What are volunteering projects? 

Volunteering projects provide volunteering opportunities for young people.

They should respond to important societal needs, contribute to strengthening communities while enabling volunteers to acquire useful experience, skills and competences for their personal, educational, social, civic and professional development, thereby improving their employability. 

Which Activities are supported under Volunteering Projects? 

Volunteering projects can combine one or more of the following main activities:

1. Individual volunteering activities

Full-time voluntary unpaid solidarity activity for a period from 2 to 12 months.

In some cases, volunteering activities of 2 weeks to 2 months can be put in place for young people with fewer opportunities. This type of solidarity activity will give young people the chance to take part in the daily work of organisations.

Activities can take place either in a country other than the country of residence of the participant (cross-border) or in the country of residence of the participant (in-country).

2. Volunteering teams

Groups of 10 to 40 young volunteers coming from at least two different countries to volunteer for a period between 2 weeks and 2 months.

Such solidarity activities could especially contribute to the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities in the European Solidarity Corps.

Details are available in the European Solidarity Corps Guide > Part B - Volunteering.

Who can take part?

Organisations

Any public or private organisation from a Programme Country can participate and submit applications. Organisations from partner countries can also participate in volunteering activities as partners.
See https://ec.europa.eu/youth/solidarity-corps/how-to-apply_en for details on the eligible countries.

Individuals

Young people aged 18-30 from a Programme Country and certain partner countries as listed under https://ec.europa.eu/youth/solidarity-corps/how-to-apply_en

Young people express their willingness to participate in the European Solidarity Corps by registering on the European Solidarity Corps portal.

Additional details can be found in the European Solidarity Corps Guide > Part B - Volunteering.

What is supported?

• Travel costs, 
• Organisational support (contribution to subsistence, support to participants, management costs), 
• Pocket money for the volunteers, 
• Linguistic support,
• Inclusion support, 
• Insurance, 
• Exceptional costs
• Complementary activity costs

Details on the funding rules are available in the European Solidarity Corps Guide > Part B - Volunteering.

How does it work?

Projects will typically consist of the following stages:

• Preparation (including practical arrangements, selection of participants, set up of agreements with partners and participants, linguistic/intercultural/task-related preparation of participants before departure);
• Implementation of activities;
• Follow-up (including the evaluation of the activities, the formal recognition of the learning outcomes of participants during the activity, issue of the certificate of participation as well as the dissemination and use of the project's outcomes).

Organisations taking part in volunteering activities need to hold either an Erasmus+ volunteering accreditation or a Quality Label for volunteering and should cover the following roles: :

• A host role that covers the full range of activities related to hosting a Solidarity Corps participant, including the development of a programme of the young person's activities and providing guidance and support to the participant during all the phases of the project as appropriate (some of these activities can be carried out by a support organisation involved in the same projects).
• A support role that entails supporting, preparing and/or training participants before departure, mediation between them and their host organisations and/or providing support to participants upon return from their activity. Furthermore, where the host organisation cannot or does not wish to be responsible for some aspects of the host functions, these may also be covered by the support organisation.

For cross-border individual volunteering activities, a minimum of two organisations, one holding an Erasmus+ accreditation or a Quality Label for a host role and one holding for a supporting role (and established in the country of residence of the
volunteer) need to be involved. 

For in-country individual volunteering activities, the minimum requirement is to have at least one organisation holding an Erasmus+ accreditation or a Quality Label for a host role. 

For volunteering teams, the minimum requirement is to have one organisation - regardless of the role it is accredited for.

Young people express their willingness to participate in the European Solidarity Corps by registering on the European Solidarity Corps portal. Organisations have to select the participants through the database of young people registered.

^{Source: European Solidarity Corps Guide > Part B - Volunteering}

How to take part?

Organisations apply to the National Agency of their country.

Project Start dates:

• Between 1 May and 30 September of the same year
• Between 1 August and 31 December of the same year
• Between 1 January and 31 May of the following year

Project duration:

• From 3 to 24 months for Volunteering Projects
• 18 months for Volunteering Partnerships – Annual grant request

Deadline for applications:  

• 5 February at 12:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 May and 30 September of the same year;
• 30 April at 12:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 August and 31 December of the same year;
• 1 October at 12:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 January and 31 May of the following year.

^{Source: European Solidarity Corps Guide > Part B - Volunteering}