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European Voluntary Service
How long: 2-12 monthsWhen: Throughout the year
Destinations: 50+ countries worldwide
Activities: Social, Environmental, Youth Work, Arts/Cultural, Language, Sport
Who can apply: 18-30
Cost: No cost
If you are between 18 and 30 and want to volunteer in another European country (or possibly further afield) for between two months and one year, then the European Voluntary Service (EVS) programme may be ideally suited to you.
EVS is the volunteering strand of the European Commission’s Youth in Action Programme . The programme exists to support young people aged 18-30 from across the European Union to undertake a period of voluntary service in another country. It brings together community groups (who have an appropriate project and are able to host a volunteer), organisations (who send volunteers) and of course volunteers. The programme will provide all the funding for your project including Pre-Departure and On-Arrival training, travel costs, accommodation and a small living allowance.
Through the EVS programme you can volunteer in any European country and, increasingly, in other areas of the world too.
UNA Exchange is approved by the British Council (the UK National Agency for Youth in Action) as an ‘EVS Sending Organisation’. This means that we are able to arrange and support the placements of young people on available EVS projects. We currently send around 25 volunteers per year.
Recent EVS projects that UNA Exchange volunteers have joined include:
- Organising environmental activities with children in a nature park in Poland
- Supporting an environmental charity in Spain - click here to see a recent evaluation from this project
- Working with homeless people in Italy
- Assisting Rangers at a wildlife park in Peru
To get a better idea of what is available you can search for EVS projects on the central EVS database . This search feature is found on the web pages of the European Commission and includes all of the approved EVS projects available.
UNA Exchange has worked on the EVS programme since 1998 and co-ordinates both the hosting and sending of EVS volunteers. We can be your EVS sending organisation if you are currently resident in Wales or have previously volunteered with UNA Exchange. Please contact
, EVS Programme Co-ordinator if you would like further information about applying for an EVS project.
More information on what you can expect from EVS, how the programme is structured and how the application process works is available on request. You can also come along to our EVS Info Sessions whch run throughout the year, please contact Georgie Mavrakis for further details.
An EVS life in Estonia
I worked in Imastu, a residential school for children with physical disabilities and learning disabilities, for nine months.
I worked in one of the family style living groups in the school which had 20 children aged 7-20. I helped with most of the everyday care tasks for the kids, like brushing teeth, feeding, and changing and for the rest of the day I would be playing with the kids and arranging different activities like cooking or crafts. Some time was also spent outside of the group, organising special trips or working on some of our own initiatives, together with the other volunteers, like creating a multi-sense room.
First of all it was kind of crazy because of the completely new language and a way of life that seemed a bit closed and inaccessible. During the first months I was trapped in my EVS bubble though so I was kind of protected from the differences. By the time I ventured out into the real world it was really interesting and I had a much better time with loads of new experiences and the challenge of learning a new language and trying to deal with all the small things that were different. The only thing that really caught me out though, and always will, is how all public transport is amazingly on time if not early and so having had fairly relaxed ideas of punctuality drilled into me from years of living in the UK, missing the train was a regular feature of my EVS in Estonia.
It was the best thing I’ve done so far, as cheesy as that sounds. Maybe it wasn’t so much all of the trainings and other things organised in the EVS programme but the simple fact of living for a longer period in a foreign country and having to learn the language and adapt to a new way of life. These were the things that were most important to me, as well as the work I was doing there with the kids and in the end I can say that it has changed me as a person. I’m more confident and I’ve wised up a bit to life.
Bethan Logan