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1. Accreditation of youth organizations

2. Quality assurance of voluntary service

3. Quality labels. Accreditation from foreign institutions

Accreditation of youth organizations

Since the end of 2018, greater attention has been paid in Lithuania to ensuring the quality of the organization of youth voluntary activities. Agency for Youth Affairs (formerly the Department of Youth Affairs) in 2018 December issued an Order on the description of the procedure for accreditation of institutions organizing voluntary activities, which was subsequently improved several times, its valid version is available here. This order notes that organizations organizing youth voluntary activities must meet the following criteria:

1) to be a non-governmental organization;

2) to carry out activities provided for in the articles of association for at least 12 months;

3) publicly announce financial activities, activity reports or annual report;

4) not to be liquidated, after concluding a peace agreement with creditors, stopping or limiting its activities;

5) a mentor working in the organization must have at least 1 year of work experience in the field of youth informal education and volunteering.

The process of accreditation of organizations is coordinated by the Youth Affairs Agency (YAA), and the accreditation of organizations is carried out by experts.

Quality assurance of voluntary service

Youth volunteering in Lithuania can take various forms. One of them is youth voluntary service (YVS), which is considered an intensive 6-month program duration program for young people aged 14-29, during which young people volunteer at least 35 hours/month in a selected accredited host organization, must meet once a month with a mentor appointed by the NGO organization.

in 2019 June 7 the description of the quality of the activities of the organizations organizing and hosting the voluntary activities of the Youth Volunteer Service was adopted. This document was amended in 2020. September 4 adopted new document no. 2V-164 (1.4) Order of the Director of the Youth Affairs Agency "Regarding the approval of the description of the quality and supervision procedure of the Youth Voluntary Service". This document defines the requirements for the activities of organizations that organize and accepts quality youth voluntary service. The Agency for Youth Affairs, in order to ensure a high-quality implementation process of the YVS:

1) provides methodological assistance and recommendations;

2) carries out accreditation of organizations accepting volunteers and organizing volunteer activities;

3) performs inspections of the organization provided for in the order ;

4) provides recommendations;

In the aforementioned order, it is noted that it is mandatory to conclude a Youth Voluntary Service Agreement between the volunteer, the Host Organization and the NGO organization, on the basis of which the YVS is carried out. The form of the contract must be part of the organizational description of the YVS. It must specify the obligations and responsibilities of the parties: volunteer's tasks, scope of work and responsibilities, duties and responsibilities of the Host Organization and the NGO organization.

Quality labels. Accreditation from foreign institutions

In order to receive youth volunteers from abroad, organizations seek to obtain the European Solidarity Corps quality label, awarded by the Agency of International Youth Cooperation. Organizations that want to provide opportunities for young people from abroad and not necessarily from abroad to carry out voluntary activities, when filling out the application for quality marks and project financing, must submit together the schedule and future activities (in order to make sure that the activities offered will be of high quality and useful) (read more here). in Lithuania in 2023 in the month of February, there were over one and a half hundred organizations that are accredited and have the quality label of the European Solidarity Corps (see the list of accredited organizations).