EVS, or Euroepan Voluntary Service, is a project within the European Comission. It is a Youth in Action-program, and it’s designed to give youth in Europe the chance of traveling beyond the boarders of their countries and to make a difference. This is the description on the webpage of the European Comission:
“The Youth in Action programme offers young Europeans the chance to make a real difference to the world – and to their own lives – through the European Voluntary Service.
The European Voluntary Service (EVS) provides young Europeans with the unique chance to express their personal commitment through unpaid and full-time voluntary activities in a foreign country within or outside the EU. In this way, it seeks to develop solidarity, mutual understanding and tolerance among young people, thus contributing to reinforcing social cohesion in the European Union and to promoting young people's active citizenship.”
So basically, this is the chance for you to experience another culture and language, learn about another way of life, all of this while you’re working on a project that will help the local community in some way. The European Voluntary Service is a great opportunity for you to learn and gain new perspectives and experiences, but also to help out and to make a difference. I really recommend this to everyone, it’s such a great thing and a good alternative to unemployment.
How?
So, you want to be a European Volunteer, that is: leave your country for a minimum of two months and a maximum of twelve to work on a project, and you ask yourself; how can it be done? What do I have to do? Well, you’re lucky, because that’s exactly what I intend to tell you:
Step 1: Find a sending organisation. To be able to go away as a volunteer, the first thing you need is an organization that is willing to send you. This can be some organization in the local area, for example if you’re situated in la Seu d’Urgell you can go to the Oficina Jove and they can help you with this. If you’re not, you have to find it else where.
Step 2: Find a project from the database. So, now that you have a sending organization, the next step is to start looking through all the projects in order to find one that appeals to you. Luckily, there is a website where all the different projects are gathered.You can base your search on the country, town, theme, if it’s a long or short term project, the name of the organization, etc. Once you have clicked “Submit Query”, all the projects that match your search will come up. You browse through them, and if something seems interesting to you, I suggest you to click on it, upon which a discription will appear with details about the project, contact information and information about the area where the project will take place. If it still seems interesting to you after reading it all thoroughly, what you should do next is:
Step 3: Apply with your CV and motivation letter. Yes, this is where you have to start applying to different projects, trying to convince them that you are interesting to them and that you will be useful for them and their project. The most important thing is the motivation letter (it all has to be in English or the language of the country you want to go to), where you need to show them who you are and why you want to work on just their project. This can be a bit tricky, so my advice to you is that you, before sending them your CV and motivation letter, send an email to the projects you’re interested in, asking if they are currently accepting volunteers. If yes, then you send them your CV and motivation letter. Another thing is to make sure that you “custumize” your motivation letter to each project. Prepare to apply to a lot of projects before you get accepted, and be prepared for that it can take some time before you do.
Step 4: Wait for the project to get accepted by the European Comission. Once you are accepted to a project, you have basically done all you can do. This is when your sending organization together with your hosting organization (the organization that accepted you as their volunteer) apply to the European Comission to grant the fonds for the project. There are five different deadlines each year when the application has to be in; 1st of February, 1stof April, 1st of June, 1st of September and 1st of November. Once they have written the application and sent it, it usually takes about two months to find out if the project will pass or not. While you wait for this you can’t apply to other projects.
