2.7 Social inclusion through volunteering
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- Support to young volunteers
- Community Building
- Tackling societal challenges
Support to young volunteers
Organisations and associations can decide to reimburse incurred expenses or pay fees to voluntary unpaid work in associations/organisations and unpaid board/committee members. If the organisation reimburses incurred expenses, the reimbursement is tax free.
Such reimbursement is not regulated by any top-level policy measures and usually doesn't make any difference between volunteers on any ground (e.g. age or young people with disabilities).
The Czech Council of Children and Youth is arranging an optional liability insurance for voluntary youth leaders and workers.
Community Building
Community building is a task for the civil society, which is still fragmented in the field of volunteering. Volunteers in youth organisations are mainly using the services of the Czech Council of Children and Youth and take part in its volunteering projects, such as 72 hours.
Mainly the volunteer centres have formed The National Association for Volunteering, z.s (Národní asociace dobrovolnictví) as a voluntary association for organisations dealing with volunteering and voluntary programmes. Its leading member organization, The Volunteer Centre from Ústí nad Labem was the Czech partner of this originally French project (coordinated by the Collective for a European Civic Service (CSCE)), proposing "the implementation, concrete and real, of a European Civic Service of at least 6 months in another Member State, for all young people under 25 years old."
Tackling societal challenges
There are no top-level policy measures, initiatives or programmes supporting specifically young volunteers to engage in projects that contribute to solve any societal challenges. However, the state and the society generally appreciate involvement of (not only young) volunteers in the areas of helping migrants/refugees (since 2022 especially Ukrainian), elderly, people with disabilities etc. Such voluntary actions are predominantly run by non-governmental organisations, which apply for grants or have to fundraise money for their operation.