi-az-az-oenkentesseg
- [2] Czike Klára és Bartal Anna Mária Nonprofit szervezetek és önkéntesek – új szervezeti típusok és az önkéntes tevékenységet végzők motivációi c. 2004-ben publikált kutatása alapján.
- [3] Czike Klára és Bartal Anna Mária Nonprofit szervezetek és önkéntesek – új szervezeti típusok és az önkéntes tevékenységet végzők motivációi c. 2004-ben publikált kutatása alapján.
- [4] Bartal A. M., Saródy Z.: Körkép – az önkéntesség helyzete és szerepe az Európai Unió egyes tagállamaiban az önkéntesmotivációs kutatások tükrében. In: Civil Szemle, 2010. 2. sz. 22-42. Budapest: Civil Szemle Alapítvány. http://volunteermotivation.hu/downloads/3.pdf (utoljára megtekintve: 2018. 04. 27.)
- [5] uo.
- [6] uo.
- [7] Európai Gazdasági és Szociális Bizottság vélemény: Az önkéntes tevékenység: szerepe az európai társadalomban és kihatásai (2006/C 325/13). http://epa.oszk.hu/00800/00877/01043/pdf/00460052.pdf (utoljára megtekintve: 2018.04.27.)
- [8] uo.
- [9] Váradi, R. (f. szerk.): Önkéntes munka magyarországon: A Munkaerő-felmérés, 2011. III. negyedévi kiegészítő felvétele. Budapest: Központi Statisztikai Hivatal. http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/idoszaki/pdf/onkentesmunka.pdf (utoljára megtekintve: 2018.04.27.)
- [10] Az önkéntes munka jellemzői. Budapest: Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, 2016. http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/idoszaki/pdf/onkentes.pdf (utoljára megtekintve: 2018.04.27.)
- [11] 2005. évi LXXXVIII törvény. https://net.jogtar.hu/jogszabaly?docid=a0500088.tv (utoljára megtekintve: 2018.04.27.)
- [12] Perpék É.: Önkéntesség és közösségfejlesztés, 2012 (doktori disszertáció). Budapest, Corvinus Egyetem
- [13] Czike K., F. Tóth A.: A magyarországi önkéntesség fejlesztési stratégiája 2007-2017. Budapest: Önkéntes Központ Alapítvány, 2006. http://www.kicsiperec.hu/sites/default/files/attachment/3/20070406140 519_1.pdf (utoljára megtekintve: 2018.04.27.)
- [14] Nemzeti Önkéntes Stratégia 2012-2020. 2012. http://www.onkentes.hu/cikkek/nemzeti-oenkentes-strategia (utoljára megtekintve: 2018.04.27.)
This article based on the following document: This article based on the following document: Practical Guide for the Establishment and Operation of Volunteer Programmes at Institutions : abridged English version