Jakub Dostál guest speaker at the University of the West of England

This week, Dr. Jakub Dostál from the Department of Economic Studies was a guest speaker at an economics seminar at the University of the West of England in England. The topic of the lecture was the economic value of volunteering in social services, a topic that follows the Czech Republic counts on volunteering project implemented at our school in recent years. The main message of the lecture was that the financial value of volunteers' time in social services is considerable, yet the main benefits for social service clients are difficult to quantify. However, studies suggest that volunteering has a positive effect on reducing loneliness, for example, in the elderly, which carries positive health implications.