Volunteering in the Canary Islands: associations declared to be of public interest

The content of this study is part of the work developed by the two Canary Islands universities to create the volunteer map of the Archipelago contemplated in the First Canary Islands Volunteer Plan, which was presented during a conference held at the ULL in October 2010.

As the project coordinator, Professor Cristino Barroso Ribal of the Department of Sociology, points out, the map has allowed the registration of some 976 associations with activities related to volunteering, which mobilize some 189,288 people who have some kind of connection with them and, specifically, some 32,551 are volunteers. Given these overwhelming figures, the book only focuses on the 38 institutions that are recognized as being of public benefit in the Canary Islands.

Of that total, 21 of the associations are based in Gran Canaria, 13 in Tenerife, 2 in Lanzarote, and one each in La Palma and Fuerteventura. Three of them were founded between 1776 and 1899, while the two most recent were founded between 2001 and 2010, although the largest number of entities were founded between 1991 and 2000, with 14 representing 36.81% of the total.

The book presents a detailed study of these organizations, grouping them by geographic scope of action, the sectors in which they operate, and the areas they focus on: socio-health, social services, and other types. The publication is complemented by several charts and statistical tables that break down numerous data points of interest, such as their age, income and expenses, and types of contracts, among others.

In the final part of the book, the authors analyze in more detail some specific cases: Las Palmas Acoge, Ayuda en Emergencias Anaga, AFA La Palma, Mensajeros de la Paz, Aspronte, Asociación Insular de Desarrollo Rural or the Real Sociedad de Amigos del País.