Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas

Deadline: Oct 5, 2021  
CALL EXPIRED

VOLUNTEERING TEAMS IN HIGH PRIORITY AREAS

WHAT ARE VOLUNTEERING TEAMS IN HIGH PRIORITY AREAS?

Volunteering Teams in high priority areas are large scale, high impact projects supporting voluntary activities carried out by young people from at least two different countries coming together to express solidarity by implementing short-term interventions that address common European challenges in policy areas defined each year at EU level.

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES?

This year’s priority is focused on COVID-19 impact and recovery, particularly through supporting the health and social care systems with activities tackling prevention, promotion and support in the field of health; addressing major health challenges (i.e. life-threatening illnesses like cancer) and promoting health, healthy lifestyle, physical activity and well-being overall.
For the purpose of this call, applications for funding could:

• contribute to the improvement of health and well-being of vulnerable people, including persons affected by chronic or life-threatening diseases (e.g. cancer);
• contribute to building inclusive societies through protecting vulnerable groups as people with drug-alcohol dependence, elderly and children, migrants, homeless etc. from COVID-19 impact and other diseases

Additionally, to increase the quality and impact of the action, projects would integrate complementary activities to:

• foster European cooperation to strengthen the capacity of the solidarity sector to tackle common European challenges, such as health crisis, protection of vulnerable groups through networking and exchanging experiences;
• raise awareness about prevention through campaigns, promotion and information dissemination, public discussions in order to improve the general health of European populations.

WHICH ACTIVITIES CAN BE SUPPORTED?

The following activities are supported:

• Volunteering Teams

Volunteering Teams are solidarity activities that allow groups of minimum 5 participants to volunteer together for a period between 2 weeks and 2 months. Composition of the team should be international (including participants from at least two different countries) with at least a quarter of team members coming from countries that are different from the country where the activity takes place. In volunteering teams, European Solidarity Corps’ volunteers carry out tasks for a project over a short period of time (usually, but not exclusively, during holidays, breaks between study periods, transition from education to work, etc.).

Examples of the valuable work that can be accomplished by volunteering teams under this Action include: organising information campaigns, providing critical community services to most vulnerable populations e.g. arranging grocery shopping for elderly, organizing recreational activities for children with cancer, intergenerational workshops on use of online tools for socialising and communicating, supporting vaccination campaigns.

In Volunteering Teams, volunteers will carry out the activity in a group. This can be an incentive for youngsters who do not feel ready to embark into challenging experiences on their own; The activity will be shorter in its duration. This can foster the participation of those youngsters who cannot commit for a long period of time because of their studies or jobs, but still want to be of help for the community.
The above makes also Volunteering Teams an inclusive format, particularly suitable for a first experience in volunteering and the participation of young people with fewer opportunities. They can thus serve as an entry-way for long-term activities or even provide an incentive to start an own solidarity project.

• Complementary activities

Complementary activities are relevant side activities designed to add value and augment the results of the project as well as to strengthen its impact on the local, regional, and/or European level. These complementary activities aim at raising awareness of the value of volunteering for young people and for communities as well as at strengthening the recognition of the skills and competences gained by the volunteers. These activities could also enhance the capacity of the solidarity sector organisations to tackle common European challenges and their abilities to develop volunteering projects.
Complementary activities could include workshops, conferences, seminars, training courses, job shadowing, coaching, exchange of good practices etc.

• Preparatory Visit

Preparatory visits are visits to the venue of the volunteering activities before they start. They should ensure high quality of activities involving young people with fewer opportunities or when the visit is necessary for the implementation of an activity with a strong inclusion dimension. The visit can focus on facilitating and preparing administrative arrangements, building trust and understanding and setting-up a solid partnership between the organisations and the people involved. Participants with fewer opportunities that will take part in the planned activities can be involved in the visit, in order to help with their preparation and involve them in activity design so that their needs are taken into account from the start.

HOW TO SET UP A PROJECT?

