"Interreg Volunteer
Youth" is part of the initiative "European Solidarity Corps",
which was launched by the European Commission in September 2016 in order to
bring the value of solidarity back on top of the political agenda of the
European Union.
IVY started in March 2017 and it
is a pilot initiative initially planned to last for one year - if it is
successful, it will last longer.
When the European Commission
launched the European Solidarity Corps, it made an open call to all of its
policy departments and the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy
(DG Regio) decided to participate with its own initiative. Solidarity is a core
value of Regional Policy, so the idea to strengthen it at the local level through
to the many structures that DG Regio is already managing on the European
territory seemed to be a successful one. "Interreg Volunteer Youth"
was thus put in place: Interreg programmes and projects can host young
Europeans as volunteers.
DG Regio, in cooperation with the
Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), has created IVY so to promote
fruitful relationships based on the principle of solidarity across the EU. The
relationships which spur through the volunteering experiences show solidarity
across the European regions and among different generations. In order to
achieve this goal, funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
have been dedicate to support the engagement of young Europeans in projects
which aim to foster cooperation among European countries at the local level.
The Association of European
Border Regions (AEBR) manages IVY and arranges its development by bringing the
actors involved together: the volunteers and the hosting organisations.
Interreg is a European Commission
instrument to fund initiatives aimed at fostering cooperation between
neighbouring countries. Thanks to Interreg, institutions and organizations —beneficiaries
of the “Interreg Programmes”— at local and regional level, everywhere across
the EU, receive EU Structural and Investment Funds to implement projects in their
area in order to support cooperation with their peers in their neighbouring
country or countries.
The aim of IVY is to give young
people the possibility to participate in these initiatives which truly create a
more united and coherent EU and ,at the same time, to help these programmes and
projects to perform better and gain support thanks to the commitment of the
volunteer. IVY wants to involve young Europeans in the work of organisations
which are at the core of European integration. The objective is to bring
organisations making EU in peripheral areas and the young generation of
Europeans together, so to strengthen the solidarity dimension across the
continent and make it more inclusive toward young people. And, finally, to make
programmes and projects more visible thanks to the volunteers’ support to
communicate them further and thus help these projects become more visible and
better known to the local population.
We understand volunteering as a
relationship in which all parties involved profit from the experience:
-
volunteers bring an added value to host organizations
by bringing specific skills and experiences which can help host organizations
better reach their goal;
-
volunteers gain an empowering experience through
giving their time and skills to others, but also through the learning experience.
Volunteers also win political and civic awareness thanks to her/his engagement,
as well as professional skills.
Interreg Reporters help with disseminating
information on the benefit of European territorial integration on the ground,
through reporting successful Interreg projects.
They are hosted by Managing Authorities & Joint
Secretariats, the institutions which mediate between the European Commission
and the beneficiaries of the Interreg funding (the Projects).
Interreg Project Partners help with the project implementation focusing
on specific aspects or difficulties to be solved – they are hosted by the
beneficiaries of the Interreg funding, the agencies, organisations, NGOs
putting the projects in place at the local level (Project Leader and Project
Partners).
Interreg projects are implemented in many
different fields: IVY volunteers are committed to various missions, from making
communication on EU matters better understandable to a broaden public to
helping in the project management by creating more efficient networks between
partners involved in Interreg Projects, helping with internal and external
communication tasks, etc.
IVYs also support projects which
focus on environmental issues and natural protection, or which strengthen
research opportunities on business possibilities in remote areas; some IVY
volunteers assist in the creation of projects which bring together pupils and
teenagers from neighbouring countries to make sure they receive the same opportunities,
some other IVYs help raise awareness and improve research on health illnesses.
Tackling unemployment and fostering entrepreneurship are the aims of other
Interreg projects, as well as bringing artist from bordering countries together
so that they can share their knowledge and expertise.
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