Final conference and VALLEY award winners

The Erasmus+ project VALLEY developed new resources to identify and to recognise skills and competences developed by young people during their volunteering experiences.

These resources and the validation methodology were presented in the final VALLEY conference on February 16, which took place in the Villa Mediterranée in the old port area of Marseille. The hosting partner “Eurocircle” invited young volunteers and experts from more than 40 organisations to share their experiences and to discuss about the benefits of volunteering in terms of social integration, civic participation and discovery of hidden talents.

After the introduction to the activites carried out in VALLEY and presentations of the national pilot approaches, the floor belonged to some young who had participated and who gave testimony of their developments and their opinion towards the project’s approach.

One highlight of the conference in Marseille was the ceremony of the VALLEY award and the presentation of the winners. The VALLEY award was announced to look for more initiatives and activities that promote the development of competences in youth volunteering in an innovative way. “And the VALLEY award goes to…”:

• Groeiboekje (“Book of growth”) by Jeugddienst Don Bosco, Belgium (www.jeugddienstdonbosco.be)
• The Leadership Development Assessment by AIESEC, Austria (http://aiesec.at)