National Programme for Youth Volunteering

There are no national programmes for youth volunteering.

However, there are many organisations that support youth volunteer work : 

• The Youth work sector involves - structurally and punctually - many young volunteers. It does so through the involvement of young volunteers in youth organisations's animation staff or in advisory bodies. For instance, scouting movement's staff are mainly composed of young volunteers.   
• Some youth organisations's main action is to support and organise youth volunteering activities both in the Flemish Community and abroad. They are recognised as youth organisations through the decree related to youth organisations. For instance, Bouworde, ZoJong! (Young carers’ organisation), Jeugd Rode Kruis Vlaanderen, etc.). 
• Go Strange (the youth brand of JINT vzw) and JINT vzw (the National Agency in Flanders for Erasmus+ Youth and the European Solidarity Corps and coordinates the Bel'J program in Flanders)  support many youth volunteering programmes abroad and inform young people and youth organisations on the possibilities for international volunteering.

Funding

There is no funding available for specific national programmes regarding youth volunteering, but there is support for the youth work volunteers by the Parliament Act of 20 January 2012 on a renewed youth and children’s rights policy (decreet van 20 januari 2012 houdende een vernieuwd jeugd- en kinderrechtenbeleid).

The funding of voluntary activities and volunteer groups (organized volunteer work) in the welfare and health sectors is laid down in the Flemish Parliament Acts of the Flemish Community (for more information in Dutch consult the pages on volunteering work on the website of the Department of Welfare.

JINT vzw and Go Strange inform organisations and individual young people on the international subsidy programmes for volunteering (Erasmus+ Youth, European Solidarity Corps and Bel’J).

Characteristics of youth volunteering

Data that was gathered in 2018 among a representative sample of Flemish young people between 14 and 25 old (called the Youth Monitor, carried out by the Youth Research Platform (Jeugdonderzoeksplatform; analyses on volunteering are also reported in D’hoore, 2021) indicate that 35% of the young in this age group participate in voluntary activities. Boys and girls volunteer in approximately equal amounts: 33.6% of the boys surveyed and 36.3% of the girls volunteer.  Young people who follow or have followed vocational or technical secondary education participate significantly less in volunteering (respectively 30.8% and 32.6%) than young people who follow or followed general or art secondary education (40.9%). Participation in voluntary work is also related to the place where young people live. Young people living in a metropolitan environment participate, on average, less in voluntary work (23.7%) than young people living in a non-metropolitan environment (35.9%). Age and subjective household income are not related to volunteering among Flemish youth.

Support to young volunteers

Types of support

Any volunteer can receive a reimbursement for costs made during his/her voluntary activities, provided that the organization is willing to pay (however, the Law does not provide a legal right to volunteers to receive this reimbursement of costs).

The Act on the rights of volunteers (2005, Vrijwilligerswet) defines two types of reimbursement to support (young) volunteers (more info: http://www.vlaanderenvrijwilligt.be/wetgeving/kosten-en-vergoedingen/ ):

• The volunteer may either receive a fixed reimbursement (regardless of real costs): in this case, the volunteer can receive
  • a maximum of 40.67 Euro a day (2023), for a maximum of € 1626.77 a year (2023)
  • for some types of volunteers (volunteers in the sport sector, the voluntary night and daytime minders for people in need, volunteers in non-emergency patient transport and in 2022 also volunteers active in vaccination centers and crisis volunteers in care) the annual maximum is increased to € 2987,70
• The organization can opt for a system of “reimbursement of real costs”. In this case, the organization only pays the expenses that are actually made by the volunteers (use of car, telephone, meals, etc) as proof has to be provided in for each expense.

The Policy Paper on Youth (2019-2024) mentions that attention should be paid to the support of volunteers, and that youth work organizations will be helped to find new volunteers. A type of support is the reimbursement of the registration fee of training courses for youth volunteers by local governments.

Social security provisions

The Act on the rights of volunteers (2005) contains provisions that refer to the legal status and social protection of (young) volunteers. In principle, liability for damage caused to third parties by a volunteer lies with the organization (= immunity principle). If deceit, gross negligence or recurrent minor faults are involved, the volunteer him/herself can be held accountable.

The Act on Voluntary Work of 3 April 2009 of the Flemish government (for organizations in the fields of Welfare, Health and Family) provides social security to (young) volunteers. The organizations working with volunteers should be covered by insurances on:

• civil liability of the organization
• civil liability of the volunteer. Volunteers are ensured for damage done to the organization, volunteers or third parties during their voluntary work.
• accidents and health problems suffered by volunteers during their voluntary work

Since the 1st of January 2018, Flanders provides a free insurance for volunteers (vrijwilligersverzekering). This insurance replaces the former collective insurance for volunteers that was provided by the Provincial Support Centres. From then on, the Flemish Support Centre for Volunteer Work provides an authorization number which is needed to apply for this insurance. This free insurance is especially interesting for occasional or temporarily activities or for extra activities. This insurance especially benefits the volunteers working in voluntary organizations in Flanders and Brussels. The organization can be an association or a non-profit private legal entity. From the 1^st of April 2019 it got a new start.

Target groups

Policies and initiatives do not identify specific target groups. Due to its nature, volunteering can be carried out by anyone, regardless of background, level of education, etc.