AFAIJ - Asociación para la Formación y Actividades Interculturales para la Juventud

http://www.afaij.org/

AFAIJ goal is to promote the development of young people through intercultural activities of social interest working within two main areas: European and International Voluntary Youth Service and International Youth Exchanges, which promote Intercultural Education.

AFAIJ tries to reach its objective by:

- stimulating the European and International Volunteer Youth Service in Social, Civic and Cultural areas

- carrying out Intercultural Youth Activities that promote an exchange of experiences and knowledge between national and international Associations, collaborating in common activities.

- promoting studies related whit the problems, priorities and realities of youth.

AFSAI - Associazione per la Formazione, gli Scambi e le Attività Interculturali

http://www.afsai.it/

AFSAI Mission is to promote no-formal education opportunities for young people, through: transnational socio-cultural activities; international voluntary service and the international youth mobility.

Its main objective is to spread out intercultural learning activities for young people aiming: 

   - To promote the mutual comprehension between cultures through exchanges and transnational youth activities.

   -  To promote young people protagonist through international youth voluntary service projects.

    - To support the active citizenship through the local promotion of the association Mission.

AGDF - Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden (Action Committee Service for Peace)

http://www.friedensdienst.de/

AGDF is an association of 34 peace organisations. As a registered non-profit organisation the AGDF represent their members' concerns such as reconciliation and international co-operation, support and encouragement for initiatives working for justice, for social security and for environmental concerns. Voluntary service through the AGDF is open to everyone.

For more than 25 years, the AGDF has been working for: increasing recognition and promotion of volunteer services with regard to international youth work, reconciliation work, development services, through co-operating with churches, governments and international institutions, awareness-raising about peace issues through e.g. planning of and participation in annual peace weeks, peace festivals, disarmament campaigns, church conferences and in the "conciliar process of mutual commitment to justice, peace and the integrity of creation", improvement of the substantive and organisational aspects of voluntary services.

ARCI SERIVIZIO CIVILE

http://www.arciserviziocivile.it/

ASC was established on February 1996 and founded by 4 Italian national organisations (ARCI, Arciragazzi, Legambiente, Uisp). Auser is the 5^th national member from 2001.

ASC is composed by 81 ASC at local level (usually province) and by 13 ASC at regional level. Each local ASC has a different number of local members (normally no profit organisations on different fields of social activities). At the same time ASC has effective special agreements with municipalities, hospitals, universities to represent and to be responsible to the National Office for Civic Service for  their national civic service (NCS) projects. At December 2007 local members are 924 organisations.

The areas of work are: human needs, cultural programs, social and environmental activities, projects on foreign countries. The most important activities of ASC are: to insert new members on the national list of NCS organisations, to submit projects to the National Office, training of young people and manager programs, projects’ tutorship, Annual Report.

ASF - Aktion Sühnezeichen / Friedensdienste (Action Reconciliation / Services for Peace)

http://www.asf-ev.de/

ASF- Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, or Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP), is a German peace and volunteer service organization founded in the aftermath of World War II to confront the legacy of the Nazi regime.

At its onset, the mission of ARSP was to volunteer in countries affected by World War II and to work with the peoples who suffered during the Nazi regime. The founders of ARSP called upon young Germans to work for peace through social services in these countries as a sign of atonement. The mission has evolved. It now includes learning from Germany’s history, taking a stand against racism and hatred today, and creating a positive future for everyone. The reasoning is that by acknowledging the past and learning from our history we can work for a better world.

ASF’s mission is accomplished through long-term and short-term volunteer programs.

Concordia

http://www.concordia-association.org/

Concordia was created in 1950 and is a well established non profit making NGO, committed to international voluntary service. It is a democratic organisation that encourages active involvement of its volunteers and members. The focus of Concordia’s work is on promoting international youth exchange through short-term international volunteer projects.

Concordia is a French non-governmental and non-profit organisation, founded in 1950 by English, German and French youngsters. Their aim was to enhance the values of tolerance and peace after the 2nd world war by organising international workcamps of young volunteers.
 

