One of CSV’s main aims is to play a part in the social development of Europe and to encourage active European citizenship, particularly among disadvantaged young people. We organise the annual Volonteurope conference and Active Citizens of Europe (ACE) Awards. 

Our work with our European partners focuses on:

• promoting CSV’s vision of active citizenship to Her Majesty’s Government and to European institutions
• building links with other voluntary organisations to ensure that CSV’s ideas and policies inform European social thinking
• promoting the transfer of best practice and knowledge between CSV and other European voluntary organisations

We are delighted to announce that thanks to two years of intensive campaigning from CSV and our European partners, 2011 will be the European Year of Volunteering. For full details, see the European Commission website.

Volonteurope

CSV holds the Secretariat for Volonteurope, the Europe-wide network of volunteer-involving organisations and individual volunteers.

Through the annual Volonteurope Conference, we bring together volunteers, voluntary sector practitioners, and representatives from the private and public sectors and national and European governments and institutions. The Conference takes place in a different European city every year, offering a series of workshops, presentations and round table discussions and the chance to network and share thought with volunteers, volunteer organisers, trainers, academics, sponsors, public officials and policy makers from across Europe.

The 18th Volonteurope Conference took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 8th-11th October 2009, in partnership with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Click here to download the full event report. Next year we will be in Athens, Greece, from 21st-24th October 2010 (provisional dates), in partnership with the Greek NGO Praksis. More details and online registration will be available here from early February 2010.

Volonteurope campaigns for the inclusion of voluntary and community policies in European and national agendas, producing research, resources and tailored seminars. Volonteurope is one of the founding members of the Alliance of European NGOs that successfully campaigned for the European Year of Volunteering in 2011. It is also one of six winners of the 2009 European Economic and Social Committee Prize for Organised Civil Society. Volonteurope is supported by the European Commission’s ‘Europe for Citizens’ Programme.

UPCOMING SEMINAR: The Impact of Volunteering: Beyond GDP, 27 January 2010, Brussels, 14:00-16:00. This will be the first in the short series of seminars delivered by Volonteurope and its partners throughout 2010. The seminar will be looking at volunteering as an active ingredient of the post-Lisbon strategy, particularly in the light of the current European Commission consultation of the EU 2020 Strategy. Click here to download full details. To register, please contact Piotr Sadowski, Volonteurope’s General Secretary, on psadowski@csv.org.uk or call +44 (0) 20 7643 1329. 

The ACE Awards

For the past three years, Volonteurope has celebrated the individuals and organisations who have proved to be outstanding pioneers in voluntary action and Active Citizenship through the ACE Awards.

2009's winners were: Ms Sabiha Husić (Bosnia & Herzegovina); NGO “Osmijeh Gračanica” (Bosnia & Herzegovina); Ms Tanja Weisslein (Germany); NGO “Joy of Sound” (UK); and Deutsche Bank CSR (UK).

Nominations for the fourth annual ACE Awards will open in March 2010. We will announce the winners at Volonteurope 2010 in Athens.