Institute of Social Volunteering

I would like to introduce myself as a Volunteer. For the last 13 years, I have been volunteering with various organisations for different causes. Volunteering is my ever-time passion and I took up my own initiatives, inspiring others to the act of volunteerism and had worked with more than 10,000+ Volunteers all over India. I aim to create a network of socially committed volunteers who can be the change and change makers in our society and have undertaken 100+ initiatives in the fields of education, health, environment, Volunteer Development & Management. I am  one of the Co-founders of The Gulmohar Foundation, a youth organization working with an objective of creating future social leaders and social entrepreneurs through Capacity Development, Volunteering and Global Citizenship Education. I am one of the coordinators of VForce volunteers by United Nations Volunteers India promoting SDG campaigns in India.

Oftentimes young people have only been perceived as learners, but considering their distinct spheres of action in terms of social, economic and educational aspects within the society, they should be recognized as essential agents of change, as leaders, educators, advocates and learners. Youth can assume active roles in the development process with their creativity, potential and capacity to bring changes at local and global levels. The institute is committed to empower youth by providing a platform where young people can meet, share, and work together to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. We are looking forward to enhance the capacity of young leaders by facilitating dialogues, sharing good initiatives and practices, building communities, and strengthening advocacy skills to build leaders who drive our society in the coming future. The project focuses on social education and bringing changes to youth & community through self-transformation and discovery through volunteering.

The youth have a great potential to do anything, they can do wonders. But they are not getting chances or they are not looking for it and are ignorant of the vast number of social opportunities. There is a large gap between the youth and communities globally, were we should act as a bridge to connect them. The institution seeks solutions to connect Youth with society with a vision of building social leaders and social entrepreneurs. We work through Creating Inclusive physical and virtual spaces that allow Youth to meet and bond with their Communities contribute to civil cohesion and advance Youth cognitive, emotional and social skills. To summarize, the key concerns our initiative is addressing are; Lack of Youth Involvement in development process and decision making, Lack of a support system for social volunteers and The failure of the current education system to create future leaders and active citizens. If we can guide and mold their skills, we can use it for common good. I believe youth can address and solve all problems of the society. If we invest in youth, their skills and capacity which will transform them to be essential agents of change.

The project aims to build an institute for volunteers namely Institute of Social Volunteering. It aims to promote Volunteering, Volunteer Skill & Capacity Building and will connect volunteers with Social Opportunities and Communities. The institute will redefine the concept of volunteering. It will be a creative space for young people to meet, share, and work together to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. The institute will facilitate dialogues, share good initiatives and practices, build communities, and strengthen advocacy skills to build leaders who drive our society in the coming future. The institute will provide youth with active roles in the development process with their creativity, potential and capacity to bring changes at local and global levels. The main intervention themes of the institute are; Global Citizenship Education, Youth Empowerment and Social Entrepreneurship.The objective is to create social leaders and social entrepreneurs through volunteering and capacity development, taking into consideration the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It focuses on educational courses on various social-volunteering practices and opportunities, which will be through inclusive physical and virtual platforms. It provides learning journeys, mentor-ship, social internship, resource support, capacity development workshop and global citizenship education promoting active citizenship.

We work with youth and invest in them. We connect youth with social opportunities and communities; and assume them active roles in development process with their creativity, potential and capacity to bring changes at local and global levels. The institute is committed to empower youth by providing a platform where young people can meet, share, and work together with like-minded people to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. 

-  We connect Youth with society by providing volunteering opportunities through collaborating with Govt organizations, NGOs and Educational institutions

-  We connect youth with opportunities in development sector and help them to see bigger picture of development and social change

-  We create platforms to discuss and brainstorm solutions for the issue they are addressing. 

-  We create a network of social volunteers, entrepreneurs and activists.

-  We give capacity development sessions for Youth who wish to work on social issues

-  We will evaluate the possibilities of a top-to-bottom solution for the issue.

-  We promoting Volunteering and Global Citizenship Education in educational institutions.

-  We organizing journeys, mentor-ship, internships, camps for youth

-  We collaborate with Enterprises working in educational sector and sharing the resources we have.

The project relates to all the three dimensions of The Elevate Prize. The institute provides inclusive social opportunities for the youth. By providing capacity development sessions for youth, we create awareness and inspire the youth to address the issues of the society and work for sustainable changes with their skills. The project will change the mind-set of youth, it promotes values like trust, empathy, ownership-sharing and collaboration. The institute believes in sharing the ownership of the organization with volunteers, we invest and trust them to do initiatives without competition but with collaboration, understanding the feelings of people.

