The VolunTrek project was presented at a meeting of the Caritas Network in Serbia, held in Belgrade on 3
September and attended by representatives of the national, diocesan and parish Caritas organisations.
The project aims to strengthen organisations’ capacity to engage and work with adult volunteers.
The presentation provided an opportunity to explore volunteering from the perspective of the Caritas
network in Serbia – from reaching out to and engaging new volunteers to finding ways to motivate and
support them and encourage their long-term involvement in the organisation.
Activities carried out so far within the project, including research among organisations and focus group
discussions, have shown that goodwill and people’s willingness to volunteer are not enough on their own.
Organisations need clearer and more structured approaches to engaging volunteers, defining their roles,
providing training and mentoring, and supporting and monitoring their involvement. At the same time,
volunteers value support, opportunities to learn and grow, recognition of their contribution and, above
all, the sense that the time, knowledge and energy they invest serve a meaningful purpose.
The presentation also opened a discussion about the experiences of Caritas organisations across Serbia.
Needs and opportunities vary from one local community to another, but they share a common challenge:
how to develop volunteering that is not based solely on occasional engagement, but on a strong and
lasting relationship between volunteers and the organisation.
This is precisely one of the key questions addressed by the VolunTrek project: how to provide
organisations with practical tools and knowledge that will help them plan volunteer engagement more
effectively, understand volunteers’ needs and motivations, provide appropriate support, and create the
conditions for meaningful and sustainable volunteering.
Presenting the project to the Caritas network was therefore also an opportunity to exchange experiences
and identify areas in which we can further improve our own practice. Volunteers are an important part of
the Caritas community and one of the ways in which solidarity is transformed into concrete action.