#7: Dr. MARTINA ČERNÁ and Dr. JAKUB DOSTÁL: The Czech Republic counts on volunteering

Did you know that there are nearly one billion volunteers worldwide and the economic value of their volunteering is equivalent to the gross domestic product of the world's most developed countries? According to the Czech Statistical Office, volunteers in the Czech Republic put in tens of millions of hours worth billions of crowns every year. The issue of measuring the value of volunteering is dealt with in the project called The Czech Republic counts with volunteering, which was implemented by the Polytechnic University Jihlava in cooperation with the HESTIA - Centre for Volunteering with the support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. The guests of the seventh episode of the Polytechnicast podcast are the researchers of this unique project Mgr. Martina Černá, Ph.D., from the Department of Social Work of the University of Applied Sciences and Ing. Jakub Dostál, Ph.D., from the Department of Economic Studies. In the course of the interview, they will introduce you to the turbulent circumstances of the project's inception and one of its main outputs, which is the Dobrometr web and mobile application enabling the calculation of the value of volunteering. You will also learn how their colleagues from the Department of Technical Studies and students from the University of Applied Sciences were involved in the implementation or how their project can help change the perception of volunteering in society.