ESC: Volunteering in the House of Humanity (Second Hand Boutique and Foodbank)

For decades the ARC (Austrian Red Cross) has been one of Austria's leading volunteer organizations. In accordance with the fundamental Red Cross principle of voluntarism, the ARC and its national associations put great emphasis on promoting, maintaining and expanding their volunteer base. All volunteers of the Austrian Red Cross receive the legally required or internal training and further education required for their activities to ensure the high quality of the ARC's humanitarian work. Fundamental issues are dealt with and accompanied by the "Netzwerk Freiwilligkeit" (volunteering network) in the ARC, which consists of the ARC headquarters and the national associations and meets several times a year. The tasks of this network are to identify socio-political changes and to develop and disseminate best practices, as well as to increase the reach and professionalism of volunteer management at all levels of the organization. Volunteer management should be seen as an integral part of management tasks in the Red Cross. In addition, all organizational units are to be provided with personnel resources (partly full-time, partly voluntary) concerning the topics of volunteer management and coordination. A special concern is also the promotion of opportunities for young volunteers to bring their full potential into the Red Cross movement. The ARC is a state-recognized organization in the civilian service and voluntary social year (Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr) in Austria (2018: about 5,000 civil servants and 350 completing a voluntary social year) according to § 8 FreiwG. Voluntary activities are presented clearly and transparently, and job descriptions are available for the possible assignments. The international anchoring of the ARC in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement entails international exchange and cooperation. The ARC is a recognized National Red Cross Society of Austria, the ARC is represented in the international Red Cross Volunteer Network ENDOV. In addition to broadening their knowledge of the subject matter, international projects and exercises also offer staff members and volunteers the opportunity to gain intercultural experience. Since spring 2021, an international volunteer project "Solidarity in Red" is implemented in the ARC for the first time within the framework of the ESC. In this context, tools have already been put together to help with the exchange between volunteers and the person locally responsible, which will be built upon in the future.“