The present book deals with a topical interdisciplinary issue in the socio economic field and is addressed to academia, public and private organizations regardless of their size, from the perspective of educating and training students, respectively employees, as socially responsible members of the community, who must face the current and future economic, social, environmental challenges.
The elaboration of a definition of volunteering and of an integrative model of the relationship between volunteering, social entrepreneurship and social responsibility and the impact on the community (the VARS model), in the author’s conception, give the paper its elements of originiality.
In the author's vision, volunteering positively influences the collective mind, is transmitted from generation to generation through the process of education and training, and can be the key element that contributes to the creation of symbiosis between the inhabitants of the planet and the improvement of the relationship with nature.
The VARS model brings together the concepts of volunteering, social entrepreneurship and social responsibility, based on common values and principles, and highlights the triggers as well as the benefits that the three activities generate. The VARS model can be a viable solution to complete the effort of public authorities and institutions to satisfy the public interest, without substituting them, and can contribute to social change, promoting competitive sustainability, stimulating social innovation and active citizenship.