The European Voluntary Service

What is an EVS summed up?

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The European Voluntary Service (EVS), brought to live by the European Commission as part of the Erasmus+ Programme, is an international full-time volunteering scheme for Europe's young people, lasting between a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of 12 months.

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During this period, the volunteer will be provided with free accommodation near their selected project, access to public transport, a budget to cover for food and other living expenses and will also be reimbursed for their travel from their home to destination country and back.

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What are its aims?

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The programme aims to promote lifelong learning, strengthen European bonds and boost young people's employability by enabling them to go abroad to provide unpaid service to non-profit organisations. This is a true informal learning process in which young people face challenges in an unknown environment, and learn to exploit their own potential and abilities by engaging in activities in the field of culture, youth, sport, social care, civil protection, environment and more.

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Not only will you develop personally, make unforgettable memories and friendships all over Europe, your EVS will also add value to your profile and facilitate your professional inclusion!

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How does it work in detail? 

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An EVS project is a partnership between two or more promoting organisations.

As a volunteer, you will participate through a Sending Organisation in your own home country and will commit yourself abroad to a full-time activity in a social, sportive, cultural or environmental non-profit organisation, your Receiving Organisation. 

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In some cases, a third party, a Coordinating Organisation, may be involved. These are usually non-profit organisations active in the field of youth exchanges or the like. They manage all organisational matters for your stay and are partnered with Receiving Projects, the projects you will finally volunteer at.

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In my case, Eurocircle e.V. is my German Sending Organisation, Opportunity UK functions as my Coordinating Organisation and YMCA Newcastle or more specifically Space2 is the Receiving Project I actually commit to.

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At the end of your EVS period, you will also receive a Youthpass certificate confirming your participation and describing your project. You will have to fill it in yourself, but don't worry. It doesn't take a lot of time and your Sending Organisation will assist you!

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How can I apply? What do I have to consider?

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The first advisable step is to find and contact a Sending Organisation (SO) in your region, which will help you with the applying procedure. You can visit fairs or buy booklets to do so, but the internet is probably the easiest and most accessible medium.

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Once you have found the right SO for you, you can start looking for accredited EVS projects in the European Commission's database. With over 200 projects to choose from, you should easily find many to your liking!

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But two little tips from me when looking for EVS placements. Firstly, don't be too picky! When I first started looking, I had a very specific picture in my mind. Both in terms of destination country as well as project description. However, you are very likely to end up with only very few projects that way and when sending out your applications to Receiving Organisations (RO), it is normal to collect quite a few rejections before actually being accepted, no matter how good your application might be. So be open and flexible, because if you only send five applications in the first place and aren't accepted at any of those, you will be very short of time soon, as there are usually application deadlines (Roughly one in early spring for a departure in late summer and another one in late summer if you want to depart in next year's spring)!

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Which brings me to my second tip. Start early enough! Many SOs have a selection process which can take up to two months (if a selection seminar is included). Going through the database definitely takes some time too and of course you will have to invest a lot of time in writing CVs and cover letters before you can send them out to the ROs and wait for their responses. All in all, I'd say start looking for SOs about one year before your planned departure for a stress-free application process.

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I know, this might sound discouraging, but don't worry! Firstly, your SO will advise and assist you during the entire process. And secondly, you don't have to give up on an EVS completely only because you have less than a year left. I was very short of time too (amongst others because of my pickiness), but I still managed to find a project I am now very happy with ... You didn't hear it from me, but when in doubt, just google last-minute EVS projects!

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Anyway, once you are selected, you will probably have to meet your SO to deal with the last papers and organisational matters, but then you're ready to go experience the world!

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