Beautiful encounters during the volunteer café’s

In September and October, we organized five volunteer cafés and one bike tour along volunteer organizations. Future volunteers could get to know about six or seven organizations in their neighborhood.

The informal setting, with a cup of soup, a drink, or a lunch, allows people looking for volunteer work to have conversations with the organizations they find interesting. Putting a face to the name right away, being able to ask your questions immediately, that helps. During the cafés, a lot of contact information was exchanged, and people were excited about many organizations and projects in their neighborhood.

“I didn’t come here for volunteer work, but now I’m going home with a new volunteer task!”

Board member of the neighborhood association in the North

From young to old

The visitors of the cafes ranged from young to old. Some were already doing volunteer work and looking for something extra, while others were exploring their first task. They were looking for both weekly volunteer work and more flexible volunteer opportunities. Most people made appointments with multiple organizations.

“You have organized it well. It was accessible, and the atmosphere was good.”

A visitor in Nieuw West

In Centrum, we were guests at Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, in Noord at De VerbroederIJ, in Zuid at Brouwerij Troost, in Nieuw West at Cinema de Vlugt, and there was a volunteer cafe for newcomers at Huis van de Wijk de Meeuw.

IJlandroute

For IJburg, a bike tour was organized along different organizations.

We started with a weather forecast of 100% rain. Not a drop fell. Warm welcome at SET & De Buurt – the World Living Room. Lovely Ethiopian coffee table where we got to know coffee with ginger instead of sugar from Belaynesh. Cycling past Flexbieb, TEX bags, Buurtkamer Zeeburgereiland, Soccer club AFC IJburg, FactorIJ.

Passionate storytellers convinced the cyclists! Along the way, we lost the volunteers cycling with us to these beautiful organizations.

I didn’t know about volunteering, really nice to experience what is available at IJburg.

Cyclist IJlandroute

And those organizations, they are happy, with sales managers, a lawyer, a municipal writer, retirees, and others who with their talents are a valuable addition.The photos for Volunteer Café South and Volunteer Café for newcomers were taken by Marcel Jansen.VCA Media.