CSV Training & Enterprise North

http://www.csv.org.uk/

CSV is the largest voluntary placement organisation in the UK. CSV exists in England, in Scotland and in Wales. The organisation has a wide range of programmes that are dedicated to giving everybody the chance to play an active role in their community through full-time volunteering, training, education and the media. There are many hundreds of different volunteering opportunities offered by CSV. All full-time volunteer placements are in social care projects throughout Britain. The role of volunteers on project placements can include giving pupils with special needs a boost in their reading, helping homeless people move into more permanent accommodation, befriending a young person to help prevent their re-offending or going clubbing with a student with physical disabilities. CSV recruits most of its volunteers from within the UK.  However, there are several hundred people, aged between 18-35, who come to Britain each year from countries worldwide to volunteer full-time with CSV. Over the years, CSV has developed partnerships in many countries.

EDYN - European Diaconal Year Network

http://www.edyn.org/

The European Diaconal Year Network (EDYN) is a network of lay and ecumenical Christian organisations who offer young people a possibility of volunteering in social activities throughout Europe.

The objectives of the network members are: To provide opportunities for long-term voluntary service in social and educational institutions and congregations in European countries and the USA; to organise the mutual exchange of volunteers between individual countries; to co-ordinate the support programmes of members; to share experiences, to learn from and to support each other; to increase intercultural awareness and learning; to develop common standards and goals for Christian voluntary service and to do lobby work concerning improving the conditions of young volunteers in regard to political and church institutions in Europe.

EIL - Experiment in Europe

http://www.experiment-ev.de

Experiment e.V. is a non-profit organisation whose goal is the exchange between people of all cultures, religions and age groups. By making it possible  for people of different origins to live together, we want to contribute to mutual understanding and cultures living together in peace.

Experiment e.V. is full member of Experiment in International Living (EIL) that is one of the first organizations to engage individuals in intercultural living and learning.

EIL - Intercultural Learning

http://www.eilireland.org/

EIL Intercultural Learning is the Irish National Office of the worldwide organisation founded in the USA in 1932 as The Experiment in International Living. It is the oldest educational exchange organisation in the world involving over 30,000 people each year on a variety of educational and cultural travel programmes. It is a not for profit, non religious and non political association.

It is full member of the Federation EIL, the Worldwide Network of The Experiment in International Living.

EIL has Consultative Status at The Council of Europe and The United Nations Economic and Social Council and was designated a "Peace Messenger Organisation" by The United Nations in 1989.

EIL was first introduced to Ireland in 1960 and EIL Intercultural Learning is also a member of the National Youth Council of Ireland.

ICYE - International Cultural Youth Exchange - European Association

http://www.icyeeurope.org/

ICYE is an international non-profit youth exchange organisation promoting youth mobility, intercultural learning and international voluntary service.

It's aims and purposes: fight against any kind of oppression, discrimination, and prejudices in the world by furthering solidarity and intercultural understanding; support the exchange of young persons between nations on basis of reciprocity for long and short-term; be a forum where members share their needs, interests, problems and proposals; co-ordinate the resources of the members for the planning, development and financing of the program of the EA; run activities on issues and developments related to the intercultural exchanges and other matters its members are dealing with;seek financial contributions and grants from governmental organisations, private foundations and individuals; lobby for the EA and what it stands for - to represent its members towards the European bodies; further co-operate with European youth movements.

ICP Partneriaeth

http://www.icpwales.org

ICP Partneriaeth was founded in February 2000. Its aim is to promote European volunteering opportunities for young people in Wales.

Its main areas of work are promoting the European Commission's Youth Programme in Wales, especially the European Voluntary Service (EVS) scheme, and delivering intercultural training.

ICP Partneriaeth's staff have been involved in overseas volunteer support and training for over 16 years. They have been active in EVS since 1997, so they have many partner organisations throughout the European Union!

They are an approved EVS hosting co-ordinator and sending organisation and they are also one of the approved EVS training providers for Wales. ICP is represented on the UK EVS Task Group, the All-Wales EVS Task Group and Connect Cymru. They are also affiliated to the WCVA (Welsh Council for Voluntary Action).

IJGD - Internationalen Jugendgemeinschaftsdienste

http://www.ijgd.de/

IJGD(International Youth Community Services) are a non-profit organization independent of any religious or political party. They organise volunteer service programmes in Germany and abroad.

The aim is to forward young people's awareness of social conditions. By developing a feeling of social responsibility, young people will be able to make their own decisions in a democratic social environment, to act responsibly and to promote international understanding and cooperation.

Other aims thus include the promotion of international understanding and the reduction of prejudice between people of different nations, social backgrounds, religions and political ideas. The contribution of young volunteers from all countries serves for the preservation of peace. The main emphasis is based on self-organisation of group life by working and living together on a democratic basis, internationalism and emancipation of the sexes. Voluntary work for common good  forms the aims of IJGD.

