Voluntary Service as a Form of Professional Activation of Persons Threatened with Social Exclusion

Abstract

Voluntary involvement may be one of the most efficient instruments policy combating exclusion. By shaping proper civic attitudes, by a possibility of gaining professional experience and contacting various groups, people who are members of groups threatened with social exclusion have the possibility to test their chances at the labor market. The article presents the value of voluntary service as an efficient tool for counteracting social exclusion, especially with respect to young people who remain unemployed, and whose situation at the open labor market is unfavorable. Social and professional activation realized through voluntary service is presented in the context of integration activities of the European Union, as well as Polish documents referring to realization of the social cohesion policy.