On the 15th of December, 2020, Out of the Box International had the honor of participating in the IYE-LABs conference, “Volunteering in times of a pandemic: IYE-LABs experience flattening the curve & future steps!”
By developing the role of volunteering through social inclusion projects working on the SDGs at a local level, the IYE-LABs project has helped to activate a group of young people in volunteering actions through an innovative methodology inspired by social laboratories, contributing to scaling up good practices in different cities all around Europe, involving youngsters in civic participation, particularly those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Despite all the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 emergency, the local partners managed to convince young volunteers to go ahead with their projects, either by maintaining the original ones or by adapting them to the needs of social distancing.
This Conference presented the results of the project to other organisations working in volunteering for social inclusion and the youth field – at the local, national, European and international level – as well as to policy and decision-makers, particularly the ones working at EU level.
The conference marked the implementation end of the “IYE-LABs: Promotion of Inclusive Youth Environments Through Testing Innovative Experiences for Social Labs for Volunteering” project, financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.