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ANNUAL REPORT 2011 CONTENTS 1. Introduction ....................................................3 8. Staff Development ..................................... 23 2. Overview by the Commissioner ............... 4 9. Activities and General Information ....... 26 Library ................................................................26 3. Researching the Voluntary Sector ........... 9 Assistance to Students ..................................26 The Participation of Young Maltese People in the Voluntary Sector ....................................9 10. Tackling Disputes in Voluntary Turning Age into a Resource: Organisations ...............................................27 Older Volunteers in Malta ...............................11 Collaboration with the 11. Financial Statements ................................. 29 National Statistics Office ................................12 Appendix A: Parliamentary Questions .............30 4. Enrolment of Voluntary Organisations ... 13 Figures for the year 2011 .................................13 Appendix B: Procedures for enrolment Figures since 2008 ..........................................13 with the Commissioner Categories of enrolled voluntary for Voluntary Organisations .................................32 organisations ....................................................14 Other Classifications .......................................14 Appendix C: Code of Good Governance, Renewals ............................................................14 Practice and Ethics for Administrators of Voluntary Organisations ...................................34 5. Monitoring the Sector ................................ 15 Database of Articles ........................................16 Appendix D: List of Enrolled Voluntary Organisations .......................................36 6. Information and Public Relations............ 17 Website ...............................................................17 Activities of Enrolled Voluntary Facebook ............................................................18 Organisations......................................................40 Public Appearances and Meetings...............19 7. Promoting Good Governance .................. 22 The Code of Good Governance, Practice and Ethics for Administrators of Voluntary Organisations .........................22 ANNUAL REPORT 2011 1 INTRODUCTION his Annual Report highlights the activities of The Commissioner also acted as a mediator to resolve the Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary a number of internal issues within VOs. Although it is Organisations (henceforth CVO Office) over not the Commissioner’s role to solve problems on the the year 2011. It underlines the outcome of the VOs’ behalf, however, as a regulator, it is the aim of Twork done that will reflect in the plans for the future. the CVO Office to provide a framework to assist VOs During this year, the CVO Office worked to promote to regularise themselves with the law and with good compliance by voluntary organisations (henceforth practice. As an example, the Commissioner published ‘VOs’) with their legal obligations in exercising control the Code of Governance, Practice and Ethics for and management of their administration and the Administrators of Voluntary Organisations. This Code effective use of their resources. Moreover, it worked will assist in maintaining higher levels of transparency, also to enhance the accountability of VOs to donors, accountability, public trust and confidence in VOs, beneficiaries and the general public. which will facilitate the support for the third sector that plays an important role in our society. Despite the lack of resources, both human and financial, the CVO Office succeeded in completing most of its The research entitled “The Participation of Young planned projects. With more resources, the outcome Maltese People in the Voluntary Sector”, which was would have been significantly better. However, even carried out in collaboration with the Parliamentary with its limited resources, the CVO Office supported Secretariat For Youth and Sport, was completed and the voluntary sector in the various challenges facing launched during the European Bus Tour activity, as this sector. part of the of the EU year dedicated to volunteering. During this activity a discussion was held on the subject During this year dedicated by the European Union of youth volunteering and on the outcome of the (hencerforth ‘EU’) to volunteering, this Office worked research study. Another research was commissioned closely with the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector on volunteering among older people in Malta, in (henceforth the ‘Council’), which was nominated as the collaboration with the Parliamentary Secretariat for the National Coordinator for the EU Year of Volunteering Elderly and Community Care and in preparation for the 2011, in its efforts to give a strong voice to the sector and year 2012 - the European year dedicated to active aging to increase public awareness on a number of important and solidarity between generations. issues related with volunteering. This Office continued to seek collaboration with This Office continued to focus on its main role as the various stakeholders where possible, remembering regulatory authority responsible for this sector with that this Office needs to continuously support not only the aim of monitoring and supervising the activities of the enrolled VOs but the voluntary sector as a whole. these organisations as well as supporting them. This The CVO Office is determined to be a strong voice for Office also worked with the sector, through the various civil society and will seek to strengthen the support and meetings held, conferences and workshops attended, advice already provided. to develop a more proactive approach to identify and wherever possible alleviate the key risks facing VOs. The CVO Office was set up by the VOA with the task to strengthen the voluntary sector through various This year saw a rise in registration of VOs from 488 initiatives, with the specific aim of promoting the work to 600. This entailed work related to enrolment, of VOs as well as encouraging their role as partners maintaining the enrolment register and renewals with the government in various initiatives. During this of the Annual Accounts and Annual Returns. Other year the CVO Office worked to its full capacity to reach work included that of monitoring the sector through this aim and mission, so as to give more visibility to the the media, promoting compliance with the Voluntary voluntary sector as well as to guarantee transparency Organisations Act 2007 (henceforth ‘the VOA’) and and accountability of the organisations that compose it, developing and updating online information through in the carrying out of their important work. our website and facebook. 3 OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS PROF KENNETH WAIN Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations Photo by Chris Sant Fournier (The Times) OVERVIEW 2 BY THE COMMISSIONER his year has been an important one for the National Statistics Office to discuss how we could volunteering in Malta and Gozo, and in the collaborate in trying to produce as detailed a picture rest of Europe since it was declared by the as possible of volunteering activities in Malta and EU Commission as the European Year of Gozo. TVolunteering. The year-long series of events connected with it provided the ideal opportunity to showcase An important factor in the Year for Volunteering volunteering in Malta and to advertise the social, was the lead given to the Council in the planning, personal, and economic value of volunteering, with organisation and co-ordination of the Year’s events as the object to increase its popularity among different national coordinator. This role of coordinator, which sectors and ages of the population. The report on “The I initially solicited for it from the government in 2010, Participation of Young Maltese People in the Voluntary enabled the Council to enhance its national profile Sector”, commissioned by my office in partnership with and public image and to establish its presence in the the Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth and Sport was sector, and it gave it a project that could serve as a completed early in the year and launched to coincide plank for future initiatives in the sector in terms of its with the closing activities of the Year for Volunteering mandate. held in Valletta in early December. I am pleased to report that this new Council, which This year my office entered into a second, similar, came into being in December 2010, after the first collaborative venture, this time with the Parliamentary Council had terminated its term of office, now has Secretariat for the Elderly and Community Care, to the instruments to work with (as was unfortunately launch another research study at other the end of the not the case with the previous Council), namely age scale, relating to the participation of the elderly in the human and financial resources not just to plan, volunteering work and in voluntary organisations in the coordinate, and manage the activities related to the two Islands. The draft of that report was finished in the European Year for Volunteering successfully but, more latter half of 2011 and will be launched in 2012 to coincide generally, to plan and prepare future programmes with the European Year of Active Aging. This kind of for the sector in the areas that fall under its main research is an important aspect of the responsibility remit; empowering