LUNARIA

http://www.lunaria.org/

Lunaria is a non-profit, non-confessional and independent association, free from political parties’ control and influence. It was founded in 1992 and it carries out research, training, and communication activities on fair economy and third sector, migrations and globalisation. It promotes initiatives concerning international volunteering and youth policies. Through its activities Lunaria experiments new forms of active participation and social transformation inspired by the principles of justice and social solidarity, democratic participation to community life, guarantee of civil, social and human rights in the national and international context.

NoBorders

http://www.noborders.nl/

NoBorders has been established in 2003. They started as a volunteers sending organisation.

Then, to reduce the time investment of the youth organisations working with volunteers they created two internet tools called:

- www.myevs.net: this is the blog of EVS volunteers. On this site you can find many experiences, stories and photos of EVS volunteer in the World. You can read their stories, have a look at their pictures, add comments.

- www.youthnetworks.eu: the goal of YouthNetworks is to make youth work easier and more efficient. It is an online network based on the needs of international youth organisations. With Youth Networks, the sending and hosting organisations can search for Youth projects, search for (EVS) vacancies, apply online for (EVS) projects, participate in online brainstorming and Search for partners.

These websites have grown the last years. In the year 2007 NoBorderd has decided to dedicate all its time and energy to maintain and develop these websites in order to assist youth organisations working with volunteers.

Plateforme Pour le Service Citoyen

http://www.platform-burgerdienst.be/accueil-service-citoyen.php

The Plateforme was created in December 2007, by members of 3 Belgian associations who are active with young volunteers. (Solidarcité, Asmae, Trans-mission)

The platform wants to support and assist with the establishment of a collective civic service scheme in Belgium (groups of 10 young people with different social backgrounds, active full-time in different associations for a few months).

The Plateforme wants to bring together all the Belgian associations, organizations and actors who are interested in exploring the opportunity of a Belgian civic service. It intends to open the platform to associations who are active in youth voluntary work. They are currently active in studying the different possibilities and opportunities for the organization of this service in Belgium. The ultimate objective of the platform is to convince the politicians to write and approve a law that would recognize and organize a Belgian civic service.

The objective is to develop in order to become the reference on the subject in our country.

The founding members of the Plateforme are: Solidarcité : organizes ‘civilian years’ for young people between 16 and 25; Asmae : sends young volunteers abroad to take part to international volunteering camps in Egypt, Morocco and Romania; Trans-mission : aims to make young people sensitive to associative work, by organizing a forum for social and humanitarian action, but also through their website and different activities in schools.

PRAXIS

http://praxisgreece.org

PRAXIS is a youth non-governmental  organization in Serres, in North Greece which has activities in culture , media and environmental fields.It was founded in 1995 in order to offer a broad spectrum of cultural activities to the town youth and involve them in cultural issues. PRAXIS works as a sending and a hosting EVS organization since 1998 and co-operates with the municipal cultural centre of Serres, several Greek universities, local University, UNESCO, the cultural ministry,  General Secretary for Youth, Ecological groups, and other institutions. The main office with the radio station “Rodon FM” in the center of Serres co-operates with PRAXIS. It broadcasts current news and information about all kinds of events in Serres as well as long music broadcasts with Greek and international quality music. Radio Rodon Fm gives young people the possibility to make their own broadcasts; everybody can come and play music. Furthermore we run the Youth Information Center in Serres and a computer laboratory where Praxis creates cd rom and web sites.

Media and communication is one of main activities. The mission of Praxis is to provide opportunities at the pan-European and Mediterranean level to all young people without discrimination, prejudice or exclusion.

Silesian Diakonie - Slezská diakonie

http://www.slezskadiakonie.cz/

The mission is to promote the quality of life of those who are in need through providing social services of high quality.  The services of high quality are reached by the support of life long learning of staff and national volunteers. 

Previous Activities: providing  social, health care,  pastoral services, and counselling  to those who are in need ( children, youth, elderly people with disabilities, elderly people, children and youth at risk, homeless people, victims of violence ). The activities are running in 40 different placements. Diacony Institute offers the seminars, trainings for own staff, as well for the staff of other non governmental organizations in the Moravian – Silesia region. The programme of the international volunteerism is considered as important because of the development and support of the intercultural, interreligious learning and promotion the local community building.

