Volship aims to enable young leaders to tackle pertinent issues within their cities through well structured and result oriented projects, engaging the community around them in the process. They are also provided the unique opportunity to set up a Volunteer for India Chapter in their cities as a part of their Volship journies. These Chapters will work towards the vision of Volunteer for India within its area of jurisdiction.
Volship is a Volunteer Leadership Fellowship by Volunteer for India aimed at young leaders above the age of 18 who are passionate about Volunteerism.
Volship 2022
Cycle 1
For Volship 2022, from the 1351 applications received, 40 Chapter Leads representing 12 cities were chosen. They worked as a part of 15 teams on 15 diverse social issues within their cities. The twelve cities were –Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Raipur and Srinagar .
During their 8 week Volship journey, the teams collectively organized 115 campaigns / sessions in their cities which impacted over 20,000 beneficiaries. A total of 752 individuals signed up to volunteer for the various causes from across the 12 cities. Together, they contributed 19,602 volunteering hours during the 8 weeks.
Post their 8 week Volship journey, 7 teams were selected as Chapters of Volunteer for India. These 7 Cities – Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore and Kochi, will work on long term projects, focusing on their target communities.
Volship 2021
Applications to the position of Interim Chapter Leads were open in 12 cities across India. From a total of 132 applications received, 40 applicants were shortlisted for the interview process. Of this, 20 individuals representing 9 cities were selected to be part of the first cohort of Volunteer for India.
The nine cities were –Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Mumbai, Sasaram and Trivandrum. Each city had a team of 2 individuals taking up the role of ICL’s. Of this, Chennai was the only city that had two teams representing it.
The Volship journey started with the four day Ideathon session that started on April 18th. A total of 5 sessions were organized as a part of Ideathon, to enable the ICL’s to envision and initiate their six week Volship journey.
The Volship journey formally started with each team recruiting volunteers to work with them. A total of 136 Volunteers signed up to work on the various Volship projects. A total of 8 projects were initiated during Volship and 22 events/sessions were organized as a part of it.
Though Volship was initially planned as a six week program, it was later extended to nine weeks to accommodate the challenges brought about by the second wave of Covid. This enabled the teams to connect with and support a total of 416 beneficiaries from different walks of life.
Staying true to the mission of VFI to foster collaborations, the teams were able to collaborate with a total of 11 non-profit organizations across India. A plethora of resource persons from various professional backgrounds also joined hands with Volunteer for India during this period as a part of various skill building and awareness sessions.