Volunteering has been developing in the recent years not only in the non-profit or corporate sphere, but also in the municipalities and regions, where it presents a major opportunity for development of a number of activities. In a way similar to public community services that currently, unfortunately, undergo significant changes and bring a number of complications both to the very applicants for employment, who are interested in public services, as well as to municipalities and regions that organize this activity. Despite these difficulties, both public community service and volunteering present a great challenge to deal with a number of issues in the municipalities. For this reason, the Healthy Cities together with the partners HESTIA o.s. - national volunteering centre and foreign partners C.A.R.D.O. from Slovakia and association of Healthy Cities of the Baltic Region have prepared the project of "Volunteering and Community Service (performed by unemployed) in Municipalities". In the following two years, the project will gather best practice examples dedicated to the issue of volunteering from the Czech Republic and abroad.

Model projects as examples of functioning of volunteering and public service in practice will be taking place in the Healthy Cities of Prachatice, Opava, Vsetín, Ustí nad Labem, in the Healthy Region of Vysocina and in Sobeslav. The methodology for municipalities and regions will be formulated in collaboration with foreign partners, examples of best practice will be summarised in a well arranged publication. The project has been financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Programme of Human Resources and Employment and from the projects of International Cooperation.

Volunteering is followed by other activities and topics, in the long term dealt with from the part of Healthy Cities Association. Such topics for instance include the area of active ageing, but also the collaboration with young generation and support of their engagement in the municipal affairs. A number of activities and events have been prepared to these topics in 2013.

On Thursday of March 7, 2013, Ujezd nad Lesy in Prague 21 hosted the Meeting of Prague's City Districts, organised by the CD of Prague 21 in collaboration with Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic and Palacky University in Olomouc. The meeting was dedicated to realisation Local Agenda 21 on the level of city districts, strategic development or support of physical activity. The representative of the recreology department at Palacky University in Olomouc, Mr Zdenek Hamrik, had an appearance on the support of physical activities. The experience and best practice examples dedicated to the issue of planning with the public and preparation of the strategic plan have been for instance introduced by the representatives of city districts of Prague 12 or Prague 10. The programme also included other topics, such as preparation of nature trails or community field work for prevention of sociopathic phenomena.

You can find the event programme here.

The event was a part of the project "Creation of national network for the support of physical activity" that is financed from the funds of ESF through the Operational Programme of Education for Competitiveness and CZ state budget.

The awards of successful municipalities form a traditional part of the programme of National Conference on Quality in Public Administration. Within the awarding of Ministry of Interior Prizes for Quality and Innovation, the implementation of Local Agenda 21 (LA21) method, i.e. practical application of sustainable development principles was acknowledged again. HCCZ members had strong representation among the awarded for 2012, as they dominated the category of innovations with four out of six awarded prizes this year.

Silver prize (Organisation of good public services) for quality in public administration for the realisation of LA21 was awarded to the Healthy Cities of Chrudim, Kopřivnice, Litoměřice, Prostejov. Silver prize for other methods of quality in public administration was awarded to the Healthy City Chrudim (EMAS).

The Bronze Prize (Organisation increasing the quality of public service) for application of LA21 was received by the representatives of the Healthy Cities Hlucin, Prachatice, Uherské Hradiste, Valasské Mezirici, Healthy City District Prague Libus and Prague 21. Bronze prize for other methods of quality in public administration was received by the representatives of Healthy Cities of Jilemnice (EMAS), Strakonice (benchmarking/benchlearning) and Healthy South-Moravian Region (ISO/IEC 27001:2005).

The prize for innovation in public administration in 2012 was awarded to the Healthy Cities of Prachatice (e-Utility report), Strakonice (Joint grant of the town of Strakonice and Community Foundation Blanicko – Otavske) Healthy South-Moravian Region (Anti-corruption policy of South-Moravian Region - activities of South-Moravian Region in the field of fight against corruption ) and Healthy Pilsen Region (Centralisation of ICT services providing for the established organizations within the self-governing territorial unit).

9th National Conference on Quality in Public Administration took place under the auspices of the CZ Ministry of Interior. The organizers were South-Moravian Region, Statutory City of Brno and CZ Council of Quality. The objective of the Ministry of Interior Prize is to support those offices that search and find ways to achieve quality in public administration. Overall, 38 organizations competed for the Ministry of Interior Prize this year. 12 organizations competed in the category of silver level, 18 competitors applied for the bronze level and 8 organizations were classified in the category of innovation.

On Tuesday of February 12, 2013, the regular Meeting of Healthy Regions took place at the Regional Office of Pilsen Region. The aim of this event was to share the approved procedures and inspiration in the development of international programme of Healthy Region right on the regional level. The topics of this year's meeting among others included the support of volunteering and transfer of experience from the practice. Approved procedures were presented by the representatives of Pilsen Region, South-Moravian Region, Liberec Region and the Region of Vysočina.

In addition to the topic of collaboration with non-profit organizations, Pilsen Region also introduced the successful project of Safe Region, focused on the provision of financial resources to cities and other regional organizations to support activities of prevention and awareness raising in the area of safety. More than CZK 20 million have been distributed so far. The event included presentations of interesting materials, for instance from the field of safety of seniors or leaflets with tips and advices for parents on the subject of children's safe access to internet and use of social networks, such as Facebook etc. Liberec Region presented itself with a number of activities with an emphasis on public engagement in the update of Regional Development Programme. Besides the activities such as meeting of Healthy Cities and Municipalities and thematic financial support, the South-Moravian Region this year also co-organised the National Conference on Quality. The representatives of Vysočina Region mentioned the interesting activities within the cross-border project MAG 21, focused on development of Local Agenda 21 in the rural area together with an Austrian partner. Healthy City Forum recently took place in Vysočina Region and its participants selected 10 biggest problems of the region. Vysočina Region representatives also mentioned the the existence of informal body for development of volunteering and collaboration with social committee of the Regional Council.

Representatives of the regions also discussed a number of topics, such as regular meetings of Healthy Cities in their regions, engagement of the public, media promotion and campaigns for the support of sustainable development topics, preparation of health policy or cooperation with student parliaments.

The event is a part of HCCZ project "Volunteering and Community Service (performed by unemployed) in Municipalities" supported with financial resources of ESF and from the state budget within the Operational Programme of Human Resources and Employment.

The programme and presentations are available for download here (in Czech).