Volunteering at WYD 2023

Friday, June 9, 2023 - 11:55

We expect 1.5 million pilgrims in Lisbon, which implies, as you can imagine, a great deal of logistical work to be able to welcome all these people in our city. So, for those over 18 years of age, the request made to us is that we can sign up as volunteers, especially for those who can, as Team Leaders.

Types of Volunteering

There are two modalities: central volunteers and parish volunteers.

The central volunteers (>18 years old) are those who collaborate in tasks and activities related to the main events of the day: the meetings with the Pope, the Youth Festival, the opening events, the City of Joy, the information points in the city, etc.

Parish volunteers (>15 years old) will help with events and needs that will exist in the parishes that host WYD Lisbon 2023. There are three Host Dioceses (where pilgrims will be housed): Lisbon, Santarém and Setúbal. In these dioceses, parishes will have a team of parish volunteers who collaborate in organizing accommodation, assisting pilgrims, organizing celebrations and events, etc. Registration as a parish volunteer is done through the parishes themselves.

Team leaders

In addition to this division, there is also an organization in teams. To facilitate the management of volunteer work, everyone will be part of a team (with 10 to 20 people), where one of the volunteers, in addition to the tasks of his team, will act as coordinator and bridge with the organization. They will be called Team Leaders.

These volunteers (about two thousand) have already been selected since the beginning of 2022, as they will need greater availability for their training, over a longer period of time.

Team Leaders are registered through an entity that identifies and references them (the UCP is one of these entities), although Central Team Leaders also have to register individually on the registration platform for central volunteers. All those who can, and who are over 20 years old in the week of the Journey, are asked to register as Team Leaders. To do so, simply contact the UCP Chaplaincy: capelania.sede@ucp.pt.

Aggregator code of the Catholic University of Portugal

When registering as a volunteer, each candidate can enter an aggregator code, which associates him with an institution or movement, so that he can volunteer in the activities proposed by that institution or movement. This is the case of the UCP, which has been preparing its involvement in WYD and developing its proposed activities for the week of World Youth Day. To sign up as a volunteer with the UCP aggregator code, just contact the UCP Chaplaincy: capelania.sede@ucp.pt.

Availability of volunteers

Central and parish volunteers, who will be the vast majority of WYD Lisbon 2023 volunteers, must be available between July 23 and August 7, 2023, to carry out their duties at WYD Lisbon 2023. Candidates with less availability may apply . However, WYD will always give priority to volunteers with full availability and will only validate the rest if necessary.