Overseas Countries
and Territories Association
Overseas Countries
and Territories Association
There are currently 8 projects taking place in the OCTs, coordinated by 4 organisations
The European Solidarity Corps is an EU programme for young people that would like to engage in solidarity activities accross Europe and beyond for a duration of up to 12 months. It is open to people aged 18 – 30 for volunteering addressing societal challenges, and 18 – 35 for humanitarian aid activities.
Young people can find volunteering opportunities can be found via the European Youth Portal. They need to register in the portal to view and apply to all the available opportunities. It is possible to filter by country, duration and topic. The organisations will then contact the potential recruits and make a final choice.
All organisations will undergo checks before they are authorised to run projects for the European Solidarity Corps, and before they are allowed to search for and recruit participants for their projects.
The European Solidarity Corps project provide financing to cover the following expenses for the volunteers:
Organisations can receive funding for projects that contribute to society and local communities. The European Solidarity Corps funding is provided as grants to succesfull projects through call for proposals. If the project gets approved, the organisation has access to a pool of motivated young people between 18 and 30 years old on the European Solidarity Corps portal. The organisation is able to advertise opportunities in the portal, or search and get in touch with potential participants.
The projects can be in areas such as:
Young people in the OCTs can apply to the European Solidarity Corps and apply to projects everywhere as they are European citizens.
Organisations established in OCTs are eligible for funding like any other EU Member State.
What does the 2021-2027 programme support?
Solidarity activities
Volunteering provides young people with the opportunity to contribute to the daily work of organisations that specialise in solidarity activities to benefit communities. The activities can take place either abroad or in the participant’s country of residence. Individual volunteering can last up to 12 months, whereas team volunteering usually lasts between 2 weeks and 2 months.
Humanitarian aid related solidarity activities
For the first time and building on the EU Aid Volunteers programme, the European Solidarity Corps is extending its scope to cover volunteering activities in support of humanitarian aid operations. Activities implemented under the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps aim at contributing to providing needs–based humanitarian aid aimed at preserving life, preventing and alleviating human suffering and maintaining human dignity and to strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable or disaster–affected communities. Humanitarian Aid Volunteering projects funded under this strand will offer the opportunity to young people aged 18 to 35 years old to participate in volunteering activities, aiming at supporting humanitarian aid operations.
Please consult the 2022 European Solidarity Corps Guide for detailed information on these strands.
The programme is a great ressource for local OCT organisations to welcome volunteers from other European countries, allowing them to offer financial support to the volunteers.
Young people from the OCTs can benefit from the opportunities that the programme offers to volunteer abroad with financial support for travel/accomodation and daily expenses. To do so, the first step is to register at the European Youth Portal. On the portal, young people can search for published opportunities, while organisations can look for potential participants for their projects.
The new European Solidarity Corps programme has a dedicated budget of €1.009 bn for 2021-2027. It aims to provide opportunities for at least 270 000 young people. According to the Work Programme for 2022, the European Union will contribute EUR 138.8 million in 2022.
At European level, the European Commission’s European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is responsible for the implementation of the centralised Actions of the European Solidarity Corps.
At Member State level, the European Solidarity Corps is mainly implemented through Indirect Management, meaning that the European Commission entrusts budget implementation tasks to National Agencies; the rationale of this approach is to bring the European Solidarity Corps as close as possible to its beneficiaries and to adapt to the diversity of each country.
In order take part in the European Solidarity Corps, organisations are required to obtain a quality label, which certifies that they are able to carry out high-quality solidarity activities in compliance with the principles, objectives and requirements of the programme.
