Volunteer and go!

Voluntary work is a way to reinforce one’s activity, personal development, inclusion and participation in society. It gives one a possibility to concretely act in their community and to get a feel...

As societies, we strive for inclusion and non-discrimination, and inclusive volunteering is one way to offer meaningful participation possibilities for youth. Sensitive encountering of the youngsters and acknowledging their skills and autonomy individually despite of challenges in certain areas of life, creates them an increasing sense of significance and an experience of influencing opportunities. This increases well-being and personal growth also in other parts of the life of the youngsters. Often the need for support in some area of life is perceived as an obstacle to participation. But that is not the case, on the contrary the potential within these young people is huge, it just sometimes needs to be channeled with support from professionals or mentoring volunteers. In Vol'Go! we wanted to open the concepts of inclusive volunteering and mental health sensitivity, to create structures and guidelines for more accessible and inclusive volunteer management, and to create operating instructions for the use of a mental health-sensitive approach as an empowering working method in youth work and inclusive volunteering management for youngsters recovering from mental health problems or otherwise challenging circumstances.