Voluntary Social Year in Politics and Democracy
A year for the future!
School is finished. And now? Young people aged between 16 and 26 years have the opportunity to expand their personal and career perspectives outside of school and work through taking part in a voluntary service.
You can also take part in a voluntary social year in the political sphere!
Young people can gather insight into political processes and take part in these processes by becoming active.
Why a Voluntary Social Year in Politics and Democracy?
Aside from further developing your personality, your financial and personal independence and re-examining your career choices, meeting new people, developing more confidence and a sense of responsibility the voluntary service also has the following objectives:
- becoming active and politically involved
- learning to understand about politics and political processes, becoming a formative part of the community through active participation
- getting to know about structures, tasks and operation processes in politically relevant institutions and taking part in these
- learning to be respectful and tolerant towards other opinions
- learning about and practising conflict resolution and reconciliation of interests processes
Possible deployment locations and fields
Politics takes place in all areas where people interact with each other. This is why the voluntary social year in politics and democracy takes place in a number of deployment sites and fields of activities:
- political foundations
- committees, administrations and bodies of state parliaments and municipal parliaments
- departments of municipal administrations, citizens advice bureau, councils of foreigners
- municipal associations
- public bodies
- public service broadcasters, Youth Press
- structures of social-associations and church organisations
- institutions of non-partisan education
- political groups of state parliaments
- human rights organisations
The voluntary social year in politics and democracy is run by the ijgd and takes place in the federal states Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Hesse, Berlin and Brandenburg.
The voluntary social year in politics and democracy is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the Ministry for Health and Social Security Saxony-Anhalt as well as the Ministry for Social Affairs Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania through ESF funds.
Cooperation partners in Saxony-Anhalt are:
- Initiative Kinder-und Jugendfonds Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. (ikjf)
- Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Freiwilligenagenturen Sachsen-Anhalt (lagfa)