Volunteering in sport - from exploration of personel capacities to active citizenship

Abstract

The study on Volunteering in the European Union (2010) has the aim to help the Commission consider ways in which the voluntary sector could be further promoted at EU level and the extent to which volunteering could help the EU in achieving its wider strategic objectives set out in the European Social Agenda and the Lisbon Strategy. The study is focused on all 27 EU states and special attention is given to the sport sector where the phenomenon of volunteering plays one of the major roles. One of the main outcomes of the study was European Council's decision to designate 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering. Moreover, in the sport sector special attention to volunteering was given in the White Book on Sport (2007) and later in another sport policy document Communication on Sport (2011). The documents emphasize that volunteering in sport organisations provides attractive possibilities to individuals for the civic engagement and involvement. Therefore, sport as an activity, adds to Europe's human capital through its contributions to formal and non-formal education. The European Commission within the Preparatory Actions in the field of sport for 2010 selected four projects (to be completed in 2012) on one of the three priorities, namely Promoting Volunteering in Sport. One of the projects Training for Volunteers aims to develop a comprehensive theroretical framework of human resource development for volunteers. This framework will link the individual, organisational and social level and consider measures and instruments associated with human resources planning, recruitment, selection, arientation, education, training, appraisal and motivation. The special focus and instruments at the European level towards volunteering gave impulses and reflections at natinal level as well. The necessity to create an appropriate legal background, the political support of the national govermment, the focused scientific research and the practical implementation of volunteer.