I have been volunteering for the past 13 years. One of the main challenges initially I faced was lack of like-minded and dedicated volunteers to support the initiatives.The youth were fully ignorant of the vast number of social opportunities before them . They never tried to realise the goodness of these generous acts. Most of the volunteers are a part of charity organisations, where the works are not sustainable. I had worked with many organisations and I felt like organisations treating them as unpaid labours to do things for their needs. They will not improve them as a person and upskill their capacity and talents. I met a lot of like-minded people, discussed and collected feedback about it. As a volunteer I know what the youth exactly needs and how they can be molded. So as an experiment I started a youth-led organisation - The Gulmohar Foundation, which aims to build social leaders. By this initiative, I was able to motivate more people to volunteer and create a network of socially committed volunteers. We adopted a village, volunteered and created impact in the fields of health, education and environment conservation. An institute for leadership training can create more impact.

I am a youth, who has experienced and identified the issues from my volunteer journey. Volunteering is my passion, it has changed my life. I had dropped by graduation and had dedicated my life to volunteering; to serve the society. I had worked with more than 10,000+ volunteers  and had undertaken 100+ initiatives in India. I had made a volunteer journey to most parts of India and had interacted with volunteers/organisations to learn their activities  and had created a network of socially committed volunteers. 

For me, community social volunteering was a life changing experience. Being an engineering student I was supposed to think technically and to just learn and work within the four walls of a company where the thoughts and acts are merely machinery. But as I discovered the real social-being within me through my volunteering journey, I began to devote my time and energy for the welfare and benefit of society. This helped me to analyse and realise the various horizons of life, eventually I realised the purpose of living. Thereafter, I was able to reach more lives and gift a smile on them. Along my journey, I was able to come across new faces, learn fresh things, which did help me to improve my coordination skills, my talents and I could handle and manage more number of people. Volunteer Management and Programme Coordination are my fields of interest. I have an experience of 13 years working in this field, undertaking 100+ initiatives and volunteering with 10,000+ youth. I am connected with like-minded people, organisations and resources and can connect the youth with social opportunities and communities.

One of the main challenges initially faced was lack of like-minded and dedicated volunteers to support the initiatives.The young citizens were fully ignorant of the vast number of social opportunities before them. They never tried to realise the goodness of these generous acts. So it was a greater task to make the people aware of the necessity of volunteership in every community. But the down-to-earth nature towards every fellow-beings working with, helped us to create a personal bond with them. Appreciating and valuing everyone for their small contributions have inspired and motivated many others. Apart from our usual volunteering works of scheduled programmes, we gave them real life experiences and exposure which gave them a satisfactory feeling. There were no boundaries, all were treated equally and were free to share and take up ideas. Thus we created a sense of togetherness among ourselves which made us to be a family. Thus I was able to motivate more youth to the act of volunteering. 

My community volunteering started from an orphanage for girls. Their pleasing smile and selfless love was a life changing moment in my life. They have a lot of dreams, but they lack the motivation and support system. So we decided to provide educational aid and support for those students who were not much interested in studies. By our initiative, all of them could pass out with much better grades. I volunteered there for 4 years and I am proud to contribute towards securing their future lives. We had adopted a village and had undertaken volunteering initiatives in various fields. I volunteered for differently-abled students to create platforms for them to showcase their talents, supported the healthcare workers in the palliative field providing aids to elderly people, created awareness on Plastic Bottle Consumption and transformed 13 schools to Plastic Bottle Free Schools. I had also developed a low cost Plastic Shredding Machine with the help of volunteers. I received the iVolunteer Award in 2018 and 2019, a national recognition for outstanding volunteer work in India. I received the Millennium Fellowship in 2018 and the Millennium Ocean Prize in 2019. I am selected as the VForce Coordinator of United Nations Volunteers India.

Institute of Social Volunteering is one of the objectives of my organisation - The Gulmohar Foundation. We are a youth led organization working with an objective of creating social leaders and social entrepreneurs through Capacity Development, Volunteering and Global Citizenship Education. Youth Empowerment and Capacity Development focusing on youngblood is the major area of working of the organization and it takes into consideration the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

We believe in a bottom to top approach, which is of three layers:

1) Creating communities of youth.

2) Connecting youth with societies.

3) Capacity Building for Youth.

Thus we empower youth to be an active citizen. The project focuses on social education and bringing changes to themselves & community through volunteering. It help the volunteers in self-transformation and discovery.

We follow our set of values:

1) Collaboration: Where others see competition,we see collaboration.

2) Ownership Sharing: We believe in sharing the ownership of the organization with volunteers.

3) Trust: We trust each other with our opinions and feelings.

4) Empathy: Understand or feel people around.

We work through Creating Inclusive physical and virtual spaces that allow Youth to meet and bond with their Communities contribute to civil cohesion and advance Youth cognitive, emotional and social skills. To summarize, the key concerns our initiative is addressing are:

1) Lack of Youth Involvement in development process and decision making

2) Lack of a support system for social volunteers & entrepreneurs 

3) The failure of the current education system to create future leaders and active citizens

 We are seeking solution to this through:

1) (a) Connecting Youth with society by providing volunteering opportunities through  collaborating with Govt organizations, NGOs and Educational institutions.

