Volunteer The Hague Annual Report for the Year 2021

Volunteer The Hague (VTH) is a powerful and unique tool: for the non-profit organizations in The Hague to reach the volunteer community among internationals/expats, and for internationals/expats to find suitable volunteer work and thus make a positive contribution to society. In fact, VTH is the biggest online English-language platform in the Netherlands where the local Dutch non-profit organizations that are open to internationals/expats as a potential voluntary target group and internationals/expats volunteers can find each other. In a nutshell, VTH provides a space on www.volunteerthehague.nl for the local Dutch non-profit organizations to list local volunteer opportunities that do not require Dutch fluency. Internationals can browse these vacancies or use search options that can match their interests and skill sets with specific opportunities. VTH is also more of a “community” where internationals who want to do volunteer work are linked to social organizations in The Hague. This can be done online via the Volunteer The Hague web platform, and also offline via the Mix & Match Volunteer Job Fairs.

This has been yet another successful year for the VTH project despite the global pandemic. 1694 internationals and 140 organization admins registered on VTH website (about 500 internationals/expats more compared to previous years). 3238 unique visitors averaged per month visited VTH website and 65 percent of them were between the ages of 18 and 44. VTH recorded 29,523 page views per month with an average visit duration of 3:56 minutes. 2140 applications for 352 volunteer jobs and 1036 registrants for 17 community events and workshops uniquely suited for non-Dutch speakers were created and promoted on its website by 155 local Dutch non-profit organizations in The Hague in the year 2021.

Volunteer The Hague Project impact infographic – 2021

All the VTH activities from regular workshops to Mix & Match networking events were once agin taken online. In fact, VTH pioneered the online space of The Hague area in October 2020 with the first online fair titled Mix & Match Online Volunteer Job Fair. Shortly after its success, followed the second online fair and two more in 2021. Since 2015, VTH has been organizing the Volunteer The Hague Mix & Match Networking Events every year. The events have been a great success from the start and the interest of internationals is still growing. The Volunteer The Hague Mix & Match Networking Events aim to increase mutual involvement between internationals/expats who want to do volunteer work and civil society organizations in The Hague that are looking for volunteers. In this way, internationals/expats are offered the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the city through volunteer work. The events create an opportunity for social organizations to meet potential volunteers face-to-face and fill their volunteer vacancies.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, local non-profit organizations were still in need of volunteers in 2021. At the same time, they had limited resources to search for them and had less personal contact with potential volunteers. Internationals/expats who could volunteer also needed personal interaction. Due to the lockdowns, that has largely disappeared. VTH was proactive and able to offer the Mix & Match events online and gave both the Internationals/expats and The Hague social organizations an opportunity to meet face-to-face and to meet their volunteer needs.The total of 384 participants and 30 local Dutch non-profit organisations looking for international volunteer help attended the fairs in 2021. 88.5% of the participating prospective volunteers respondended to the post-event survey rating events as “Very Good” and “Good”. 81% reported that they are “Very interested” and “Interested” to do some volunteer work based on the information they received at the fairs. The entire 100% of the responded organisations reported that they are “Very likely” and “Likely” to take on board new volunteers based on the interactions they had at the fairs. Both, organisations and volunteers that participated in these events, reported a strong community feeling and formed long lasting bonds so needed during the lockdown of global pandemic.

Screenshot Mix & Match Volunteer Job Fair – 2021

Screenshot Mix & Match Volunteer Job Fair – 2021

Being stripped of venue limitations, VTH brought together a large number of non-Dutch speaking individuals from different backgrounds and nationalities residing in The Hague area, as well as different local Dutch non-profit organisations to allow a better involvement with the local community and an easier integration. VTH is a powerful and unique tool that allows the municipality of The Hague to reach the non-Dutch speaking volunteer community and to drive an increase of organisational and volunteer involvement where internationals have the opportunity to find suitable volunteering and as a result make a positive impact in our community.

Some feedback from the international community of The Hague and local non-profit organisations - 2021