EVS - European Voluntary Service

When a volunteer leaves the home country to go abroad spending a period of his/her lifetime in a foreign country he/she has to cope with a lot of new things, has to survive in a new environment and put ideas into practise. This will influence his/her future perception of life, culture, work and vision of reality and view on European societies.  

1. In 2006, European Voluntary Service (EVS) celebrated its 10^th anniversary.
2. EVS is Action 2 of the Youth in Action programme (2007-2013) and allows volunteers between 18 and 30 years (in some cases 16-18) to do     voluntary service abroad.  
3. EVS aspires to develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, primarily to reinforce social cohesion in the European Union. It promotes active citizenship and enhances mutual understanding among young people through unpaid voluntary work.
4. EVS volunteers generally provide a service to a local community, but also receive regular training and a strong personal and task-related support. EVS thus is an important non-formal learning experience for young people, which is documented by Youthpass
5. EVS relies on a strong partnership between sending organization, hosting organization and a volunteer (and sometimes co-ordinating organization)
6. Volunteers do not have to pay anything for participation in EVS. They receive a full reimbursement of travel costs, complete insurance cover (AXA) and pocket money.
7. EVS is a "learning" service: throughout non-formal learning experiences young volunteers improve and/or acquire competences for their personal, educational and professional development as well as for their social integration. The learning elements consist of a mutually agreed definition of the expected learning outcomes, processes and methods, the certification of the acquired competences, the participation of the volunteer in the EVS training cycle and the continued provision of task-related, linguistic and personal support, including a crisis prevention and management mechanism.
8. The EVS activity abroad should have a minimum duration of 2 months and a maximum overall duration of 12 months (excluding preparation and evaluation). In the case of inclusion activities with young volunteers with fewer opportunities or for group activities, if duly justified, a minimum duration of two weeks is allowed.

EVS partnership

A solid partnership between EVS sending, host, coordinating organisations and the volunteer is the basis of every EVS activity. An adequate match-making between the volunteer profile and the tasks has to be in place. An activity agreement (AA) is signed by all the partners before the beginning of the activity.

 The sending organisation is in charge of the preparation and support of the volunteers before, during and after the EVS activities. The host organisation has to ensure safe and decent living and working conditions to the volunteer throughout the entire activity period. It has to provide adequate personal, linguistic and task-related support, including the identification of a mentor for the volunteer. The coordinating organisation (applicant) has the role of facilitating the implementation of the project by offering administrative and quality support to all project partners and enabling their networking. 

A project partner that sends or hosts the volunteer must be:

•      a non-profit organisation or association  legally established  in  a  Programme
Country or in a Partner Country or

•      a local, regional or national authority from a Programme Country or a Partner
Country or

•      an international governmental organisation established in a Programme country or
in a Partner Country

Where can I find a host organization for EVS?

Host organizations for EVS can be found with the help of sending organizations, National Agencies or in the European database on accredited host organizations in Programme Countries:

ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_en.cfm

www.youthforeurope.eu

Which themes can be covered within a voluntary service?

- Environment
- Arts and culture
- Sports
- Heritage
- Activities with children, youngsters or elderly people
- Civil protection
- Development cooperation
- Xenophobia

How to join EVS?

1.       Fill in a CV-Letter and a Motivation Letter
2.       Find and contact  sending organization
3.       Search for a project

Keep in mind that after the five possible deadlines, it takes at least 3 months to start your EVS in practice. These are the deadlines for the application of your sending organization to the National Agency:

Projects starting between                          Application deadline
1 May and 30 September                                 1 February
1 July and 30 November                                       1 April
1 September and 31 January                              1 June
1 December and 30 April                                1 September
1 February and 31 July                                     1 November


Where can I share my EVS experience and meet other ex-volunteers?w

ww.myevs.net
www.neva-networks.org
www.maailmakodanik.ee

Youth in action (YiA)

Youth in Action is a programme for all! It promotes mobility within and beyond the EU borders, non-formal learning and intercultural dialogue, and encourages the inclusion of all young people, regardless of their educational, social and cultural background.
The  programme has four permanent priorities and additional annual priorities which potential projects will have to be aware of as they frame their bids for support:

European Citizenship: A key goal of the programme is to raise awareness in young people that they are citizens of Europe, as well as citizens of their own countries. The aim is to get youth actively involved in shaping the future of the European Union. Projects will have to show a strong European dimension if they are to receive programme backing.

Participation of young people: Youth in Action promotes and supports young people’s involvement in democratic life, spurring them on to be active citizens who care about their communities and understand the value of representative democracy.

Cultural diversity: Respect for people’s cultural origins is at the heart of the Youth in Action programme, as is the desire to fight against racism and xenophobia – forces that undermine European values and people’s solidarity.

Inclusion: The focus is on ensuring that young people with fewer opportunities get access to the Youth in Action programme, as well as on encouraging projects with a thematic focus on inclusion.

Annual priorities: In addition to these permanent priorities, each year the focus is also placed on specific annual priorities.

•       The YiA programme consists of 5 different Actions
•       ·  Action 1 - Youth for Europe
•       ·  Action 2 - European Voluntary Service
•       ·  Action 3 - Youth in the World
•       ·  Action 4 - Youth Support Systems
•       ·  Action 5 - Support for European cooperation in the youth field

For more detalied information connected with the  actions You can visit the following page http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth-programmes-youth-in-action.htm