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Acknowledgements

A big thank you to all the volunteers who have had the kindness to answer the questionnaire, without

their answers this report would have been impossible. We would particularly like to thank Lisellote

Møller, Neja Hansen, Malin Johansson, Lisa Isaksson, Filip Standaert, Roman Broszeit, Céline Decloedt,

Mary Cinnamond, Alexandra Sutherland, Nick Hamer, Arndt Schmolke, Nirvta Banghar, Elena Vicentini,

Raffaele Fabrizi, Jorge Pinto and Alexandra Leitão, for having agreed to meet with us and for telling us

so much about themselves.

For further information on this study please contact Luís Amorim (Project Manager) at: SOS for EVS Rue des Drapiers 35 B-1050 Brussels Tel. +32-2-549 55 90 Fax +32-2-549 55 99 e-mail: [email protected]

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Foreword

he European Voluntary Service offers a unique opportunity to all the young people of Europe

to learn what it means to be a citizen of Europe and that they as individuals have and are an

important part of this process of citizenship and common understanding. Since it was born as

a Pilot Action in 1996 over five thousand young people have had the opportunity to participate in the

European Voluntary Service and many have cited it as the most important experience in their lives.

Feedback received from volunteers was rich and varied and it is clearly a source that cannot be

ignored in the evaluation of the programme. Therefore, the Structure for Operational Support (SOS)

took the initiative to investigate the impact of the European Voluntary Service on its participants. The

aims were to measure the impact in terms of educational, professional and personal development and

to ask volunteers their opinion of the programme.

The result of the investigation is this report, which provides a hitherto unseen perspective of the EVS.

Besides an in-depth analysis of the returned questionnaires and a summary of the outcomes of this

analysis, the report illustrates the experiences of the volunteers in graphic form and relates their

experiences in their own words. The results have been enlightening in that they have pointed out

some weaknesses and strengths of the programme and they have been positive in terms of the

volunteers’ evaluation of their experience – in fact, 95% of all the volunteers said it was either good or

very good.

This report on the impact of the European Voluntary Service on the volunteers is part of a series of

reports currently being prepared by the SOS team. An assessment is being made of the hosting

projects’ experience of the EVS and in particular the procedures of the programme and a study is also

planned on the perception of the programme from the point of view of sending projects. This group of

documents should give an interesting picture of the EVS from the perspective of the three partners in

a project.

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INDEX

INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 4

THE EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE (EVS)................................................................... 4

q PILOT ACTION 1996/97..................................................................................................... 4 q THE PROGRAMME 1998/99................................ ................................ ................................ 4 q EVS IN THE CONTEXT OF OTHER EUROPEAN UNION PROGRAMMES...................................... 4 q EVS ADMINISTRATION..................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ........................................................................................... 4 ⇒ THE STRUCTURE FOR OPERATIONAL SUPPORT ................................................................... 4 ⇒ THE NATIONAL STRUCTURES................................ ................................ ............................ 4

THE STUDY FRAMEWORK..................................................................................................... 4

q THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL P RINCIPLES OF THE EVS PROGRAMME ......................................... 4 q THE OTHER DIMENSIONS................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ OPERATIONAL DIMENSIONS .............................................................................................. 4 ⇒ SOCIOLOGICAL DIMENSION S............................................................................................. 4 ⇒ PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSI ONS .......................................................................................... 4 q OUR HYPOTHESIS............................................................................................................. 4

METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................................... 4

q PRELIMINARY CONTACTS.................................................................................................. 4 q THE GROUP OF PRE -TESTING ............................................................................................. 4 THE QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................................................................... 4 q THE POPULATION OF OUR STUDY AND OUR SAMPLE ................................ ............................ 4 q THE PERSONAL INTERVIEW S.............................................................................................. 4 q TIME-FRAME - PLANNED VERSUS ACHIEVED ...................................................................... 4

COMMENTS ON THE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE................... 4

MAILING AND RETURN ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 4 THE R ESPONDENTS ...................................................................................................................... 4 q GENDER OF THE RESPONDENTS......................................................................................... 4 q AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS ............................................................................................... 4 q EDUCATION AND WORKING SITUATION ............................................................................. 4 q NATIONALITY AND LEGAL RESIDENCE OF THE RESP ONDENTS............................................. 4 q KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES BEFORE EVS .......................................................... 4 MOTIVATION TO GO ON EVS................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 4 FINDING ABOUT EVS FOR THE FIRST TIME................................................................................... 4 SENDING AND HO STING ORGANISATIONS ..................................................................................... 4 THE MAIN THEMES OF VOLUNTEERS’ PROJECTS ........................................................................... 4 DURATION OF THE EVS PROJECT................................................................................................. 4 q DURATION OF EVS PROJECTS................................ ................................ ............................ 4 q REMAINING IN THE HOST ING COUNTRY AFTER EVS................................ ............................ 4 VOLUNTEER INVOLVEMENT IN EVS PROJECT.............................................................................. 4

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FOLLOW-UP AND EVALUATION ACTIVITIES AFTER EVS ............................................................... 4 q FOLLOW-UP AND EVALUATION ACTIVITIES ................................ ................................ ........ 4 q EVALUATION OF FOLLOW-UP & EVALUATION ACTIVITIES ................................................... 4 COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND RE- INTEGRATION BACK HOME................................................. 4 q COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT............................................................................................. 4 q RE-INTEGRATION BACK HOME........................................................................................... 4 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SKILLS ................................................................................... 4 q PERSONAL CHARACTERIST ICS ........................................................................................... 4 q PERSONAL SKILLS................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 4 EDUCATION AND WORK AFTER EVS................................ ................................ ............................ 4 q EDUCATION..................................................................................................................... 4 q WORKING LIFE................................................................................................................. 4 EXPECTATIONS FULFILLED .......................................................................................................... 4 OVER ALL EVALUATION OF TH E EXPERIENCE............................................................................... 4

CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................... 4

BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................... 4

ANNEXE 1 – STATISTICAL TABLES - 245 VOLUNTEERS ................................................... 4

SEC TION A................................................................................................................................... 4 SEC TION B................................................................................................................................... 4 SEC TION C................................................................................................................................... 4 SEC TION D................................................................................................................................... 4 SEC TION E................................................................................................................................... 4 SEC TION F ................................................................................................................................... 4 SEC TION G................................................................................................................................... 4

ANNEXE 2 – STATISTICAL TABLES – DECENTRALISED STRAND - 152 VOLUNTEERS 4


ANNEXE 3 - STATISTICAL TABLES - MULTILATERAL ACTION - 59 VOLUNTEERS..... 4


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ANNEXE 4- ANALYSIS OF SECTION H (VOLUNTEERS’ COMMENTS)............................. 4

DECENTRALISED & C ENTRALISED STRANDS ................................ ................................ ................ 4 1. SUMMARY OF POSITIVE COMMENTS .................................................................................. 4 2. SUMMARY OF NEGATIVE COMMENTS................................................................................. 4 3. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................... 4 4. SUMMARY TABLE ............................................................................................................. 4 ANALYSIS OF SECTION H (COMMENTS OF THE VOLUNTEERS) – DECENTRALISED STRAND ............ 4 ANALYSIS OF SECTION H (COMMENTS OF THE VOLUNTEERS) – CENTRALISED STRAND ................ 4

ANNEXE 5 – SECTION H – FULL COMMENTS ...................................................................... 4

DECENTRALISED STRAND............................................................................................................. 4 q AUSTRIA....................................................................................................................... 4 q BELGIUM ...................................................................................................................... 4 q DENMARK..................................................................................................................... 4 q GERMANY..................................................................................................................... 4 q FINLAND....................................................................................................................... 4 q FRANCE......................................................................................................................... 4 q IRELAND....................................................................................................................... 4 q ITALY................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 4 q LUXEMBOURG ............................................................................................................. 4 q NETHERLANDS ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 4 q PORTUGAL................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 4 q SPAIN............................................................................................................................. 4 q UNITED KINGDOM....................................................................................................... 4

ANNEXE 6 – SECTION H – FULL COMMENTS..................................................................... 4

CENTRALISED STRAND................................................................................................................. 4 Ø MULTILATERAL ........................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ BELGIUM......................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ GERMANY ....................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ FINLAND ......................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ FRANCE ........................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ NETHERLANDS................................................................................................................. 4 ⇒ SPAIN .............................................................................................................................. 4 ⇒ SWEDEN .......................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ UNITED KINGDOM ........................................................................................................... 4 Ø FLAGSHIPS................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 4 ⇒ AU STRIA ......................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ FRANCE ........................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ GERMANY ....................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ GREECE ........................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ IRELAND ......................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ NETHERLANDS................................................................................................................. 4 ⇒ PORTUGAL ...................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ SPAIN .............................................................................................................................. 4 ⇒ UNITED KINGDOM ........................................................................................................... 4 Ø THIRD COUNTRIES ....................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ BELGIUM......................................................................................................................... 4

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⇒ FRANCE ........................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ ITALY.............................................................................................................................. 4 ⇒ SWEDEN .......................................................................................................................... 4 Ø SPECIAL EVENT (WORLD CUP)...................................................................................... 4 ⇒ DENMARK ....................................................................................................................... 4 ⇒ SPAIN .............................................................................................................................. 4 ⇒ UNITED KINGDOM ........................................................................................................... 4

ANNEXE 7 – TESTER GROUP- TREATMENT OF DATA ...................................................... 4

ANNEXE 8 – LIST OF INTERVIEWS AND INTERVIEW GUIDE........................................... 4

INTERVIEW GUIDE.................................................................................................................. 4

ANNEXE 9 - QUESTIONNAIRE................................ ................................ ................................ 4

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INTRODUCTION

ollowing the implementation of the European Voluntary Service (EVS) Pilot Action, the

Structure of Operational Support for the EVS (SOS) based in Brussels, made an evaluation of

the experience of the volunteers who took part in the programme, at the request of the

Directorate General XXII (DGXXII – Education, Training and Youth) of the European Commission.

The following chapters contain general information about the EVS, a description of the study’s

framework and methodology, as well as an analysis of the main statistical results of the 245

questionnaires received at the SOS. A conclusion and some recommendations for future studies of

this kind are made at the end of this report.

A useful bibliography containing a list of titles relevant for the EVS and volunteering in general can

also be found at the end of the report before the chapter containing the specific and general annexes.

The bibliography is followed by a group of nine annexes where readers can find a full list of the

statistical tables resulting from the questionnaires’ analysis, and amongst others a full account of the

volunteers personal comments when responding to Section H of our questionnaire (open comments).

A copy of the original questionnaire sent to the volunteers can be found in the last annexe of this

report.

This study is based on the personal perceptions of the volunteers, and should not be understood as

an evaluation of the programme. The questionnaires have allowed us to collect the volunteers’ opinion

on what had been the impact of EVS in their lives and how they rated the overall experience in terms

of negative versus positive outcomes.

The study took place from October 1998 to September 1999 and should be looked at in the context of

other relevant studies developed by the SOS, namely the one on the Hosting projects’ perspective on

EVS (concluded) and the one on the Sending projects’ perspective (under implementation).

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THE EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE (EVS)1

he European Voluntary Service is a programme developed by the Directorate General XXII of

the European Commission. The programme is open to all young people between the ages of

eighteen to twenty-five who are residents or nationals of a Member State of the European

Union, Iceland or Norway, and asks for no qualifications beyond their motivation and enthusiasm. The

programme is not a replacement of military service or a substitution for existing or potential paid jobs.

In a project that they should help define young people can learn about taking responsibility and being

involved in a team. The programme hopes that as their skills develop and they confront the

challenges of living in a different culture, their self-confidence and independence also increases.

This non -formal education is seen as a means for motivating young people to develop their skills not

only on a personal and social level but on a professional level as well. As a result, the voluntary

service wishes to provide a complement to an individual’s formal education and training allowing

him/her to take a more active role in determining his/her future integration into the labour market and

society.

Projects with strong local roots provide the best opportunities for integrating young volunteers into the

host community. The EVS represents an important opportunity for local projects. A volunteer should

be seen as an extra resource, allowing her/him to develop innovative ideas responding to local needs.

With the broad range of non-profit making activities, which may be offered to EVS in the social,

cultural and environmental fields, there is plenty of scope for developing existing projects or to create

new ones. The objective of the EVS is to spread the benefits and responsibilities of the projects

between the actors. A successful voluntary service project should enable a youngster to gain

experience and broaden his/her horizons as a European citizen serving a local community.

q Pilot Action 1996/97

The first possibility to participate in the European Voluntary Service was offered to young people in

1996, thanks to a “pilot action” which was launched by the European Commission on the basis of a

budget line of 25 million Euro established by the European Parliament. In a relatively short period of

time, this pilot action helped to create a new dynamic in the field of international voluntary service. It

provided a solid basis for the further development of this kind of activity, even in countries which had

little or no previous experience in this field. It also provided an opportunity to test a completely new

approach to the implementation of voluntary service activities in a European context, based on a

partnership between the European Commission, national governments, local and regional authorities

and a wide range of actors from the voluntary and non-governmental sectors.

1 Information based on the EVS User’s guide for 1998.

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In total, approximately 2500 young people from all European Union countries, Iceland and Norway

have been able to take part in the pilot action of the European Voluntary Service. Over 1000 local

organisations have been involved in hosting young volunteers for periods of 6 to 12 months. One of

the keys to the positive implementation of the pilot action was the establishment of a network of

National Structures in each participating country. These National Structures are an important source of

information and advice for young people and potential sending and hosting organisations. They also

play a central role in the selection and funding of projects, as well as the organisation of preparation

and training activities for volunteers and support persons.

The Commission has also supported special projects involving partners in several Member States

during the course of the pilot action. These have included “multilateral actions” and “flagship projects”

which have been focused on a particular target group or issue.

Some experimental projects with countries outside of the European Union have been supported

through the pilot action. More than 200 young people have taken part in these projects, which have

taken place in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region, Latin America and Africa.

These projects are also known as “Third Country” projects.

Finally a special project, under the title of “Special Event”, has also been supported by the European

Commission in the framework of the Football World Cup in France, allowing for the participation of 72

young volunteers.

q The Programme 1998/99

Building on the successful results of the pilot action, a European Voluntary Service programme was

established in July 1998 with a budget of 47,5 million Euro. The adoption of this programme by the

European Parliament and the Council of Ministers bears witness to the growing political support and

recognition across the European Union for this initiative.

With a significantly increased budget the bi-annual European Voluntary Service programme supported

so far an estimate of 3 000 young people2. During the next seven months a similar total is expected,

raising the number of participants for these 19 months to 6 000 (initial estimates fores aw a minimum of

8 000 volunteers for 24 months). The Pilot Action provided a basis from which the feasibility of the

programme activities was determined. As a result, the programme offers nowadays a broader range

of activities, which should help to match the individual needs and expectations of young people.

Therefore financial support was made available for the following:

⇒ Long-term EVS activities (6-12 months)

2 Estimate contributed by the SOS.

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⇒ Short-term EVS activities (3 weeks – 3 months)3

⇒ Future Capital grants (post-EVS activities)

⇒ Third Country projects (projects outside the EU, Iceland and Norway)

⇒ Training and support activities

⇒ Special Event projects (multilateral projects of particular relevance)

⇒ Information, studies and evaluation activities

⇒ Seminars and conferences.

Furthermore the programme is divided into two main strands, Centralised and Decentralised. The

former refers to all the multilateral projects, third country projects, special events, and particularly big

support measures, that are selected and managed by the European Commission in Brussels. The

latter refers to the bulk of the programme and to all the bilateral projects approved and managed at

national level by the National Structures.

The European Voluntary Service programme also paved the way for the adoption of a new integrated

Community youth programme in July 1999, for the period of 2000 to 2004 with a budget of 350 million

Euro. This programme is built on the experience of both the European Voluntary Service and Youth for

Europe programmes. Its main action lines include:

⇒ Youth for Europe (intra-community exchanges for young people; Third Country exchanges)

⇒ European Voluntary Service (intra-community service; Third Country service)

⇒ Youth Initiatives (individual projects developed by young people; post-EVS individual projects)

⇒ Joint Actions (projects integrating different areas of competence, such as youth and education)

⇒ Support measures (training and co -operation in relation to those involved in youth policy;

information for young people and youth studies).

q EVS in the context of other European Union programmes

The European Voluntary Service is not an isolated initiative of the European Commission, together

with Youth for Europe, Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci, it is one of several programmes aimed at

creating a E uropean space for education – formal and non-formal – and vocational training. As in the

case of the European Voluntary Service, they are all addressed mainly, although sometimes indirectly,

to young people.

Youth for Europe and the European Voluntary Service both have the same general objectives and

methods: both try to promote young people’s active citizenship and social and occupational integration

through activities which involve practical intercultural learning and in which they are the main actors.

3 These activities are directed mainly at local projects willing to host young people facing special difficulties or having special needs.

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Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci are the major European Union programmes in the areas of education

and vocational training respectively. Thanks to these programmes, students, trainees, teachers and

other professionals can build a strong European component into their curricula, their training or their

careers.

All of these programmes are run by Directorate General XXII of the European Commission and after

January 2000 the political intention is to have a much more integrated approach to all the different

actions dealing with education, training and youth.

q EVS Administration

⇒ The European Commission

The European Commission initiated the pilot action of the EVS and is responsible for the bi -annual

programme. It oversees the implementation, follow-up and evaluation of the programme at European

level. The Commission maintains overall responsibility for the co-ordination of the National Structures,

co-operates with them closely and oversees their activities. While the primary sources of information

are the National Structures and the Structure of Operational Support (SOS), the Commission may also

be contacted for information or for the purpose of appealing decisions made at the national level. The

Commission is also responsible for the co-ordination of the international selection committee that

decides on hosting projects’ participation in the programme, with the help of the SOS.

⇒ The Structure for Operational Support

The SOS is part of a Belgian non -profit making association (Service pour la transformation,

l’innovation et le changement social – STICS), which is active in the social and educational sectors.

