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1. Information providers

2. Key initiatives

Information providers

Authorities interested in raising awareness about Youth Volunteering opportunities are (see also Chapter 2.2):

• Ministry of the Interior,
• Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Health,
• Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Youth Information Centres (Informační centra pro mládež) play a specific role in the system of support of children and especially of youth. These are places that are open to the public. Systematically classified information and consultancy is provided free of charge and anonymously. Mainly Centres for Leisure Activities and NGOs found and operate the Youth Information Centres. In 2016 there were 41 Youth Information Centres in the Czech Republic. Among them, 16 were certified by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in 2019. 

Since 2020 there is no national coordination of Youth Information Centres anymore. Also the national umbrella Association of supporting the development of Youth Information Centres stopped its operation. 

Eurodesk.cz operated by the Centre for International Cooperation in Education is an important information source, especially about European voluntary opportunities.

The International Centre for Cooperation in Education serves as a National Agency for the Erasmus and ESC programmes and thus heavily works on promoting those offered youth volunteering opportunities together with other state, regional and public actors.

Volunteering centres are important information providers. There is the National Association for Volunteering and various regional, mostly NGO, structures. The scope and content varies from region to region.

In 2011, during the European Year of Volunteering, the new information portal (dobrovolnik.cz) on volunteering in general and on activities done during the year in the Czech Republic was established.

Key initiatives

Volunteering is an important activity for European youth. The importance of volunteering and the opportunities available to European youth were reported in an article on: Volunteering is an important activity for European youth

There are key initiatives in the field of volunteering:

National Association for Volunteering z.s. is an umbrella voluntary, non-profit, independent and non-political organization. It promotes volunteer programs of public benefit organizations working with children, youth, family and seniors. It seeks and cooperates with partners in the Czech Republic and abroad, especially in the field of volunteering of all age and professional groups and also with organizations with similar goals. It broadly supports the development of volunteering and volunteer mentoring programs in the Czech Republic and contributes to informal education, social activation and social inclusion of vulnerable groups.

The European Year of Volunteering in 2011 has been among the key initiatives connected to youth volunteering. Its main goal was to create conditions (by civil societies) for volunteering in the European Union and ensuring better visibility of voluntary activities in the EU, especially through an exchange of experience and best practices. It included several activities such as:

• The Week of Volunteering,  
  • Volunteering in the CR, the travel exhibition
  • Final conference in Pilsen,
  • Best Practices Collection etc.

In the context of the European Year of Volunteering in 2011, working groups for individual areas of volunteering were created and different materials on volunteering were published. In the following years, follow-up activities were not presumed, also due to a lack of the overall legal framework and activities subsequently dispersed into individual initiatives, supported by individual ministries. Currently, only an informal cooperation currently continues, especially in the preparation process for the creation of a new Act on volunteering.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, thus the state, declares awareness about youth volunteering among its strategic goals in its recent strategical documents: 

• The Concept of the State Policy for Children and Youth for the period 2007-2013
• National Youth Strategy for period 2014-2020.

Erasmus+ programme is administrated by the International Centre for Cooperation in Education. It gathers information or raises awareness about the programme and its implementation, suitability and quality of services provided by the Centre. It conducts research and participates in the  RAY Network (Research-based Analysis and Monitoring of the Youth in Action), to carry out various international surveys aiming at the area of youth informal education within the Erasmus+ programme. Both national and international activities of the Centre aim at youth volunteering, especially at the previous European Voluntary Service (EVS) and the current European Solidarity Corps. 

In other cases, it is possible to speak about isolated information sources:

• occasional Ministry of the Interior reports on volunteering in general,
• Ministry of the Interior reports on volunteering during emergencies,
• Ministry of Health reports on volunteering in health care,
• Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs reports on volunteering in social services

Specific groups can be targeted by individual information sources, divided by areas of occupation: emergencies, health care, social services. The information network for young people remains an independent area. It is aimed at young people and one of its goals is to raise awareness about volunteering. 

From the point of view of the NGO sector the two most important state-wide actions are 72 hours and Let's Clean the World, Let's Clean Czechia.

72 hours is a project of the Czech Council of Children and Youth, inspired by international partners.

• It is a three-day-long project full of voluntary activities that has already taken place since 2012 in the Czech Republic.
• Usually, the October weekend, young volunteers from all over the Czech territory carry out activities that help others, nature or their surroundings.
• The aim is to engage as many young people as possible and show them that 'little is enough to do a lot altogether!', to persuade them that they alone are capable of changing things they do not like, to teach them how to cooperate and to perceive the world around them.
• Another aim is to strengthen relations in local communities and create values and motivation for meaningful leisure time.
• The project is for children, parents, young people, NGOs, but also for informal groups and individuals, for all who support the idea of volunteering and value helping others or their surroundings unselfishly; everybody can apply on the project's web pages and obtain materials and promotional support.
• In 2024, 491 actions took place.
• The project is financed by the state grant on youth work by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

Let's Clean Up the Czech Republic is a volunteer clean-up event that takes place throughout the Czech Republic (and even in a few places outside of it). Its aim is to clean up illegally created black dumps and litter. In 2024, there were 4,697 clean-ups involving 185,000 volunteers, including 103,000 children.