Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY)

Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) is part of the broader European Solidarity Corps Initiative launched by the European Commission and announced by President Juncker in his State of the Union Speech in front of the European Parliament on the 14th of September 2016.
IVY offers the possibility to young volunteers aged 18-30 to serve as volunteers in cross-border, transnational or interregional programmes and related projects. Each experience is between 2 and 6 months long.

How does it work

There are two ways to join the Interreg Volunteer Youth: either as an Interreg Project Partner or as an Interreg Reporter.
Each experience is between minimum 2 and maximum 6 months long. Volunteers can be deployed in any of 28 EU Member States. This means that they could also be deployed in one of the EU’s outermost regions around the world.

Who can take part

Eligible candidates should be from any European country, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Palestine, Republic of Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Interreg Project Partner

Young people between 18 and 30 years old can apply to become an Interreg Project Partner. Volunteering is about giving back to society by putting your skills at the benefit of, in this case, Interreg project activities. Based on the placement offers, specific skills are key to make IVY a valuable experience for all sides involved. Given the variety of Interreg activities (from the education and culture fields to the health and environment ones, and so on), all types of backgrounds are welcome to become an Interreg Project Partner.

Interreg Reporter

Yoiung people between 18 and 30 years old can apply to become an Interreg Reporter, although priority is given to candidates with passion or experience in communication. Please remember that volunteering is about giving back to society by putting your skills at the benefit of, in this case, Interreg programme activities. Based on the placement offers, specific skills are key to make IVY a valuable experience for all sides involved.

In both cases, eligible applicants should first register in the European Solidarity Corps Youth Portal here and send to IVY their reference number. If their profile fits the needs of the participating Interreg programmes and projects they will be contacted.

Placements

All available placement offers are displayed here: https://www.interregyouth.com/placement-offers (sometimes the start date of the offers has passed, but if the placement offer is still displayed, it means that it is still valid, so apply before it’s too late).
If you are particularly interested in one or more specific volunteering offer(s) and you think that your profile matches the offer(s), you can also send an email to ivy@aebr.eu expressing your interest (remember to send also your European Solidarity Corps reference number!).

Selection process

The coordinating organisation (AEBR) will pre-select some suitable profiles for the specific offer, taking into account the host organisation’s specific needs.
The host organisation will choose the successful candidate(s) by setting up interviews with all or some of the pre-selected candidates.

Funding

Volunteers receive a daily allowance of minimum 19 EUR to maximum 26 EUR per day for the entire duration of their placement (not just per working day but counting weekends and holidays too). This daily allowance changes according to the host country where the volunteer will be deployed and it is intended to cover food, lodging, local transport, etc., as well as to provide some pocket money to the volunteer. Hence, no specific expense, such as the accommodation rent, is directly paid by AEBR because the financial support given to the volunteer is intended to already help to cover this kind of costs.
Moreover, AEBR cover volunteers’ travel cost based on km distance they would do from their home address to the host organisation’s address. Please note that this is NOT a reimbursement but a lump sum, i.e. a fixed amount of money transferred to the volunteer only once and calculated on the km distance made because of the IVY mobility.