The SOS has been appointed by the European Commission in August 1996 to provide the necessary

support to implement the EVS. This small task force (8 people in September 1999) guarantees a

stable and accessible contact point and provides immediate assistance when problems arise. The

principal role of the SOS is to inform and assist the National Structures, existing and potential projects

and volunteers. More specifically, its tasks include helping in the analysis and selection of hosting

organisations, updating the centralised database of hosting organisations, creating a basis for the

matchmaking of organisations and volunteers, monitoring of projects, sup porting the interface with

National Structures, evaluation and information activities concerning the EVS.

⇒ The National Structures

In order to ensure that activities carried out by the volunteers are as close as possible to the

motivations of applicants and the needs of the host communities, effective co -ordination between all

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the partners is essential. Therefore, a National Structure exists in each programme country to assist

with the implementation of the programme at the national level. The national authorities responsible

for youth affairs in each programme country identified these National Structures. They have

experience with European programmes for young people and are familiar with the relevant issues and

organisations. The Commission contributes to the financing of National Structures on the basis of an

annual work plan giving a detailed overview of the strategy and activities planned by each National

Structure for implementation of the EVS programme in the national context.

Each National Struc ture acts as an interface between the European Commission, project promoters at

national, regional and local level and the volunteers themselves and is a key contact point. They are

responsible for distributing of general information about EVS, encouraging the establishment of

hosting and sending organisations, assessing projects, advising project promoters, assisting contacts

and co-ordination between sending and hosting organisations, providing information and advice, co-

ordinating preparatory activities for young volunteers and those responsible for them in the hosting

organisation, monitoring projects and volunteers’ activities and supporting volunteers and project

leaders in case of difficulties.

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THE STUDY FRAMEWORK

lthough many of the visits that the SOS made to different hosting projects had provided

relevant information on the volunteers’ situation, there had not been any systematic attempt to

know what they actually thought of the programme, as well as what their perception about the

impact of the programme in their lives was. The SOS saw the development of a specific study on the

volunteers’ perceptions as a chance of tackling this latter aspect of the programme’s evaluation. Thus,

the current study was developed and implemented by the SOS as part of its overall monitoring

responsibilities and we were asked by the SOS to carry it out. We decided to ask the volunteers what

their perception on EVS was, not only how they evaluated the programme in terms of being good or

bad, but their feeling about the changes it had brought about to their personality, skills and life in

general.

q The two fundamental principles of the EVS programme4

⇒ To provide a new kind of intercultural learning experience for young people, encouraging their

social and occupational integration5;

⇒ To give a helping hand for the development of local communities;

Our study concentrated on the second half (underlined) of the first of these two principles. It was

therefore our wish to know if the participants in the EVS programme thought that it had helped them to

know better what they wanted to do concretely after their voluntary service, both academically and

professionally.

To be more precise, we wished to find out if the young volunteers in question had, for example,

decided to do further studies after their voluntary service, or had started a new area of studies directly

related to their EVS experience. It was also our wish to see if any of the volunteers had found a job

after their voluntary service, and if this job was directly related to their experience. We also wanted to

know what their future plans were as far as finding a job is concerned.

Another of our aims was to know if the participants in the programme felt that it gave them a number

of skills that we consider to be necessary to face up to their future academic and professional

integration.

4 These two principles are enumerated by the European Commission in its official description of the programme.

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q The other dimensions6

There were also other relevant dimensions that we wanted to study and that we considered to be

important success criteria to evaluate the impact of the programme from the participants’ point of view,

even though these were not directly linked to the second half of the EVS principle mentioned above.

We have separated these dimensions in three different categories: operational dimensions (related to

the rules and core activities of the programme); sociological dimensions (socialisation aspects of the

programme); psychological dimensions (related to the evolution of self-perception amongst the

participants).

⇒ Operational dimensions

We wanted to know where the young volunteers had found out about the EVS programme for the first

time; what type of organisations had served as sending and hosting projects; the main themes of their

activities; the average duration of the volunteers’ stay; what type of activities had been organised after

their return home to help them reintegrate; if these activities had been satisfactory or not, together with

many other aspects related to this particular dimension.

⇒ Sociological dimensions

As already said before, we wanted to know how much having taken part in the EVS programme had

influenced the volunteers’ future initiatives and decisions, both academically and professionally, but

we also wanted to know what was their academic and professional situation before going on EVS. On

the other hand, it was important for us to know if they thought the programme had had any impact on

the development of their informal skills, such as their capacity for teamwork, personal communication,

leadership, etc. It was also important for us to know if any of the volunteers had initiated volunteering

activities after EVS and if their expectations had been fulfilled. We also wished to know if their re-

integration back home had been easy or not. Finally, we wanted to know what was their overall

evaluation of the programme.

5 Underlined by us. 6 Please note that these dimensions must be considered only in the particular context of our questionnaire.

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⇒ Psychological dimensions

We wanted to know if the EVS programme had had any impact on the young people’s personality

perception. In fact, we wanted to know if their personal perceptions/descriptions had changed, or not,

in comparison to their personal characteristics before participating in EVS. We wanted to know if they

considered the programme as having had a decisive influence on a positive evolution of their

personality features. On the other hand, we were also interested in knowing their motivation to take

part in this programme.

q Our Hypothesis

The following is the list of hypothesis that we considered before getting the results of the questionnaire

and treating them statistically. Whenever a particular hypothesis is relevant to a sub -chapter of the

main chapter “Comments on the statistical analysis of the questionnaire”, this will appear on top of the

page designated by the symbol H .

Though most of our hypothesis appear to be frankly positive, and therefore might lead one to think of a

slight bias, the truth is that our contact with volunteers, sending and hosting organisations, as well as

National Structures, for almost two years at the date of this study, had made us believe that the effects

of the programme on its participants were more positive than negative in the majority of the cases.

In the beginning we had thought of adding to the psychological dimensions in our questionnaire a

group of questions related to the volunteers self-esteem. However, time constraints have made it

impossible to prepare the necessary scales of attitude to obtain specific data for this purpose.

Therefore, hypothesis number VII was not tested in any way and cannot be commented upon. We

would recommend future studies to take this into account, since we believe it to be an extremely

accurate indicator of the programme’s success. A lot of studies have been made on people’s self-

esteem and the use of stand ard scales would provide objective data that would go beyond the

volunteers’ perceptions.

I. We expect that in most cases young people having participated in EVS have learned about it

through local and national publications, as well as through direct contact with the National

Structures that are responsible for the implementation of the programme in the member

states.

II. We expect that the majority of the participants have had formal activities of follow-up and

evaluation after their voluntary service, which in most cases were not more than a short-term

group session.

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III. We expect that young people’s participation in EVS had very positive consequences on their

educational and professional integration possibilities. We also expect that in the majority of the

cases having taken part in EVS has stimulated them to continue their studies and look for a

job directly or indirectly related to their experiences abroad.

IV. We expect that having been EVS volunteers has motivated the majority of these young people

to look for volunteering opportunities after their return home, and that in the majority of the

cases this activities are similar to those developed while they were on EVS.

V. We expect that most participants have decided to go on EVS due to their wish to get more

working experience and become more independent in life.

VI. We expect the majority of the participants to have fulfilled their expectations, vis-à-vis the

programme, in particular as far as their wishes to become more independent and to be

capable of better understanding other cultures and ways of life are concerned.

VII. We expect the majority of the volunteers to have had a positive evolution of their self-esteem,

and that this may be a direct result of their participation in EVS.

VIII. We expect the majority of the participants to make a positive evaluation of the programme.

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METHODOLOGY

ur study was composed of four main phases: 1) Preparation of the study, consisting of

relevant preliminary contacts and the drafting of a first questionnaire; 2) Creation of a group

of pre-testing and mailing of a draft questionnaire to a small group of volunteers (pre-testing

group composed of returned EVS volunteers), as well as analysis of responses; 3) Mailing of the final

questionnaire to all relevant returned volunteers, accompa nied by a number of personal interviews

with a small group of returned volunteers 4) Writing of the study’s report.

q Preliminary contacts

We have used the different mission reports written by the project managers of the SOS since 1996

(visits to hosting projects in Europe), focusing on those that contained personal descriptions of the

experience by volunteers as a first tool to structure our study. Several discussions with the SOS head

of office (Clare Fitzsimons), the rest of the project managers of the SOS (Sara Adams and Géraldine

Libreau), and several officials from DGXXII have also helped us in our first attempts to plan our study.

We have also exchanged communication with Mr. Eliot Stern from the Tavistock Institute in London

due to his involvement in the ex-ante and on-going evaluation of the European Voluntary Service for

the European Commission. We have also based our first project of the study on the many personal

contacts that we had been able to have with the volunteers participating in the programme. Important

was also the study that we had concluded in 1998 entitled “Un phare pour les jeunes en difficulté – le

projet phare du Forum Jeunesse dans le cadre de l’action pilote du SVE pour les jeunes”. This study

gave us the possibility to talk extensively with many volunteers during one year, and their comments

and concerns proved very helpful in designing, for instance, our questionnaire.

We have also relied on the results and conclusions of previous studies conducted by AFS Intercultural

Programs and Youth for Understanding (YFU) during the 1980’s on the impact of long-term student

exchanges on their participants. We have also consulted extensive documentation on EVS since its

beginning, namely European Commission reports and small-scale studies on volunteering in Europe

produced since 1990 until today, (please see the bibliography at the end of this report for the full

listings).

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q The group of pre -testing

We have created a small group of volunteers with the help of six National Structures - Belgium

(Flanders), Austria, Sweden, United Kingdom, Italy and Portugal 7 - by asking them to select two

names amongst their participants in the programme for us to contact about our study. We have also

contacted for the same purpose an international non-governmental organisation that participated in

the Pilot Action of the programme under the Multilateral action (Experiment in Europe), and an

international network of local projects having participated in the Flagship action of the Pilot Action

(ŒIL-ENVOL). Our objective was to have a balanced group of sixteen individuals, including both

participants from the decentralised strand (directly supported by the member states) and centralised

strand (directly supported by the European Commission). Our aim was to test the draft version of the

questionnaire produced on August 18, 1998 with the help of young people who had already done their

EVS and returned home.

We received a total of 12 replies to our mailing from the pre-testing group and their input and

recommendations, as well as their answers, were extremely fruitful and helped us in improving the

final version of the questionnaire. We have produced a small document on the results of the pre-

testing group in September 1998, which can be consulted in annexe 5 at the end of this report.

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

A first version of the questionnaire to be used with our sample of returned volunteers was written

between June and July 1998 and circulated amongst the project managers of the SOS and different

officials of DGXXII (Unit C.2 8) for comments and suggestions. This first version of the questionnaire

was also sent to Mr. Elliot Stern from the Tavistock Institute of London for a more scientific approach,

comments and corrections. A first draft of the final questionnaire was concluded on August 18, 1998,

incorporating the different suggestions made by the all the relevant people that we have contacted.

Our final questionnaire was divided into eight different sections, from A to H, each of them

corresponding more or less to the operational, sociological or psychological dimensions present in our

study. The two first dimensions occupy a greater part of the questionnaire (only two questions, A-8

and D-1, are directly related to the psychological dimension of the study).

To build the different sections and questions we used many of the sources already mentioned before.

Some complementary insight was obtained from the results of the study based on the Youth Forum’s

EVS Flagship where some of the questions present in our questionnaire had also been used. We have

also used concrete opportunities for meeting with volunteers staying in the United Kingdom (June

7 This choice of countries was based on previous samples used for the evaluation of other European youth programmes, such as Youth for Europe and EVS itself. 8 Unit responsible for the European Voluntary Service programme.

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1998) and Greece (July and September 1998) to change and include new questions in the final

questionnaire, in accordance to their opinions.

Sections A, B, and C were based on the general rules of the programme and their character is mainly

operational, although question A-8 (motivation) has to do with the sociological and psychological

dimensions of the study.

Section D-1 of the questionnaire was built using a number of mixed sources. This semantic scale of

personal description/perception was based on many of the expressions that volunteers have used

during our personal contacts with them to describe the changes that ha d occurred in their personalities

after EVS. However, we have introduced some of the words in the scale ourselves, as part of our own

experience of the changes taking place in volunteers’ personalities after EVS. These were the result

not only of our work as EVS project manager for the SOS, but they also resulted from the many

discussions we have had with our colleagues working on EVS both at National and European levels.

To avoid different interpretations from different people and countries we built an operational glossary

of terms as an annex to section D -1 of the questionnaire, which was also mailed to the volunteers (List

of meanings).

The majority of the questions were “closed” with room being given for the respondents to add

alternative answers to most of them. Section H was left completely “open” at the end of the

questionnaire to give the respondents the possibility of telling us anything else that they might

consider important to mention and that we had not asked. This gave the volunteers the possibility of

making a more personal/expressive evaluation of the impact of EVS in their lives (telling us about an

important episode that happened during their stay, for instance), or to make specific recommendations

for the future of the programme.

The questionnaires were sent only in English due to both time and financial constraints. We would

have liked to have sent it in all of the 11 official languages of the European Union, as well as in

Icelandic9, however this would have been costly and would not have allowed us to send the

questionnaires within the planned date. We have chosen English based on the fact that

Eurobarometre’s statistics on young people in the European Union for 1997 pointed to the fact that

54% of the population between 15 and 25 years of age spoke English as their second language. We

thought that English would therefore give us more chances of having a reasonable return of completed

questionnaires. We tried to simplify the language of the questionnaire and give as many opportunities

for pre-arranged answers (closed format) as possible to facilitate the process for those volunteers less

fluent in English. We have also informed the volunteers that if they wished to do so they could make

all additional comments in their own language. Some of the comments in Section H of the

questionnaire were made in the volunteers’ mother tongue and not in English.

9 At this time we had no data concerning Norwegian volunteers.

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Now that the questionnaire has been used and its statistical analysis completed, we are capable of

realising some shortcomings that in a future study of this kind should be avoided. The expressions that

we have used were not always easy to understand by the volunteers. Expressions such as “direct

invitation by the organisers” under question B.1 proved to be irrelevant because they did not tell us

who the organisers were. We have the impression for instance, that many of the respondents did not

know the difference between the expression “sending organisation” and “National Structure”,

mentioned in question B.2. However as a starting point we think that our questionnaire was a good

tool to obtain information on the volunteers’ perception of the programme’s impact.

The questionnaire was sent on October 22, 1998. Volunteers were asked to return it till December 31,

1998. Our expected percentage of return was 30%. For a full copy of the questionnaire sent to the

volunteers, please see annexe 7 at the end of this report.

q The population of our study and our sample

The population of our study was composed of all the volunteers having participated in the EVS

programme during the Pilot Action. Our sample was composed of all volunteers who returned between

September 17, 1996 (the first returnees) and August 15, 1998 (three months before the mailing of the

questionnaire), i.e. a total of 890 volunteers10. We wanted to give an interval of at least 3 months

between the mailing of our questionnaire and the last date of return of the volunteers in our sample to

make sure that our respondents had had some time back in their home countries to think about the

impact of the experience and what it had meant to them concretely. From the total of 890 volunteers

we have only sent 742 questionnaires, due to the fact that some of the data encoded at National level

did not include the complete addresses of the volunteers. No data were available at the time for the

mailing of Greek and Norwegian volunteers from the decentralised strand.

q The personal interviews

Parallel to the questionnaire we have also personally interviewed the volunteers of the pre-testing

group as part of a more qualitative collection of data. In a few cases however, we had to ask the

National Structures to provide us with new names due to people’s lack of availability, or lack of

reaction to our pre-testing mailing. All of these interviews have taken place between October 1998 and

January 1999. We have conducted a total of 16 interviews, each with an average duration of 3 hours.

We have interviewed volunteers from Belgium (2), Denmark (2), Germany (2), Italy (2), Portugal (2),

Sweden (2) and the United Kingdom (4). One of the interviews in the group was made via the

telephone. The reason for having interviewed two more volunteers from the United Kingdom had to do

with the fact that they took the initiate to contact us directly and asked to be interviewed. Since we

10 This number was based on the information encoded by the EVS National Structures in the common database of projects.

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were in the vicinity of their homes at the time we agreed to it. Originally we had also planned to

interview two volunteers from Austria, however after trying to contact different volunteers we did not

obtain any replies and since time was becoming quite tight for us to finalise the study, we abandoned

this possibility.

The personal interviews with the volunteers allowed us to fill in some of the gaps in our statistical data

or to complement it. They provided some interesting “histoires de vie” that shed some more light on

the more complex social and personal processes behind people’s participation in EVS, sometimes

difficult to remark through the questionnaires. The results of the in-depth interviews have not been

treated systematically. Unfortunately this was something quite above our availability in terms of human

resources. A full report on what the volunteers have told us would be indeed very interesting to read

and distribute amongst all those involved in EVS. Nevertheless, the richness of their comments was

registered on tape and these are available for consultation at the SOS.

A list of these interviews, with names and additional information can be found in annexe 6 at the end

of this report. The guide of the interview can also be read in the same annexe.

q Time-Frame - planned versus achieved

June-July 98 August 98 SEPTEMBER 98 OCTOBER 98 November 98 December 98 January 99 April-May 99 Elaboration of first

research framework

and objectives

Exploratory

Measures

(preliminary

contacts,

consultation of

reports, exchange

of ideas with

relevant people)

Construction of first

drafts of the

questionnaire

Finalising of first

draft of the

questionnaire

Mailing to the

pre-testing group

Analysis of pre -

testing results

Construction of

final version of

the questionnaire

Consultation with

relevant parties

about research

instruments and

objectives (re -

orientation)

Mailing of the

final

questionnaire to

742 volunteers

Interviews with

volunteers from

Denmark,

Sweden and

Belgium

Interviews with

volunteers from

Germany and

United kingdom

First treatment

of data for 50

questionnaires

(only selected

questions)

Interviews with

volunteers from

Italy

Deadline for

receiving all

questionnaires

at SOS

Interviews with

volunteers from

Portugal and

Austria

Systematic

treatment of

data begins

Systematic

treatment of

interviews

begins

Results of the

study are

made

available

Calendar of foreseen activities

We were able to keep our activities according to plan until January 1999, after that the encoding of the

questionnaires and the subsequent statistical treatment and interpretation of the answers took us a lot

longer than expected. We had some regular help with the encoding of the questionnaires during the

months of January and February 1999, but we had to finish this ourselves and at the same time start

treating and analysing our data. The treatment of the volunteers’ comments from Section H of the

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questionnaire was also an aspect of our study that proved to be morose and required frequent re-

consideration, in terms of format and interpretation. All these facts have lead to the conclusion of our

analysis and study report 4 months after what we had planned in our calendar.

