Safe&Informed Volunteering

Our consortium applied this project as we encountered a problem and a need in the european volunteering projects. Moreover, at an international level this problem increased due to the covid-19 pandemic that has especially hit hard the recruitment of international volunteers. During a previous KA2 project, coordinated by Deses-3, REEVOL – “The referee for volunteering” with the reference number 2018-2-ES02-KA205-011520, an APP was created as, in which organizations involved in EVS, further ESC, had the opportunity to share possible problems that may occur during a volunteering project, as well as solutions. After analysing and interpreting the data collected, Deses-3 proposed this project, which comes as a response and solution to an issue that was identified as being the cause of most of the problems shared: the lack of previous structured and objective information regarding the community where the hosting organization is located (village/town/city – neighborhood). That is why our project comes as a solution to the encountered problem and needs of our organizations by creating an APP with information generated by local and/or foreign volunteers on the villages/towns/cities of organizations which host ESC project.

The objectives of SIV were set according to the priorities tackled, the needs encountered both inside the partners’ organizations and in the field of youth volunteering in general. These objectives were further correlated with the activities planned to create the main result, which is expected to improve the partners’ work in volunteering projects by integrating it in the daily activities. - Create an instrument to improve the participation of all young people in ESC projects in an informed and secure manner - Facilitate previous preparation of volunteers for the ESC projects - Foster the integration of the volunteers in the project community (village/town/city – neighborhood) - Improve the collaboration between hosting organization and volunteers - Develop the sense of initiative and social entrepreneurship of youth and youth workers

The activities that were implemented were divided into management activities (related to coordination, quality assurance, sharing and promotion) and activities that serve in the process of creating the JPA, the final result of the project. These activities involved the direct and indirect addressees in the creation of the JPA content and in ensuring its quality, relevance and sustainability. In order to achieve the final result, 10 main activities were carried out, following the DBR (Design Based Research) working methodology, used by multinationals and start-ups in the design of innovative products/services that meet users' needs. Each activity had a leader who coordinated the necessary tasks and ensured their execution on time. We have: - Contacted accredited ESC NGOs in each partner country (led by P1). - Created a database of cities/towns/villages with active NGOs in each partner country (led by P2) - Conducted an online focus group (led by P3) - Obtained reviews on the cities/villages of ESC-accredited organisations from Spain, Romania and Portugal (in terms of cost of living, quality of life, leisure activities, level of English of citizens, etc.) (led by P2) - Designed the app (led by P4) - Created the app (led by

The main project result, which was concretized into an APP, a free digital tool which supports NGO’s active in ESC, youth workers and educators in their work and improve the selection process of the volunteers and also the development of the volunteering projects. The APP serves as an instrument to improve the participation of all young people in ESC projects in an informed and secure manner, facilitates pre-preparation for European volunteering, as well as integration at the site of volunteering and overcome the mismatch between the expectations of the volunteers and the reality of the project’s place. The APP has been designed containing categories representing important aspects regarding the cities/towns/villages in which there are located ESC accredited organizations, to facilitate the acces of details regarding the cost of living, access to facilities and services, safety, free time activities etc. The categories and their relevance, as well as the content were generated after an online focus group with the direct and indirect target group from each partner's countries, ensuring in this manner the pertinence of the entire content of the APP. More tangible results were generated through the sharing and promotion activities