Governance

The main actors involved in the volunteering governance are the following:

1. The Ministry of Labour and Social Policies is responsible for implementing the legal provisions on volunteering contained in the Third Sector Code;

2. The Department for Youth Policies and the Universal Civic Service is responsible for the management and monitoring of the Universal Civic Service established by Legislative Decree 40/2017. It has its own Register in which all public and private bodies participating in the national voluntary programme for young people aged 18-28 are registered. Registered entities participate in the Universal Civic Service programme responding to public calls for projects. Once the project is approved, they recruit young volunteers through public calls for participants;

3. The Italian Youth Agency manages the European Solidarity Corps and Erasmus+ programme for young people and sport;

4. Third sector entities, as defined in Art. 4 of Legislative Decree 117/2017, “[…] are voluntary organisations, social promotion associations, philanthropic bodies, social enterprises, including social cooperatives, associations, mutual aid societies, recognised or unrecognised associations, foundations and other private entities other than companies set up for the pursuit, not for profit, of civic, solidarity and social utility purposes by carrying out, exclusively or principally, of one or more activities of general interest in the form of voluntary action or free distribution of money, goods or services, or mutual or production or exchange of goods or services, and registered in the single national register of the Third sector”;

5. The Autonomous Regions and Provinces have the task of establishing and updating the Third Sector Register, which lists voluntary organisations, social promotion associations, philanthropic bodies and social enterprises. Only organisations that have regularly registered are entitled to apply for grants. Moreover, within the national Civil Protection system, Regions and Autonomous Provinces are called to promote and support civil protection voluntary organisations (Legislative Decree 1/2018).

Intersectional cooperation

The Department for Youth Policies and the Universal Civic Service has entered several inter-institutional agreements for the implementation of the Universal Civic Service programme, for example:

• Since 2023, with the Ministry of Agriculture of Food Sovereignty and Forestry for the implementation of Agriculture Civic Service;

• Since 2021, with Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security for the implementation of the Environmental Civic Service;

• Since 2021, with the Department for Digital Transformation for the implementation of the Digital Civic Service.