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“I have not only had easy moments, far from that, I

almost gave up, but today I am stronger. I have acquired life

values in accordance with who I am even if they are different

from those I have been educated to have”

Belgian volunteer

COMMENTS ON THE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

MAILING AND RETURN

s previous ly said (see chapter on methodology) the questionnaire was sent to all EVS

volunteers who took part in the Pilot Action of the EVS programme, i.e. between 1996 and 1998.

To be more precise, the questionnaire was mailed to all volunteers having returned to their

home countries after EVS between September 17, 1996 and August 15, 1998 the rule being that

they had to have returned to their countries at least three months before the mailing date of our

questionnaire. September 17, 1996 refers in this case also to the date of the first returns home of

volunteers.

The questionnaire was sent on 22 October, 1998 to 742 volunteers, although the number of returnees

at the time within the above-mentioned criteria was 890 (approximately 50% of all the volunteers

registered in the SOS’s database of projects at that time - 1796 volunteers). Unfortunately not all of

the volunteers had their addresses complete in the SOS’s database of projects, which explains the

reason why only 742 were sent our questionnaire. The first questionnaires started to arrive at the SOS

at the beginning of November 1998, although the majority came during the months of December 1998

and January 1999. The two last questionnaires were received as late as June 1999.

Mailing and % of feedback

All volunteers

(database 01/10/98)

Returnees

(database 01/10/98)

Mailing

(22/10/98)

Feedback % All

volunteers

% Returnees % Mailing

1796 890 742 245 13,6 27,5 33,0

Tableau I

We have received at the SOS 245 complete questionnaires, whi ch

corresponds to 33% of our mailing, a percentage slightly above our

expectations (30%). We think that more questionnaires would have

been returned, if the former had been sent in the volunteers’

different mother tongues and not only as it happened in English.

This fact was actually mentioned by two respondents in section H of

the questionnaire (see annexe 2 - Analysis of section H). Although

aware of this circumstance, financial constraints made it impossible for us to do it otherwise.

Nevertheless, the number of returned questionnaires was significant enough for us to draw some

major trends and conclusions in the following pages. It must be pointed out that the percentage of

returned questionnaires corresponds to 27.5% of the total number of volunteers within our mailing

A

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“I really do feel that as a volunteer I started to be more open to new people (and new ideas!), more able to feel and show tolerance and empathy”

German volunteer

criteria (890), which is again a reasonable level of feedback and therefore representative enough of

our general population of returnees.

Only a small percentage of questionnaires came back returned by the postal services, due to

insufficient address information (3%). An even smaller percentage of returned questionnaires (1%)

was annulled by us due to the fact that the questionnaires were too incomplete or ineligible for correct

encoding.

Feedback to the questionnaire

33%3%

1%

63%

answered queries

unanswered queries

anulled queries

unreturned queries

Graphic 1

As it had been mentioned before, the EVS programme is divided into

two main strands, Decentralised and Centralised, each of these with

different characteristics when it comes to its management and

implementation. For this reason we have sent our questionnaire

separately, in order to be capable of surveying any relevant

differences in the responses of the two groups of volunteers. In terms of feedback, those volunteers

who participated in the decentralised strand of EVS were more responsive (63%) than their colleagues

from the centralised strand (37%). This difference between the two groups is more significant if we

take into account the fact that within the 742 returnees that constituted our initial pool of respondents,

the distribution was roughly the same for each of the two strands (centralised 43%, and decentralised

57%). However, it is also important to underline the fact that out of 2500 volunteers who took part in

the Pilot Action of the programme approximately 70% of the volunteers participated in the

decentralised strand, and only 30% in the centralised one.

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Answers distribution per strand

63%

37%

decentralised

centralised

Graphic 2

Taking into account the individual contacts that we have had with volunteers from the centralised

strand, who participated in EVS during the Pilot Action, it became clea r to us that many of them were

not aware of being part of the EVS contingent, or for that matter of the existence of this programme of

the European Union. They often identified more with the umbrella organisation co-ordinating their

exchange, and therefore with their own volunteering project, than with the general framework of EVS.

Some volunteers in the section H of our questionnaire also pointed this out. Five of the volunteers

from the centralised strand have stated that they were not sure if what they had done was actually the

EVS programme (see annexe 2 Analysis of section H). This could explain why some of the volunteers

who received our questionnaire did not answer it, they simply did not identity the programme in

question and may therefore have dismissed the questionnaire completely, or feel less motivated to

answer it.

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THE RESPONDENTS

q Gender of the respondents

n terms of gender, female volunteers constituted the overwhelming majority of our respondents

(75%) in relation to male volunteers (25%). Although it is true that the gender distribution of

volunteers amongst our general population of 890 volunteers at the time of the mailing was 64% for

female and 36% for male participants - percentages that are corroborated by the final statistics of

the Pilot Action (65% of female participants and 35% of male participants)11- the difference in our

return between the two groups is too significant to be only attributed to the fact that more women than

men participate in general in EVS. Our data does not allow us to put forward any plausible explanation

for this significant difference but to remark it.

Gender distribution - EVS vols.

25%

75%

Male

Female

Graphic 3

q Age of the respondents

The average age of the respondents was 21 years old, slightly inferior to the average age for all of the

volunteers who participated in the Pilot Action (22 years old)12. The biggest concentration of

participants was in the 18-20 age-bracket (47%). If we look separately at the volunteers who have

taken part in the centralised strand of the program me, under the Multilateral action this percentage is

significantly higher, with 66% of the volunteers in the 18-20 age-bracket. This is partially explained by

the fact that a high number of the respondents in both the decentralised and centralised strands were

German volunteers whose ages were quite younger in relation to the other nationalities. In the case of

the German volunteers of the decentralised action, and as a mere example, 81% of the volunteers had

ages comprised between 18 and 20 years of age.

11 SOS, Statistical compilation - percentage of volunteers by gender, European Voluntary Service, SOS, June 1999 12 SOS, Statistical compilation - average age of volunteers, European Voluntary Service, SOS, June 1999.

I

Gender distribution Total %

Male 61 24,9

Female 184 75,1

Total 245 100

Table I

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“My EVS project has been a good transition for me between

my studies and my professional life. My experience

has helped me to find a job (social work) which I like. Then

it gave me the ambition to continue my studies on

Education”

French volunteer

We should also take into account the fact that for many volunteers the programme is seen as a break

between their secondary school studies and university. This was stated by several of the volunteers

that we have interviewed and is also corroborated by many of the youth workers with whom we have

talked during our study. This is furthermore consolidated by the fact that half of the respondents (50%)

had just finished secondary school before participating in EVS. Taking into account that in most

European Union countries secondary school is finished around 17-18 years of age, this is one more

reason that may help explaining this high percentage around the 18-20 age-bracket.

116

75

53

10

20

40

60

80

100

120

18-20 21-23 24-26 27-28

Age distribution - EVS vols.

Graphic 4

Many volunteers have told us in numerous occasions that taking one year off after secondary school

allowed them to choose what they wanted to do next in life, both professionally and academically,

giving them the chance to take a break from everyday life and concentrate on their choices, their

decisions and their plans for the future. In fact, in section H of our questionnaire two volunteers voiced

their ideas on this matter, saying that EVS is more beneficial to younger volunteers, those between the

ages of 18 and 19, because it allows for a greater impa ct in their lives, helping them to choose the

right kind of studies and mature personally too. This is an idea that

we have also encountered amongst many of the youth workers that

promote the programme at local level, who feel that younger

volunteers may b enefit more from the programme because they are

at a stage in their lives where positive changes in their environment,

such as an intercultural experience, may have more consequences

on the development of their personalities13.

13 As a matter of curiosity, this discussion was quite important for the participants in the seminar “Maximising Inclusion”, organised by the SOS in partnership with the European Commission and the EVS National Structures, (Lisbon, 8-13 June 1999). A significant number of sending projects’ representatives stressed the importance of opening the programme to younger participants than 18, to allow for disadvantaged young people to be brought “on board” at an earlier stage in their lives. This would prevent them from being already too far down the line of exclusion and to be “recovered” by an exchange programme.

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Eliot Stern (1996) is also of the opinion that “in order to strengthen both civil society and to reduce

certain kinds of marginalisation, it can be argued that introducing voluntary service at a young age

(e.g. from 14 to 16) would be advantageous”14. He even goes to the point of recommending school

aged children to be included in some way within EVS. Indeed, some international youth exchange

organisations, such as AFS Intercultural Programs and Youth for Understanding, to mention but a few,

open their long-term exchange programmes to younger participants (16-17 years old upwards) using

the same argument15. Although they also agree with the fact that the support framework to be put in

place to manage long-term exchanges with minors can be rather cumbersome and financially

prohibitive.

Although the age limit for participation in EVS is 25 years of age, 11 respondents were older than that

at the time of participation in the programme (corresponding to 4% of the total). In fact, the rules of the

programme allow for such exceptions when the volunteers in question are particularly disadvantaged

(socially, economically, physically, etc.). This is seen as a compensatory measure to increase access

to the programme. Each case is thoroughly assessed by both the National Structures and the

European Commission, upon which the final approval for participation depends. There are indeed

cases where otherwise very committed young people would not be able to participate in such a

programme if it were not for the flexibility shown in terms of age limits. This is the case for instance of

disabled young people who generally encounter a lot more difficulties in their social integration than

non disabled youth.

q Education and Working situation

Not surprisingly, since this was the impression we got from most of the volunteers and youth workers

we had the chance to meet personally, as well as from reading Ann O’Sullivan’s study on the

participation of disadvantaged young people in EVS 16, most of the volunteers (50%) had finished

secondary school before EVS 17, or College/University (28%). A still significant percentage of the

respondents (13%) were still at College/University when they decided to participate in EVS. We are

therefore in presence of a largely student population, with a high number of respondents having

finished compulsory education and or having gone on into higher education.

14 Stern, E., The ex-ante evaluation of the pluri -annual European Voluntary Service – programme for young people, The

Tavistock Institute, London, October 1996 15 Youth for Europe, another programme of the European Union for young people, allows participants from the age of 15 to take part in short -term international exchanges. 16 O’Sullivan, A., EVS, Strategies for including socially excluded young people, SOS-DGXXII, May 1998. 17 This percentage is consistent with that given by hosting organisations questioned by the SOS about the type of participants they usually hosted – 40% amongst them stated that they hosted young people who had just finished secondary school - in SOS, The Hosting projects’ perspective – results of the questionnaire sent to all EVS hosting projects, SOS, Brussels, September 1999.

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“After working with people which have

difficulties in social life I was completely sure

that I want to be a social worker”

German volunteer

Education - situation before EVS

68

122

12 10

31

2

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

had finishedCollege/University

had finished school had leftCollege/University

unfinished

had left schoolunfinished

were still atCollege/University

were still at school

Graphic 5

It is important to point out that 4% of the respondents had left compulsory education unfinished at the

time they decided to participate in EVS, but we can only state for one of the volunteers, whom we

talked to personally, that this was a case of school failure due to particularly difficult personal and

social troubles. We would be inclined to think that volunteers in this category would have had a similar

experience, but our data does not allow us to draw any definite conclusions.

On the working side it is consistent with the previous results to see that

54% of the volunteers were unemployed at the time of deciding to

participate in EVS, something we may suggest having more to do with the

fact that the big majority of the volunteers were primarily students and

therefore not perceiving themselves as part of the labour market. They may

have ticked this answer because from a formal point of view that is what

they were. Still a reasonable percentage of the volunteers (30%) were involved in some kind of

professional activity before going on EVS (18% were employed and 12% were doing an

apprenticeship, training or a stage). This is an interesting as pect to consider because it may imply that

the EVS programme is appealing enough to make young people leave their previous jobs, or job

related activities. It may well be that young people perceive the programme as a possibility to improve

concretely their professional lives and therefore worth the risk of leaving behind something as “secure”

as a job usually is, in order perhaps to find a better one18.

18 When we consider that youth unemployment is double that of all unemployment in the European Union countries (i.e. approximately 21% for 1997, according to Eurostat, 1998 publication), the decision to leave when one is employed makes this fact still more significant.

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The 16% of the respondents who were looking for their first job when they applied to go on EVS make

us inclined to believe that they were certainly part of the group of volunteers who were motivated by

EVS in order to get working experience or learn new skills, as we will see as we go further in our

analysis.

Work - situation before EVS

43

2938

135

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

were employed were doing anapprenticeship/training/stage

were looking for your first job were unemployed

Graphic 6

q Nationality and Legal Residence of the respondents

The questionnaire was mailed to volunteers from all of the European Union countries, together with

Iceland and Norway (programme countries). There were two exceptions though, that of Norwegian

and Greek volunteers sent through the decentralised strand of the programme, for whom we had no

data in the projects’ database and therefore no available addresses. We have however received

responses from Greek volunteers who had participated under the centralised strand of the

programme. We did not receive any answers from Icelandic volunteers, although they were mailed

under both programme strands.

Only one of the volunteers in our group of respondents did not have European nationality, this

volunteer had Angolan nationality, was a legal resident in Portugal and had been sent by the latter

within EVS. One of the volunteers from the German group of respondents had both German and

Turkish nationality. Although there are no specific statistics to come in their support, it is the

impression of some of the youth workers with whom we have talked, that the programme as it exists

nowadays still has difficulties to motivate non-European legal residents in Europe to participate. Most

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of these young people belong to “ethnic minority groups” and may even have a refugee status in the

country where they legally reside. This “social handicap” comes in many cases associated with a

number of other difficulties and prevents them from participating19.

As it was to be expected the majority of the respondents have German (31%), Italian (13%) and

French (13%) nationality. After all these were also the three biggest senders of volunteers during the

Pilot Action, with 24%, 12% and 12% respectively of the total volunteers sent during this period of time

(2500 volunteers), the United Kingdom (10%) and Belgium (8%) coming just behind them20, something

that is also slightly reflected in our responses.

Nationality Total %

Austria 11 4,5

Belgium 17 6,9

Denmark 5 2,0

Finland 9 3,7

France 31 12,7

Germany 77 31,4

Greece 2 0,8

Iceland 0 -

Ireland 2 0,8

Italy 32 13,1

Luxembourg 1 0,4

Netherlands 7 2,9

Norway 0 -

Portugal 2 0,8

Spain 22 9,0

Sweden 5 2,0

UK 20 8,2

OTHER

Angola 1 0,4

German/Turkish 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Table III

Although our treatment of data does not allow us to tell the percentage of volunteers that change their

country of residence after EVS, namely by staying in their hosting country, it is nevertheless

interesting to look at the statistics in table IV and realise that in most cases the number of volunteers

with legal residence in one country does not correspond exactly to the number of volunteers with that

country’s nationality. The two most flagrant cases are those of Denmark and Finland. Denmark has

two times more volunteers with legal residence in this country than with its nationality and Finland lost

19 Only 3% of the hosting organisations questioned by the SOS said that they had hosted volunteers from ethnic minority groups, and only 4% were thinking or targeting these in the near future; in SOS, The Hosting projects’ perspective – results of the questionnaire sent to all EVS hosting projects, SOS, Brussels, September 1999. 20 SOS, Statistical compilation - general figures, European Voluntary Service, June 1999.

Legal Residence Total %

Austria 12 4,9

Belgium 15 6,1

Denmark 10 4,1

Finland 3 1,2

France 32 13,1

Germany 75 30,6

Greece 2 0,8

Iceland 0 -

Ireland 2 0,8

Italy 33 13,5

Luxembourg 2 0,8

Netherlands 6 2,4

Norway 0 -

Portugal 3 1,2

Spain 23 9,4

Sweden 5 2,0

UK 20 8,2

OTHER

New Zealand 1 0,4

Switzerland 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Table II

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more than half of its contingent in the opposite direction. On the other hand, two non -programme

countries are added to the list, New Zealand and Switzerland, when it comes to the legal residence of

volunteers21.

Although it could well be that many of the respondents in question had already a different nationality

and legal residence before their departure with EVS, the truth is that we have received several letters

from the respondents accompanying their questionnaires letting us know that they were not living in

their home countries anymore, and if it had not been for their parents they would have never received

our questionnaire. This leaves room for further inves tigation on the impact of EVS in volunteers’ lives,

as it would be interesting to know how many volunteers start living abroad after their EVS and how

much the programme influenced them to do so.

q Knowledge of foreign languages before EVS

An overwhelming majority of those who answered our questionnaire spoke a foreign language before

participating in EVS (92%), only 8% did not know any other language, apart from their mother tongue,

before participation. This is quite exceptional, since as it is mentioned by the last Eurobarometer

survey (1997) on young people in the European Union, 29% of young Europeans do not speak any

foreign language apart from their own mother tongue, a percentage much higher than the one in our

results22. Nevertheless it is also true that 28% of the respondents answered that one of their

motivations to go on EVS was to learn a new language. Of course, this could also mean that they

wanted to add one more foreign language to the one(s) they knew before, and not necessarily to learn

a foreign language for the very first time.

Language knowledge before EVS

92%8% Yes

No

Graphic 7

21 Although the programme is only destined at European Union, Icelandic and Norwegian citizens and those with legal residence within its borders, we have come across two volunteers who had E.U citizenship although they lived outside it. For the purpose of participating in EVS, they applied through their respective National Structure in the member state of their nationality. 22 Eurobarometer 47.2, The Young Europeans, European Commission, DGXXII, 1998 (a survey of 9 400 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the European Union).

