Kontakt 2012, 14(1):39-49 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2012.006

Importance of European volunteer activities in life of young peopleHealth and Social Sciences - Original article

Lucia Cintulová, Libuša Radková^*

Trnavská univerzita v Trnave, Fakulta zdravotníctva a sociálnej práce

The volunteer (unpaid) work and opportunity to perform it in the society is considered as an unavoidable assumption and also standard of democracy. It can also play an important role in forming the system of values for young people. It offers the young people with experience and skill, which are later useful in their professional life, supports their cooperation and communication skills and acts as the opposite to the style of life solely aimed at the consumption. The authors present results of observations of Slovak volunteers engaged in long-term European volunteer services in EU countries. The target of the research was to establish the motivation of volunteers, needs and barriers in the volunteer work. We also studied types of volunteers and advantages of performing the volunteer work in abroad. The sample group included 172 volunteers participating in projects of the European volunteer service in 2010 for periods of one year and above. The quantitative examination was implemented in the spring 2010. The method of the data accumulation was based on a questionnaire prepared by the authors for research purposes. The results demonstrate differences in the volunteer motivation between man and women and in considerations of the importance of volunteer activities depending on the education, the respondents perceived the volunteer activities as more important with increasing degree of their education. We demonstrated no considerable differences between types of volunteers in preferences of particular types of volunteer programmes. The most considerable barriers in the inclusion into the European volunteer programme were insufficient preparedness of the programme in particular cases and poor communication between participating organizations. The respondents particularly consider the benefits of the European volunteer programme in the self-development and professional growth, in the development of the responsibility and independence and development of language knowledge and social skills. The volunteers were most frequently engaged in work with handicapped adults (homeless people, unemployed people, victims of violence, seniors) within projects focused on environmental and cultural problems.

Keywords: volunteer activity; community development; European Volunteer Service; benefit of volunteer work; values

Received: October 19, 2011; Accepted: March 5, 2012; Published: March 16, 2012  Show citation