UNIS-CITÉ

http://www.unis-cite.org/

Created in 1994, Unis-Cité proposes a year of civic service and personal development to young people aged 18 to 25. In this innovative programme of long-term youth service in France, young men and women of all cultural and social backgrounds and education levels come together in teams of 8, for a full-time six or nine months commitment working for the community.

This civic “rite of passage” has a double impact:

1-      On communities as volunteers work with existing local citizen organizations whose aim is to meet critical society needs,

2-      On volunteers as they learn new skills, and receive citizenship training and support for developing their own future (personal and professional) projects.

Since 1995, almost 2,000 young people have risen to the challenge, completing more than 1000 projects benefiting thousands of people in communities all around France, in partnership with more than 600 local and national organisations.

Unis-Cité currently operates in 9 major French cities and 6 medium-size cities, engaging young volunteers who: serve disadvantaged children/ youth/ adults, isolated elders, people with disabilities, homeless people, and work to combat racism and discriminations, protect the environment, promote community economic development.

VERTIGEM - Associaçao para promoçao do patrimonio

http://www.vertigem-app.pt/

Vertigem is a non governmental youth association, without lucrative purposes, political or religious ends. Vertigem develops activities and events to promote the Architectonic, Cultural and Natural Patrimony. They organize youth exchanges, training courses and informe young people. They aim at estimulating the development of local communities in their range of action; at informing and promoting events and opportunities for young people; at sensitizing for the protection and preservation of the nature. They promote volunteering.

YAP - Youth Action for Peace / Action Jeunesse pour la Paix

http://www.yap.org/

YAP is an international youth movement, a network with branches mainly in Europe and associated groups and partner organizations elsewhere world-wide. In particular, the movement has increasingly focused upon the combat against social exclusion and the support of people I their struggle for freedom and self-determination.

There are three main types of activities carried out by YAP:

- Volunteer exchanges. The central activity of the movement involves the exchanging of volunteers between different countries

- Seminars and training.YAP organizes seminars in order to develop new projects and new working areas

- Peace and Development Education. YAP tries to raise awareness or issues such as global interdependence, development, human rights and self-determination.

CIU - Centrum för Internationellt Ungdomsutbyte (The Swedish Centre for International Youth Exchange)

http://www.ciu.se

The “Foundation for International Youth Exchange” (SIU) was established in 1990. It was initiated by the Swedish government, the Swedish Sports Confederation and the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations. Then, in 1996, a re-organisation took place and SIU changed its name and organisational form. Today the Swedish Centre of International Youth Exchange (CIU) has got 28 members and together with several international partners we conduct two international youth exchange programs. The programs are called Sweden World Youth (SWY) and Youth Partners in Development (YPD). The programs are 6 months long and the participants spend half the time in Sweden and half the time in the partner country. The participants in SWY and YPD live in host families and take part in local voluntary work connected to sustainable development.
Another area of work for CIU is to inspire and advice young people who want to explore the world. CIU do that mainly through a web based community called MyTellus but also through seminars and workshops at schools and special events.
CIU also develops methods and tools for the improvement of youth exchange and voluntary work. At the moment CIU focus on an own method for the recognition of informal learning which is called ELD (experience, learning, description). Together with the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement CIU has got a project with the objective to increase the internationalisation of schools. CIU is a member of the European network EYRICA (European Youth Information and Counselling Agency) and also represent Sweden in the European Members States Expert Group on the development of youth-specific elements of Europass.

LEGAMBIENTE

http://www.legambiente.eu/

LEGAMBIENTE (League for the environment) born in 1980 and nowadays is the most widespread environmentalist association in Italy. It is formed by 1.000 local clubs, 20 regional committees, about 30.000 school groups and over 115.000 among single members and supporters.

As tools for its lobby work for environment at different levels (public institutions, authorities, media, public opinion), Legambiente carries out information and awareness campaigns and organises actions of environmental voluntary work involving thousands people. Legambiente promotes solidarity and co-operation and it is active in emergency and first aid activities. The association is committed with thousands among school kids and teachers to diffuse environmental education in the school and in society. It happens also to promote demonstrations and to take strong political position, even though the association has no links with political parties and touches public money only through projects and initiatives.

Legambiente promotes long term voluntary service in Italy and abroad. In Italy there are several permanent voluntary centres hosting all the year long all-aged volunteers, some of them included in the European Voluntary Service programme.