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“I don’t know if you know the magical sensation that it is

when somebody like me, who doesn’t speak another

language except his own, can speak with other foreigners. I

say it again it’s something like MAGIC.”

French volunteer

Eliot Stern (1996) states that “interest in living or working in another country is also associated with

educational attainment – including language abilities (…)”23. It is a fact that our group of respondents

is quite above the average when it comes to linguistic capacities and educational attainment (with

many having concluded College and or University). This is something that confirms previous findings

and once again reinforces the perception that the programme is not yet totally successful in attracting

less mainstream groups of participants.

The same Eurobarometer survey of 1997 shows that the three top foreign languages spoken by young

people in Europe (E.U countries only) are English (54%), French (20%) and German (11%),

something that seems to be true also for our respondents, with percentages for each language

significantly higher. English was signalled by 83% of the respondents, followed by French (48%) and

German (22%), Spanish is the fourth most spoken foreign language amongst the group of volunteers

with 9% of them having signalled it, something that is also in conformity with the data from the

Eurobarometer for European youth in general. The predominance of the three languages mentioned

above is understandable for both historical as well as for academic reasons. They are not only

languages that belong to important nations from a cultural, economic and political point of view, being

therefore more “internationally exposed”, but they are also the foreign

languages mostly taught at secondary school level in Europe. If we

consider once more that 50% of the respondents had finished

secondary education, and that 28% had finished College or University

before participating in EVS it is less difficult to understand the

percentage of those who spoke foreign languages before the

programme, as well as the type of languages they spoke.

23 Stern, E., The ex-ante evaluation of the pluri -annual European Voluntary Service – programme for young people, The

Tavistock Institute, London, October 1996

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203

118

54

-

50

100

150

200

250

English French German

Most spoken EU languages

Graphic 8

English, having become today’s lingua franca with the adven t of the Internet (where 85% to 90% of all

communications take place in English24) and the widespread of North-American cultural production

(namely the film industry), comes comfortably on top of any of the other foreign languages mentioned

by the volunteers.

1

3

1 1

14

1

-

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

num

ber

of v

olun

teer

s

Breton Catalan IrishGaellic

Romanian Russian Takitaki(Guyennefrançaise)

Other non-EU languages

Graphic 9

24Blankert, H., et al., Building the European Information society for us all - final policy report of the high-level expert group, Employment & Social affairs, European Commission, April 1997

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As far as non-European languages are concerned, the highest percentage is registered for Russian,

spoken by 6% of the volunteers, something for which the German respondents contributed entirely

and although we do not have any specific data to support the following remark, we would be inclined

to say that most of the volunteers who signalled Russian as one of their other foreign languages came

from the former East Germany where for historical and political reasons, Russian was also taught at

school.

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“I thi nk that the main quality of EVS is democracy. It gives the

opportunity for any person to do it no matter your social class or the skills you have, so very different

kinds of people can meet”

French volunteer

MOTIVATION TO GO ON EVS

H Our hypothesis was “that most participants have decided to go on EVS due to their wish to get

more working experience and become more independent in life”.

nderstanding why young people decide to go on EVS is important because it can help us to

understand our target group better. Eventually it can provide decision-makers and youth

workers alike the possibility to more easily get the message across when talking about EVS

to potential new candidates, and dispel the wrong expectations.

Two main dimensions are perceivable when looking at the results

of the questionnaire, a first one related to the personal benefits

volunteers see in their participation, and a second one related to

more idealistic, social benefits deriving from the programme.

Getting working experience would be part of the first dimension

and this seems to be indeed the main motivation to go on EVS,

with 31% of the volunteers pointing it out as their main reason to participate. If to that we add the

percentage of volunteers who go on EVS to learn new skills (13%), and that of volunteers who

participate because they were unemployed (4%), we can easily say that approximately half of the

respondents see EVS as a way of improving their professional integration. This is furthermore

corroborated by the fact that 67% of the volunteers expected EVS to teach them important skills for

their future job, although only 26% state that they have fulfilled this expectation completely. It is also

true that 55% of the volunteers were unemployed before starting EVS 25, and that 16% were actively

looking for their first job, something that may also explain why EVS was seen by so many as a

possibility to increase one’s professional potential 26.

The Central Team of the Evaluation of EVS (1999) thinks that it is amongst older volunteers that the

motivation to participate due to the “vocational” aspects of EVS is stronger. According to them “most

EVS volunteers who are younger do not appear to see the scheme as a vocational opportunity. Their

main motivations are to ‘leave home and live independently’, ‘spend time in another European country’

and ‘improve language skills’”27. Our data do not allow us to confirm this statement but it is again

25 Although we also suppose that a significant number of those respondents who signalled being unemployed before EVS were only technically so, having finished secondary school and not really interested in finding a job or worried by the prospect of being jobless at that particular moment in life. 26 Although voluntary the programme is about work and its activities are comparable in a number of cases to those of any paid job. It is clear that EVS tries to avoid at all cost any type of job substitution, but this does not mean that volunteers are supposed to develop meaningless activities, quite the opposite, they are supposed to be responsible for carrying out and helping to manage sometimes very complex projects. The difference with a paid job lays on the type of support that they receive and on the reduced schedule they have, together with the complementary social and cultural activities that fill their days. 27 Stern, E, et al., Continuous assessment of the European Voluntary Service:- report from the evaluation of the Pilot Action

1997/1998, The Central Evaluation Team, European Commission, DGXXII, January 1999

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something that would be interesting to verify in future researches of this kind, since it may be

important to know how different age groups react to the appeal of the programme.

A significant number of the volunteers (28%) have mentioned “the possibility to find out about myself”

as their motivation to participate in EVS, something that in our interviews with different volunteers did

come up as one of the important reasons for going abroad for a long period of time. EVS is perceived

by many as something that allows one to be confronted with new ideas and re-evaluate previous ones,

a possibility to grow up as a person and find out more about one’s personality, priorities in life,

personal interests and talents. All of these were mentioned also by volunteers when responding to

section H of our questionnaire (see annexe 2 - Analysis of section H). Furthermore it must be

underlined that 92% of the respondents have said that they expected EVS to help them in “finding out

about myself” and “what I want to do in life”, and for more than half of the respondents (53%) this was

fulfilled. This is in conformity with the ideas expressed by the Central Team of the Evaluation of EVS

when they say that “the core of what young people report is about personal development and the

transition into an adult world that is associated with late adolescence and early adulthood” 28.

Motivation to go on EVS Total %

Because I was unemployed 9 3,7

Because other friends did it 1 0,4

for the adventure 42 17,1

it was a cheap way of going abroad 14 5,7

to become more independent 26 10,6

to complement my studies 18 7,3

to find out about myself 69 28,2

to get away from home 9 3,7

to get working experience 75 30,6

to give myself a fresh start 30 12,2

To help in the development of Europe 6 2,4

To help other people 57 23,3

To learn a new language 68 27,8

To learn new skills 31 12,7

To make new friends 6 2,4

OTHER -

obligatory military service 1 0,4

to give ideas to hosting project 1 0,4

to know what to do with my future 1 0,4

to learn about other cultures 15 6,1

Total resp ondents 245 -

Table IV

28 Stern, E, et al., Continuous assessment of the European Voluntary Service:- report from the evaluation of the Pilot Actions 1997/1998, The Central Evaluation Team, European Commission, DGXXII, January 1999

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Nevertheless, becoming independent does not seem to be the main motivation to go on EVS, after all

only 11% of the respondents mentioned it as such. On the other hand, it must be said that 79% of the

respondents expected this to happen through participation in EVS and 61% amongst them have totally

fulfilled it, with 17% having done partly so (only 1% did not fulfil this expectation). Therefore, although

independence does not seem to be the main reason why these volunteers decided to apply for EVS,

becoming more independent plays a role that should not be underestimated neither.

Although the personal dimension seems to dominate the set of reasons to go abroad, volunteers

participate in EVS also to help other people (23%), to learn about other cultures (6%) and to help in

the development of Europe (2%). This implies that there is amongst the respondents a reasonable

amount of idealism and altruism and that they see EVS as an experience that goes beyond their

personal interests, and may also have an impact on others and the world at large.

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“EVS scheme was exactly the correct step to take after

complementing a Masters in sociology. I was able to learn

more practical things related to the field I would like to be

involved in”

Irish volunteer

FINDING ABOUT EVS FOR THE FIRST TIME

H Our hypothesis was “that in most cases young people having participated in EVS have learned

about it through local and national publications, as well as through direct contact with the National

Structures that are responsible for the implementation of the programme in the member states”.

nowing where volunteers have access to information on

EVS for the first time is important in order to better

direct the latter and eventually adapt it to the

characteristics of the “emissary”. After all, those who inform

volunteers about EVS are also an important group to take into

account when giving out information on the programme. They

work as mediators between the European Commission, the

National Structures and even the SOS, although the two latter institutions usually have a direct contact

with volunteers. The role of youth organisations, job centres, universities, etc. as interfaces between

the decision-makers and the managers of the programme makes them particularly relevant, therefore

their profile, needs and working methods should be better known so that their efforts can also be more

productive.

Apart from the fact that there seem to be as many sources of information as there are volunteers, with

“Other” sources being well represented in our questionnaire (10% of the responses), the youth sector

appears as the main source of information on EVS (16% for youth organisations and 15% for youth

information centres). This is understandable taking into account the fact that the programme is part of

the youth policy initiatives of the European Union and is therefore principally advertised as a youth

programme. The third main source of information on EVS is “a friend” (14%), which shows the

potential for peer to peer exchange of information and the importance of having young people who

have taken part in the programme being made aware of their active role in letting know about EVS’s

existence to other young people. In our encounters with volunteers their wish to serve as facilitators in

bringing information about EVS to other young people was constant, and in section H of the

questionnaire 7 volunteers mentioned their availability to help the institutional powers to do so

whenever necessary.

Only 4% of the respondents had access to EVS through some sort of publication (travel book,

newspaper, etc.) showing that inter-personal means of communication (through friends, peers or

significant adults) are sti ll the most efficient ways of passing information.

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Learning about EVS - 1st time Total %

a friend 35 14,3

a local information centre for young people 36 14,7

a National newspaper 13 5,3

a previous pa rticipant 3 1,2

direct invitation by the organisers 26 10,6

the radio 2 0,8

the T.V 8 3,3

your EVS National Structure 24 9,8

your local authority 3 1,2

your local newspaper 11 4,5

your school/University 20 8,2

your youth organisation 39 15,9

OTHER

by chance when asking for information on exchanges 2 0,8

family member 4 1,6

Internet 1 0,4

Language Exhibit 1 0,4

Library 1 0,4

local job centre 2 0,8

Ministry of Youth and Education 2 0,8

newspaper on voluntary work 2 0,8

travel book 4 1,6

Unknown 2 0,8

Work/Study abroad book 4 1,6

Total 245 100,0

Table V

Considering the fact that many of the participants stated that one of their main motivations to

participate in EVS was to get working experience and that very few of the respondents received

information on the programme through local job centres (1%), it could be important to target these

more often when thinking of general information campaigns. Although EVS should not be seen as a

vocational programme, its potential in terms of allowing young people to gain practical experience and

develop their personal skills should be stressed namely amongst those looking for their first job, for

instance.

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“I think that EVS is a very good initiative, one that makes

Europe smaller”

Belgian volunteer

SENDING AND HOSTING ORGANISATIONS

s far as the sending of volunteers is concerned it is clear

that youth organisations both at European and

national/local level were the main senders of volunteers.

European youth organisations come at the top of the list with 27%

of the volunteers signalling them as their sending organisation

immediately followed by national and local youth organisations with 20%. Together they amount to

47% of the total. This is consis tent with the fact that most volunteers received information on EVS from

a youth organisation or centre. On the other hand youth organisations have perceived the programme

as being naturally “theirs”, since EVS is a youth programme and shares in that respe ct many of the

objectives and features that the majority of youth organisations have. This is the more so in the case

of those organisations, namely at European level, which were already working at the time with

international exchange projects directed at young people. They saw in EVS the possibility to extend

their activities or open up to new areas of expertise more specifically related to international

volunteering. However, both National Structures and religious organisations appear to be important

senders of volunteers, with 16% of the respondents signalling them in both cases.

Sending organisation Total %

a European youth organisation 53 21,6

a job centre 3 1,2

a local municipality 5 2,0

a national/local youth organisation 48 19,6

a religious organisation 39 15,9

a sports organisation 1 0,4

a youth centre 11 4,5

an environmental organisation 6 2,4

an EVS National Structure 40 16,3

OTHER

community centre 1 0,4

cultural centre 1 0,4

development NGO 6 2,4

European NGO 4 1,6

exchange society 1 0,4

local community organisation 5 2,0

school/university 5 2,0

social work organisation 9 3,7

Theatre 1 0,4

Unknown 6 2,4

Total 245 100,0

Table VI

A

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The fact that National Structures played an important role as sending organisations during the Pilot

Action of the programme is easily justifiable if we consider the fact that the programme was still new

and unknown for the most part, and National Structures were sometimes the first contact that

volunteers had with EVS (10% of the respondents got information on the programme through their

National Structures). On the other hand in the beginning of the programme it was not always easy for

National Structures to find sending organisations in their countries fit to send volunteers having to play

that role themselves to allow young people to participate in the programme.

In the second case, that of religious organisations, it must be said that this is applicable mostly to the

German volunteers who have participated in the decentralised strand of the programme. In their

particular case the percentage of respondents having been sent by religious organisations raises to

30% of the total. At centralised level, for those volunteers having taken part in the Multilateral action, it

is also clear that religious organisations played an important role as senders with 32% of the

respondents having been sent by them. Nevertheless, it must be said that in both cases presented

above, youth organisations appear at the top of the list (with 41% and 44% respectively).

As far as their hosting organisations are concerned, most volunteers were hosted by social work and

youth organisations (32% and 19% respectively). If we add to social work organisations, the amount of

volunteers having worked in an old people’s home, the social sector percentage raises to 36%. This is

consistent with the results related to the main themes of the EVS projects developed by volunteers,

where again the social and the youth sectors are signalled by the large majority of the respondents.

Hosting organisation Total %

a development organisation 17 6,9

a local community centre 17 6,9




a social work organisation 78 31,8


an old people's home 9 3,7

OTHER

documentation centre 1 0,4

health organisation/services 9 3,7

International Foundation 1 0,4

International NGO 4 1,6


sports organisation 3 1,2

Theatre 4 1,6

Unknown 2 0,8

Total 245 100,0

Table VII

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In fact, in many countries during the Pilot Action it was clear that social work organisations in general

were those that could more easily host young volunteers and whose activities could more rapidly be

adapted to the criteria of EVS. They usually had experience, namely at local and national level, of

voluntary work and were organised in international networks of likeminded organisations. With the

development of the programme after 1998 other organisations became more and more involved too,

although the former were the main “clients” of EVS during its launching phase, and today still play an

important role.

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THE MAIN THEMES OF VO LUNTEERS’ PROJECTS

t is clear from the respondents’ answers that most of them were placed in projects with a strong

social assistance component, although individually support to youth and children is the theme that

is most signalled by the volunteers (33%). Although volunteers could signal up to two different

themes to describe their hosting projects it is possible to realise that if taken together themes such as

support to disabled, elderly, homeless, migrants, unemployed, drug users, to name only a few, make

the majority of the themes signalled by the respondents. This is consistent with the global results for

the Pilot Action (decentralised strand), where 23% of the hosting projects were related to youth and

children, and approximately 32% dealt with social integration/assistance issues29.

Main theme of EVS project Total %

anti-racism/xenophobia 9 3,7

art and culture 20 8,2

Environmental work 37 15,1

equal opportunities 17 6,9

European issues 5 2,0

health promotion 18 7,3

media/communications 5 2,0

Protection of historical monuments 2 0,8

rural development 15 6,1

sports/leisure time 17 6,9

support to disabled 65 26,5

support to elderly 28 11,4

support to homeless 14 5,7

support to migrants 11 4,5

support to unemployed 13 5,3

support to youth/children 81 33,1

urban development 5 2,0

youth information 14 5,7

OTHER

adult education 1 0,4

civil protection 1 0,4

conflict resolution 1 0,4

Development aid 1 0,4

Ecumenical work 2 0,8

Support to drug users 5 2,0

Tourism 1 0,4

No answer 1 0,4

Total respondents 245 -

Table VIII

29 SOS, Statistical compilation - decentralised strand, number of projects per theme, European Voluntary Service, SOS, June 1999.

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Environmental work comes third in the list of themes, with 15% of the volunteers signalling it, an area

of work that is certainly popular amongst current candidates, if we are to consider the many calls

received by the National Structures and the SOS in that sense30.

30 In order to appeal to a greater number of young people, the European Commission has been recently asking the National Structures to recruit more hosting organisations from more varied areas of work, to reduce the concentration of projects in the social and youth field and widen the offer. One of the areas in which the European Commission has been investing the most is that of sports and related activities.

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“The whole experience, living abroad and working in the

project, allowed me to distinguish what my priorities

in life really are”

German volunteer

DURATION OF THE EVS PROJECT

q Duration of EVS projects

he average duration of an EVS project in the case of our respondents was approximately 8

months, which was influenced by the fact that in 5% of the cases volunteers stayed in their

projects for more than 12 months, going beyond the maximum limit imposed by the European

Commission. How this has happened it is hard for us to say, although we presume it was not with the

knowledge of the National Structures or the European Commission. This percentage is once again

influenced by those volunteers who participated in the Multilateral action of the centralised strand of

EVS, for whom 20% of the projects lasted more than 12 months. Otherwise it is clear that for the

majority of our respondents their projects lasted a maximum of 6 months with 45% of the volunteers

having signalled this duration31.