A project is implemented by at least three organisations from at least two different eligible countries and will typically consist of the following stages:

• Planning (defining the needs, objectives, development of work programme, schedule of activities etc.);
• Preparation (practical arrangements, selection of participants, set up of agreements with partners and participants, linguistic/intercultural/task-related preparation of participants before departure);
• Implementation of activities (including support and guidance to participants during the activities);
• Follow-up (the evaluation of the activities, follow-up of participants, issue of the certificate of participation as well as the dissemination and use of the project's outcomes).

Implementation of cross-border solidarity activities for groups of volunteers are the core of a project. A project must thus include at least one volunteering team activity. A project should also include complementary activities. Furthermore, organisations are encouraged to organise preparatory visits to ensure high quality of activities involving young people with fewer opportunities. Eligibility criteria laid down below must be respected.

• Selection of Participants

Young people who want to participate in the European Solidarity Corps must register on the European Solidarity Corps Portal. Young people with fewer opportunities may receive support from organisations to complete the registration phase. The European Solidarity Corps Portal offers a place for those young people and organisations holding a Quality Label and willing to implement solidarity activities to find each other. Organisations have to select the participants from the database of registered young people.

• Quality and support measures

A set of measures and services, such as training, language learning support, identification and documentation of the competences acquired, insurance are foreseen to ensure the quality of the volunteering activities and a strong learning dimension for the participants. Some of these measures are optional and could be used depending on the interest and needs of the participants, and some of them are compulsory. Organisations should aim to promote the use of the General Online Training as part of the volunteers’ learning experience. Detailed information on those measures is available in Part D of this Guide.

• Inclusion and diversity

The European Solidarity Corps seeks to promote equal opportunities and access, inclusion and fairness. Organisations should design accessible and inclusive activities, taking into account the views and needs of participants with fewer opportunities.

To support inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities, additional support measures and funding that allow participating organisations to better accommodate and cater for the needs of young people with fewer opportunities are available.
In order to benefit from additional funding applicants will be required to describe how they involve young people who are at comparative disadvantage i.e they have comparatively fewer opportunities than their peers in the same country/area/age group/situation, what are the specific needs to ensure their participation on equal terms as others and what specific measures they plan to put in place to cater for these needs.
In this sense, “involving” does not refer to a target group the organisations work with. It means to facilitate the participation of young people with fewer opportunities by designing the measures of outreach and support as well as the project activities in an inclusive and accessible way.

• Environmental protection, sustainable development and climate action

Volunteering activities should promote environmentally sustainable and responsible behaviour among participants, raising the awareness about the importance of acting to reduce or compensate for the environmental footprint of activities. Volunteering activities should be designed and implemented with environmental consciousness by e.g. integrating sustainable practices such as reducing waste and recycling, using sustainable means of transportation.

• Digital transition

Participating organisations are encouraged to make use of digital tools and learning methods to complement their physical activities, to improve the cooperation between partner organisations, and the quality of the activities.

WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA USED TO ASSESS PROJECTS?

The projects are selected and managed at EU level, by the Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). The centralised approach ensures the underlying pan-European dimension of these projects and enables large projects with increased number of participants and high impact. Projects will be assessed against the following criteria: eligibility, exclusion, selection and award.

• ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Here below are listed the formal criteria that the projects must respect in order to be eligible for a grant.

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Eligible participating organisations

Any organisation legally established in a programme country or a partner country neighbouring the EU that holds a valid volunteering Quality Label or Erasmus+ volunteering accreditation. Participating organisations must hold a valid volunteering Quality Label or Erasmus+ volunteering accreditation at the latest at the start of the activities they are involved in and during the entire duration of the activities.

Eligible applicants

Any eligible participating organisation legally established in a programme country and any international organisation. The organisation applies on behalf of all participating organisations involved in the project. The applicant organisation must hold a valid volunteering Quality Label or Erasmus+ volunteering accreditation at the application deadline and during the entire duration of the project.

Number of participating organisations

At least three eligible organisations, from at least two different programme countries.

Venue of activities

Activities have to take place in the country of one of the participating organisations except in duly justified cases, related to the objectives of the call. The activities have to take place in a programme country or a partner country neighbouring the EU.

Number of activities

At least one volunteering team activity must be implemented.

