Exciting book launched on service and volunteering in LAC countries

Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA) and its partners are proud to announce the launch of Service Enquiry 2 in Spanish. This is the second volume in a series of books that document the nature and extent of volunteering and service around the world. This volume provides a rich overview of the emerging forms of volunteering and civic service in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries.

The book is structured in three parts. Part one provides an overview of volunteering and civic service in Latin America and the Caribbean and makes a case for volunteering as a tool for social development and democratisation. The second part focuses on the policy environment surrounding volunteering and service in different LAC countries. The third part focuses on the mergence of youth service in the region and examines the conditions under which voluntary service fosters youth development and youth participation.

Service Enquiry 2 addresses a wide array of issues. Some distinctive themes that emerge throughout the 14 chapters are:

• volunteering as a force for social justice, redistribution and democracy;
• the emergence of a new form of volunteering that supports social, political and economic transformation in Latin American society;
• the role of policy and legislative frameworks in the promotion of volunteering and service; and
• the importance of partnerships and the implementation of volunteering and service programmes through partnerships.

The development and production of this volume of Service Enquiry represents a transatlantic collaboration between a number of partners committed to the promotion of service and volunteering worldwide: Centro Latinoamericano de Aprendizaje y Servicio Solidario (CLAYSS), a non-governmental organisation based in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Centre for Social Development (CSD), located at Washington University in St Louis, USA; Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP), located in Washington DC, USA; the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), based in Washington DC, USA; and Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA), a non-governmental organization, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

To download Service Enquiry 2 free of charge, please visit www.service-enquiry.org.za. The English language volume will be available in 2008.