Call for Proposal: Developing a manual on volunteering and civic engagement and conducting workshops on volunteer engagement

STRIVE for a better future: communities and civil society resilience in Armenia (STRIVE)

Call for Proposals on developing a manual on volunteering and civic engagement and conducting workshops on volunteer engagement

Service provider:  Expert (individual or team)

Job description: Research, manual development, and workshops

Location:  RA Regions, Yerevan

The program:  STRIVE for a better future: communities and civil society resilience in Armenia (STRIVE)

Reports to: STRIVE Program Director

Job implementation duration: 4 months, expected start: August 2024

Deadline: July 7, 2024

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

1.  “STRIVE” Project description:

STRIVE for a better future: communities and civil society resilience in Armenia (STRIVE), an EU-co-funded project, aims to improve the resilience, sustainability, accountability, and capacity for innovation of Armenian civil society organizations (CSOs)․ The project support includes CSO organizational capacity improvement, targeted financial support, social innovation projects’ implementation by non-formal groups, strengthening networking and cooperation of CSOs, and promotion of volunteerism and youth leadership.

One of STRIVE’s outputs is to foster the professionalization of civil society volunteering through supporting CSOs to upgrade their practices in mobilizing and engaging volunteers in a meaningful and empowering way.

2.     Job description:

• Conduct workshops with individual and group volunteers, representatives of CSOs, and other relevant actors/institutions working with volunteers in the regions of the Republic of Armenia and Yerevan to assess the current situation of volunteerism and civic engagement.
• Based on the results of workshops, and conducted research, develop a concise and practice-oriented manual on volunteering and civic engagement, which will be disseminated through national, regional, and local networks of civil society actors and volunteer groups.

The manual content may include, but not be limited to:

1. Importance and benefits of volunteering and civic engagement;
2. types of volunteering and civic engagement;
3. ethics and best practices in volunteering;
4. existing networks for recruiting volunteers (online and offline);
5. guidance on developing volunteer missions;
6. guidance on setting up learning objectives and providing skills development support;
7. volunteer management and motivation schemes;
8. minimum standards for volunteering missions; monitoring performance and assessing benefits;
9. inclusion and sensitization approaches to help CSOs mainstream social inclusion and diversity, ensuring the engagement of volunteers of all abilities;
10. brief interpretation of the RA Law on Voluntary Work;
11. guidance on protection mainstreaming and other topics that may be identified during inception workshops;
12. various checklists and concrete recommendations on how to set-up coherent and consistent mechanisms for volunteer engagement;
13. appendices and samples related to the mentioned subjects;
14. case studies/success stories on volunteerism and civic engagement in Armenia.

• Identify the need for volunteering time-bank platform in Armenia, research on existing similar platforms.
• Organize workshops for CSOs to help them improve their practices and mechanisms of volunteer engagement in each of the 10 marzes of Armenia and in Yerevan, in partnership with STRIVE’s co-implementing partners. In total, the selected expert individual/group will deliver 12 two-day workshops, each engaging 10-15 CSOs (25-30 participants per workshop). As a key output, the workshops will support participating CSO representatives in development of a tailored draft volunteer engagement strategy and associated standard operating procedures and delivery mechanisms for their organizations.
• With the support of participant CSOs, conduct information sessions on volunteering work as a tool for skills development (in total 22 info sessions, 30 participants per workshop, targeting youth aged 16 to 35 who are interested in engaging and learning through volunteering in their community).
• Submit the final manual (in Armenian language, electronic version, which will also include additional materials and links for teaching in Russian/English).

3. SCHEDULE / REPORT

Report I

Submission Deadline 10th day from the date of signing the contract

Content Preliminary report: Schedule, work plan, list of beneficiaries, partners.

Report II

Submission Deadline 2nd month from the date of signing the contract

Content Report on conducted workshops (in all regions and Yerevan)․ Present the draft version of manual and discuss it with the STRIVE team.

Report III

Submission Deadline 3rd month from the date of signing the contract

Content Present the final version of manual. Present the report of conducted workshops for CSOs to develop their strategy plans.

Report IV

Submission Deadline 4th month from the date of signing the contract

Content Submit the final manual and report on conducted information session workshops.

4. REQUIREMENTS

4.1 Required the qualifications and skills

• Higher education degree․
• Experience in research and manual development.
• Experience in non-formal education․
• Experience in working with international projects.
• Awareness about civil society and volunteering work.
• Good knowledge of the Armenian language.
• Excellent writing, analytical and communication skills.
• Ability to work individually and in a team.
• Knowledge of English is desirable.

4.2 Documents required for application

• Detailed written CV․
• Similar past work examples (electronic version, with links if available).
• Brief description of action, including detailed budget and schedule.
• Contacts of 1-2 references (including previous employers/clients).