Number of participants

Minimum 40 participants per project.

Duration of project

12, 24 or 36 months. The duration has to be chosen at application stage, based on the objectives of the project and on the type of activities planned over time. The start cannot be before the signature of the Grant Agreement by the Agency.

Where to apply?

To the Education and Culture Executive Agency.

Funding & tenders (europa.eu)

Call ID: ESC-VOLUN-2021-VTHPA

When to apply?

Applicants have to submit their grant application by 5 October 2021 at 17:00 (Brussels time).

Other criteria

A Declaration of Honour signed by the legal representative must be provided with the application.

ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR VOLUNTEERING TEAMS ACTIVITIES

Duration of activity

2 weeks to 2 months, excluding travel time.

Eligible participants

Young people between 18 and 30 years who are legally residing in a programme country or in a partner country neighbouring the EU and have registered in the European Solidarity Corps Portal.

Number of participants and composition of teams

Minimum 5 participants. The team should be composed of participants coming from at least two different countries and at least a quarter of team members coming from countries that are different from the country where the activity takes place. . Young people can only be involved in one activity at a time.

• AWARD CRITERIA

To be considered for funding, proposals must score at least 60 points. Furthermore, they must score at least half of the maximum points in each of the categories of the award criteria mentioned below. In ex aequo cases, priority will be given to highest scores for "relevance, rationale and impact" and then “Quality of project management” and then “Quality of project design”.

Relevance, rationale and impact
(maximum 30 points)

• The relevance of the project to the objectives of the European Solidarity Corps and the thematic priority set for this Action;
• The extent to which the proposal will address well defined and important societal needs;
• The relevance of the project to the needs and objectives of individual participants and participating organisations;
• The extent to which the project will provide benefits to the communities within which the activities are carried out;
• The potential impact of the project at local, regional, national and/or European levels;
• The extent to which the project provides European added value;
• The extent to which the project involves young people with fewer opportunities as participants.

Quality of project design
(maximum 40 points)

• The consistency between project objectives and activities proposed;
• The clarity, completeness and quality of all the phases of the project (preparation of participants, implementation of activities, follow-up and support provided on participants' return);
• The quality of arrangements for the recognition and validation of participants' learning outcomes, as well as the consistent use of European transparency and recognition tools;
• The appropriateness of measures for selecting and/or involving participants in activities;
• The quality of proposed measures to reach out and involve young people with fewer opportunities;
• The quality of the non-formal learning methods and measures proposed to enable the participants to gain skills and competences that are valuable for their personal, educational, social, civic and cultural development;
• The added value of the complementary activities to the project objectives and the impact of the project.

Quality of project management
(maximum 30 points)

• The quality of the practical arrangements, management and support modalities;
• The quality of cooperation and communication between the participating organisations, as well as with other relevant stakeholders;
• The quality of measures for evaluating and disseminating the outcomes of the project.

WHAT ARE THE FUNDING RULES?

Maximum EU grant per project: 400.000 EUR

Contribution to travel costs and exceptional costs such as visa and vaccinations costs, personal insurance for in-country activities, expensive travel costs and contribution to additional personal expenses for participants (pocket money).

Contribution on the basis of unit costs

23 EUR per day per participant

Based on the duration of the activity (if necessary, including also one travel day before the activity and one travel day following the activity) per participant, including accompanying persons.

Organisational Support

Contribution to management costs (e.g. planning, finances, coordination and communication between partners, administrative costs) and to costs directly linked to the implementation of volunteering activities (e.g. preparation, monitoring and support of participants, validation of learning outcomes) and costs linked to the subsistence of participants (e.g. boarding, lodging and local travel).

Contribution to complementary activity costs.

Contribution to exceptional costs such as financial guarantee and audit report.

Contribution on the basis of unit costs

37 EUR per day per participant

Based on the duration of the activity (if necessary, including also one travel day before the activity and one travel day following the activity) per participant, including accompanying persons.

Inclusion support

Contribution to costs incurred by organisations to support the participation of young people with fewer opportunities on equal terms as others such as investment in physical assets, reinforced mentorship, prepartory visits.