Empowering all citizens to become actors of change
With over 1,500 volunteers of more than 70 nationalities, Serve the City is the first charity in Luxembourg to include the expat community.
“Serve the City Luxembourg’s vision is to make volunteering accessible to everyone. A lot of people want to get involved but face constraints related to free time, language or skills in general,” explains Nicolas Duprey. “There are many such people, particularly since the health crisis.
Serve the City Luxembourg acts as a platform for offering short-term assignments on various themes, with a social or environmental impact. Active for more than 10 years, in 2023 the non-profit organisation obtained public interest status, “an important step towards making an even greater impact on the ground”.
This particular approach helps to create new volunteers with long-term commitment. “We start with a spontaneous act, which can often become the spark. This will trigger something in them and lead them to become more involved, whether in our team or in other organisations.”
Another interesting area is team-building. “More and more companies are aware of their social responsibility and are working with us to respond to their employees’ quest for meaning. We have developed a range of team-building type projects, but which also have meaning and an impact, opening our eyes to certain realities and taking concrete action”, adds Nicolas Duprey.
Creating links
In 2024, Serve the City is increasing its ambitions, with a target of 200 projects and activities for its community, divided into three “categories”. Starting with initiatives to help people in need (people living on the streets, the elderly, refugees, people with disabilities, etc.). The aim behind this approach is to create links between expats, workers and these people, who are often sidelined, in order to help them regain their self-confidence and connect them with the rest of society.
Then there’s the awareness-raising aspect, particularly in schools. “In Luxembourg, people are sometimes in their own little bubble. We need to help them realise that there are people in need and that we are all in a position to do something about it”, continues the Director.
Lastly, the association wants to step up its environmental protection activities, such as clean-up challenges and upcycling workshops.

Alongside these grassroots initiatives, an app is also planned for 2024 to make it even easier to volunteer. “The idea is to centralise everything on this application, which is currently being developed by our IT manager. People who want to volunteer will be able to register on the platform and directly access available assignments. In the event of last-minute cancellations, the app will also enable us to quickly find replacements so that we can maintain the planned action.”
Originally published in French by Infogreen