Funded Volunteering
What is the European Solidarity Corps?
The European Solidarity Corps (ESC) is a programme that offers full-time volunteering opportunities for young people. The programme is funded by the EU Commission through Erasmus+.
Volunteers can spend up to one year abroad on their placement, allowing them to explore a different culture while working to support a local community. For further information on eligibility please see Who can join the European Solidarity Corps?
PLEASE NOTE that UK participation in volunteering projects that are funded by the European Union MFF (Multi-annual Financial Framework) has been affected by the withdrawal of the UK from the EU.
As a general rule, participants in Erasmus+ projects must be established in an EU Member State or a third country associated to the Programme.
The UK is no longer an EU Member State, but all projects selected under the Erasmus+ programme 2014-2020 will continue operations until their completion on the same basis under which they were selected.
Many Erasmus+ cooperation and exchange projects are multi-annual – they are funded for typically two to four years. This means that a number of these existing projects and partnerships that involve UK partners or are open to UK individuals will continue on the basis of these 2014-2020 rules, when the UK was a Programme Country.
The UK has opted not to take part as an associated third country in the new Erasmus+ programme 2021-2027. However, a limited number of opportunities from 2021 onwards will remain open to UK participation because they are open to institutions or individuals from all over the world.
As there is an overlap with existing projects from the 2014-2020 funding, IVS is in the process of finding out which projects may still be eligible for EU funding and which projects no longer are. If you wish to volunteer for any projects, and have already made contact with the project host organisation, then you can help us by asking the host whether the project is still eligible for EU funding for 2014-2020.
If you wish to contact IVS about EU-funded projects (or anything else) please visit our Contact page here.
The information given above is a summary of the more detailed information available at the following links:
https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/the-uk-and-erasmus
https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-a/eligible-countries
