Center for Intercultural Dialogue, published a local strategy on volunteering. The Strategy was developed in collaboration with local Municipality and local CSOs, by practitioners in the field of volunteerism and youth policy.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue through its work creates spaces for exchange of best practices locally and internationally for the development of volunteering and intercultural dialogue.
The strategy is published as final outcome of the project “Volunteering for Social Inclusion”, funded under the Council of Europe (European Youth Foundation grant), in line with the European Year of Volunteering.
The strategy is the result of extensive research and consultation and aims to set the guidelines to improve the local volunteering opportunities within the public and private sectors, as well as to provide opportunities in which anyone who wants to volunteer can easily do so. The strategy will seek to ensure that volunteering is valued and recognized as a force for positive change and ensure that volunteers are supported and encouraged in every possible way.
It is significant that this strategy foresees development of a unique local volunteering service, and puts emphasis on removing barriers to volunteering, by providing long-term systematic change which supports volunteers, and to improve their daily voluntary activities.
The time frame in which the realization of strategic goals is determined is the period 2012-2015. The volunteering strategy is published in Macedonian, Albanian and English, and soon will be available on the CID website.
Kumanovo is one of the first Municipalities to have a local volunteering strategy, and this process was an example of how a structured dialogue of the different stakeholders works.