This type of solidarity activity provides young people with the opportunity to contribute to the daily work of organisations in solidarity activities to the ultimate benefit of the communities within which the activities are carried out.
For whom?
These projects are designed for young people over the age of 18 with a maximum age of 30 on the starting day of volunteering, who reside in programme and partner countries. Potential participants can register on the ESC portal and start looking for opportunities at the age of 17.
How long do they last?
Projects can last from 2 months up to 12 months (the so-called long-term volunteeering) and in duly justified cases, especially to encourage the participation of young people with fewer opportunities, volunteering activities of 2 weeks – 2 months can be accepted and implemented (also called short-term volunteering).
Where do they take place?
- Cross-border i.e. activities taking place in a country different from the country of residence of the participant(s);
- In-country, i.e. activities taking place in the same country as the country of residence of the participant, in particular, to encourage and facilitate the participation of young people with fewer opportunities.
- Complementary insurance;
- Linguistic support and training (on arrival and midterm);
- Travel, up to a certain limit set by the Programme on the basis of the distance between your host and sending association;
- Accommodation and food can be provided directly by the association or an amount that can cover these needs based on the location of the activity;
- Pocket money, a token amount of pocket money of between 3 to 6 € per day, depending on the country;
- Special needs (e.g. disability), are also covered if necessary.
How many individual volunteers can I take part in?
This type of volunteering can only be done once in a lifetime, but offers the possibility to do a short-term project (up to 2 months) first and still be able to do a long-term project (up to 12 months), with a maximum of 14 months of activity in total.
Attention! In case you do the long-term volunteering first, you are not allowed to participate in an individual short-term volunteering afterwards, but you can still participate in the team volunteering (find more info in the next lesson).