Volunteering: Addressing the needs of marginalized communities
SocialPolis Coin seeks to support long-lasting relationships between volunteers and local organizations by developing a secure ecosystem linking their needs and providing an opportunity for integrated and most importantly effective, community building. Groups of volunteers brought together with local organizations can alter the way that volunteer activities are conducted even with regards to policy-making. The research indicated that long-term relationships with partners and local actors can help rather than contribute as a barrier to sustainability.
Volunteering is a major yet under-recognized way through which public services reach the poorest and most marginalized part of the world. Notably, in some of those places, the necessary infrastructure such as hospital, schools, and security services exists, but the people of those communities is still unable to access it. Here, volunteering intervenes to bridge the gap by mediating between the people and the otherwise hard to reach, infrastructure.
In this text, we will elaborate more on the value of volunteering within the concept of Sustainable Development and how SocialPolis Coin is working towards this direction.
Reading the research of the Institute of Development (IDS) entitled “Valuing Volunteering”, conducted in four countries: Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, and the Philippines over the years 2012–2014, the concluding notes stand out:
· Volunteering contributes to sustainable development in a unique way
Under the world ‘unique’ underlies a whole over-complex thread of relationships that develop among the volunteers and the people of local communities. It is how volunteers support change that make contribution unique.
· Looking at volunteering within the wider context; engaging with the complexities of power and politics
Amongst the results drawn from the research is the negative impact of local politics on the effectiveness of volunteer practices, mostly posing a limitation to their ability to carry out their projects effectively. There were examples where volunteering has been co-opted by local political agendas, to promote political messages without volunteers’ consent or prior experience, or where entrenched political divisions within communities made it difficult for volunteers to carry out their work.
According to the research, a common frustration expressed by local actors was that external organizations would come in with pre-defined notions of how to tackle an issue or only consult with local leaders in the community. As a result, the programs designed in response to these consultations was not representative of the needs and experiences of those individuals most directly affected.
SocialPolis Coin focuses on key sectors under the notion of Social Economy acting as a provider for sustainability-enforcing projects ranging from e-work to volunteering acknowledging them as financial areas with a clear culturally-beneficial orientation.
The project looking ahead has programmed to develop within the SPL Coin ecosystem a web-based platform through which freelancers will be able to match their skills with on-supply vacancies. The main payment system for the SocialPolis e-Work platform will be the SPL Coin as users will be able to reach freelancers or pay directly for a service via SPL coin.
Both national and international volunteer work are expected to benefit from the circulation of SocialPolis coin given how it will also provide a reward system attracting more individuals and developing a space for them to interact and build a community that promotes sharing and planning horizontally. SocialPolis initiative pursues to incentivize volunteers and boost the deliverables of their much needed contribution by building a safe-space for individuals, coops, state organizations and merchants working collaboratively towards a more inclusive future.
To sum up, SPL Coin aspires to serve as a culturally-beneficial pledge of collaboration among interested parties for cultivating a breeding ground towards a more sustainable future. At the same time, it manages to maintain the humanitarian nature of volunteering, the high standards of needed trust and transparency, abolishing any kind of political intervention or influence.
Reach out to us for more info about SocialPolis Coin at the project’s official website: https://socialpolis.io
