Korea Council of Volunteering submission, Volunteer Centers Forum, 20th IAVE World Volunteer Conf

Forum Proposal

Name: Dr. Kang-Hyun Lee
Position & Title: CEO, Secretary General
Organization: Korea Council of Volunteering
Full Address: 3rd Floor Cheongwon Building, 32-59 Yongmun-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea  140-832
E-Mail: kanghyunlee@empal.com
Phone: 82-2-737-6922                 Fax: 82-2-737-6923
Current Membership: a paid member of IAVE and the National Representative
Forum Topic Category: Forum 2: Volunteer Centers

Profile: Although he holds a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology and taught at a medical college, he indulged himself in promoting and facilitating volunteering in Korea with hope of blossoming democracy in Korea. He taught on Volunteerism and Volunteer Management and trained volunteer coordinators.  He helped to pass the Basic Act on Volunteer Services in Korea and acted as the CEO of the 2001 IYV Korea Committee.  At the same time, he actively involved in international volunteer movement through IAVE in which he served as a board member for 8 years. He is interested in research areas of volunteer program development and management; roles and functions of volunteer centers; volunteering as social capital; and government policy on facilitating volunteering. 

Abstract:  A volunteer center (VC) is the most important basic infrastructure for volunteering. Its role includes volunteer program development & management, information sharing, data analysis, networking, and promoting volunteerism, etc.  A well functioning VC may be recognized as a convening center, information center, placement center, and training center in communities.  Recently, another name is given to VC in Korea, “a crisis or disaster management center.”

 After briefly discussing general roles and functions of VCs and their relationships with various levels of governments, survey results on general status of VCs in Korea which founded and supported VCs in every city and province will be presented. The relationship of local VCs vs provincial VCs and that of VCs to governments, and other issues such as “volunteer incentives” will be discussed.  

 Although there is no formal national volunteer center in Korea, four well known organizations claiming that they are entitled to be the national VC, while partially function as the national center.  Various models of national volunteer centers will be compared with those organizations.

 In addition, recent challenges, related to the definition of volunteering and the  recording volunteering time, that are facing VCs due to social changes will be introduced.  Specific examples, such as whether VCs should send volunteers to private nursing homes or profit oriented hospitals or whether VCs should count hours when employees volunteered during their office hours instead of their own free time.  Another hot issue is the so called “Mileage System” which recognizes the right of volunteers to claim the volunteer services within a limit of their accumulated volunteered time.   Is this entitled right to volunteers for their volunteering can be called volunteering? Current practices and arguments on these matters in Korea will be discussed.