In 2013 CEV – European Volunteer Centre – launched the European Volunteering Capital competition to promote and develop volunteering at the local level by giving recognition to municipalities that support and strengthen partnerships with volunteer centres and volunteer, involving organisations and celebrate and promote volunteering and the impact made by volunteers.
The award is chosen from the applicant municipalities by an international jury of experts who assess the extent to which the recommendations as listed in P.A.V.E. and the “5R” policy priorities as identified in the P.A.V.E. 5 year review Helping Hands, are shown to be implemented. How the European Solidarity Corps will be supported and promoted is also part of the criteria.
Padova won the title for the year 2020.
We have planned our project as a three-year period (2019-2021) made up of thought, meetings, comparisons, projects, exchanges and relations – to offer the opportunity to redefine and rewrite the way of living together in the city, and design a future scenario with the active involvement all social actors.
2019 represented the Kick-off of the project in which we have developed ideas, strengthened relationships and made the recognition of European Volunteering Capital known to the widest possible public.
7 areas worth exploring have been identified; the themes discussed in these 7 areas were related to some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) developed by the UN. These 7 areas and the related thematic tables, involving representatives of the Third Sector, Institutions, economic categories, Universities, research and training agencies, trade unions and the media at local and national level, guided the creation and development of the schedule for the whole year 2020.
2020 was suposed to be the year of events and celebrations and 2021 the year in which collect and capitalize datas, experiences, networks of contacts and contents gathered in 2019 and 2020 to inspire new projects and make it clear that the “period after” the EV Capital year was the right time to create the future that we imagined in the present.
Of course the pandemic in 2020 have changed all our plans.