Commitment to the future: actively involve young people!

Commitment to the future: actively involve young people!

On May 8, 2025, the State Essential for Civic Commitment announces the start of a new online training series. This enters the title "Committed to the future: Promote and enable young commitment" and starts on Monday, May 19, 2025. The aim of this initiative is to support initiatives, clubs and organizations that want to win young members and to promote them in addressing this target group.

Overall, the training series includes seven webinars and online workshops that deal with various aspects of the engagement of young people. This includes issues such as the enthusiasm of young people for volunteering and club work as well as the improvement of the accessibility and attractiveness of the organizations for young. In order to support these efforts, the state reservoir works closely with the state working group of the volunteer agencies of North Rhine-Westphalia (Lagfa NRW e.V.). It acts as a central point of contact for committed and civil society organizations in the region. In addition, the project "pit stop for volunteering. Knowledge, tips and exchange for committed" is offered as part of the state reservoir.

support projects for young volunteers

In this context, the project "The Land of Young Volunteering" in Baden-Württemberg also emphasizes how important it is to improve the structures for voluntary work. This initiative is committed to promoting child and youth work and offers support through advice and organizational development. Challenges such as the lack of volunteering, demographic change and the effects of coron apandemia have particularly affected the commitment.

The project is coordinated by the State Youth Ring and comprises four regional offices in the government districts of Baden-Württemberg. A specialist advisory board of representatives of cooperation partners, science, administration, organized sports, as well as child and youth work is also integrated into the measures. Among other things, a future congress "Young Volunteering" on November 29 and 30, 2024 in Stuttgart as well as regular online events and impulse contributions to commitment funding are planned

national strategy to strengthen the volunteer

At an even broader level, the federal government pursues the goal of strengthening voluntary engagement in Germany with its new engagement strategy. Almost 29 million people are already involved in local clubs, support refugees or participate in social and ecological projects. The strategy, which was decided one year after a civil society participation process, is intended to create a clear framework for the federal commitment policy.

In their core, the strategy aims to strengthen voluntary engagement in times of crisis, recognize diversity and to manage structural challenges. The process of strategy development included broad participation: over 10,000 people took part and more than 8,300 ideas were submitted. This clearly shows how significant volunteering for social cohesion and what role young people play.

Overall, it is crucial to continuously expand the offers for young volunteers and to strengthen their voices. With projects such as the continuing education series of the state reservoir in North Rhine-Westphalia and the initiative in Baden-Württemberg, a fundamental step is taken in the direction of a living and committed civil society.