9th FEAD Network Meeting: The role of volunteers in FEAD delivery
The FEAD Network kicked off its first meeting of 2018 on 1 March. This event featured a range of discussions, workshops and case studies on the role of volunteers in FEAD projects. 84 delegates from 21 Member States attended the event in Brussels, representing a range of stakeholders, including Managing Authorities, partner organisations and European Commission representatives.
Vicki Donlevy, Director for Policy and Research at Ecorys UK opened the meeting. Vicki underlined the importance of volunteering in FEAD delivery and encouraged all participants to share their experiences and expertise throughout the day.
Discussion on the importance of volunteering
Following this introduction Vicki welcomed Marie-Anne Paraskevas, Senior Policy Officer from the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion to officially kick-start the meeting. Marie-Anne greeted participants and provided an update on the future of the Fund post-2020.
The panel discussion included Gabriella Civico, Director of the European Volunteer Centre and Vasiliki Papachristou, Coordinator of the FEAD volunteer team at the Hellenic Red Cross. The panel provided a broad perspective on the importance of volunteering across Europe and went into detail about the services their organisations provided to their volunteers. After this, Marili Parissaki presented delegates with an update on the interim results of the FEAD evaluation.
Interactive workshops
For the following two sessions participants were split into five groups and attended four consecutive workshops. As part of each workshop delegates were presented with a FEAD case study on volunteering. This was followed by questions and a group discussion to explore challenges, success factors and issues related to successfully and sustainable involving volunteers.
Towards the end of the day an interactive workshop was set up where participants were given the opportunity to work in groups and create a volunteer programme. Participants were able to share their own experiences of successful recruitment and derive inspiration from the experience of others.