Welcome to the best time of your life! Welcome to EVS! We’re two EVS volunteers staying in Romania for 9 months, as participants in the Knowledge Builders 3 project, hosted by Young Initiative Association. We’d like to share our experiences concerning “how to become an EVS volunteer” in order to offer you the amazing time we are living right now. Let’s start the adventure 😉
First of all, you may ask yourself “What is EVS”? The European Voluntary Service (EVS) is the European Commission’s project that allows young people (from 17 to 30 years old) to spend from 2 weeks to 12 months abroad in volunteering activities in a wide range of fields, such as culture, sports, children, environment and cooperation for development. At the end of your EVS, you’ll receive the Youthpass – a certificate about your activities and learning. You’ll get involved in your hosting association and the local community, you’ll get acquainted to another culture and language. Moreover, you’ll travel a lot and you gonna meet plenty of other volunteers. You want to know even more? We recommend you the EVS official info page.
The keypoint of EVS is motivation. We asked current EVS volunteers about their reasons. Why did they decide to go abroad? What are the advantages of EVS? What do they like about volunteering?
EVS sounds cool and you are now amazed? Perfect! However, before the best time of your life is going to start there is still a lot of stuff to do. Existential and therefore above all most important is your project. Without a project there is no EVS and without the most suitable project for you which matches with your skills, needs and aims there won’t be such a great time as it could be. So search and choose your project wisely. The questions you ask yourself in the moment reads as follows: How do I find my project?
Well, there are plenty of canals/tools and opportunities to find projects. As a little help we created a list of sites and networks where you can start to search for your projects.
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- This is the official database with volunteering projects. Set the filters and see in which areas and countries you can apply for projects. Pro: This is probably the easiest way to find projects starting soon. Contra: This is a very common channel, so a lot of other volunteers will search projects there and gonna apply.
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- This is the database with EVS accredited organizations. Search for hosting organizations and have a look or ask them (e-mail, telephone etc.) whether they have projects starting soon. Pro You’ll find plenty of organizations working in widespread areas, so you’ll find one which matches with your interest as well. Contra: It’s more difficult to search here, because there are lot of organizations. Furthermore, not all of these associations offer projects. So you have to invest a bit of time and effort.
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- Check out “YouthNetworks”. They publish plenty of calls for projects. Search in “vacancies” and set the filter on EVS. Pro: You’ll find a lot of projects including descriptions and deadlines. Contra: However, sometimes you need more information than provided by the description. Therefore as general advice: You shouldn’t hesitate to contact the organization and seek for more information. Little input like writing an e-mail can have an immense output like finding your favourite project.
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- “EVS vacancy” is a facebook group where you can find plenty of projects. Associations usually post here the project description and link of their next EVS project. Pro: The advantage is apparent: The information provided here is actual – and a lot of it. Contra: It’s a facebook group. You know how it works. Sometimes it’s chaotic.
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- “Discover the EVS – European Voluntary Service” is a Facebook page which frequently posts EVS opportunities. Pro: In contrast to other sources on Facebook it is not a group, so there is no spam and the information is detailed. Contra: The frequency of posts could be higher, especially compared to other sources. Moreover, you depend on the page’s choice of projects.
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- Also you can take into account “Otlas”. It’s an EVS partner search tool. Go for “EVS” in the search bar and you’ll find plenty of organizations. Pro: As mentioned before, you’ll find a lot of organizations. Out of this diversity it’s not unlikely to find an interesting association. Contra: It’s not specifically designed for recruiting volunteers, it’s focused on the NGOs.
In spite of all the sites and links we here, bear in mind this is not a comprehensive list. There are even more networks, websites and Facebook pages/groups you can use in order to identify the most suitable project for you. Do research on your own as well, ask (former) volunteers, seek for advice with your sending organization.
During your research, be patient and search constantly. It’ll take some time until you find your project of interest, but it’s worth investing this effort. In order not to get lost, it’d be advisible to set some priorities. Before you start searching, ask yourself questions like:
- What do I want to achieve and which projects offer the best opportunities to fulfill this?
- In which country/countries do I want to do my EVS?
- Do I want to stay in a village or a city?
- In which area do I want to volunteer?
- How long do I want to stay abroad?
It’s important you answer these questions before you start searching for projects, otherwise you’ll lose time and perhaps you won’t find the most suitable project for yourself. However, don’t be scared. If you know what you are looking for, you’ll find the “project of your dreams” for sure. Even if you’re not 100% convinced to do an EVS we’d recommend you just to browse some project descriptions. According to our own experience the project research is very exciting too and we got amazed by plenty of interested projects. We wish you`ll enjoy the process, too!
Once a project found, you’re not at the end of your way, yet. In the article to follow, you will discover the application process and our tips&tricks on how to master it. Watch videos with current volunteers talk about how they structured their motivation letter or prepared themselves for the Skype interview. Also, we invite you to read about what hosting organizations expect from you (and your application). You’ll be well-prepared afterwards, promised!
This article was written by Nicole Sartori and Henri Koblischke, EVS volunteers for Young Initiative Association.