Duration of EVS project Total %

<=3 months 12 4,9

4-5 months 7 2,9

6 months 111 45,3

7-9 months 39 15,9

10-11 months 36 14,7

12 months 26 10,6

>12 months 13 5,3

No answer 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Table IX

q Remaining in the hosting country after EVS

Most of the volunteers in our pool of respondents went back home

after their EVS was finished (58%), but 42% stayed for a certain

period of time in their hosting countries after the end of their project.

This period varied between a few weeks to several months. Within

this group it is clear that the majority of the volunteers stayed up to 3

weeks (48%). As many have told us, they use these extra weeks to spend a few days of vacations

with their new friends and to visit more the country in which they were hosted.

31 6 months is also the minimum duration of a project within the long-term strand of the programme, being the one that most volunteers choose because in terms of personal commitment it usually requires less from them. Some volunteers ask for a prolongation to the six months when their integration in the host country and project is particularly successful.

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It is nevertheless important to underline that 13% of the volunteers have remained in their host

countries after the end of EVS for a total of 7 or more months, this contingent corresponding to those

volunteers who usually decide to stay “permanently” in their host countries, either to continue their

studies or work. This percentage may actually be a lot higher in reality than shown by our

questionnaire, taking into account the fact that our mailing did not reach many of the returnees exactly

because they had chosen to stay in their host countries and were not forwarded our letter by friends or

relatives. This is indeed something that would require further investigation, as it can be quite an

accurate indicator for the capacity of EVS to promote long-term youth mobility in Europe and help in

building a more intercultural European society.

Remaining in host country after EVS

17

32

36

5

13

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

<=1 week

2-3 weeks

1-3 months

4-6 months

>=7 months

volunteers

Graphic 10

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“A very good thing was knowing the responsible

person for EVS in Germany. She came and visited many

volunteers in order to be sure that everything was O.K”

Italian volunteer

VOLUNTEER INVOLVEMENT IN EVS PROJECT

any of the volunteers, who have talked to us during our personal visits to their hosting

projects, have expressed their wish to be more directly involved in the choice and planning

of their EVS projects. In fact, three of the volunteers from the decentralised strand who

added their comments to section H of our questionnaire have referred to the fact that they regretted

not having been given the chance of choosing their hosting projects. However, looking at the general

statistical results of our questionnaire it is obvious that more than half of the respondents had the

chance both to choose (67%) and to participate in the planning of their EVS activities (56%).

Ability to choose project

67%

33%Yes

No

Planning EVS project

56%

44%

Yes

No

Graphic 11 Graphic 12

Nevertheless, still a high number of volunteers remained without having had the chance to choose

their EVS projects (33% of the respondents)32 and an even higher number without being actively

involved in the planning of their activities (45%). If the latter case seems to have less nefarious

consequences – many volunteers do not wish to plan their projects, nor do they feel ready to do so –

in the case of choice of projects a strong effort needs to be done if volunteers are to feel content with

their activities. Once again we must point out the fact that these values

refer to volunteers who participated in the Pilot Action of the

programme, during which not every ideal procedure was already in

place. This may explain why still so many volunteers could not choose

their projects. It would be interesting to compare these values with a

pool of respondents from the actual Programme phase, started in

August 1998.

32 A percentage that raises to 41% in the case of the volunteers who participated in the Multilateral action of the centralised strand of EVS. A reality that can be partly explained by the fact that in this case volunteers were sent by big umbrella organisations, with a set of pre-defined projects that allowed for little choice in terms both of project theme and country.

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Consultation of Project Database

24%

76%

Yes

No

Graphic 13

If there is indeed anything that should be considered for improvement in the future, is the volunteers’

access to the international database of hosting projects, since a large percentage of the volunteers in

our sample have mentioned not having been able to consult this database (75%), something they

should have been able to, in principle and in practice. This last percentage is once more higher for the

volunteers who participated in the Multilateral action of the centralised strand (88%), a fact that is

reinforced by the comments made by one volunteer in section H of the questionnaire, complaining for

not having been able to use the database in question to choose a relevant hosting project. Even for

the volunteers who participated in the decentralised strand of the programme, this percentage is

relatively high, with 68% of the respondents saying that they have not had access to the database of

hosting projects. Considering that for this strand of the programme the National Structures in the

Member States had a more direct control and responsibility for the management and use of this

database, the results are poor indeed. With the access of the database through Internet the number of

sending projects which allow their volunteers to consult it before choosing a project must have

increased, but this is again something that would need to be checked in future studies.

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“I was frustrated by my inability to get any long-term chance to gain experience within this

world. As an EVS volunteer with Jesuit Volunteer Community, I was placed in a very

small adult learning centre in a disadvantaged area of Dublin. It opened up doors to a whole

thriving world of community work; and particularly community education that was a real

boost and gave me a real sense of where it is I can and want to make a difference”

British volunteer

FOLLOW-UP AND EVALUATION ACTIVITIES AFTER EVS

H Our hypothesis was “that the majority of he participants have had formal activities of follow-up and

evaluation after their voluntary service, which in most cases were not more than a short-term

group session”.

q Follow-up and evaluation activities

he majority of the respondents (65%) participated in a follow-up & evaluation activity after their

EVS project. Although this represents more than half of the respondents, a still significant

number of volunteers did not take part in any of these activities (35%), meaning that they

ended their EVS project without having had the chance to reflect upon it in a structured way, either

with the help of a youth worker or with other volunteers. It is never too much to underline the

importance of giving the volunteers the opportunity to talk about their experience in a formal way,

since this makes it possible to realise both the successes and the failures of their stay and prepare for

their re-integration back home. All volunteers should have the possibility to evaluate their project after

its end and both their hosting and sending projects, as well as the National Structures , should be

made aware of the important role they have to play in this matter.

Participation in follow-up/evaluation activities

65%

35%

Yes No

Graphic 14

For those who had the chance to participate in a

follow-up & evaluation activity after the end of their

project, 73% had this organised by their sending

organisations upon return and 26% by their National

Structures. It seems that sending projects in this case

were well aware of their responsibility in guaranteeing

that their intervention is done not only at the time of

departure and during the stay of the volunteers abroad, but also upon their return. Although only one

volunteer signalled having had an evaluation activity conducted by the hosting project we believe this

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to be an important example to have in mind, since it can be most beneficial in preparing volunteers for

the cultural shock that awaits many of them when returning back to their home countries. An Italian

volunteer whom we have interviewed suggested that all volunteers should have a pre-departure

orientation before leaving th eir hosting countries, to help them with the re-integration in their home

countries. In his case this proved to be extremely helpful.

In most cases the follow-up & evaluation activities were conducted in the format of a big seminar with

the participation of several volunteers (52%), or a small workshop with other fellow volunteers (32%).

It is important to highlight the fact that 20% of the respondents stated that this activity took the form of

an individual interview with a youth worker. This latter type of follow-up & evaluation was highly

commended by many of the volunteers with whom we talked since it allowed them to ask more

personal questions and get guidance more related to their specific needs and background.

Unfortunately, from the projects’ point of view this is one of the most time consuming and expensive

forms of post-return counselling and one that many sending projects cannot afford doing due to lack of

both financial and human resources (both things go hand in hand most of the time).

Duration of follow-up/evaluation activities Total %

half a day 27 17,0

1 full day 19 11,9

2-3 days 96 60,4

>3 days 17 10,7

Total 159 100,0

Table X

Consistent with the format of the sessions is the fact that most of the respondents (60%) have

participated in an activity that lasted between 2 and 3 days, which is understandable when you bring

together a large group of volunteers. Still, a reasonable number of volunteers (29%) have not had

more than half or a full day session during which to discuss their experience and what they might wish

to do when they are back. From the comments that we have heard from volunteers we have

interviewed this can be very frustrating because, to put it in their own words, “you cannot talk about

such an important year in your life in a couple of hours”. Volunteers seem to value interaction with

other volunteers very much, but also the chance to voice their thoughts and feelings over a period of

time that does not give them the impression that they are rushing over the matter.

The big majority of the follow-up & evaluation activities were geared towards the general evaluation of

the EVS experience (93%), although in 34% of the cases they were specifically aimed at helping the

volunteers with their re-integration back home. In more than half of the cases the activities combined

both objectives. The percentage of respondents that informed other potential volunteers about EVS

(15%) during their follow -up and evaluation sessions is also remarkable. Although this is a positive

aspect in itself – many volunteers in the section H of the questionnaire stated their willingness to

inform others about the programme – when done in isolation, as the only type of activity volunteers are

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“Now I am able to use my new skills, to develop my personality and I found a job in the host country related to my voluntary

work”

Spanish volunteer

given after the end of their project, the consequences may well be more negative than positive. Many

volunteers who have gone through an evaluation activity where the sole purpose of their presence

was to talk about EVS to other volunteers, felt that they were not being given attention and nobody

cared about what they had gone through. Some youth workers have also underlined the fact that using

previous volunteers to talk to new candidates without having run an evaluation session with them, can

be counterproductive in many ways, not the least because the volunteers have not had any help in

structuring their experience, namely the difficult parts. Sometimes this can scare more than motivate

young people to participate.

Main focus of the follow -up/evaluation Total %

Evaluation of the EVS experience 148 93,1

Giving career guidance 9 5,7

Helping with re-integration back home 54 34,0

Informing about educational opportunities 13 8,2

OTHER

Discussing about future improvements 1 0,6

Helping hosted volunteers to integrate 2 1,3

Informing other young people about EVS 24 15,1

Unknown 2 1,3


Table XI

Only 14% of the respondents have signalled some sort of career or educational guidance during their

follow-up & evaluation activities, something we would suggest as being more and more important for

the success of the re-integration period of the volunteers, or even in those cases where they decide to

stay in their hosting countries after EVS. We will have the chance to discuss more in detail the post-

EVS difficulties of volunteers, but it is important to say that after EVS many of them have been

exposed to a number of new ideas and possibilities that require someone more experienced and

mature to help them focus on. Taking into account that most volunteers either look for a job or

continue their studies after EVS, being able to provide them with information on how to go about it can

be crucial to the overall success of their experience.

q Evaluation of follow-up & evaluation activities

More than half of the volunteers found these activities to be either

satisfactory (31%) or good (33%), and 23% found them to be very

good. We could therefore say that the vast majority of the

respondents were happy with the type of activities they were given,

when this was the case. Only 14% of the volunteers in our sample

qualified these activities has having been negative (11% bad and 3% very bad). But in this case we

could see a marked difference between the volunteers who took part in the decentralised strand of the

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programme, and those who participated in the Multilateral action of the centralised strand. In the first

case 19% of the volunteers stated that their follow-up & evaluation activities were either bad or very

bad, and in the second case only 3% of the volunteers stated that these had been bad (none qualified

them as very bad).

17

5249

5

36

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

bad good satisfactory very bad very good

Evaluation of Follow-up/Evaluation

Graphic 15

We think that this difference could be explained by the fact that the organisations that developed most

of the Multilateral action projects were experienced volunteering NGO’s that had already done similar

activities in the past and had the necessary resources to make it work. These organisations have in

most cases used the format of a 3 days seminar with the participation of many of their volunteers and

youth work experts, providing volunteers with both formal and informal activities upon their return. On

the other hand, small local sending projects were confronted often for the first time in their lives with

the need of running evaluation activities with volunteers. They did not always have the expertise nor

the experience to make it function well. As their participation in the programme evolves we believe that

they will be providing more and more good evaluation activities to their volunteers, something that is

again worth checking in future studies.

of 1

“I started my EVS experience for fun. After my second month as a volunteer in England I

realised I was changing and growing”

Italian volunteer

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND RE-INTEGRATION BACK HOME

H Our hypothesis was “that having been EVS volunteers has motivated the majority of these young

people to look for volunteering opportunities after their return home, and that in the majority of the

cases these activities are similar to those developed while they were on EVS”.

q Community involvement

lthough most of the respondents said that after their EVS project

they did not get involved in any community or voluntary work

activity (57%), a significant number of volunteers (43%) started

doing some sort of community or voluntary work after that33. What is

more important is that in 58% of these cases they did so in relation to

what they had done during their EVS. Although more studies would be

necessary to say that EVS has a direct impact on young people’s social involvement and participation,

we can say that this is true at least for a reasonable number of the respondents in our sample.

Volunteers who docommunity/voluntary work after EVS

43%

57%yes

no

Relation to EVS project

58%

42%

Yes

No

Graphic 16 Graphic 17

This is extremely relevant and deserves to be underlined because it definitely meets one of the

objectives of EVS, which is to promote local development through volunteering. If EVS were to have

the same multiplier effect for all those who participated in it during the Pilot Action, we would be talking

of approximately 624 volunteers (out of 2500) who would have come back to their home countries and

get involved in community or voluntary work directly related to what they did in their EVS projects. Of

33 Cultural work, ecumenical work, environmental work, football coach, political militant, social/community work, youth work (see annexe 1 containing all tables at the end of this report for specific percentages).

A

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course we cannot verify this, it is a mere anecdotal hypothesis drawn from our statistical results.

However, we should not forget that Arnold Love (1996) states in his findings for North America that

habits of voluntary service acquired at a young age tend to be carried forward into adult life 34. The

answers of our group of volunteers seem to show that there is indeed an important relationship

between participating in EVS and wishing to be involved in some type or another of community or

voluntary work afterwards. It would be interesting to investigate in future studies how long this wish for

involvement stays with the volunteers after participation, and if indeed it is carried forward into their

adult lives.

Plans to become involved in the future

26%

14%60%

Yes

No

Maybe

Graphic 18

Of those who did not become involved in any type of community or voluntary work only one fourth

(26%) stated that they are planning to do so in the future. The majority of the respondents said

“maybe” (60%), in our view a polite way of saying “no” (14% answered directly like this).

q Re-integration back home

Percentages are very split when it comes to the respondents’ re-integration back home. It is indeed a

case of almost 50-50 as far as the difficulties/easiness of their re-integration is concerned. If 52% of

the volunteers have had a positive re-integration, 48% have had a negative one. In the first case 43%

of the volunteers said to have had an easy re-integration back home, while 9% stated to have had a

very easy one. In the second case, the division between the two “groups” is also quite similar to that,

with 38% of the volunteers qualifying their re-integration as having been difficult, and 10% as very

difficult. It is nevertheless important to say that in the case of the respondents who participated in the

34 in Stern, E., The ex-ante evaluation of the pluri-annual European Voluntary Service – programme for young people, The

Tavistock Institute, London, October 1996

of 1

“I think that EVS gives you a nice possibility to go out of your country and open up your mind while you are

working for a fairer Europe”

Spanish volunteer

decentralised strand of the programme – they correspond to 62% of the total answers to our

questionnaire – 45% of the volunteers have had a difficult re-integration back home, and 10% a very

difficult one, totalling 55% of the respondents with a negative feeling about their return home.

23

106

92

24

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

very easy easy difficult very difficult

Re-integration after EVS

Graphic 19

Seven volunteers who answered to section H of the questionnaire

have mentioned their difficulties with friends and family after their

return, and Although a few of the volunteers have asked for more

institutional support when they come back (to find a job, to pursue new

study areas, to put in place their creative ideas, etc.), it seems to us

that most problems are of a more personal nature. In fact, the interviews that we have conducted have

helped us to understand some of the reasons that may be behind the difficulties in settling back in

one’s home country. Many volunteers said that they felt lost after their return, that they had gone

through a lot of changes while abroad and suddenly there were too many open doors in front of them

and no one to help them choose. Others said that they had come back a new kind of person, with new

ways of doing and thinking to soon find out that they did not have anything more in common with their

family, but mainly with their friends. Some of the volunteers would go as far as saying that their friends

did not understand anything of what having been a volunteer abroad means, as if an insurmountable

barrier had been put between them, making all communication impossible. For other volunteers,

coming back was an anti-climax. After having spent the best year of their lives abroad they were

confronted once more with their everyday life routine and they soon felt disenchanted. After a fast

pace reality and all the novelty they could not face back the dim and unattractive life they had left

behind for a while. This was more so for those volunteers who had normally to face up to adversity in

their home countries - unemployment, lack of proper housing, few friends, problems with their parents,

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“After you’re back you must have some conflict with yourself, but I think only with a conflict you

can grow up”

Italian volunteer

low self-esteem, etc. - for them EVS was like an interval in all this, a chance to access a different kind

of life, but not a permanent one.

What became apparent to us when talking with these volunteers about their difficult re-integration was

the lack of a significant adult or a peer that would listen and value what they had done. In comparison

with other volunteers who had similar life stories but an easy re-integration, these were youngsters

who had nobody in their circle of relatives or friends who thought that what they had done was special.

Instead of finding the support they expected they were often criticised by their friends for not having

stayed home like everybody else. They also had not had any contact with their sending projects after

returning and had not felt at ease to drop by uninvited.

To draw any consistent conclusions on such an important topic would

require not only more but also more diverse data, we can therefore

advance only but some hints for future investigation. However, we feel

that it is very important to alert sending projects to the possibility of one of

their returned volunteers being in this last group. We have felt while

talking to the young people, that being able to voice out their worries and talk about their experience

was a great deal of what they really wanted. Sending projects should be strongly reminded at all times

that their responsibility for the volunteers does not end after their departure, but that EVS is a cycle

that is not complete until the volunteer successfully re-integrates in his/her home country.

of 1

“EVS has helped me on the way to mature adulthood, and it has given

me so many opportunities and vision. I would enthusiastically encourage anyone to take the

opportunities EVS has to offer and just do it”

British volunteer

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SKILLS

q Personal characteristics

t is important to remind the readers that the following

comments are based on the volunteers’ perceptions and

they do not mean that EVS as such contributes to make

young people more independent, or mature, to give a few of the

examples in our list. The statistical results should be read as the

way that young people themselves have perceived the changes

brought about by EVS into their personalities. It is therefore their

subjective point of view that is being evaluated. If one of the respondents says that after EVS s/he

became more independent, it is her/his own evaluation of the situation and we do not possess any

external comparative data that would allow us to assess if it is true or not that this particular volunteer

became more independent after the programme. It would have required the use of specific standard

personality scales to be able to evaluate this and other personal dimensions of the volunteers’

personality in an objective manner. Nevertheless, the volunteers’ perceptions are indicative of what

may lay beneath EVS and give us an idea of what they feel as having been the contribution of the

programme to their ways of being. We will only comment on some of the personal characteristics and

skills in our list, therefore for a full report we advise you to consult annexe 1 with the complete list of

tables at the end of this report.

