The aim of this study is to investigate personal characteristics of young people of college age participating in the volunteer movement. The study is based on the following hypothesis: at student volunteers expressed personal characteristics such as empathy, values and altruism. The author developed a model of psychological characteristics, important for effective work of students-volunteers, which is based on professionally valuable qualities of helping professionals. The model was complemented on the basis of the results of empirical research and includes a range personal qualities (altruism, empathy, discipline, kindness and security), theoretical knowledge in psychology, medicine and law as well as practical skills (ability to take responsibility, ability to listen and to hear, ability to give first aid and provide psychological support). / Целью данной работы является исследование личностных особенностей молодых людей студенческого возраста, принимающих участие в волонтерском движении. В основу исследования легла следующая гипотеза: у студентов-добровольцев выражены такие личностные характеристики, как эмпатия, ценностные ориентации и альтруизм. Разработана модель психологических характеристик, важных для эффективной деятельности студентов-волонтеров, в основу которой положены профессионально значимые качества специалистов помогающих профессий. Модель дополнена с учетом результатов собственного эмпирического исследования и включает в себя блоки личностных качеств (альтруизм, эмпатию, дисциплинированность, доброту и безопасность), теоретических знаний по психологии, медицине, юриспруденции и практических навыков (умение взять на себя ответственность, умение слушать и слышать, умение оказывать первую помощь и психологическую поддержку).

This article focuses on volunteerism in the social work field. Volunteerism phenomenon is booming in the Czech Republic; however, due to our historical development it lags behind Western countries. For this reason, this article conveys the management of volunteerism in Germany where it is directly linked to organization's management principles. I have broken down this topic into recruitment and selection of volunteers, their training, evaluation and rewards for their activities and into the coordination of volunteer activities. The aim of this study is based on the German system that can be passed on to the Czech setting in form of recommendations to individual areas of volunteerism management including proposals for more effective supervision of volunteers for Czech volunteer centers/organizations. The theoretical element of this manuscript is extracted from scholarly journals and articles including information from Czech and foreign literature concerning volunteerism circumstances in the Czech Republic and Germany. The practical element was accomplished in Freiwilligen-Zentrum Aachen and in Freiwilligenagentur Impuls Dusseldorf. At the volunteer center in Aachen, I brought together diverse combinations of interview methods with the volunteers' Coordinator, observations and study of the...