STRATEGY 2015

Danish Red Cross Youth has faced rapid development the past few years. The number of volunteers and members has increased, and we are now present in more locations than ever before for the benefit of thousands of children and young people in need. And that is precisely our aim with this strategy – that as an organization we continue this positive development: Doing more, doing better and reaching further towards 2015! The strategy is built on a solid foundation: our dream for the future and our DNA. Our dream for the future is what we aspire and contribute to the future while our DNA is what characterize and unite us in the effort towards our dream for the future.

Our dream for the futureWe desire a society where no children and young people miss out on recognition and participation in positive fellowship. We therefore make a difference every day through specific activities for children and young people in need, and through our advocacy efforts advance the desire that ever more people share our dream and pull in the same direction as ourselves.

Our DNA

HumanitarianOur commitment is rooted in a humanitarian desire for a better world. Our focus and driving force is always the will to make a positive difference for others. We don’t work in an abstract way but always put the specific close-contact and meeting among people at the centre.

VoluntarilyWe are a voluntary-based organization, which knows that voluntary social work can strengthen and develop people. Our work and activities take place in equal rights, respect and eye-level contact between volunteers and users. We offer social and manifold parameters so that young people can honour the universal need for meaning and make a difference for others without financial gain.

QualityWe are an ambitious organization where professionalism, responsibility and innovation are our core values. We work constantly to develop and broaden our organization and activities – quantitatively as well as quality-wise. Red CrossWe have an important identity and role within the Red Cross movement. The Red Cross history and principles are resources and land marks in our work as a global organization that delivers local solutions and local involvement. We take care of Danish Red Cross children and youth-work, and we actively contribute towards the development and inspiration of the Red Cross movement in practice.

Our strategyWhilst our dream for the future and our DNA should be seen as our overall objective, working methods and the foundation of our values, Strategy 2015 is more specifically directed towards areas in the organization, which require particular focus forward towards 2015. The strategy is built up around six focus area:

• The framework for voluntary work• Goal-oriented development• Social innovation• Communication • Advocacy work• Fundraising

These six focus areas deal with realizing the organization’s dream for the future and DNA in practice. For each area, a series of sub-points are formulated as mutual commitments. The strategy is elaborated upon in the following pages.

Doing more – doing better – reaching further!1

Getting things done by people on a voluntary basis is entirely central at Danish Red Cross Youth. We help children and young people in need through voluntary work at eye-level, and promote humanitarian responsibility and making up one’s own mind. We have determined upon the following priorities to further strengthen our volunteers and voluntary structure forward towards 2015:

We will attract committed and competent volunteersVolunteers contribute to the organization with both commitment and competence, and they are an absolutely vital resource at Danish Red Cross Youth. With some activities, however, commitment isn’t enough as there can be a need for specific qualifications in relation to the children and young people in need. It is therefore essential that we specify those qualifications required in our recruitment of new volunteers.

We will make sure that all new volunteers are made to feel welcomeWe have an approved access to potential volunteers. New volunteers should be given easy access to all relevant information, and they should quickly be able to get a general idea of the opportunities open to them as a volunteer at Danish Red Cross Youth. New volunteers should be given a comprehensive introduction to the organization and it should be accessible and tangible for them to get started with specific tasks.

We should strengthen an active Red Cross-identity among DRCY’s volunteersWith our shared values and principles as our starting point, we should bind the entire organization together through activities, and ensure an affiliation and vision towards the rest of the movement. We will create space for a longer career at Danish Red Cross YouthBeing a volunteer at Danish Red Cross Youth should be a way-of-life, and we should actively strive to ensure that Danish Red Cross Youth is a fantastic place to be a volunteer so that volunteers stay for longer. We can achieve this by placing focus on the volunteers’ well-being, and by ensuring that all volunteers can always see new opportunities and challenges within the organization.

We will appreciate the volunteers’ effortsEach and every volunteer should know that his or her efforts are valued. We therefore have approved access for all volunteers’ efforts in the way we communicate and meet up. It is important to set greater focus on successes, and the good intentions over something that didn’t work. This method produces the best results, and at the same time it is essential that everyone knows they make a difference.

We will strengthen social aspects among the volunteersWe are pioneering volunteers at Danish Red Cross Youth because there is a need for our efforts and in addition we are there for children and young people in need. But we are also there for each other, and good solidarity among the volunteers is also beneficial for our children and young people. We will therefore strengthen the solidarity among volunteers even more forward towards 2015 by making sure there is time and space for meetings and interaction among volunteers across activities and regions.

