Engagement platform

The best thing to do is to seek personal, no-obligation advice from the Volunteer Agency's team of volunteers. Together, you can take your time to explore which opportunities best suit your personal interests, skills and availability. With just under 100 different volunteering opportunities currently in our portfolio, there is usually a suitable placement to be found.

Our volunteering platform will also be available soon. There, you'll be able to search for suitable volunteering opportunities yourself and filter them by interests, preferences and areas of work.

The Volunteer Agency arranges voluntary work, which is generally unpaid. This means that there is no payment for the work itself.

Depending on the role, a flat-rate allowance for volunteers or an instructor's allowance may be available in individual cases. Any expenses incurred can often be reimbursed. Whether a flat-rate allowance or reimbursement of expenses is possible, and if so, the amount, must be agreed on a case-by-case basis with the relevant club or organisation.

Volunteering enriches our town. To ensure your volunteering goes well, we have put together some important questions to help you get to know your contact person.

Induction

• Who will train me, and how long will the induction take?

• What tasks will I be trained to carry out?

Work processes

• What tasks will I be responsible for?

• How is collaboration with full-time staff organised?

• What are the scheduled working hours?

• Who is my point of contact and how will I be supported?

Insurance

• Is there liability and accident insurance cover for my work?

General conditions

• What flexibility do I have?

• Can I take part in team meetings or other activities?

• Who can I turn to in the event of a dispute?

• Will I receive a certificate of employment or a reference?

• How can I end my role?

Further training

• What training courses are on offer?

• Are the costs covered?

• Who is my point of contact for this?

Reimbursement

• Which costs are reimbursed?

• Who is responsible for this?

If you have any questions or problems: please speak to the organisation directly. This will help to avoid misunderstandings and find solutions.

In order for an organisation to recruit volunteers through the Bocholt Volunteer Agency, a placement agreement with the Bocholt Volunteer Agency ( ) is first required. As a general rule, placements are only arranged for organisations or legal entities, not private individuals. Furthermore, organisations with discriminatory content or objectives will not be included in the placement pool.

The organisation undertakes, amongst other things, to:

• Voluntary and unpaid nature: The work must be voluntary and, as a rule, unpaid. Volunteers must be able to withdraw from their role at any time. Membership of the organisation must not be a prerequisite.
• Responsibility for the deployment of volunteers: As part of the volunteering advice provided by the Bocholt Volunteer Agency, every effort is made to match volunteers as closely as possible to the role. The employing organisation or association bears ultimate responsibility for the selection and suitability of the volunteers.
• Contact person: A designated contact person must be available on site for the volunteers.
• Insurance cover: The organisation employing the volunteer is responsible for providing insurance cover for the volunteer in relation to the assigned tasks. The organisation should clarify, before the volunteer's placement begins, what insurance cover applies to the specific task.
• Workplace neutrality: The organisation guarantees that no permanent employment relationship subject to compulsory insurance existed previously in the volunteer's area of work, nor was there any plan to establish such a relationship. This does not, however, preclude the possibility of taking on volunteers in a statutory employment relationship.
• Data protection: The organisation consents to the processing of its data as required for the placement.
• Cooperation: Any changes to the reported volunteering opportunities must be communicated to the Volunteer Agency. We would also appreciate feedback regarding volunteers placed through our service.

The Volunteer Agency does not place volunteers in private households. We are therefore unfortunately unable to offer any placement in this case.

For support through the neighbourhood assistance scheme, you can contact the City of Bocholt's Senior Citizens' Office and make use of the 'Marktplatz Nachbarschaftshilfe' service.