Author: Mgr. Kateřina Pávková    

One form of adult civic education is volunteering, which is an important and promising form of education. In this context, we primarily refer to experiential learning and informal learning, in which participants acquire information, knowledge, and skills, but also abilities from the activities themselves, thus fulfilling and developing the pillar of ‘learning to take place’ (UNESCO, 1996). I will say that I consider volunteering to be key in the effective fulfilment of the goals of adult civic education.

Current trends in the European context and adult education point to volunteering, and this topic has been addressed for several years by the EPALE platform - Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe, which through its members describes projects and research reports focusing on this issue.

As an example of the concrete implementation of adult civic education through volunteering in the Czech Republic, I present Volunteering at the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), a contributory organization of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

In 2016, the National Heritage Institute created a platform for organizing volunteer opportunities, which constituted part of the activities of this Czech Ministry of Culture’s contributory organization. The coordination of volunteering activities was taken over by the Department of Education and Further Education at the General Directorate of the NPÚ; . Here you can find a list of volunteer activities taking place at workplaces and buildings managed by the NPÚ. Following a five-year internship, opportunities suitable for activities within the field of cultural heritage care have emerged. These are records and documentations of monuments, the monitoring and localization of monuments in the field, and work in the archaeological laboratory - conservation and description of archaeological finds and work on the maintenance of greenery and land in castles and chateaux. The coordination of volunteers in these activities is ensured by the facility management.

The Department of Education and Further Education of the National Heritage Institute continues to develop and cooperate with promising institutions for volunteering. Since 2017, working meetings and stays have been organized along the lines of British NGOs (working holidays) for selected organizations and schools. In cooperation with The Friends of Czech Heritage, English and Czech volunteers repeatedly visited the state castles of Krásný dvůr, Vizovice, Uherčice, Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou, Kladruby Monastery or Villa Stiassni. The non-profit organization The Friends of Czech Heritage was founded in 2007 by art historian Barbara Peacock and Ian Kennaway, who was fascinated by the quantity and quality of cultural heritage in the Czech Republic. Since then, the organization has helped restore dozens of buildings and historic parks. The patron of British friends is the architect Eva Jiřičná.

• Example No. 1 - Dozens of volunteers from Great Britain helped with the work on the premises of Villa Stiassni in Brno. They renovated selected parts of the garden, which was one of the largest at the time, which also complemented the historic interiors. As part of this volunteer activity, the program also included exploring Brno's monuments of modern architecture.
• Example No. 2 - Eight British volunteers, strengthened by a group of twelve participants of a craft restoration course, focused on the restoration of part of the Baroque enclosure wall in the garden of the Vizovice State Castle. As part of their working stay, the volunteers were able to repair the lower part of the wall, and the administration of the Vizovice chateau then completed the work – independently completing the upper brick part and plastering it as a model.
• Example No. 3 – During the “working parties” project in the castle park in Krásný dvůr, volunteers from The Friends of Czech Heritage cleaned the monument to the fallen and the stone steps in the Hermit's Gorge, and cleaned the ditch that brought water to the pool under the Chinese Pavilion.
• Example No. 4 - NPÚ established cooperation with the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague. The students of the faculty worked repeatedly during the holidays as volunteer leisure teachers in the children's chateau club at the Krásný Dvůr state chateau, where they implemented educational programs for children and provided children's tours of the chateau interior.

Mgr. Kateřina Pávková, EDUCATION DIVISION

National Heritage Institute