We will take educational-development seriously All volunteers should have the opportunity to enrol on a course of education of high quality, and the opportunity for continual development. Towards 2015 we will therefore build a comprehensive education programme, which will ensure that volunteers are always equipped to fulfil their activity-related tasks and challenges within the organization for the benefit of the children and young people in need. Educational-development is closely connected to the securing of volunteers in that we believe that continuous challenges and learning are essential elements in volunteers’ growth and development.

We will be known for our competence Youngsters who have experience gained from working with voluntary organizations are sought after among the labour force, and Danish Red Cross Youth will play its part in promoting voluntary work. This can happen by equipping volunteers with useful tools to document the actual competences and qualifications they obtain at Danish Red Cross Youth.

We will accomplish a diverse a volunteer groupMultiple groups contribute with new perspectives and thoughts together with ideas and position us to reach new groups of children and young people in need. We will therefore embrace multiplicity at Danish Red Cross Youth, and make a concerted effort to attract new types of volunteers. At the same time we should endeavour to create room at Danish Red Cross Youth so volunteers experience pleasure at being a volunteer regardless of their social, religious, educational-related, or other background.

We will strengthen democracy within the organizationA central element in doing things on a voluntary basis is a combined, concerted democracy, and forward towards 2015, we should ensure greater participation in the democratic decision-making processes within Danish Red Cross Youth. These processes apply both to participation at the national congress and at other democratic levels.

Doing more – doing better – reaching further! The framework for voluntary work2

Goal-oriented development

Our work at Danish Red Cross Youth takes volunteers’ desire to make a difference as its starting point. That work builds upon a voluntary foundation and therefore means that the needs of children and young people are at the centre. With the starting point in our voluntary foundation we should aspire to a clear goal-oriented development in all our activities for children and young people in need. We have therefore established the following priorities forward towards 2015:

We should be aware of our choicesWe should know the goal with all activities, and towards 2015 all activities at Danish Red Cross Youth, based on DRCY’s dream and DNA, should draw up a description of how and why the activity relates to the needs among the children and young people in need. Being aware of the background and premises for why we engage in the activities is part of creating a greater understanding of our work among both the volunteers and people outside our organization.

We will create a learning cultureWe will only get better at what we do if we continually evaluate our efforts. Only by learning from our mistakes as well as our successes can we improve. It should therefore be a natural part of the voluntary work to constantly evaluate the effort, and the goal is that all activities use ongoing evaluations as a natural part of their goal-oriented planning and quality improvement in 2015.

We will set new goals every yearIn order for Strategy 2015 to be of value it is important that all activities with a starting point in Strategy 2015 are discussed and a position is taken upon which direction the activity should grow in the coming year. By evaluating what the challenges, goals and success criteria there are in the course of the year ensures that all activities are in positive development, and set new goals in order to reach even more children and young people in need, and do it even better.

We won’t be afraid to make tough choicesDevelopment within the organization should be facilitated actively so that it is tangible to be implemented voluntarily at DRCY. We should focus on the development processes to ensure learning along the way. A goal-oriented development demands that sometimes we phase out activities, which are no longer relevant or don’t produce results. Activities may be shown to have fulfilled their objectives or foundation, and circumstances surrounding the activity may have changed. It could be the case, for example, where other organizations have started similar activities, or where there is no longer need for such an activity. In this event we should not be afraid to make a difficult choice and seek out new activities instead.

We will strengthen our professionalism To be able to offer the best possible activities to children and young people in need to an even greater degree, it is important that we strengthen their professionalism. We should, in other words, know even more about the children and young people in need we are engaged with. The strengthening of professionalism should occur among the volunteers, but also by continuing the strengthening of the secretariat so that it can act as a sparing partner for the volunteers to an even greater degree. We will furthermore strengthen our professionalism by involving external parties who possess the knowledge we need.

We will be on the spot wherever we are neededGoal-oriented development means that we should be on the spot everywhere in Denmark and at even more locations abroad. We shouldn’t only equip ourselves in relation to those activities we already arrange and users we already reach, but also to reach even more both when this means anchoring locally and new target groups. Growth is a goal in itself if we are to live up to our vision and dream that no children and young people in need should miss out on recognition and participation in a positive sense of community, although this should never happen at the cost of quality.

We will embrace furtherThere are unfortunately still groups of children and young people in need today who never get offers to help them out of their current challenges. We should focus on these children and young people through new activities and equip our volunteers to be in a position to deal with even more difficult target groups forward towards 2015.

