Voluntary Action Fund

Make A Difference By Volunteering

Keith Wimbles, VAF Chief Executive

The 20th Volonteurope Conference, "Make a Difference Through Volunteering" took place between 20th and 23rd October in Edinburgh.

Volonteurope, whose Secretariat is based at CSV (UK's largest volunteering and training charity) promotes voluntary action throughout the EU as a mechanism for Active European Citizenship. This is achieved by facilitating the exchange of information and best practice, cooperation, training opportunities and development of partnerships amongst its members. Such activities build stronger and more effective civil participation in Europe and include workshops, seminars, transnational partnerships, research, lobbying and contributing to debate.

Over 120 people attended a range of Master Classes and plenary discussions over the three days as well as visiting a number of projects around Edinburgh. VAF was pleased to deliver a master class on our Volunteering Scotland Grant Scheme Cluster Pilot, and also to participate in the plenary session about the volunteering sector in Scotland with colleagues from the Volunteering Round Table

The Conference in Edinburgh, delivered in the framework of the European Year of Volunteering 2011, also celebrated the 5th Active Citizens of Europe (ACE) Awards.

The ACE Awards Judges selected this year's winners who were:

NGOs:
• Scottish European Educational Trust (Scotland)
• Sue Ryder (for work in Scotland through the Prison Volunteer Programme)
• Serve the City (Europe-wide)

Volunteers:
• Redhall Walled Garden Trainees (Scotland)
• Saronikos Young Volunteers in Action (Greece)

Corporate Organisations:
• Fundação INATEL - 'Conversa Amiga' Programme (Portugal)

VAF congratulates Sue Ryder for receiving an NGO award for the Prisoner Volunteer Programme, which was initially funded by our Volunteering Scotland Grant Scheme. We believe that after the awards ceremony our UK and European colleagues indulged in some pretty energetic dancing, ably assisted by Fiona Campbell and her colleagues from Voluntary Arts Scotland. Go Fiona!

The Volonteurope website is www.volonteurope.de