An honorary office in the original sense is an honorary and voluntary public office that is not remunerated. It usually fulfills the following requirements:

• one is appointed, elected or nominated,
• it is obligatory after the appointment, election or appointment,
• a set of rules is in place (e.g. laws, regulations),
• it always takes place in an organized form,
• there is often a flat-rate expense allowance,
• it is in the broadest sense an activity for the common good.

Examples: Election assistant, lay assessor, caregiver.

On the other hand, important aspects of voluntary work are that it is:

• unpaid (apart from reimbursement of costs),
• of one's own free will,
• with personal motivation,
• not necessarily in an organized form and
• primarily for the benefit of selected target groups or the environment and only secondarily for the benefit of the general public;

It is also

• flexible and
• terminated at any time.

Examples: individually very different.
(Support for parents of seriously ill children, helping senior citizens to use computers, helping to set up a multilingual library, providing craft activities for young people, (pre-)reading with children, setting up a digital archive, accompanying people on excursions, gardening ...).

The term civic engagement, on the other hand, ultimately encompasses all types of personal commitment for the benefit of others or the environment and is therefore a kind of collective term for the following descriptions: Honorary office, voluntary engagement, volunteering, civic engagement, corporate engagement.

The following explanations and the work of the department are generally based on the term "civic engagement"; however, the work of the volunteer agency refers exclusively to the term "voluntary engagement".

The central pillar of the promotion of civic engagement is the offer of a service-oriented and citizen-oriented "volunteer agency", which is a contact point for committed citizens on the one hand and organizations on the other. The work of this agency is supported by an efficient platform within the city-wide Internet offering and can only continue to be successful if it is based on clear and comprehensible quality standards and is integrated into the existing municipal infrastructure, i.e. if it creates networks. Cooperation with the providers in Bonn is therefore of great importance.

Furthermore, it is very important - also based on the experience of other cities in NRW and nationwide - to have a centrally located, service-oriented contact point where personal information, advice and referrals can take place. In the medium term, it is therefore necessary to consider relocating the premises of the volunteer agency to a suitable location in the city center. This will raise the profile of the volunteer agency considerably.

Tasks:

• Contact point for qualified advice for organizations and people interested in volunteering,
• Help in the search for volunteering opportunities (catalog of activities, current information, new offers ...),
• (Further) development of quality standards for the placement of committed people in suitable activities, including implementation in practice and subsequent monitoring of success.

These points are guaranteed by highly experienced and specially trained staff, a high degree of commitment, flexibility and proximity to citizens as well as an internet-based and user-friendly database. Experience from other municipalities shows that the motivation to get involved is increased by addressing target groups.

The goal of an inclusive society should therefore focus first and foremost on the involvement of people with disabilities: "Equal participation in life in society also means doing your part - each according to your strength" (BBE Newsletter 2/2013, Gabriele May and Manuela Scharf). People with disabilities should and must not only be the recipients of civic engagement, but also an active part of it. The first task here is to work together with the known organizations in this area to find interested people, but also to find opportunities for them to get involved.

In view of the high number of young people and twentysomethings "willing to get involved" (almost 50 percent), this target group should also be given high priority. In particular, the use of new media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) should be examined, as young people are more likely to be addressed via these than via the "tried and tested" print media (newspapers, flyers or others).

For the area of promoting civic engagement, it is necessary to maintain the standards and continue to develop them following the extensive development of public relations work.

Tasks:

Further develop public relations work and continue as before by

• Publication of leaflets etc.,
• Use of posters, banners, free stamps,
• Press work/reports,
• placing advertisements (e.g. VHS booklet, info screen at the main station),
• Organization of events,
• Participation in events (information stands etc.),
• Participation in third-party advertising measures (e.g. SWB "Blue Couch" campaign),
• Internet presences, links from other Internet presences or entries in portals,
• advertising materials (e.g. writing pads, balloons, pens) and
• special campaigns (e.g. Christmas post, volunteering calendar).

In recent years, the employees of the volunteer agency have regularly set up information stands at events (Market of Opportunities, Europe Day, etc.) and will continue to do so or expand on this. In addition, appointments are made for information stands at larger employers in the city so that employees can find out about the services on offer there. So far, for example, the department has visited the University of Bonn, Stadtwerke Bonn, the local court and Deutsche Telekom.

"Civic engagement requires continuous training and further education. A lack of continuous acquisition of new knowledge/skills can lead to people giving up voluntary work in the medium term. However, further education and training must take place in open spaces and take the social horizon into account. This means that an isolated consideration of approaches based exclusively on association interests alone does not serve to expand social competence. This requires further and advanced training concepts that are very practice-oriented and networked" (MFJFG NRW).

Tasks:

• Help in the search for suitable qualification offers that may already exist,
• Supporting the providers in their search for suitable speakers, in finding rooms and/or organizing events as well as
• Organization and implementation of own qualification and supervision offers.

In addition, all those involved, whether sponsors or volunteers, are always dependent on up-to-date information, be it on the legal framework (e.g. insurance cover) or on specialist content.

A further task is therefore

• The constant provision of up-to-date information to all involved sponsors and volunteers.

This is ensured via the various contents of the website and the newsletter sent to the cooperation partners. A central telephone with answering machine function is also used to answer a wide variety of inquiries.

In-house training and further education for quality assurance in the area:
In 2011/2012, the City of Bonn was one of ten municipalities selected to take part in the state project "Zukunftsfaktor Bürgerengagement" (Future Factor Civic Engagement), in the course of which two employees from the department were trained as "specialists for civic engagement".