Social innovation3

Social innovation

While the rest of the focus areas in Strategy 2015 are presumably known conceptions, social innovation is a relatively new concept but one of huge potential. With social innovation as a focus area, we want to embrace and promote creative ideas and thoughts and take new roads. We will focus on the fact that as a youth organization we have a unique opportunity and obligation to challenge the established practices and ways of thinking. We meet children and young people at eye-level, and lop-sided and remarkable new projects are able to emerge from this position. Social innovation as such isn’t anything new at Danish Red Cross Youth – we have been good at creating new activities for a long time, but for the first time now we are putting a strategic focus on it! We will accomplish this along with the following priorities forward towards 2015:

We will create space for those innovative ideaThere must be room to think big and new at Danish Red Cross Youth. We should therefore work actively to create and embrace those new, innovative ideas. We know that ideas are often given birth by one but developed by many, and we will therefore create space so that volunteers meet in opposition to the activities at Danish Red Cross Youth with the objective of developing ideas in defiance of current, conventional thinking.

We will mix up our abilities and good ideasThe best ideas and social inventions are often not new at all but a composite of something that already exists. This thinking therefore deals with mixing up what we are already good at in new ways. By combining already-existing activities in new ways, a completely new activity suddenly emerges. This is fun and creative for our users, for us and the outside world.

We will create space to playWe are good at creating playtime for children and young people in need but not quite as good at creating it for ourselves. By playing together to a higher degree – not least intellectually – we strengthen the creativity, and from this strengthened activity also come those quirky and exciting ideas! We will therefore actively work to bring play into play as a central element in our daily work routine.

We will enter into a creative co-operationWe can of course create creative ideas ourselves, but lots of ideas become even better when others play ball with us. We should therefore strengthen the co-operation with other organizations, collaboration partners and institutions – including those we wouldn’t normally think it was natural to collaborate with. We have both much to learn and much to offer, and by combining our abilities with others we become even better at making exciting activities for the children and young people in need.

We will share our ideas with each otherGetting an idea is rarely enough in itself to bring it to life, but rather than allowing the idea to just die it should be passed on so that others can run with the idea. The more people, who seize the idea, develop it and send it on, the more thought-through and exciting that idea becomes. We will therefore create space and a network in order to share the ideas with each other!

We will dare to challenge conventional thinkingWe should dare to be socially innovative throughout our organization. It isn’t necessary to arrange a certain activity just because it is the norm to do so. Why not go in a completely different direction and arrange exactly what the children and young people in need can use? In 2015 Danish Red Cross Youth shouldn’t be known for certain activities but the way we make those activities, and the innovation should characterize all activities. This doesn’t mean that activities that have been around for years can’t be justified. The challenge consists in the constant of new-thinking, and rediscovering ourselves with current needs as a starting point.

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Communication

In a growing organization with increasing ambitions the need for effective and modern forms of communication only becomes greater. This need places requirements that we constantly improve our performances within the following priorities:

A lot more people should know about Danish Red Cross YouthOur efforts warrant a far greater awareness of the population at large, especially among the young. Children and young people in need should know about what we can do to help them, while more people should be aware that we have an opportunity to make a difference together. Being acquainted with us to a large degree is a prerequisite for both potential users and volunteers knowing that they can always turn to us. At the same time, being acquainted with us to a high degree, among, as an example, politicians, government officials and social workers is part of making our work easier and more effective.

We will be ingenious at telling people about our workDanish Red Cross Youth is teeming with good ideas that rarely see the light of day. We should therefore be better at explaining, sharing and communicating those good stories, and explain how much we achieve as an organization with very few resources. Both the media and politicians pick-up on personal-interest stories, and while we never under any circumstances parade our children and young people in front of the media, we could be much better at telling those stories, which are often stranded among the volunteers. The stories are important you see both internally and externally.

We will bring our ideology furtherDanish Red Cross Youth is built upon a strong foundation of core values and ideology and these should shine through when we communicate. Other people should be able to experience that passion we volunteers feel for our work, because the passion is both inspiring for others and invigorating for our credibility. We should allow our values to shine through when we communicate, and we should never just be content with explaining what we do, but also why we do it.

We will engage young people Our external communication should be engaging. We should therefore always focus upon how we can take part in making a difference in our external communication – either by becoming involved on a voluntary basis or by people supporting us financially. Our communication should be so interesting and dramatic that people outside the organization simply can’t stop themselves becoming a part of our amazing efforts. This is not an easy task, but by always focusing on the opportunities to participate, we will have come a long way.

