Support to young volunteers

In Estonia, social inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities is mainly provided via the European Solidarity Corps volunteering actions, which provides additional resources to include all young people. This can mean young people with physical obstacles but also support in mental health or specific ways of travel support. This support is not only for cross-border volunteering but also for in-country volunteering.

At the national level, no concrete policies are set in place to support young people with fewer opportunities in volunteering, however civil society organisations provide some support to volunteers either as partnering with the public institutions or on their own initiatives.

Started from the 2021, the Ministry of the Interior's strategic partners in the direction of informed and active residents, including the direction of promoting voluntary activities, are the Network of Nonprofit Organisations and the Network of County Development Centres (MTÜ Maakondlikud Arenduskeskused). One of the goals of this partnership is "increased participation of Estonian residents in voluntary activities, especially among the elderly and young people", including one expected result: increased participation of residents aged 15-24 in voluntary activities. 

The 2022 report of the the Network of Nonprofit Organisations and the Network of County Development Centres states that "In connection with the arrival of Ukrainian war refugees in Estonia, the number of volunteers has increased significantly, especially among younger and middle-aged people. In terms of involving young people, the main strategy is still to develop and support voluntary NGOs and to develop a community practice programm (Kogukonnapraktika programm), which for many young people is the first major introduction to volunteering and civil society in general."

The platform for bringing together volunteers and contributors is Vabatahtlike Värav. The platform is available in three languages. Its website includes new functions and possibilities, such as creating users, managing old ads, creating a volunteer database, etc.

Community building

The main network of previous volunteers is promoted by the Estonian National Agency of Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Agency under the strategic partnership network EuroPeers. It brings together the alumni of European Voluntary Service and European Solidarity Corps as well as Erasmus+ Youth projects and facilitate sharing actively their experience with their peers. EuroPeers also provides a space for learning and exchange of experiences for young people across Europe.

The Network of Nonprofit Organisations coordinates a network of organizations involving volunteers. The official number of members of the network is currently 59, which shows a fairly large increase in time. The main area of ​​development is the substantive involvement of members.

The main communication channels of the Network of Nonprofit Organisations are:

• Good Citizen Facebook page (4198 followers)
• Good Citizen portal (74 708 visitors, 162 258 views)
• Good Citizen newsletter (2133 Estonian-speaking subscribers, 478 Russian-speaking subscribers, 150 English-speaking subscribers)
• Annetamistalgud homepage (6320 visitors and 15 072 views); and Annetamistalgud Facebook page (1566 followers)
• Vabatahtlike Värav (8800 visitors)
• Vabata tahe Facebook page (2749 followers)
• Other mailing lists of members and networks.

Continuous cooperation with other voluntary work platforms and employers can also be observed. There is regular communication and cooperation with several social media platforms such as Lahedad vabatahtlikud, Olen vabatahtlik and others. Communication was also continued with the leaders of the Annetame Aega environment and the Armastan Aidata environment leaders in order to find common topics and the opportunity to develop voluntary work together.

Tackling societal challenges 

NGO Mondo has been involved in sending European Union volunteers to different countries; and starting from 2023 the volunteers are being sent through the EU Solidarity Corps.

One example here is incubator NULA which is created in collaboration with National Foundation of Civil Society (NFCS) and Good Deed Foundation. NULA focuses on providing and implementing smart solutions to societal problems through civil society, although no specific overview of the number of youth teams exists.