Actions taken:
Republic of Poland and its National Red Cross Society (PRC) maintaining a long-standing partnership relations in social responsibility, pledge to identify volunteering as an essential form of social participation, recognize the core role played by volunteers in
the intervention in situations of vulnerability, contributing to social justice, community development, the increase in the capacities of the people with whom they are working.
Action plan:
– promoting the idea of volunteering in local communities
– reactivation of the National Youth Council of the Polish Red Cross
-creating a strategy for the development of youth volunteering for 2020-2025 and
its implementation
-establishing cooperation with other non-governmental organizations and sister National Societies of the Red Cross, Red Crescent in the area of volunteering and youth
Indicators for measuring progress:
– an offer for PRC volunteers
– number of trainings and youth camps
– number of joint initiatives with sister National Societies of the RC and RC in the area
of volunteering
Resource implications:
– strengthening the role of youth in the organizational structures of PRC
– an increase of public interest in the idea of volunteering
– popularizing the idea of volunteering among young people
– networking, exchange of experience and good practices
Implementation:
Polish Red Cross
The Polish Red Cross operations are founded on the work of its volunteers engaged in central and local projects and programmes. They actively support initiatives in the areas of prevention and health care (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic), peer activation, first aid, road safety, implementation of community integration programmes, and natural disaster and catastrophe preparedness.
A new Youth Movement Strategy has been devised, focusing on upgrading the offer for volunteers. Its main task is to strengthen Social Youth Instructors as leaders among their peers.
With the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Spanish Red Cross, a national online system was developed to manage PRC’s volunteers. It handles registering volunteers, communicating with coordinators, and profiling competences to suit specific initiatives. What is more, volunteers are now covered by a uniform insurance, and new volunteers are trained in the code of ethics, rules for their own and the injured people’s safety, beneficiary protection, and motivation building. The system also allows prompt implementation of procedures and a uniform agreement for the provision of volunteer services.
In September 2023, a Polish Convention of Social Youth Instructors was held to discuss current challenges to the development of voluntary service.