Assertive - Communicative - Tolerant

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

much less less the same more much more

Assertive Communicative Tolerant

Graphic 20

I

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When looking at the different personal characteristics that the volunteers considered to have evolved

due to EVS it is striking to see how many of the respondents have felt that EVS had a positive or very

positive impact in their capacity to be assertive, communicative and tolerant, just to mention a few

examples. A large majority of the respondents felt that EVS had made them more or much more

assertive (54% and 14% respectively), a very similar distribution for being communicative (50% more

and 18% much more), showing how much EVS has apparently improved their capacity to interact with

other people and be sure about their opinions and decisions. This trend is again corroborated by the

fact that 48% of the volunteers felt more open to people after EVS and 18% much more open. The

respondents also stated having become more socially aware and caring after EVS (44% and 40%

respectively). Still within these two personal characteristics it is worth to notice that 25% said having

become much more socially aware and 12% much more caring. A trend that is confirmed by the fact

that 48% of the respondents felt more socially involved after EVS and 10% much more so. Tolerance

comes also high in the list of personal characteristics on which EVS has made an impact, 45% said

having become more tolerant and 21% much more tolerant.

European - Mature - Independent

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140


European Mature Independent

Graphic 21

European, Mature and Independent are the three characteristics that the overwhelming majority of the

volunteers (approximately three fourths) have considered to having been more positively influenced by

EVS. In this sense, 40% of the respondents have said that after EVS they have felt more European,

while 34% have felt much more European. As far as being mature and independent is concerned,

51% and 45% felt respectively that EVS made them become more so, and 25% and 32% (again

respectively) have felt it much more. Furthermore 61% of the respondents felt that their expectation of

becoming more independent had been totally fulfilled with EVS, and 17% thought that this had partially

happened. All this is in accordance with the comments that we have been able to read from

of 1

“I can assure you, without EVS I would not be the same person. I would not have these wonderful

memories to think about over and over again. And to know that I can solve my problems and difficul ties by myself really

makes me stronger than I was before”

Finnish volunteer

respondents in section H of the questionnaire, where 11 volunteers have said that EVS promoted a

European feeling and sense of citizenship. It was also clear from their comments that the personal

dimension of EVS and its contribution to the development of their personality and character was a very

important aspect of their experience. Twenty four of the respondents commented on how important

EVS had been in developing their personal character and knowing more about themselves, while 10 of

them pointed out that EVS had made them more independent. Six of the respondents commented that

EVS had helped them to grow up. In our interviews with the volunteers, independence, maturity and a

feeling of being European were also the three most recurrent things in their discourse when talking

about EVS.

The Central Team of the Evaluation of EVS (1999) had found in

their study less evidence of the European dimension than what

they had expected35. According to them it would be easier for a

volunteer to learn about his/her own citizenship while on the

programme, than about Europe as a whole. In principle it was their

impression that volunteers involved in multilateral types of

exchanges – EVS is mainly a bilateral programme – would have

more opportunities to develop a feeling of European citizenship. However, in our study volunteers

participating in the decentralised strand of the programme (bilateral exchanges) have signalled more

often having developed a European feeling than those who took part in the multilateral action of the

centralised strand. In the decentralised strand 40% of the respondents said having become more

European after EVS, and 38% much more European. In the multilateral action of the centralised

strand 44% have said that they became more European after the programme, and only 26% much

more so.

Overall speaking it is true, as it had also been mentioned by the Central Team of the Evaluation of

EVS, that “much of what volunteers report as positive learning outcomes are contextual rather than

intrinsic to voluntary service” 36. Becoming more independent, mature, assertive, communicative,

socially aware, etc. has not to do so much with the content of their voluntary work but more so with the

experience as a whole. But as we will see later, it must also be pointed out that many volunteers saw

in EVS an opportunity to develop many skills that are more content related that contextual.

On the more negative side it must be said that 13% of the volunteers have felt either more lonely

(11%) or much more lonely (2%) than before EVS. This can be explained, as we have already done so

before, by the fact that some volunteers have re-integration problems with their families and friends,

developing many times a feeling of isolation, of lack of understanding from their peers, that may well

make them feel more lonely than they used to be. This is again another aspect of the experience that

35 Stern, E, et al., Continuous assessment of the European Voluntary Service:- report from the evaluation of the Pilot Actions

1997/1998, The Central Evaluation Team, European Commission, DGXXII, January 1999 36 idem

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“I did things in my project that I never thought was

capable of, e.g. performed a speech in French in front of

about 80 people”

British volunteer

needs to be taken into account by all youth workers involved, namely those who in the sending

projects should be involved in giving post-return help to the volunteers.

q Personal skills

Both the White Paper “Teaching and Learning – towards the learning

society” and the Report “Accomplishing Europe through education and

training” , published by DGXXII of the European Commission in 1995

and 1997 respectively have stressed the importance for educational

systems to give young people the possibility to develop an aptitude to

find a job (the famous notion of employability). Organisations such as the European Round Table of

industrialists (ERT) have also underlined the importance for educational systems to develop a new

approach where young people are given not only academic knowledge, but also a number of “soft”

competencies and skills, such as the capacity for critical thinking, the capacity to communicate, and to

work in a team 37. NGO’s such as the European Youth Forum have also stressed in their campaign for

the recognition of non-formal education the importance of such skills, to which they have added things

such as conflict solution, problem solving, and the capacity for leadership and of initiative, amongst

many others, for the development of young people’s employability38. There seems to be a consensus

amongst different decision-makers and social agents, that being employable today is not only a

question of possessing a degree or a diploma, but a combination of capacities that are not necessarily

taught at school, and for which programmes such as EVS may contribute.

37 Dillemans, R., Investir dans la connaissance – l’intégration de la technologie dans l’éducation européenne, ERT, Bruxelles, 1997 & De Woot, P., Education for Europeans – towards de learning society, E RT, Brussels, 1994 38 Amorim, L., The Recognition of Non-formal education – a priority for the youth movement, leaflet, European Youth Forum, 1998

of 1

“I have to admit that this service helped me to grow up, to know how it is to live alone in a big country, to make my

own decisions. Now that I am in London I realise how important

it was to live once in Berlin, without parents, relatives and to be an independent person”

Greek volunteer

Personal skills

103 106

143

111 11088

114

106 92

70

113 109127

97

24 3520 24 29 25

211 00109111

1411 11

16

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

I integrate ingroups and

teams

I take personalresponsibilityfor organising

activities

I plan my time I solve practicalproblems/find

solutions

I can helpsolving

conflicts

I cancommunicate a

personalidea/message

I can take aleading role


Graphic 22

Slightly more than half of the respondents have felt that after EVS they were more or much more

capable of putting into practice a number of personal skills that in many cases are relevant for finding

a job. The majority of the respondents have said that after EVS their capacity to integrate in groups

and teams increased more (43%) or much more (10%), and this is true for six out of the seven

different skills listed in our table (based on volunteers’ own comments while we were preparing the

questionnaire).

In fact, 38% of the respondents felt that with EVS they were more

capable of taking responsibili ty for organising activities and 14%

felt much more so. This is accompanied by the fact that 40% of

the respondents felt more capable of taking a leading role and

10% much more capable of doing so. Similar results were

obtained for the volunteers’ percepti ons when it comes to solving

practical problems and finding solutions, as well as helping to

solve conflicts. Where percentages are higher is when it comes to communicating a personal

message or idea, with 52% of the volunteers finding themselves more capable of doing it after EVS,

and 12% much more capable of it. It seems therefore clear that from the volunteers’ point of view EVS

has provided them with a number of skills, that we may well call inter-personal and communication

skills, that are indeed important for creating an aptitude to find a job. This is certainly true in today’s

world where Services play a very important role in our economies and where the latter skills are

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considered to be an essential asset for any professional activity in this area. If we add to this the fact

that 66% of the respondents said that their expectation to learn a new language had been fulfilled and

20% partly fulfilled, we could easily say that most volunteers in our sample ended EVS with a package

of very useful skills in making them ready for potential jobs in the future. After all, language knowledge

is also one of the basic skills most employers ask for in a world that becomes increasingly more

global.

As far as the skills of the volunteers are concerned it would be important to study with more care the

annexes to the certificates that currently hosting projects are asked to fill in after the end of a young

person’s voluntary service. In their new format since October 1998 these forms ask a number of

questions about both the linguistic, technical and social skills developed by volunteers during their stay

abroad and this could be another important indicator to see in which degree volunteers’ acquire these

skills and what they consist of.

of 1

“I had left school at the age of 15 and I had no job. Now I’m

back in College doing my Diploma in Youth & Community work and I’m also working full

time. I hope to go on and do my degree and one day be fluent in

speaking French”

Irish volunteer

EDUCATION AND WORK AFTER EVS

H Our hypothesis was “that young people’s participation in EVS has very positive consequences on

their educational and professional integration possibilities, and that in the majority of the cases

having taken part in EVS has stimulated them to continue their studies and look for a job directly

or indirectly related to their experiences abroad”.

q Education

rying to know what possible impact EVS has had in the

respondents’ lives was also important as far as their

academic and professional future was concerned. Although

most volunteers have stated that after EVS they decided to finish

their previous studies as planned (29%) – something that we can

easily understand if we consider the percentage of volunteers that

had just finished secondary education before EVS (50%) – a

significant number of respondents (26%) have also said that they decided to change or start a new

area of studies in accordance to what they had done during EVS. On the other hand, 25% of the

respondents stated that after their return they had decided to study the language of their hosting

country in depth.

Education - Plans for the future Total %

I decided to go back to school to complete my unfinished education 15 6,1

I decided to change to/start a new area of studies in accordance with what I had done during EVS 64 26,1

I decided not to engage myself in any type of education (traditional or not) 14 5,7

I decided not to finish my studies (school, college, university, training course, etc.) 5 2,0

I decided not to have anything to do with traditional education 13 5,3

I decided to change to/start a new area of studies unrelated with my EVS experience 41 16,7

I decided to do vocational training/more practical studies 24 9,8

I decided to finish my previous studies as planned (school, college, university, training course, etc.) 70 28,6

I decided to study the language of my hosting country in depth 60 24,5

OTHER

applied to university but failed the tests 1 0,4

I decided to do another EVS 1 0,4

I decided to go abroad to study 1 0,4

I decided to travel abroad to find more about myself 8 3,3

military service 2 0,8


Table XII

T

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Although some of these results are juxtaposed – since the volunteers could have signalled up to two

answers for this question – they are nevertheless interesting and show that up to a certain point what

volunteers do while on EVS has a direct influence on their academic decisions for the future. This may

sound obvious but it is important to have volunteers saying it themselves. As 5 volunteers have

commented at the end of the questionnaire in section H, EVS has made them discover their talents

and interests, and this may well explain the numbers of volunteers who decide to change or start a

new area of studies after their projects.

q Working life

In the case of our respondents 7% of those who had been employed before EVS (18%) went back to

their previous jobs after the programme. We do not have any data that would allow us to know if they

went back also to their previous employer (this was not made clear by our question either). Most of the

volunteers had third sector (Services) oriented jobs, with the majority in this category having gone

back to office jobs (29%). Quite significantly 16% of the respondents stated that they had found a job

related to what they had done during EVS. This is somehow consistent with the fact that 27% of the

respondents stated having fulfilled their expectation of learning important skills for their future jobs with

EVS, with 32% having partly fulfilled it. Considering the predominance of both social and youth work

amongst the themes of their projects it is not surprising that amongst this group those that initiated

social and youth work jobs account for almost half of the volunteers (48%). For a full account of the

different types of jobs that volunteers have found, please consult the corresponding tables in annexe 1

at the end of this report.

Work - Plans for the future Total %

I went back to my previous job. 17 6,9

I found a job related to the activities that I had developed while on EVS 39 15,9

I found a job but unrelated to the activities that I have developed while on EVS 42 17,1

I have been having lots of small and unrelated jobs since then 20 8,2

I decided to start looking for different jobs but have not found anything yet 24 9,8

I decided to start looking for different jobs but only when related to my EVS experience 7 2,9

I decided to look for a job outside my home country 32 13,1

I have been turned down by all the jobs I applied to for lack of qualifications/experience 4 1,6

I decided to create my own business/enterprise 5 2,0

I decided that I was not interested in looking for a job 87 35,5


Table XIII

Although not the most important percentage of the list, it is interesting to realise that 13% of the

respondents have showed a wish for finding a job outside their home country (87% signalled Europe

as their choice), and although we have no specific data that would allow us to say that EVS influenced

them in wishing so, we could point out the fact that in some of the comments made by volunteers in

of 1

“I had the opportunity to teach for one year which

would have been impossible if I didn’t have this year”

Swedish volunteer

section H of the questionnaire, and also during the interviews that we have conducted, it was

sometimes mentioned by them that EVS had made them realise that they could live outside their

home country and work anywhere they wished to. EVS had showed to them that they were adaptable

people and in many cases dispelled their fears of the unknown.

We could not help noticing that the majority of the respondents (36%) signalled not being interested in

looking for a job after EVS. This percentage can be partly explained by the fact that a large majority of

the volunteers decided to continue their studies at University after EVS, and also by the fact that some

of the volunteers who answered back our questionnaire had not yet been home long enough to really

know what they wished to do after EVS. Nevertheless, if we add the percentage of volunteers who

went back to their jobs, found a job (both related and unrelated to EVS, both regular and irregular), we

can say that 48% of the respondents started working after their participation in EVS, which is a rather

positive fact to take into account. Still, 10% of the respondents had not

found any job yet since their return home and 2% had been turned

down successively by employers due to their lack of qualifications or

working experience. In future studies it would be interesting to look at

these results in relation to the volunteers’ educational background.

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EXPECTATIONS FULFILLED

H Our hypothesis was that “the majority of the participants have fulfilled their expectations vis-à-vis

the programme, in particular as far as their wishes to become more independent and to be

capable of better understanding other cultures and ways of life are concerned”.

Expectations before EVS Fulfilled % Partly

Fulfilled

% Not

Fulfilled

% Not

Expected

% Total

I expected to get a lot of preparation

before my departure

47 19,2 63 25,7 52 21,2 83 33,9 245

I expected to be given a lot of choice

of different projects

56 22,9 60 24,5 43 17,6 86 35,1 245

I expected to be given a lot of training

(technical and linguistic) upon my

arrival to the hosting country

41 16,7 82 33,5 60 24,5 62 25,3 245

I expected to have a lot of moral

support during my stay

82 33,5 78 31,8 33 13,5 52 21,2 245

I expected to be given a good

amount of pocket money per month

99 40,4 39 15,9 16 6,5 91 37,1 245

I expected to learn a new language 162 66,1 48 19,6 6 2,4 29 11,8 245

I expected to find more about myself

and what I want to do in life

129 52,7 88 35,9 9 3,7 19 7,8 245

I expected to make lots of good

friends

144 58,8 67 27,3 8 3,3 26 10,6 245

I expected to learn important skills for

my future job

65 26,5 79 32,2 20 8,2 81 33,1 245

I expected to become more

independent

149 60,8 41 16,7 3 1,2 52 21,2 245

I expected to get more knowledge

about other cultures and ways of life

206 84,1 29 11,8 0 - 10 4,1 245

I expected to leave my past behind

and become a new person

20 8,2 43 17,6 12 4,9 170 69,4 245

I expected to find a

boyfriend/girlfriend

16 6,5 10 4,1 17 6,9 202 82,4 245

I expected to learn more about the

world

133 54,3 74 30,2 2 0,8 36 14,7 245

I expected to become stronger to

overcome life’s difficulties

107 43,7 87 35,5 3 1,2 48 19,6 245

Table XIV

Although a significant percentage of volunteers (34%) did not expect to get a lot of preparation before

going on EVS – which in itself is not a positive sign – for 66% of the respondents this was an important

expectation. Only a minority of them (19%) felt that this had been fulfilled with 26% saying that their

expectation was partly fulfilled and 21% not fulfilled at all. As the programme evolves a thorough

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preparation before departure has been proven to be an important instrument of success for the

volunteers’ stay abroad. This is even more so when we talk about disadvantaged volunteers, as

projects such as the pilots of both the Youth Forum (Fighting against social exclusion) and the

European Induction Programme (“Step by Step”) have showed. In the comments done in section H of

the questionnaire 9 of the volunteers stressed the importance of having better preparation before

departure, both linguistic and intercultural. Amongst youth workers there is also a consensus about the

relevance of giving young people a good introduction to what may lay ahead of them and making sure

that they are prepared as best as possible for some of the problems in the future hosting country. This

however clashes many times against the young people’s eagerness to leave. We have had several

cases of volunteers complaining to the SOS because they do not want to wait too long to leave, some

going to the extreme of wishing to make the inscription in the beginning of the week and leave at the

end of the same week. Youth workers in sending projects pointed out to us that it is sometimes very

difficult to convince older and more educated volunteers that they may need longer preparation than

what they imagine. The fact that many of them already speak other languages and have been abroad

makes th em feel over-confident and reject the need for any sort of induction taking more than a couple

of days.

Expectations on EVS

47 56 41

82

63 60 82

7852 43

60

33

83 8662 52

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

I expected a lot ofpreparation before

departure

I expected a lot of choiceof projects

I expected a lot oftraining upon my arrival

I expected a lot of moralsupport during my stay

Fulfilled Partly Fulfilled Not Fulfilled Not Expected

Graphic 23

Again a significant number of volunteers (35%) did not expect to be given a lot of choice of hosting

projects, although the remaining 65% had this as one of their expectations. Only 23% felt that this had

been fulfilled, with 24% signalling partly fulfilled and 18% not fulfilled. Considering that a large majority

of the volunteers was not given the possibility to consult the hosting projects database it is not totally

surprising that so many did not think that they had had enough choice of projects to go to.