We will strengthen our internal knowledge-sharing A fundamental necessity is that we strengthen our internal communication. Only by being better at talking and listening to each other can we ensure that the best solutions can be developed and prioritized. The good stories should be retold. If an activity has been successful as the result of a good idea, the best practice should be shared with others, so they too have the opportunity to develop themselves in a positive way. In other words, we should be better at telling each other when something has gone well so that others can follow in our footsteps.

We will spread our tidings through more channels In order to attract a wider audience it is necessary for us to think beyond the traditional channels of communication. This can happen if we involve local volunteers in communication to an even greater degree, and focus our efforts in a goal-oriented way on local newspapers, radio stations and others.

We should make use of the new IT-opportunitiesBoth internal and external communication requires that we have the appropriate tools, and a large proportion of those tools should be found within IT-technology. We should continually develop and update our home pages as the essential source of external communication, and at the same time we should build up an appropriately functioning internal communication site. Finally, we should focus on the social media that increasingly gains ground.

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Advocacy work

In recent years at Danish Red Cross Youth we have taken our advocacy work more and more seriously and there is a good reason for this. Our activities make every day a difference to children and young people in need, but we also have a duty to articulate the cases for children and young people in need in Denmark and the rest of the world, and work to improve their conditions in general. This means that we actively strive to change those problems that cause children and young people to end up or become trapped in their vulnerable situation. We do this with a starting point in our experiences from our activities, our DNA and our Red Cross-principles about neutrality and impartiality. Towards 2015, these are our following priorities:

We will set out an agendaOur efforts forward towards 2015 should take to a greater degree a starting point in that we will be more committed to establishing agendas and resolutions. We should of course be able to respond to a current case but we should more be part of the decision making process that determines which cases that should be given priority. We can only establish this through well-prepared advocacy, and we should to a greater degree become engaged in influencing those cases that get the media’s, politicians’ and general public’s attention.

We will arrange longer-cycle campaignsIf we are to make resolutions we must organize our advocacy work to a greater degree. We should set specific goals for what we want to change and go for. Real influence most often requires that we persist with focusing on a specific question over a longer period, and this is something a long-cycle higher education campaign can with a clear goal contribute to. This requires that the campaigns are integrated into the entire organization – also at a local level – and advocacy work is therefore something all volunteers should want to be part of.

We will be a knowledge bankIf we want to be taken seriously in the eyes of the general public we need to know what we are talking about! This requires an increased professionalism but also that we become better at gathering the huge mass of knowledge which our volunteers acquire during the course of their activities. Towards 2015 we will become better at collecting and gathering that latent knowledge and convert it into effective responses.

We will know about and influence the political systemIf we don’t just want to gain transparency but bring about real change as well, this will require that we don’t merely have good arguments – we should also know more about the political system where decisions are taken. We should therefore build up a higher level of political competence both at a national and international level. Local advocacy efforts should be strengthened through professional sparing and experience sharing between central and regional unity in relation to advocacy work. Through a direct dialogue with politicians and civil servants we will improve the conditions of children and young people in need together with the framework of our efforts.

We will actively endeavour to inspire and develop the Red Cross movement Advocacy efforts are not only relevant externally – internally too there are excellent opportunities to attain an important and positive influence. By playing an active role internally within the organization, including our collaboration with the Danish Red Cross, we can set out an agenda and strive towards the objective that a growing part of the organization commits itself to result-oriented work for children and young people in need.

We will create a culture where more volunteers actively commit themselvesJust because we are neutral and impartial it doesn’t mean we can’t be committed! Towards 2015 we will strive so that even more volunteers commit themselves to the children, young people and social problems they meet through their activities. It is important to remain committed while we are still open to everybody regardless of political standpoint! Volunteers at Danish Red Cross Youth commit themselves – hopefully response-wise too.

We will co-operate transverselyWe won’t stand alone in our advocacy efforts. By co-operating with other players including other organizations, experts and specialists, we can create a broad professional foundation, strengthen our knowledge and speak with an even more powerful voice.

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Fundraising

It costs money to help children and young people in need. Fortunately, we are more competent at doing this more cost-effectively than many other organizations. However, we still need to have money in the coffers, and unfortunately, it doesn’t just get there by itself. We will therefore strive actively to ensure a sound and stable financial base for our continuing growth and development. Towards 2015, these are our priorities:

We will increase the number of members tenfoldIt’s not the number but the signal that’s important. Danish Red Cross Youth has the potential to increase its number of members forward towards 2015, and with goal-oriented growth we will take recruiting members seriously. A large number of members ensure a stable financial base, a higher degree of knowledge and more weight on our advocacy efforts.