(b) By connecting youth with opportunities in development sector and help them to see bigger picture of development and social change.

(c) By creating platforms to discuss and brainstorm solutions for the issue we are addressing. 
 
2) (a) By creating a network of Social volunteers, entrepreneurs and activists.

(b) We give capacity development sessions for Youth who wish to work on social issues.

(c)By checking the possibilities of a top-to-bottom solution for the issue.

 
3) (a) By promoting GCED in educational institutions in Kerala By organizing Journeys(Gulmohar Yatra),internships and 2-10 day camps for students

(b) Through collaboration with Enterprises working in educational sector and sharing the resources we have.

(c) By creating local chapters in Educational Institutions.

We mainly focus on youth. We can provide capacity building a large number of youth from our resources. 

Now we have around 1000+ youth volunteers with us. We believe we can slowly expand to 10,000+ volunteers in one year and can reach more than 1,00,000 youth in 5 years.

The first step is to create awareness, promote volunteering, identify active volunteers and create communities. I have been volunteering for the past years and had the experience in all these fields. I had created a Facebook group- Kerala Volunteer Community and Youtube channel- Volunteer Journeys and Stories to share volunteering opportunities and inspiring stories of volunteers.

Within a year, I will be working to build a social education startup in its initial phase. For that my plan is to organize a Volunteering Journey through 100+ colleges. I will be taking sessions on Volunteering, Sustainable Development Goals and connect them with Youth Opportunities. I will be creating small communities of volunteers in each college and connect them with the community to do sustainable projects.

With all the experience, opportunities and resources, I will then move to start an institution in 5 years. The institute will provide courses on various social-volunteering practices. It will be a creative space for young people to meet, share, and work together to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. The institute will be facilitating dialogues, sharing good initiatives and practices, building communities, and strengthening advocacy skills to build leaders who drive our society in the coming future.

The society always perceiving youth as learners only, but they should also be considered as essential agents of change and should allow the youth to involve in the development process to bring changes. These problems mainly arise due to cultural barriers, and we need to work on the initial year. We need to connect with more like-minded people and access to supporting resources to discuss the possibilities and drawbacks of the project. Financial is the main barrier in the first year for starting an institute and finding infrastructure for it. In the next few years we will be able to overcome all barriers by our experience and learning. We need support financially, legally and technically throughout our journey. 

We need to create awareness among the society about the power of youth and volunteerism. We need to guide and motivate youth to take up initiatives in society and bring changes. We need to research more on these fields and explore more to find the supporting people and organisation. We need to learn about funding, administration, branding and other perspectives to do fundraising campaigns.

I have started my organisation- The Gulmohar Foundation, a Youth Led organization working with an objective of creating social leaders and social entrepreneurs through Capacity Development, Volunteering and Global Citizenship Education. Youth Empowerment and Capacity Development focusing on young blood is the major area of working of the organization and it takes into consideration the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

I am the VForce Coordinator of United Nations Volunteers India, organizing SDG campaigns with 10,000+ youth all over India. I have received the Millennium Fellowship and Millennium Ocean Prize and am having a good connection with Millennium Campus Network. I am also the GDD Leader of Good Deeds Day.

Our target group will be the youth. We will be building an institute where people can meet, share, and work together to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. We will be investing in youth who can assume active roles in development process with their creativity, potential and capacity to bring changes at local and global levels. We will be providing educational courses on various social-volunteering practices and opportunities, which will be through inclusive physical and virtual platforms. It provides learning journeys, mentor-ship, social internship, resource support, capacity development workshop and global citizenship education promoting active citizenship. 

Donations and Grants will be the initial step to find financial stability to build the institute. In the long run, either we can charge for the service we are providing, but I prefer to provide scholarship. I believe partnering with organisations and finding CSR funds will be the practical way to sustain the institute.

I had not raised funds for the project, we believe in Gift Culture. I need to learn more about fundraising campaigns and its possibilities.

We are seeking fundraising as a grant. To start an institute we need to find a location, building, hire a team and find other resources. A funding of more than $200000 will be required to set up the institute. I believe by the beginning of 2021, we will be able to start with the initial phase of the institute

An investment of more $150000 will be needed as an initial fund to buy a property and build an institute. This will be the main expense for 2020.

We need a lot of financial support to start an institute with international standards. We need to connect with resource persons and organisations for mentoring and support. We believe The Elevate Prize can give us a global outreach.

We believe in the power of collaboration. Together we can achieve more heights and dreams. We aim provide quality knowledge to our target group, I believe resources support is the most important partnership goal.

1) United Nations and other UN organisation affiliation can add more value to the quality of the project. It will motivate more people to the act of volunteering.

2) Support from the Central Government of the country and other related departments.

3) All international and national collaborations are appreciable.