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“My life, my points of view changed after my

experience in Austria. I think that at the moment I

am more open minded, more independent. I see

things from another point of view. I can stand my

problems and I think always in a positive way. I am

happy!!”

Spanish volunteer

Significant training during the volunteers’ stay (whether technical or linguistic) was expected by 75% of

the volunteers, an understandable percentage considering how so many amongst them were

motivated to participate in the programme to gain some kind of practical experience, and learn

important skills for their future job. This is indeed a very important elemen t of the volunteers’

experience because it is in many ways what a hosting project is all about, a number of activities that

must be carried out and for which training is necessary. Only 17% of the respondents felt that their

expectation had been fulfilled, with 33% saying that it was partly fulfilled and 24% not fulfilled at all.

This is coherent with many of the complaints we have heard from volunteers we have interviewed,

who felt that their hosting projects were not ready to take on board the responsibility of giving them the

training required for the accomplishment of their tasks. Of course, it is important to say it once more,

these results correspond to the volunteers’ perception of the situation. Many of the youth workers we

have spoken to have also m entioned the fact that many times

volunteers have too high expectations - unrealistic in fact - and that no

matter how much training they receive they always feel unsatisfied. This

was actually referred to by two of the respondents in section H of the

questionnaire, as being detrimental – high expectations that is – to the

volunteers’ integration and adaptation to the new living and working

conditions abroad. On the other hand, it must be underlined that 18% of

the volunteers who withdraw from the programme during the Pilot Action

did so due to false expectations39.

Most volunteers fulfilled either completely or only partially their expectation for a lot of moral support

during their stay (34% and 32% respectively). We were told by many of the volunteers tha t this was

most of the time the most important kind of support that they could get, compensating for many of the

difficulties with the lack of training, language knowledge and repetitive activities. A good relation with

the hosting project’s tutor or co -worker seems to be in many cases at the basis of an otherwise not so

nice experience. Many volunteers have told us that even though they had interesting activities to

develop, the lack of communication between them and their tutors, or the animosity between them,

was sufficient to make them want to change or leave the project for good. In fact 25% of the

volunteers who withdraw from their projects during the Pilot Action did so due to disputes with the

hosting project40.

The monthly pocket money provided to volunteers was for most of them according to their

expectations, with 40% of the volunteers saying that they received a good amount of pocket money

during their stay and 16% saying that this was partly achieved. Quite a lot of the respondents (37%)

did not even expect anything on this level, something many of the volunteers who had been sent to

hosting projects of a charitable nature have confirmed to us. Their main motivation was to help other

people and they had not considered for a single moment being paid for that. However, for the majority

of the volunteers money is an important aspect of their stay (after all 63% of the respondents signalled

39 SOS, The occurrence of early returns in the Pilot Action of the European Voluntary Service, SOS, Brussels, June 1999

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a good amount of pocket money as one of their expectations), with two of the respondents in section

H even stating that volunteers should be actually given more pocket money (although this does not

seem to be the opinion of most volunteers with whom we have met and certainly not that of our group

of respondents).

The inter-personal aspects of EVS seem to have been a big success amongst our group of volunteers,

with 59% of them saying that their expectation to make lots of good friends with EVS was fulfilled.

Only 11% did not expect this to happen, and some of these have written on the side of the

questionnaire that although not expected it had happened to them anyway. Although the

overwhelming majority of the respondents (82%) said that finding a partner was not part of their

expectations, it is nevertheless interesting to see that 18% of the volunteers had this expectation when

participating in EVS. In fact, 4 of the respondents have mentioned the fact that they found their best

friend or partner through EVS when writing in section H of the questionnaire. Although this is not one

of the formal objectives of the programme, this human component – making friends, finding partners –

is of significance in a programme that deals with people and has as one of its aims bringing people

together in a multicultural context.

It must also be mentioned that 31% of the respondents saw in EVS the possibility to leave their past

behind them and become a new person (although 69% did not expect this at all). This is somehow a

disturbing value because it may imply that a significant number of volunteers see EVS as an escape

and the truth is that most of the time it is hard to leave one’s past behind, because it will follow us

wherever we are (as stated by some volunteers themselves). With a few of the volunteers with whom

we have talked this expectation was described as being the result of a difficult situation at home, either

with friends or family, a notion of not having achieved anything worthwhile until then, or even a sense

of shame for something they were eager to forget. These volunteers often thought that going away

would succeed in making them forget what was that troubled them. More often than not they would be

confronted with their past while in the programme, sometimes meaning that they would be forced to

withdraw. If we look at the percentages of volunteers who withdraw from EVS during the Pilot Action,

we see that 16% of these volunteers did so due to integration problems, namely because the

experience was just too difficult to cope with41. This relates not only to lack of preparation, but

eventually to finding out that it is not easy to become a “brand new person” by leaving one’s country

and home behind. This makes the question of moral support during the stay of he volunteers ever so

more important. In fact, support issues constitute 54% of all recommendations made by volunteers in

section H of the questionnaire.

40 SOS, The occurrence of early returns in the Pilot Action of the European Voluntary Service, SOS, Brussels, June 1999 41 SOS, The occurrence of early returns in the Pilot Action of the European Voluntary Service, SOS, Brussels, June 1999

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Expectations on EVS

206

133

74

29 20

3610

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

I expected to get more knowledge aboutother cultures and ways of life

I expected to learn more about the world

Fulfilled Partly Fulfilled Not Fulfilled Not Expected

Graphic 24

The intercultural dimension of EVS seems to have been one of those expectations that the

overwhelming majority of the volunteers had, and one that a great number of the respondents felt to

have been achieved (84% in the case of learning more about other cultures and ways of life and 54%

in the case of learning more about the world). Although this would seem obvious due to the intrinsic

nature of the programme – it is after all an international exchange programme – it is nevertheless

important to know that volunteers feel that their participation in it has helped them to widen their

cultural horizon and have a better grasp of what is happening around them.

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“In my opinion the EVS programme is a very good opportunity for

young people to gain experience and develop their personal skills

and character”

Austrian volunteer

OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE EXPERIENCE

H Our hypothesis was that “the majority of the participants make a positive evaluation of the

programme”.

n impressive majority of the volunteers who answered back to our questionnaire considered

EVS to have been either a good (32%) or a very good

experience (57%). If we put these two percentages

together we can say that 89% of the respondents felt that EVS

had been an experience above the average. If to this we add the

9% who found it satisfactory, we have 98% of our pool thinking

of EVS as a positive experience.

1 5

22

78

139

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

very bad bad satisfactory good very good

Evaluation of EVS

Graphic 25

Although these results should be a reason for rejoicing for all those that in one way or another work for

EVS, we should not forget that behind the small 2.4% of dissatisfied volunteers with a bad or very bad

experience, are 6 young people whose lives may have been negatively influenced by EVS. Although it

is unrealistic to expect that all volunteers have a positive experience that should be nevertheless the

goal of all those involved in the programme.

A

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The type of comments that volunteers have made in section H of the questionnaire, with 62% of the

overall comments being positive ones, consistently confirms this overwhelmingly positive evaluation of

the programme. Furthermore if we consider only both positive and negative comments – leaving out

recommendations – the percentage of positive comments raises to 71% of all comments, showing

how many more volunteers were happy rather than unhappy with their stays. After all, out of 172

volunteers who wrote their comments in section H of the questionnaire, 107 (i.e. 62%) stated that EVS

had been the best and most important experience in their lives.

Comments - Summary Female % of F com. male % of M com. total % of total com.

A) Positive comments 388 65,4 77 50,0 465 62,2

B) Negative comments 145 24,5 45 29,2 190 25,4

C) Recommendations 60 10,1 32 20,8 92 12,3

Total comments/themes 593 100 154 100 747 100

Table XV

We recommend readers to look carefully at annexes 3 and 4 where the full comments of the

volunteers both from the decentralised and centralised strands are included for a thorough realisation

of the impact of EVS in the respondents’ own words.

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CONCLUSION

t is clear from the results of our study that the majority of the volunteers did feel that EVS had a

positive influence in their lives. It made them more self-confident, independent, capable of dealing

with life difficulties and aware of what is happening around them in the world. It provided them with

signifi cant skills to find a job and it made them realise in many cases what their priorities were in life.

They have felt in most cases more European after EVS, something that strikes a positive cord when

we think of the need for a more united Europe. They have overwhelmingly evaluated their experience

as being a very positive one and this should serve as a proof of the programme’s value and the need

to continue to make it possible for all young people.

The personal dimension of EVS should not be underestimated, it should make us happy to realise that

through EVS participants felt more in touch with themselves and more optimistic about life. To help

volunteers with their personal development as human beings is also one of the important objectives of

the programme, and the fact that our respondents felt to have achieved some degree of maturity after

EVS should make us all rejoice. To know that EVS helped many of them to make the transition from

“adolescence” to “adulthood” is as important as knowing that they have learned “how to plan for my

time”.

Although the personal, social and intercultural aspects are those that most of the respondents report

as having been more positively influenced by EVS, we should also stress the many personal skills of a

more “technical nature” that EVS allowed them to obtain. The capacity for leadership, for taking

initiative to organise activities, to integrate and work in teams and to communicate a personal

message, were all mentioned by the majority of the volunteers as having improved after participation.

It is also true that in many cases the volunteers with whom we have met did not perceive these skills

as being helpful to find a job in today’s world, which makes the need for advertising their potential the

more urgent. Sending and hosting projects can play a particularly important role in teaching the

volunteers how to inform others about these skills, assisting them in structuring their learning

experience and making them aware of it. This is very important when volunteers apply for a job, a

study or a training programme, because often these skills remain hidden to those outside the youth

and voluntary sectors.

Although a few of the volunteers found a job directly related to what they had done after their projects,

and almost half of the respondents started working after that, we cannot say that EVS leads to

employment. But what we can say is that EVS seems to promote a number of inter-personal, social

and cultural skills that constitute an important package in helping young peopl e to integrate in life,

socially and professionally. This capacity needs to be better promoted amongst the decision-makers at

European level, and amongst those that manage the programme at national and local levels.

However, this must be done with caution to avoid creating the expectation amongst candidates to the

I

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programme that EVS will make them find a job, since in reality it is only their potential to find one that

seems to increase. In those cases where volunteers have chosen career and study paths that lead to

professions in the social and youth sectors – dominant amongst the hosting projects – it may be that

the content of their EVS activities will be of relevance and considered as equivalent to working

experience by future employers. Other sectors represented in the programme could also provide the

same benefit.

We are aware that outside the youth and voluntary world this potential needs to become more

acknowledged and parallel to information about the benefits of the programme it would be interesting

to develop a research project where current employers of previous volunteers would be questioned

about their own perceptions. It would be interesting to know if they found the programme an asset in

the ex-volunteers’ job application, and if they have noticed any special benefits brought by the

volunteers to their organisation or business due to their previous involvement with EVS.

What happens to the volunteers after their return home is still an area where more work needs to be

done by all those involved in the programme, and particularly by sending projects and National

Structures. One third of the volunteers did not have the possibility to participate in any follow -up or

evaluation activities after the end of the voluntary service and half of them had both a difficult and a

very difficult re-integration process. These results lead us to the conclusion that this period of the

volunteering experience is still too neglected by the different agents who are responsible for the

programme’s implementation. The re-integration process of the volunteers needs to be given more

attention if voluntary service is to be a comprehensive experience in the lives of the young people that

choose to participate.

Studies such as the one that we have conducted should be done on a regular basis, and now that the

Programme Action (1998-1999) reaches its end it would be very valuable to compare results with the

ones of the Pilot Action (1996-1997). In the future, the volunteers’ perception about the gains that EVS

has brought them, personally as well as professionally, should constitute an essential part of any on-

going general evaluation exercise. Knowing what our core “clients” think of their experiences is a

fundamental tool to keep the programme in the right track, or to change it where it is needed. Together

with other indicators, such as those that involve the work of the National Structures, the hosting and

sending projects and the European Commission, the study of the volunteers’ perception on EVS can

be a reliable source of information about the programme’s capacity to achieve its aims.

In the future it would be recommendable to go more in -depth into the statistical analysis of this type of

questionnaire, establishing co -relations between the different variables and therefore being able to

draw more sound conclusions from the data.

We also think that it would be very interesting and important to invest on a longitudinal type of

research that would allow us to accompany a pre -selected group of volunteers from different member

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states, before departure, during voluntary service, after return, and one or two years later in time. This

would give us a thorough view of the micro-sociological aspects involved in their experience and

would constitute a qualitative means of analysing the impact of the programme in their lives. This

would be particularly interesting with a group of volunteers facing special personal and social

difficulties, and could be easily integrated in the more general work that is being done at European

level to increase the accessibility of EVS to “disadvantaged” target groups. A group of 10 to 20

volunteers could be followed throughout a period of two to three years to assess the impact of the

programme in their lives. Qualitative interviews with the volunteers spaced by an average period of 3-4

months would provide the necessary data to conclude on their evolution during the two years.

In any case, it is important that an evaluation exercise such as the one that we have developed does

not remain as a single experience and that more follow in the future.

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B IBLIOGRAPHY

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de l’action pilote du Service Voluntaire Européen pour les jeunes, Bruxelles, septembre 1998

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De Woot, P. et al., Education for Europeans – towards the learning society, European Round Table of

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européenne , European Round Table of Industrialists, 1997

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1998

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progress, European Commission, DGXXII, September 1997

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DGXXII, 1999

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Forum Jeunesse, Luttons pour notre avenir – conférence sur l’emploi des jeunes (Cardiff, 11-14 juin

1998), Rapport, Forum Jeunesse, 1998

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Frey, U. et al., Potential Development of Voluntary Service activities – steps to realise a legal status

for long term volunteers, Steering Group of Voluntary Service Organisations, European Commission,

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1979

Hansel, B., The AFS Impact Study: final report , The AFS Center for the Study of Intercultural Learning,

New York, July 1986

Hansel B. & Grove, N., International Student Exchange Programs – are the educational benefits real?,

NASSP Bulletin, National Association of Secondary School Principals, February 1986

Hansel, B. & Grove, N., Why an AFS experience accelerates learning and the growth of competence,

The Research Department of AFS Intercultural Programs, edition revised and expanded, New York,

1984

Irwin, D., Neo-classicism, Phaidon, London, 1997

Jurvansuu S. et al., End Exclusion - young and excluded; Pilot project on youth policy and the fight

against social exclusion and poverty (1995-1996) , Youth Forum, 1998

O’Sullivan, A., European Voluntary Service – Strategies for including socially excluded young people,

SOS, European Commission, DGXXII, May 1998

Kauffmann, N. L., The impact of study abroad on personality change, Doctorate thesis, University of

Indiana, School of Education, Indianapolis, January 1983

Reiffers, J.-L. et al., Accomplishing Europe through education and training , Report, Study group on

education and training, European Commission, DGXXII, 1997

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young people, The Tavistock Institute, London, October 1996

Stern, E. et al., Continuous assessment of the European Voluntary Service - report from the

evaluation of the Pilot Actions 1997/1998, The Central Evaluation Team, European Commission,

DGXXII, January 1999

Structure of Operational Support, The Hosting projects’ perspective – results of the questionnaire sent to all EVS hosting projects, SOS, Brussels, September 1999

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Structure of Operational Support, The occurrence of early returns in the Pilot Action of the European

Voluntary Service, SOS, Brussels, June 1999

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1999

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University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, January 1983

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of 1

ANNEXE 1 – STATISTICAL TABLES - 245 VOLUNTEERS

SECTION A


Male 61 24,9

Female 184 75,1

Total 245 100

Age distribution Total %

18-20 116 47,3

21-23 75 30,6

24-26 53 21,6

27-28 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Average age

ages total

17 0 0

18 25 450

19 61 1159

20 30 600

21 36 756

22 15 330

23 23 529

24 22 528

25 21 525

26 10 260

27 0 0

28 1 28

Total 244 5165

average age 21,2

Nationality Total %

Austria 11 4,5

Belgium 17 6,9

Denmark 5 2,0

Finland 9 3,7

France 31 12,7

Germany 77 31,4

Greece 2 0,8

Iceland 0 -

Ireland 2 0,8

Italy 32 13,1

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Luxembourg 1 0,4

Netherlands 7 2,9

Norway 0 -

Portugal 2 0,8

Spain 22 9,0

Sweden 5 2,0

UK 20 8,2

OTHER

Angola 1 0,4


Total 245 100


Austria 12 4,9

Belgium 15 6,1

Denmark 10 4,1

Finland 3 1,2

France 32 13,1

Germany 75 30,6

Greece 2 0,8

Iceland 0 -

Ireland 2 0,8

Italy 33 13,5

Luxembourg 2 0,8

Netherlands 6 2,4

Norway 0 -

Portugal 3 1,2

Spain 23 9,4

Sweden 5 2,0

UK 20 8,2

OTHER

New Zealand 1 0,4

Switzerland 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Hosting Country Total %

