ELIX participates in a 3-year project from January 2018 to December 2020, titled “#IVS4Peace, Inclusive Voluntary Service 4 Peace” that has been approved for funding by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.
This project has been applied and will be coordinated by the Coordinating Committee of the International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and will be implemented with the participation of the two international networks such as the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations (Alliance) and the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) as well as national organisations such as ELIX - Conservation Volunteers (Greece), Egyesek Youth Organization (Hungary), Solidarités Jeunesses (France), and Compagnons Bâtisseurs - CBB (Belgium).
The project “#IVS4Peace, Inclusive Voluntary Service 4 Peace” aims to support the social inclusion in the international voluntary service (workcamps) of 180 young people with limited opportunities in the field of voluntarism, and more specifically focusing on migrants and refugees.
#IVS4Peace intends to map the current best practices, tools and working methods focusing on social inclusion from the International Voluntary Service Movement, to compile, select, improve and test them and finally to create a set of tools for social inclusion which can be freely disseminated.
The proposal is to develop this set of tools for social inclusion through specific Management and Development Meetings and Laboratories, and apply it in the workcamps. Through three rounds of workcamps, 180 members of the target group will be involved in voluntary activities, locally and abroad, organized by the four aforementioned partners in France, Greece, Hungary and Belgium. Over 200 international voluntary service organizations will support the process by ‘testing the tools’ during the final stages
In the framework of the project “#IVS4Peace, Inclusive Voluntary Service 4 Peace”, during 2018, ELIX will support the participation of 15 young migrants and refugees to participate in the workcamps that the organization implements in Greece.
ELIX, with over 30 years of experience in the international voluntary field, organizes every year a number of International Voluntary Service projects (workcamps) in Greece. Through these projects, more than 100 young people, every year, are provided with the the opportunity to participate and offer their services to the local communities as well as to meet and exchange with other young people coming from different countries and backgrounds.
During the final stage of the project, a series of networking events will take place in different countries in order to share and exchange information and experience with youth and social workers outside of the international voluntary service sector.
A Final Conference will promote the overall project and its results, and will be the means to address the policy recommendations results of the project to European Union institutions such as the Erasmus+ National Agencies, the European Youth Foundation, local governments and other institutional partners.
The final products of the project will include online courses addressed to educators, a website and an application to promote the initiative, toolkits and instruments for youth workers.