Civic engagement must be recognized and appreciated. However, it would be contrary to the nature of voluntary or honorary commitment to express recognition in the form of monetary compensation, for example.

Instead, a culture of recognition must be created that bundles existing efforts and raises awareness. In this context, recognition involves more than the - very important - awarding of prizes: it is expressed through appreciation and recognition, but also, for example, through further training or general conditions such as good job opportunities. The boundaries between public relations work, qualifications and public recognition are therefore fluid in the context of a culture of recognition.

The willingness to show civic commitment should also be recognized by improving the framework conditions and creating incentives wherever possible. One example is the certificate of commitment "Engagiert im Sozialen Ehrenamt" (Committed to Social Volunteering) introduced by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . It documents and recognizes voluntary social commitment. With the certificate of commitment "... socially committed people can have the skills and abilities they have acquired in voluntary work documented so that they can be used in the professional world" (MFJFG NRW).

The "Civic Engagement" department can issue this certificate to all volunteers who work for the city administration and regularly advertises it to the Bonn organizations known there that work with volunteers.

Tasks:

The City of Bonn has been participating in the NRW Volunteer Card project since 2009. The volunteer card can be obtained by anyone who has volunteered at least five hours per week (or 250 hours per year) for at least two years without any compensation other than the reimbursement of material costs. In addition to the possibility of receiving the volunteer card by post at short notice, there are regular handovers by high-ranking representatives of the city. This further increases the value of the card. The acquisition of further attractive benefits for holders of the card is ongoing and should be continued.

However, it is also important to find ways of recognizing those who do not meet the requirements for receiving an honorary card, as their commitment, which in some cases spans decades, must also be acknowledged.

Many clubs and organizations that are supported by volunteers have already developed their own offers: joint excursions, "thank you" meals, small gifts or discounts.

Everyone involved with volunteers is called upon to (further) consider and cultivate this aspect. The opportunities to show your appreciation are as varied as the commitment.

More and more companies are forging an alliance between themselves, charitable organizations, employees and citizens. For example, companies are getting involved by supporting their employees with organizational and financial assistance in their local activities. Long-standing employees are supported, for example those who want to contribute their experience after their working life - "social capital" for the benefit of all those involved: companies, civically engaged individuals, the community (from: Stiftung Bürger für Bürger - "corporate citizenship on the rise").

A central task of promoting civic engagement lies in the area of corporate engagement. Of course, purely financial support ("sponsoring") of social and other projects serving the common good can also play a role here. However, reducing it exclusively to this would contradict the much broader idea of "corporate citizenship".

Time and again, companies contact the Office for Social Affairs and Housing, either directly or indirectly, to find out about volunteering opportunities and to enter into an exchange with the city in this regard. The inquiries range, for example, from one-day commitments for groups of colleagues as an alternative to the previous company outing or to strengthen the sense of community, to the search for suitable sponsors/institutions as recipients of collected donations in kind or money, to support for global engagement days in which large Bonn companies participate and are looking for local fields of activity for this purpose. Partners were also sought for longer-term and diverse collaborations.

A database planned jointly with the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK Bonn/Rhein-Sieg) led to the implementation of a project by the IHK entitled "CSR Initiative Rhineland - Companies and Organizations Committed Together", which is financed by European and federal funds. The aim of the project is to train and network companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of CSR (corporate social responsibility) in the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg region so that joint projects can be initiated. The engagement process should become permanent so that both sides can continue their respective engagement sustainably and independently. The working group accompanying the project is made up of representatives from Department 50-112 of the Office for Social Affairs and Housing.

The Office for Social Affairs and Housing, Section 50-112, is also involved in the preparation, implementation and follow-up of the "Marketplace: Good Business", now an annual event initiated by the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Here, companies and associations/organizations make numerous engagement agreements and conclude targeted agreements.

Tasks:

As the CSR project is aimed at (small and medium-sized) companies that want to deal with the topic of corporate engagement "as a whole", it does not cover the concerns that have been brought to the Office for Social Affairs and Housing, Section 50-112, to date (large companies or groups of colleagues). For this reason, these requests will continue to be processed by the Office for Social Affairs and Housing, Section 50-112.

For this purpose, the "groups" criterion is to be added to the volunteer agency database. This means that in future it should be possible to see which activities are suitable not only for individual volunteers, but also for (any) groups. With this additional feature, not only groups of company employees, but also other groups such as schoolchildren, families or groups of friends could choose a volunteering activity that suits them. It could be particularly attractive for young people to get involved if they can do so with their friends.

Although the cooperation between the city administration and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce is embedded in the CSR project, among other things, it should continue to run independently of it even after the project phase.

However, the promotion of entrepreneurial commitment presupposes that the city administration itself also positions itself as an exemplary company and demonstrates entrepreneurial commitment to the public. Various measures/projects can be considered here - in consultation and cooperation with the Human Resources Department and the relevant specialist departments and taking into account existing good examples in other municipalities:

• Information about the opportunities for civic engagement,
• arouse interest, create awareness, promote exchange and networking,
• Incorporating the topic of "civic engagement" at various levels: for example, as part of the curricula of the study institute and/or within the practical training sections,
• Recognize existing civic engagement on the part of municipal employees and support it wherever possible
• Facilitate new engagement

Civic engagement also thrives on the creativity and inventiveness of committed people and institutions.

Tasks:

• Promoting exemplary ideas and projects by creating framework conditions (e.g. finding volunteers), providing advice, public relations work or, in individual cases, financial support,
• carrying out their own projects (the experience of other volunteer agencies shows that addressing specific target groups works successfully by carrying out targeted projects).