Active Citizenship Footprint Workshop 6 July 2018, Nürnberg Piotr Sadowski Volonteurope Secretary General & Head of European Affairs Volunteering Matters Workshop outline Introductions Brief information on Volonteurope and Volunteering Matters Full time volunteering video Active Citizenship Footprint Background to developing this participation measurement tool Your ideas on active citizenship, barriers and enablers The Active Citizenship and Barriers surveys and results Discussion on the definition and survey results How we devised the Engagement Index How we devised the Barriers Index The Active Citizenship Footprint Formula Feedback and close Please ask questions at any point throughout! 1
Volonteurope An international network promoting volunteering, active citizenship and social justice in Europe and beyond. We facilitate exchange, foster collaboration and carry out research and advocacy, at national and European levels. Established in the Netherlands in 1981 London Brussels 2
Our members Currently, 62 members in 22 countries We are members of Social Platform, Lifelong Learning Platform, Civil Society Europe; and partner of SOLIDAR, European Civic Forum, European Youth Forum and other networks and platforms A selection of our work Active Citizenship Footprint Valuing Volunteering Youth Engagement & Rights Erasmus+ EU Aid Volunteers European Citizenship Awards Institutional dialogue and advocacy in Brussels 3
We engage more than 30,000 volunteers every year. We have more than 180 volunteering programmes across the country, in four pillars of work: Young People Older People Disabled People Families Our Impact 4
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An active citizen is someone who Barriers to or enablers for being an active citizen 6
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The survey leading to the definition 338 people answered our survey online while offline a further 200 people were consulted through small focus groups Over 90% of respondents agreed that someone who is involved in their community is an active citizen Other high scores can be seen for statements Reacts to injustice and discrimination or Worries about the wellbeing of future generations and acts upon it Contacting their political representatives, paying taxes also scored high Those with lowest scores were Donates to causes and those in need and Participates in elections The definition An active citizen is someone who: participates in civil society and political life, who takes a role in the community, seeks information and is moved by the aim of the common good and the respect of human rights The definition thus has four main aspects: Political life Civil society Community Sharing values 8
The barriers or enablers State adherence to democratic values, including free elections, freedom of speech, transparent government Information on opportunities Availability of free time Level of altruism Educational attainment citizenship education Levels of connectedness in communities, social networks The Engagement Index On the basis of the definition and its four main aspects, as well as close consultation of the work of Hoskins and Mascherini (2008), we established four main categories in which to provide a framework for asking questions to assess the active citizenship of an individual They were Protest and social change Community life Democratic values Representative democracy 9
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The Engagement Index formula Engagement Index = PSC Index + CL Index + DV Index + PRD Index PSC Index = (P1likert + P2likert + + P7likert)*25/(3*7) CL Index = (C1likert + C2likert + + C4likert)*25/(3*4) DV Index = (D1likert + D2likert + + D6likert)*25/(3*6) PRD Index = (R1likert + R2likert+ + R4likert)*25/(3*4) Those who responded 3 in all questions in a domain would get a perfect score of 25. Thus the Engagement Index can range from 0 to 100. The Barrier Score We decided not to use the individual factors to compute the Barriers Score, because questions around them would produce answers with too high a degree of subjectivity to be deemed scientific We looked at the state level and focused on: equality; corruption/quality of governance; welfare system; civic space; and chose proxies 12
The Barrier Score For Equality, we selected the EIGE s Gender Equality Index, a composite indicator that measures gender equality in Europe built on the policy priorities of the European Union In the EU, the Gender Equality Index in 2015 ranges from 50 in Greece to 82.6 in Sweden. The Barrier Score For Corruption/quality of governance, we used the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) EQI of 0 to 1.1 applies to EU countries with good levels of governance; those with EQI above 1.1 have excellent; and those below 0 poor governance. 13
The Barrier Score For Welfare system, we used total expenditure on social protection as percentage of GDP For the Footprint, we clustered under 15% as low expenditure; 15 20% as medium and those with 20% or more as high The Barrier Score For Civic space, we used as proxy the CIVICUS Monitor, which shows countries with open, narrow or obstructed civic spaces The February 2018 monitor showed Hungary as the only EU Member State with an obstructed civic space 14
The Barrier Score In all four barriers, we clustered the results per EU Member State, for example, for Welfare: The Barrier Score Thus the resulting clusters for calculating the Barrier Score are (depending on which EU Member State you are located in): So the Barrier Score formula is: Barrier Score = (Escore+GOVscore+WSscore+CSscore)/4 15
So, finally, we can compute the Active Citizenship Footprint score! Active Citizenship Footprint = Engagement Index 0.2*Barrier Score The resulting score will be assigned between 0 and 100, where 0 is the lowest level of engagement and 100 is the highest But note: although it is highly unlikely, it could be possible to receive a negative score in the eventuality of the Engagement Index being 0 and the resulting Barriers Score being a low positive number From technical to narrative why did we do this? Through active citizenship, negatives can be challenged it is much needed in Europe today Our mission is to champion active citizenship as a pathway to social justice in Europe and beyond Our focus on active citizenship comes from the belief that people live happier lives and experience higher levels of wellbeing when they are active members of their communities and wider society Rather than producing highly specific scientific results, the main aim of this tool is to promote self reflection and encourage engagement through highlighting areas of strength and weakness in relation to an individual s active citizenship 16
Conclusion The Active Citizenship Footprint aims to give an indication if a citizen is active and provide a tool for reflecting on factors that limit their participation The score obtained is only indicative and should be used as a guide, not a judgement on a person The purpose of the tool is not to tell people they are good or bad citizens Rather, the point is to illustrate the barriers we all face to being active citizens, as well as factors that support engagement The tool will soon be digitalised to make it easily accessible We are hoping for a European Civil Society Project to be funded, to enable us to roll it out, test and improve it across the EU Visit and connect with us on: Web: www.volonteurope.eu / www.volunteeringmatters.org.uk Twitter: @Volonteurope / @volunteering_uk For any questions or to find out about becoming a member or partner of Volonteurope, please contact me on: piotr.sadowski@volunteeringmatters.org.uk 17