We will get more private contributionsDanish Red Cross Youth today has lots of direct private contributors but this is something we will change forward towards 2015. A central element in this effort will come about as a result of the conversion of members into contributors. When we leave our youth it all too often means goodbye to Danish Red Cross Youth, but we should be capable of keeping our former members as contributors. In the same way we must grab hold of lots more private contributors in the coming years.

We will have larger and longer-cycle grantsDanish Red Cross Youth receives lots of relatively small short-term donations from public pools and private foundations. We appreciate this very much of course, but towards 2015 we will strive actively to organize our fund-raising efforts so that to a greater degree they are aimed at larger and longer-term donations and partnerships. This will bring peace-of-mind to our fund-raising efforts and at the same time ensure a solid financial base.

We will earn our own moneyIn recent years Danish Red Cross Youth has aimed at income-generating activities with the objective of generating free means to our organization activities. We will continue and step-up these efforts forward towards 2015 because it is important that we make ourselves less dependent on external contributions. Best Practices from existing income-generating activities should be used to start up new ones, and our children and young people in need’s qualifications can be used for new ground-breaking, income-generating activities.

We will strengthen our co-operation with the private sectorThe private sector is a fellow player who we will co-operate with to an even greater degree. The private sector wants to take social responsibility to a higher and higher degree, and Danish Red Cross Youth can with great advantage derive profit from the financial means and the knowledge businesses offer. It goes without saying, however, that Danish Red Cross Youth should maintain a sensible and constructive critical access to the co-operation with the private sector.

We will continue to highly appreciate the Danish Red CrossAlthough Danish Red Cross Youth manages to finance activities with external means to a greater degree, our relationship and co-operation with Danish Red Cross continues to be very important on more fronts, including a financial one. Locally, nationally and internationally we can draw great benefit from a continuously good, trustful and close relation with Danish Red Cross.

We won’t be afraid of new thinkingIt generally applies that we should dare to discard belt and braces – just know that going new ways can ensure that the financial base for the future will be even better. We should accept that financial means are a necessity in order to reach even more children and young people in need, and that a considerably greater degree of professionalism by our fund-raising efforts is therefore an absolute necessity. Only by creating more means and resources can we fulfil our dream. However, our fund-raising must never compromise our DNA and our integrity.

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Postscript – the way towards 2015

Strategy 2015 is a strategy for the entire Danish Red Cross Youth. The strategy is agreed by the organization’s national assembly and therefore provides ambitions and bearing-markers for our national board, volunteer leaders, volunteers and employees at Danish Red Cross Youth in the years ahead.

We can’t realize all our priorities and ambitions in Strategy 2015 straight away. Some of our plans will have to wait while others will need to be implemented over the whole period. It is therefore important that all activities at Danish Red Cross Youth in the coming years work from the basis of one-year plans-of-action, which show more specifically how the strategy will be implemented and prioritized in the coming year.

In the light of Strategy 2015 the national board will in this way prepare a one-year agreement before the end of each year for regional government work for the coming year. This one-year agreement will be approved before budget negotiations for the coming year.

The same guidelines will apply to the organization’s steering committees and thematic committees: During the autumn they will prepare a one-year action plan for priorities and developments in the activities-field for the coming year. These action plans will have to be approved by the national board before budget negotiations at the national board meeting in December. The organization’s local development councils are requested likewise to prepare action plans for their work in the light of Strategy 2015. These action plans should be brief, specific and precise.

Half-way during the period between now and 2015 the national board will facilitate a mid-term evaluation of Strategy 2015: Are we on track? Where have we implemented the ambitions in Strategy 2015 – and where are we lagging behind? This evaluation will in all probability be presented at the national assembly in 2013. Moreover Strategy 2015 will become a natural focus point for other broad DRCY meetings in the years ahead including LS+ meetings, spring meetings and summer schools. Strategy 2015 will similarly be the starting point for the national president’s annual reports.

Finally, the national board in a dialogue with the rest of the organization will prepare a final closing evaluation of the strategy’s results before the national assembly in 2015. This evaluation will form the starting point for the adopting of the next strategy.

When Strategy 2015 is formulated through mutual obligations it is because we all share a responsibility for developing our organization in a positive direction. Not for our own sakes, but in order to reach even more children and young people in need in Denmark and abroad. Let us all therefore, towards 2015, help each other to do more, do it better and reach further!

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Danish Red Cross Youth (Ungdommens Røde Kors)H. C. Ørstedsvej 47, 4. floorDK-1879 Frederiksberg CTelephone: +45 35 37 25 55E-mail: info@urk.dk