Participants from Daugavpils Took Part in International Conference on Urban Volunteering in Poland City news
Daugavpils City Council in cooperation with Torun municipality in Poland (lead partner) implements project HOP! (“Hearts Open, People!”) within the framework of European Union Programme “Europe for Citizens”, 2nd activity “Democratic engagement and civic participation”. The project involves seven partners from four countries – Poland, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania. The goal of the project is to start the flow of knowledge between Western and Eastern European cities and their representatives from different sectors by collecting best practices about management of voluntary service in European cities, to exchange ideas about maintenance and motivation of volunteers, to gain knowledge about European programs that support and fund volunteering.
From 11th till 12th of April an international project conference and workshops were held within the framework of the present project in Torun, Poland, where Daugavpils City Council participated as well. Both volunteers and specialists who work with coordination of volunteering in Daugavpils city participated.
Project participants had an opportunity to learn about organization of volunteers in the involved countries, every partner had prepared a presentation on their experience in volunteering. Knowledge in urban volunteering of Daugavpils city was presented as well. In Latvia platform www.brivpratigie.lv is used for registration and coordination of volunteers. Torun in Poland is just at the planning stage of this kind of system. Participants of the conference had an opportunity to join workshops and discussions in order to find new ideas in the sphere of volunteering, especially in urban environment. This was the only international meeting within the project HOP!, it’s aim was creativity and exchange of information. The results of the project will be summarized in the fall.
Information prepared by J.Reča-Lāže
