ESC: Volunteering at MODE Foundation

Move and Develop Foundation is an organisation focused on providing educational opportunities and fostering mobility among young people and adults with special focus on the preparation of the beneficiaries for the challenges of the labour market. Other important goals include promoting active citizenship, volunteering and core European values as well as contributing to the development of civil society, entrepreneurship and European integration. MODE Foundation is based in Wrocław, Poland, where many of the organisations’ local activities take place. Young people are provided with opportunities to learn about other cultures, spend free time, learn foreign languages and participate in numerous non-formal education initiatives. MODE supports local NGOs, as well as cultural and educational institutions by assisting them in the development of volunteering programmes, both at the national level and within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps. The Foundation also provides them with assistance in obtaining funding and managing projects. MODE has a well-developed network of business partners, who cooperate closely with the organisation in the fields of CSR and vocational education. Outside Wrocław, the Foundation is active in 5 regions of Poland. MODE works with schools, using its extensive network of international partners in different sectors to provide young people with educational mobility opportunities. The organisation assists the schools in the development of curricula and conducts training programmes that allow students to benefit more from the mobility experience. While big cities in Poland are becoming more and more cosmopolitan, offering their inhabitants countless possibilities to interact with people of different cultural backgrounds, in rural areas and small towns such opportunities are much more scarce. MODE works to change that situation by organising events and developing volunteering programmes which will bring those parts of the country “closer” to Europe. Internationally, the Foundation has a very well developed network of trusted partners. Most of them are located in the European Union, but MODE also reaches out to organisations from the Balkans, Eastern Partnership and Southern Mediterranean countries. Within the framework of the capacity building projects under Erasmus+, the Foundation has initiated cooperation with partners from South-East Asia and South America. Currently, the MODE team is working hard on strengthening cooperation in the fields of youth and vocational training with regional partners from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, making use of support offered by the Visegrad Fund. While MODE is a relatively young organisation, it has already established a solid reputation as a trusted, reliable partner. Its current full-time staff of 15 ranges from seasoned youth workers with decades of collective experience to young people who are only beginning their forays into the labour market. Boasting youthful energy and creative flair, along with proficiency in fundraising and project management, as well as a vast network of stakeholders in various sectors, the Foundation has a strong, versatile base for further growth. The team is also supported by an ever growing team of local and international volunteers. The staff’s educational backgrounds encompass sociology, international relations, political science, psychology, pedagogics, economy and management. Their work experiences are equally diverse: from youth work and social work, through teaching at high school and university level, language tutoring, training in non-formal education, to public and business sectors. Given such versatility, there are few areas which the team doesn’t feel confident enough to tackle. The Foundation’s staff has experience in working with all the sectors and Key Actions of Erasmus+ (as well as corresponding initiatives under its predecessors: The Lifelong Learning Programme and Youth in Action), European Solidarity Corps, the European Social Fund, the Visegrad Fund, as well as various funding schemes as the national and regional level. MODE is also part of several networks bringing together stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, allowing to reach more target groups and increase the impact of activities. Some more notable examples include EfVET (one of Europe’s largest networks for vocational training), DFOP (a regional network of NGOs) and iMove (a platform of mobility providers linking vocational schools with business entities on the European level).