VOLUNTEERING INFRASTRUCTURE

Only 6% of theorganisationswho had cooperatedwith thepublic sectorreported thatthis collaborationhad beensmooth.According to the national study “Assessment of the development level of CSOs in Croatia” 3 , whichexamined the issue of cooperation between CSOs and the government, a large majority of theCSOs surveyed had experience of cooperation with governmental bodies. In most cases thisrefers to cooperation at the national level. The most common form of cooperation with thepublic sector was project funding, followed by project partnerships, and exchanges of experienceand information. It is interesting to note that only 6% of all associations who had experienceof cooperation with the public sector mentioned that the collaboration had been smooth.One of the most common problems, highlighted by a quarter of the associations who had thisexperience, refers to the prevalence of personal contacts over the institutional relationship, alsoidentified as a problem in several other studies on civil society in Croatia.The Ministry of the Family, Veterans’ Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity have aclose cooperation with four regional volunteer centres, based on the signed contract ofregional volunteer centres co-financing. The other listed bodies/institutions have a veryopen, encouraging and supporting attitude and work well with a wide range of civil societyorganisations.3. Source: National Foundation for civil society development (2007). National study “Assessment of the development level of CSOs in Croatia.4. Structure of the non-profit sectorinvolved in volunteeringCroatia has neither a National Volunteer Centre nor a national umbrella organisation forstructures involved in volunteering, but has an informal Croatian Volunteer Centres Network(CVCN). This network has been established as a result of a collaboration of civil societyorganisations from four major cities in Croatia, which have been improving and promotingvolunteerism for a number of years already. CVNC encourages the development of volunteerismin Croatia by (I) influencing public policies and legal settings, (II) promoting and establishingeducational standards in the area of volunteerism and volunteer management, (III) informingthe public, (IV) ensuring the quality standards of the services provided by volunteer centres, aswell as (V) developing good practice examples.In Croatia there are four regional volunteer centres (RVC), which are either wide-ranging RVCs- all activities of the centres are focused on volunteering - or in-house RVCs, where activities ofvolunteer centres are part of the wider program of the organisation. The main purpose of theregional volunteer centres is promoting and developing volunteerism on the local, regional andnational level. This is done through education in the area of volunteer management, educatingthe public about volunteerism, matching potential volunteers with available volunteeringopportunities, organising informational and promotional campaigns, editing publicationsand conducting research on volunteerism. Regional volunteer centres take proactive steps byoffering their support in organising volunteering. Regional volunteer centres closely cooperatethrough the Croatian Volunteer Centres Network.71 Volunteering infrastructure in Europe 5 Croatia