Última actualización Lunes, 24/03/2025
How many times have we heard of the European Solidarity Corps? Personally, I note that this is often the case, but to understand accurately how this programme works and what opportunities it provides to young people, one is asked to pick up a pen and paper and get as much information as possible because its range is wide. More than useful information, this article shares one’s personal experience as a Corps volunteer abroad.
Writing this article has given me the chance to see that the programme fully embrace the missions of the EU Youth Strategy (2019-2027), playing an essential role in its implementation. That’s not all. Besides the political dimension, the European Solidarity Corps is world of opportunities for young people to travel and meet new people and cultures from all over Europe and beyond. Also, through participating in the programme, one is encoraged to reflect on social problems and understand different points of view. In other words, being a Corps volunteer about being an active and open-minded EU citizen.
Starting the journey
In the summer of my 22nd year, I had just graduated from university in Turin, Italy, and I was looking for an adventure that would allow me to get involved, improve my English and try my hand at practical work. I’d like an activity surrounded by nature, that would take me away from the desks I had sat in for so many years as a student. However, I didn’t know much about the European Solidarity Corps until I approached Giosef Torino, a local social promotion organisation. This organisation was the first one to fully explain to me what the Solidarity Corps was.
They explained to me how the programme worked, focusing on the following:
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it has at its core a number of priorities: inclusion and diversity, democratic participation, environment and the fight against climate change, and digital transformation.
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it finances volunteering (including in humanitarian aid) and solidarity projects.
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it is open to individuals aged 18 to 30 (35 for humanitarian aid) and to organisations in the EU and partner countries.
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its mission is to bring together young people to build a more inclusive society and to support vulnerable groups in the face of social challenges.
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when it comes to solidarity projects, young people are encouraged to identify the issues they see in their communities, submit a project, get funds and try to solve them.
After finding the information above, I returned home full of enthusiasm, because I felt I had found the right opportunity for me – both to indulge the call to adventure and to play my part as an active European citizen. However, I still had to find the project suiting me the best, apply and wait for a response. And so I did! To begin the research one can consult the complete database of projects listed on the European Youth Portal. The age range to be eligible to apply is 18-30. One can browse through the thousands (!) of ongoing projects, filtering them in different ways, for example by country, by topic (creativity, arts and culture; environment and climate change, promoting gender equality, and many others), by type of action (solidarity projects, volunteering, and more), and by expertise.
In my case, I initially applied to be a volunteer in a public library in a small Polish town. After a few days, they called me in for an interview, but they didn’t select me. I was sorry at first, but then I realised that I was actually looking for something else too. So I focus on applying for projects in the nature of Northern Europe: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark. Until I came across a project located on the small Danish island of Strynø! This time the interview with the girl in charge of the project went well and a few days later she informed me that I had been selected.
I was very happy and excited! I didn’t know if I was really ready for all that laid ahead, but I definitely wanted to find out. I had more than a month to prepare for my departure. In this regard, I would like to give three main pieces of advice: First: don’t give up if you send a lot of applications and at the beginning you don’t get picked. Just be patient, the right one will come along. Second: when you are selected, get help from a local European exchange organisation to fill out all the forms you need to go. I am very grateful to Giosef for the help he gave me at that time. Thrid: keep an eye on the European Commission’s updated official European Solidarity Corps programme guide, which sets out the rules for the this programme (from one year to the next certain aspects may change).
Be the spark that ignites change
I landed in Strynø it in April and my project there lasted six months. Little by little the organisation explained to me what was the project about and I got to know better the community living in that small island. Less than two hundred souls united by a very strong sense of community. The project focused on helping this small island community to carry out tasks in nature, on their local nature centre, the Smakkecenter, a green area for tourists equipped with camping tents, kayaks and boats, a maritime museum and sheep.
© Francesco Melotti – The author and his friends walking on a farm field on Strynø. The project was focused on helping a small island community accomplish tasks in nature.
During my journey, I met girls and boys from all kinds of paths and backgrounds, who decided to become European volunteers out of a sense of civic duty, a desire for adventure and many other reasons. By talking to them I was able to focus on some aspects that characterise the European Solidarity Corps in general.
Olga Mashina, from Russia, who was already a young teacher, became a Solidarity Corps volunteer in 2024 at Kassebølle Friskole (Rudkøbing, Denmark). There, she had the chance to gain practical experience in the Danish education system, expanding her knowledge and skills. “I organized – she told me – a mirror project aimed at boosting students’ self-esteem and encouraging them to appreciate themselves more. The activity inspired positive thinking and self-reflection, which significantly improved students’ mood and productivity. They became more confident, which positively impacted both their academic performance and overall well-being”.
A European Solidarity Corps project changed everything for my friend Emma Örjas. It was an important learning experience for her because the reality of Saint-Denis, the suburb of Paris where she did her project, was a big change compared to her home in Sweden. It was urban, loud and crowded. There was also a lot of poverty in the area. Back in Sweden, she felt like a new person. “During the 6-month project in a suburb of Paris – she told me – I’ve grown, matured and gained more clarity about what I wanted to do in the future. I felt sad when my time there came to an end. It was like leaving my new family. I also made new friends, experienced a new culture and new ways of life, and got to know people from different cultures. It is incredible that so much can happen in just 6 months!”.
The multiple layers of the Corps
Back from Denmark, I had many impressions and ideas in my head. I could start stating one certainty: my six months on that little island had been electrifying. Only a few days after arriving to Denmark I had found myself asking: ‘Will I really make it?’ Then I noticed the srong impact that new experience was having on me, in a good way. It was this very thought that confirmed to me that I had made the right choice. At the end of the experience, I was grateful to the family who had hosted me, the people I had met on the road and the opportunity of living this whole experience under the European Solidarity Corps. Therefore, I started to do some research to understand how this European programme runs .
The starting point is to know that the European Solidarity Corps is managed by the European Commission and implemented on the ground by a variety of bodies. Among them an indispensable role is played by SALTO. ‘What is SALTO about?’ – I asked myself the first time I heard about it. In my mother tongue, which is Italian, ‘saltare’ would mean ‘to jump’. It is actually an acronym: Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities for Youth. In a nutshell, it is a network of 11 Resource centres (one of them is dedicated to the Solidarity Corps) working on European priority areas within the youth field.
One of SALTO’s missions is to improve the quality and impact of the EU youth programmes, such as the European Solidarity Corps and Erasmus+. They also developed a Youth Participation Strategy to help achieving the goals defined by the Commission’s EU Youth Strategy and enhance youth participation in democratic life thought collaboration between SALTOs, National Agencies, Eurodesk, youth stakeholders and organisations.
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Young Journalists in Europe – Meet the author
Emanuele Gessi
Emanuele, 23 years old, coming from Italy, in between quiet and chaos, reality and ideas. My hair and eyes are brown, my nose is straight and I have a bit of a beard. I like my khaki backpack, Bolaño and working in the open air.
This article reflects the views of the authors only. The European Commission and Eurodesk cannot be held responsible for it.