About Voluntá

Voluntá is a young, creative organization. Although the idea to set up Voluntá was already a few years old, Voluntá was created on the 1 st of January 2009 by Aukje de Boer. Aukje has been involved in international volunteer services since 2001, when she herself worked as a volunteer on a project in Mexico . This was such as meaningful and inspiring experience, that she wanted to give other people the opportunity to have the same experience. Until 2007 she was active as a volunteer for the organization that sent her to Mexico . The desire to reach a larger variety of target groups, as well as the desire to deliver tailor made volunteer services, resulted in the creation of Voluntá.

Below you will find information about the objectives and activities of Voluntá, project selection and the selection of participants, and finally, about Voluntá's corporate social responsibility strategy.

Objectives and activities

Voluntá has the following objectives:

• To support social, cultural and environmental organization in the Netherlands and abroad by finding them adequate assistance, in time or knowledge;
• To support individuals and organizations who want to support a social, cultural and environmental organization through volunteering, for idealistic or pragmatical reasons;
• To stimulate cross cultural understanding and social responsibility among individuals and organizations in the Netherlands.

To achieve these objectives, Voluntá engages in the following activities:

• Organizing volunteer placements for individuals, as (part of) a holiday (short term);
• Organizing volunteer placements for individuals, as (part of) a sabbatical or personal development plan (long term);
• Organizing volunteer placements for companies, as company outing or teambuilding activity (short term);
• Organizing volunteer placements for companies, as (part of) a corporate social responsibility programme (long term);
• Organizing workshop and training about international cooperation and cross cultural learning.

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Selection of partner organizations / projects to be supported

Organizations / projects for which Voluntá will actively seek support, will be selected according to several criteria:

1. Country: Voluntá can support organizations around the world.
2. Activities: Voluntá can support activities of various natures. The most important guideline is that the project was established by a local organization and benefits the local or regional community. Examples of projects that can be supported by Voluntá are nature conservation projects, social projects, construction projects and cultural projects.
3. Organization: Voluntá prefers to support local initiatives. It is important for Voluntá that the participants work together with the local community, that the project's results are sustainable and that the participants do not occupy jobs that otherwise would have been filled by local people.
4. Project duration: Voluntá can support projects from a day to a year, depending in the receiving organization and the nature of the project.

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Selection of participants

In most cases, participants do not need to comply with specific criteria to be able to participate in a project through Voluntá. This is especially true for short term individual and company placements, as part of a holiday or a company outing.

Individuals and organizations, who want to support an organization as part of a sabbatical or a corporate social responsibility programme, do need to have a certain level of knowledge and capacity.

The required capacities and knowledge levels are set by the organization receiving the volunteers. In consultation with the receiving organization, Voluntá will also establish whether it is necessary to organize a training programme before the beginning of the project.

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Voluntá considers Corporate Social Responsibility part of its identity. By mediating between nog-govermental organizations in need of support in one hand, and volunteers who can offer that support on the other hand, we indirectly contribute to the work of many organizations. Besides that, we offer students the possibility to do an internship abroad, and participation in a volunteer project almost always results in an increased understanding of the problems that the host country and it's people are facing. In our view, this understanding is an important part of a sustainable global society.

However important this contribution to a sustainable global society may be, it is still an indirect one. What does Voluntá itself do to achieve a sustainable world?

In the first place, we use the more sustainable ways of transport, such as bicycle and train, as much as possible. The CO2 emissions caused by our travels, is compensated. Voluntá prefers to send documents by email rather than by ordinary mail, but when we print, we print on paper certified by the FSC. We do not have an idependent office, but try to use "green" electricity and gas anbd energy saving lamps as much as possible. We buy our coffee, tea, lunches and other products biological and / or fair trade certified as much as possible.

As we are still a relatively small organization, this is the best we can do at this moment. As soon as it's possible, we will have our website hosted by a "green" webhost. In case of any vacancies, we will first look at reinforcing our team with an intern or a person with a disability that has inhibited him or her to find a job elsewhere.

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