Our organization, INEX-SDA, is planning to create a motivational documentary on the development of volunteering in the last 30, post-revolutionary, years to help local communities’ beneficiary projects by increasing interest in volunteering among young people. Currently we organize more than 40 active citizenship projects throughout the Czech Republic. We are looking for guidance to help us to create the documentary including all of its creative phases.

We organize over 40 active citizenship projects throughout the Czech Republic.https://bit.ly/3wgBEXh

There are several challenges to which our initiative responds. The primary challenge is to help and support local communities that do not have the capacity to complete their beneficial projects for a long time. Related to this is the declining interest of volunteers who would be willing to help in these communities. Our proposal responds to the polarization of society and aims to reunite it through joint (volunteer) activities.
Through a documentary, we want to remind potential volunteers and society in general of the importance of volunteering and show what we have managed to build together over the last 30 years.

Our key group is young people aged 16 to 30, who we would like to motivate to participate in volunteer activities and active citizenship. Another key group is people from local communities, where we have been organizing our volunteer projects for the last 30 years. Thanks to the higher number of people interested in volunteering and in being active citizens, it will be possible to more actively help these communities in completing their beneficial goals and thus promote a sense of belonging and reciprocity between people. Our main goal is to contribute to the society having a greater understanding and respect for each other.
We want to spread this topic to the general public and thus draw attention to the importance and role of volunteering and mutual help and support.

The method we have chosen is the creation of a popular educational documentary film, which we want to attract more (young) people to participate in volunteer activities. We recognize these activities as a functional means of connecting a polarized society.
1. Connect with related organizations that have experience in documentary filmmaking. Exchange best practices.
2. Together with the production staff, we will visit the sites and local partners where active citizenship projects take place. We will visit them primarily at the time of these projects happening and map the last 30 years of volunteering in the Czech Republic as a post-communist country.
3. It will include interviews with our long-term local partners, with the volunteers themselves (current and those who have been participating in active citizenship projects since our NNO was established).
4. Archive and contemporary footage will be edited into a documentary film.
5. This documentary will be distributed at film festivals throughout the Czech Republic and beyond.
6. After viewing the document, (new) applicants will be given the opportunity to participate in active citizenship activities.

The expected result of our intention is, above all, a greater degree of involvement in active citizenship projects, and therefore help to local communities, which are in dire need of this help and support.
At the end of this project, we believe we will have more people interested in volunteering. There will also be a greater number of interactions and communication exchanges between volunteers (both Czech and foreign) and the local community. This will, at least in part, unite the fragmented society and strengthen people-to-people ties and reciprocity.
However, this project will support not only stronger relationships across the society, but also individuals with fewer opportunities and many smaller beneficial projects of the local communities in isolated rural areas alone.

Volunteering holds many wider benefits, including creating more engaged and active citizens and helping individuals to build skills through informal learning. The benefits can pay off for younger people at the beginning of their working life, people already in employment who want to expand their skills base and even for charity and organisation workers seeking professional development. We also actively support people with fewer opportunities in participating in projects. For people who have to deal with some kind of disadvantages in their daily lives, it can also mean getting an independence step by step, becoming confident, receiving a sense of equality or building mutual respect.

This idea is important to us because we would like to get volunteering among more people. Nowadays, young people have a lot of opportunities to travel and to discover the world, but for us, volunteering is a unique opportunity that goes beyond that and could bring various (and deeper) benefits to all involved - such as intercultural dialogue, the opportunity to find out something about yourself etc. while contributing to a beneficial project and helping where needed.
Project team
Project Coordinator (planning, implementation and evaluation of the project), Inclusion Coordinator, Coordinator of Camp-leaders' Cycle, Incoming Coordinator, Documentary Filmmaker, Researcher of Content, PR Coordinator. Financial Manager.

Project coordinator (0,4 part-time, 12 months) - 6 157 €
Video-maker (6 months) - 5 767 €
Travel cost - 200 €
Researcher of content - 2000 €
National Volunteer Association fee - 120 € (Help with promotion in their volunteer centres.)
Event introduce the document (rent + catering) - 150 € + 300 €
PR coordinator (0,2 part-time, 4 months) - 1 108 €
Office expenses (printing costs) - 200 €
Financial manager of a project (0,1 part-time, 6 months) - 1 068 €

From others, we would appreciate sharing experiences with documentary filmmaking. And also advice and tips on how to increase young people's involvement towards active citizenship.