Designing ESC Volunteering that Young People Really Want

The activity aims to strengthen cooperation, innovation and quality among ESC Quality Label holders in the Baltic Sea region - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Filand, Sweden, Denmark and Poland – in order to create more attractive, inclusive and sustainable volunteering projects for young people.

In this PBA, the participants will:

• Build new partnerships between ESC Quality Label holders across the Baltic Sea region;
• Explore different approaches to ESC volunteering projects (including short-term activities, group volunteering and inclusion-focused projects) and building grounds for stronger regional collaboration;
• Strengthen competencies in communicating volunteering projects more attractively to young people;
• Share best practices and challenges in ESC project implementation, searching for innovative solutions on attracting volunteers and maintaining volunteer motivation and preventing premature project termination.

   

The Focus of Activity

The activity will combine peer learning, expert input and practical project labs, with a special focus on:

• making ESC offers more attractive and understandable for today’s young people (especially Gen Z),
• upgrading the quality of your ESC projects and exploring different volunteering formats (short-term, group volunteering, inclusion-focused activities etc.),
• preventing early volunteering drop-outs by supporting volunteers’ motivation and strengthening ESC support systems.

The PBA will provide a platform to share best practices and address common challenges, to explore and develop new ESC project ideas and to network with potential partners from the Baltic Sea region. The programme will also include contributions from a communication expert (analysing and improving existing ESC offers / calls for volunteers) and sociological insights on current youth generations, alongside space to share practices from different National Agencies and organisations.

Who is this PBA for?

We are looking for participants from organisations that already hold the ESC Quality Label and are closely involved in ESC volunteering (as tutors, mentors, ESC project coordinators, consultants etc.), who:

• are interested in regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea area (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Sweden and Denmark).
• have experience in planning, implementing or coordinating volunteering projects (ESC or similar).
• are motivated to improve their ESC projects and/or to develop new ones.
• are able to work in English in an international environment.
• can commit to the full duration of the PBA (arrivals in Kaunas, Lithuania on 2 March 2026 before 7PM and departure on 6 March 2026 after breakfast) and to follow-up steps agreed during the activity.

Working methods

The Partnership Building Activity will use highly interactive and practice-oriented approaches:

• Peer exchange & good practice sessions
• Thematic inputs and workshops (communication, generational insights, inclusion, motivation – tbc)
• Small-group project labs for developing/reshaping ESC initiatives
• Reflective sessions and networking spaces