On this page

1. Information providers

2. Key initiatives

Information providers

Support Point for Voluntary work

The support point for voluntary work located in the Ministry of the German-speaking Community provides support to voluntary activities and initiatives launched by people in the German-speaking Community. Their support consists of advice, information and training. In addition, they promote volunteer work by the annual "Volunteer’s Market".

In addition to regular workshops and information events, the support point for voluntary work offers personalized advice on request. This also includes the placement of people interested in volunteer work but don’t know how and where this is possible.

A dedicated website offers regular updated information, policy papers, good examples, concepts and methods for volunteering. Organisations can present themselves and their work through a dedicated web-based exchange platform for volunteering, in order to attract new volunteers. At the same time, it provides an overview of the various possibilities of volunteer work in the German-speaking Community for interested citizens.

The youth information centre

The Youth Information Centre (Jugendinformationszentren) provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on (inter)national mobility for young people as part of its mission. It is a non-profit organization with an administrative council, serving as both a sending (since 2000) and hosting (since 2004) organization for EVS.

The centre’s target audience includes young people aged 12 to 30, youth workers, parents, teachers, and NGOs. Its focus areas include work, careers, leisure, social issues, sexuality, rights, media, and European matters. The centre creates and publishes its own informational materials, such as brochures and leaflets, that are always relevant and current.

In addition to providing information, the centre also organizes workshops in schools, youth centers, and other venues. Through its participation in the European Solidarity Corps, it offers young people from the German-speaking Community the opportunity to go abroad and invites foreign youth to experience the German-speaking Community.

The Youth Office

The Youth Office (Jugendbüro) has a central role in informing on (inter)national mobility for young volunteers. The Youth Office is a non-profit organisation situated in Eupen. As a service provider for the youth sector in the German-speaking Community, it advises youth organisations on an administrative and pedagogical level and deploys staff for the Council of the German-speaking Youth (Rat der Deutschsprachigen Jugend, RDJ) and youth work. It administers national as well as international programmes and provides training opportunities for specialised staff in the youth sector.

The Youth Office was appointed as the National Agency for Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps in the German-speaking Community of Belgium.

Key initiatives

Training on volunteer management

The biggest challenge in volunteering lies in different expectations on forms of voluntary activity and the mismatch between expectations of today's volunteers and what organisations have to offer. To address these issues, the Ministry of the German-speaking Community organised trainings on volunteer management, with emphasis on organisational and staff development. These training opportunities are aimed at board members and managers in organisations, associations and projects. The concept allows association boards to introduce change management processes in the association and it's based on the general concept of organizational development.

Information sessions

Regular information sessions, entitled "Ich hab da mal ne Frage ...", are organized every year to advise on NPO legislation, tax law and insurance issues.