Austria 8 3,3

Belgium 4 1,6

Denmark 6 2,4

Finland 5 2,0

France 47 19,2

Germany 23 9,4

Greece 3 1,2

Iceland 1 0,4

Ireland 10 4,1

Italy 26 10,6

Luxembourg 0 -

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Netherlands 5 2,0

Norway 3 1,2

Portugal 3 1,2

Spain 13 5,3

Sweden 14 5,7

UK 63 25,7

OTHER

Benin 2 0,8

Bosnia 1 0,4

Burkina Faso 1 0,4

Dominican Republic 1 0,4

Hungary 1 0,4

Mozambique 2 0,8

South Africa 3 1,2

Total 245 100

knowledge of languages before EVS Total %

Yes 225 91,8

No 20 8,2

Total 245 100

Languages known before EVS Total %

Dutch 2 0,8

English 203 82,9

French 118 48,2

German 54 22,0

Italian 11 4,5

Portuguese 1 0,4

Spanish 22 9,0

Swedish 9 3,7

OTHER

Breton 1 0,4

Catalan 3 1,2

Irish Gaelic 1 0,4

Romanian 1 0,4

Russian 14 5,7

Takitaki (Guyenne française) 1 0,4

Turkish 1 0,4



because I was unemployed 9 3,7

because other friends did it 1 0,4




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to help in the development of Europe 6 2,4

to help other people 57 23,3

to learn a new language 68 27,8

to learn new skills 31 12,7

to make new friends 6 2,4

OTHER -


to give ideas to hosting project 1 0,4

to know what to do with my future 1 0,4



of 1

SECTION B


a friend 35 14,3



a previous participant 3 1,2


the radio 2 0,8

the T.V 8 3,3






OTHER

by chance when asking for information on exchanges 2 0,8

family member 4 1,6

Internet 1 0,4


Library 1 0,4




travel book 4 1,6

Unknown 2 0,8


Total 245 100



a job centre 3 1,2








OTHER

community centre 1 0,4

cultural centre 1 0,4

development NGO 6 2,4

European NGO 4 1,6


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Theatre 1 0,4

Unknown 6 2,4

Total 245 100










OTHER

documentation centre 1 0,4

health organisation/services 9 3,7




sports organisation 3 1,2

Theatre 4 1,6

Unknown 2 0,8

Total 245 100


<=3 months 12 4,9

4-5 months 7 2,9

6 months 111 45,3

7-9 months 39 15,9

10-11 months 36 14,7

12 months 26 10,6

>12 months 13 5,3

No answer 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Average duration

months total

3 12 36

4 3 12

5 4 20

6 111 666

7 2 14

8 15 120

9 22 198

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10 29 290

11 7 77

12 25 300

13 13 169

0 1 N/A

Total 244 1902

average duration 7,8

Remaining in hosting country after EVS Total %

Yes 103 42,0

<=1 week 17 16,5

2-3 weeks 32 31,1

1-3 months 36 35,0

4-6 months 5 4,9

>=7 months 13 12,6

No 141 57,6

No answer 1 0,4





environmental work 37 15,1


European issues 5 2,0



protection of historical monuments 2 0,8











OTHER




development aid 1 0,4

ecumenical work 2 0,8

support to drug users 5 2,0

Tourism 1 0,4

No answer 1 0,4

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Ability to choose EVS project Total %

Yes 163 66,5

No 81 33,1

No answer 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Consulting Project's Database Total %

Yes 60 24,5

No 184 75,1

No answer 1 0,4

Total 245 100

Participating in planning of project Total %

Yes 135 55,1

No 109 44,5

No answer 1 0,4

Total 245 100

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SECTION C

Participation in follow-up/evaluation Total %

Yes 159 64,9

No 86 35,1

Total 245 100

Organiser of the follow-up/evaluation Total %

Sending organisation 116 73,0

Sending National Structure 41 25,8

Other

Hosting organisation 1 0,6

Myself 1 0,6

Total 159 100

Type of follow-up/evaluation Total %

A big seminar with other volunteers 82 51,6

A training session with other volunteers 18 11,3

A small workshop with other volunteers 51 32,1

An individual interview with a youth worker 29 19,6

OTHER

private meetings 1 0,6

Questionnaire 5 3,1


Main focus of the follow-up/evaluation Total %





OTHER




Unknown 2 1,3


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Duration of follow-up/evaluation activities Total %

half a day 27 17,0

1 full day 19 11,9

2-3 days 96 60,4

>3 days 17 10,7

Total 159 100

How long after EVS were they organised Total %

<1 month after 47 29,6

1-3 months after 73 45,9


OTHER

2 months before end of project 1 0,6

6 months after 3 1,9





Total 159 100

Overall evaluation of follow-up/evaluation Total %

bad 17 10,7

good 52 32,7

satisfactory 49 30,8

very bad 5 3,1

very good 36 22,6

Total 159 100

Involvement in community/voluntary work after EVS Total %

Yes : 105 42,9

cultural work 3 2,9



football coach 2 1,9

political militant 2 1,9

social/community work 32 30,5

unknown 1 1,0

youth work 61 58,1

No 140 57,1


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Relation to EVS project Total %

Yes 61 58,1

No 44 41,9

Total 105 100

Plans to become involved Total %

Yes 36 25,7

No 20 14,3

Maybe 84 60,0

Total 140 100

Re-integration back home Total %

very easy 23 9,4

easy 106 43,3

difficult 92 37,6

very difficult 24 9,8

Total 245 100

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SECTION D

Characteristics much less % less % the same % more % much more % Total

Assertive 0 - 2 0,8 77 31,4 133 54,3 33 13,5 245

Communicative 0 - 5 2,0 74 30,2 123 50,2 43 17,6 245

European 1 0,4 5 2,0 57 23,3 98 40,0 84 34,3 245

Outgoing 0 - 8 3,3 113 46,1 91 37,1 33 13,5 245

Progressive 1 0,4 3 1,2 89 36,3 110 44,9 42 17,1 245

Hard-working 1 0,4 10 4,1 142 58,0 67 27,3 25 10,2 245

Spontaneous 1 0,4 15 6,1 122 49,8 80 32,7 27 11,0 245

Talkative 2 0,8 4 1,6 124 50,6 97 39,6 18 7,3 245

Conservative 46 18,8 110 44,9 82 33,5 7 2,9 0 - 245

Socially aware 1 0,4 1 0,4 74 30,2 108 44,1 61 24,9 245

Caring 0 - 3 1,2 112 45,7 99 40,4 31 12,7 245

Open to people 1 0,4 5 2,0 79 32,2 117 47,8 43 17,6 245

Shy 66 26,9 91 37,1 78 31,8 9 3,7 1 0,4 245

Tolerant 0 - 2 0,8 80 32,7 111 45,3 52 21,2 245

Involved 1 0,4 11 4,5 91 37,1 118 48,2 24 9,8 245

Indifferent 57 23,3 87 35,5 94 38,4 4 1,6 3 1,2 245

Mature 1 0,4 0 - 58 23,7 125 51,0 61 24,9 245

Independent 1 0,4 3 1,2 51 20,8 111 45,3 79 32,2 245

Organised 2 0,8 24 9,8 109 44,5 84 34,3 26 10,6 245

Optimistic 2 0,8 17 6,9 108 44,1 86 35,1 32 13,1 245

Money oriented 47 19,2 57 23,3 125 51,0 10 4,1 6 2,4 245

Sociable 0 - 10 4,1 101 41,2 90 36,7 44 18,0 245

Lonely 49 20,0 53 21,6 110 44,9 27 11,0 6 2,4 245

OTHER

egocentric 1 0,4 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 245

flexible 1 0,4 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 245

part of the world 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,4 0 - 245

reliable 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,4 245

stressed 1 0,4 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 245

Thoughtful 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,4 0 - 245

of 1

SECTION E

Skills much less % less % the same % more % much

more

% Total

I integrate in groups and teams 1 0,4 11 4,5 103 42,0 106 43,3 24 9,8 245

I take personal responsibility for

organising activities

1 0,4 11 4,5 106 43,3 92 37,6 35 14,3 245

I plan my time 2 0,8 14 5,7 143 58,4 70 28,6 16 6,5 245

I solve practical problems/find solutions 0 - 1 0,4 111 45,3 113 46,1 20 8,2 245

I can help solving conflicts 1 0,4 1 0,4 110 44,9 109 44,5 24 9,8 245

I can communicate a personal

idea/message

0 - 1 0,4 88 35,9 127 51,8 29 11,8 245

I can take a leading role 0 - 9 3,7 114 46,5 97 39,6 25 10,2 245

OTHER

expressing my opinions in writing 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,4 245

of 212

SECTION F

Education - Situation before EVS Total %

had finished College/University 68 27,8

had finished school 122 49,8

had left College/University unfinished 12 4,9

had left school unfinished 10 4,1

were still at College/University 31 12,7

were still at school 2 0,8

Total 245 100

Education - Plans for the future Total %










OTHER


I decided to do another EVS 1 0,4

I decided to go abroad to study 1 0,4




Work - Situation before EVS Total %

were employed 43 17,6

were doing an apprenticeship/training/stage 29 11,8

were looking for your first job 38 15,5

were unemployed 135 55,1

Total 245 100

Work - Plans for the future Total %

I went back to my previous job. Please tell us what: 17 6,9

bartender/waiter 2 11,8

cleaning worker 1 5,9

development worker 1 5,9

environmental worker 1 5,9

food technology assistant 1 5,9

office assistant 5 29,4

of 1

part-time at airport 1 5,9

shop assistant 1 5,9

teacher 2 11,8

unknown job 1 5,9

youth worker 1 5,9

I found a job related to the activities that I had developed while on EVS. Please tell us what: 39 15,9

craftsman 2 5,1

cultural assistant 1 2,6

dance company manager 1 2,6

hostess 1 2,6

kindergarten teacher 2 5,1

media worker 1 2,6

nurse 1 2,6

researcher at waste management consultancy 1 2,6

secretary in a Roman TV channel 1 2,6

social worker 8 20,5

statistician 1 2,6

support to disabled people 2 5,1

support to people with learning disabilities 1 2,6

teacher 2 5,1

telemarketing in bilingual agency (English/Italian) 1 2,6

theatre work 1 2,6

tourist guide 1 2,6

unknown job 3 7,7

worker in my hosting project 1 2,6

youth worker 7 17,9

I found a job but unrelated to the activities that I have developed while on EVS. Please tell us

what:

42 17,1

air hostess in local airline 1 2,4

bartender/waiter 5 11,9

camping assistant 1 2,4

clinical data manager 1 2,4

commercial job 1 2,4

factory worker 3 7,1

farm worker 1 2,4

insurance company operator 1 2,4

IT analyst 1 2,4

journalist 1 2,4

kindergarten teacher 1 2,4

kitchen chef/assistant 2 4,8

librarian 1 2,4

nurse 1 2,4

office worker 8 19,0

postman 1 2,4

psychologist 1 2,4

secretarial work 1 2,4

sports worker 1 2,4

summer job 3 7,1

of 212


tax inspector 1 2,4

travel agent 1 2,4

University teacher of Spanish 1 2,4

unknown job 1 2,4




I decided to look for a job outside my home country. Please tell us what and where:* 32 13,1

anything 4 12,5

agronomy work 1 3,1

arts & music work 2 6,3

camping reception 2 6,3

catering assistant 1 3,1



international air hostess 1 3,1

international office 2 6,3

international youth work 1 3,1

IT manager 1 3,1

kindergarten work 1 3,1

language teacher 1 3,1

media work 1 3,1

refugee camp monitor 1 3,1


ski instructor 1 3,1

social assistant/worker 4 12,5

summer job 3 9,4

tourism work 1 3,1

warehouse worker 1 3,1


I decided to create my own business/enterprise. Please tell us wha t: 5 2,0

environmental architecture 1 20,0

football club 1 20,0

renting video screens and AV equipment 1 20,0

voluntary service training office 2 40,0



*Countries total %

Africa 2 6,3

All of Europe 8 25,0

Austria 2 6,3

Denmark 1 3,1

Dubai 1 3,1

France 5 15,6

Germany 2 6,3

of 1

Netherlands 1 3,1

Syria 1 3,1

Southern Europe 1 3,1

Spain 1 3,1

Sweden 1 3,1

Switzerland 1 3,1

UK 5 15,6

of 212

SECTION G

Expectations before EVS Fulfilled % Partly

Fulfilled

% Not

Fulfilled

% Not

Expected

% Total

I expected to get a lot of preparation before

my departure

47 19,2 63 25,7 52 21,2 83 33,9 245

I expected to be given a lot of choice of

different projects

56 22,9 60 24,5 43 17,6 86 35,1 245

I expected to be given a lot of training

(technical and linguistic) upon my arrival to the

hosting country

41 16,7 82 33,5 60 24,5 62 25,3 245

I expected to have a lot of moral support

during my stay

82 33,5 78 31,8 33 13,5 52 21,2 245

I expected to be given a good amount of

pocket money per month

99 40,4 39 15,9 16 6,5 91 37,1 245


I expected to find more about myself and what

I want to do in life

129 52,7 88 35,9 9 3,7 19 7,8 245

I expected to make lots of good friends 144 58,8 67 27,3 8 3,3 26 10,6 245

I expected to learn important skills for my

future job

65 26,5 79 32,2 20 8,2 81 33,1 245

I expected to become more independent 149 60,8 41 16,7 3 1,2 52 21,2 245

I expected to get more knowledge about other

cultures and ways of life

206 84,1 29 11,8 0 - 10 4,1 245

I expected to leave my past behind and

become a new person

20 8,2 43 17,6 12 4,9 170 69,4 245

I expected to find a boyfriend/girlfriend 16 6,5 10 4,1 17 6,9 202 82,4 245

I expected to learn more about the world 133 54,3 74 30,2 2 0,8 36 14,7 245

I expected to become stronger to overcome

life’s difficulties

107 43,7 87 35,5 3 1,2 48 19,6 245

OTHER

deeper spirituality 1 0,4 0 - 0 - 0 - 245

expected to travel a lot in hosting country 1 0,4 0 - 0 - 0 - 245

to be useful 1 0,4 0 - 1 0,4 0 - 245

to have a good time/fun 2 0,8 0 - 1 0,4 0 - 245

Evaluation of EVS Total %

bad 5 2,0

good 78 31,8

satisfactory 22 9,0

very bad 1 0,4

very good 139 56,7

Total 245 100

of 1

ANNEXE 2 – STATISTICAL TABLES – DECENTRALISED STRAND - 152 VOLUNTEERS

SECTION A


Male 38 25,0

Female 114 75,0

Total 152 100


<=17 0 -

18-20 68 44,7

21-23 50 32,9

24-26 33 21,7

27-28 1 0,7

>=29 0 -

Total 152 100

Average age

ages total

17 0 0

18 17 306

19 35 665

20 16 320

21 21 441

22 11 242

23 18 414

24 15 360

25 16 400

26 2 52

27 0 0

28 1 28

Total 152 3228

average age 21,2

Decentralised Strand

Age distribution - German volunteers Total %

<=17 0 -

18-20 30 81,1

21-23 6 16,2

24-26 1 2,7

27-28 0 -

>=29 0 -

Total 37 100

Nationality Total %

Austria 9 5,9

Belgium 9 5,9

Denmark 3 2,0

of 212

Finland 6 3,9

France 18 11,8

Germany 37 24,3

Greece 0 -

Ireland 1 0,7

Italy 30 19,7

Luxembourg 1 0,7

Netherlands 1 0,7

Norway 0 -

Portugal 0 -

Spain 17 11,2

Sweden 2 1,3

UK 17 11,2

OTHER

Angola 1 0,7

Total 152 100


Austria 10 6,6

Belgium 9 5,9

Denmark 8 5,3

Finland 0 -

France 16 10,5

Germany 36 23,7

Greece 0 -

Ireland 1 0,7

Italy 31 20,4

Luxembourg 2 1,3

Netherlands 1 0,7

Norway 0 -

Portugal 1 0,7

Spain 17 11,2

Sweden 1 0,7

UK 18 11,8

OTHER

Switzerland 1 0,7

Total 152 100


Austria 6 3,9

Belgium 2 1,3

Denmark 4 2,6

Finland 5 3,3

France 26 17,1

Germany 15 9,9

Greece 3 2,0

Ireland 9 5,9

Italy 23 15,1

Luxembourg 0 -

Netherlands 2 1,3

of 1

Norway 1 0,7

Portugal 3 2,0

Spain 6 3,9

Sweden 12 7,9

UK 35 23,0

Total 152 100


Yes 135 88,8

No 17 11,2

Total 152 100


Dutch 2 1,3

English 118 77,6

French 67 44,1

German 38 25,0

Italian 8 5,3

Portuguese 1 0,7

Spanish 9 5,9

Swedish 6 3,9

OTHER

Breton 1 0,7

Catalan 3 2,0

Irish Gaellic 1 0,7

Romanian 1 0,7

Russian 8 5,3

Takitaki (Guyenne française) 1 0,7


of 212

SECTION B


a friend 22 14,5





the radio 2 1,3

the T.V 8 5,3






OTHER

by chance when asking for Aurpair information 1 0,7

family member 4 2,6

Internet 1 0,7





travel book 1 0,7

unknown 2 1,3


Total 152 100



a job centre 2 1,3








OTHER

development organisation 3 2,0





theatre 1 0,7

unknown 3 2,0

Total 152 100

of 1










OTHER

health organisation 2 1,3



theatre 2 1,3

unknown 2 1,3

Total 152 100


<=3 months 1 0,7

4-5 months 4 2,6

6 months 82 53,9

7-9 months 27 17,8

10-11 months 20 13,2

12 months 16 10,5

>12 months 1 0,7

No answer 1 0,7

Total 152 100

Average duration

months total

3 1 3

4 1 4

5 3 15

6 82 492

7 2 14

8 11 88

9 14 126

10 19 190

11 1 11

12 16 192

13 1 13

0 1 N/A

Total 152 1148



Yes 64 42,1

<=1 week 13 20,3

2-3 weeks 24 37,5

1-3 months 17 26,6

of 212

4-6 months 2 3,1

>=7 months 8 12,5

No 87 57,2

No answer 1 0,7







european issues 4 2,6














OTHER






tourism 1 0,7

No answer 1 0,7



Yes 105 69,1

No 46 30,3

No answer 1 0,7

Total 152 100


Yes 47 30,9

No 104 68,4

No answer 1 0,7

Total 152 100

Participating in planning of project Total % Yes 89 58,6

No 62 40,8

of 1

No answer 1 0,7

Total 152 100

of 212

SECTION C

Participation in follow-up/evaluation Total %

Yes 95 62,5

No 57 37,5

Total 152 100,0




Other

Hosting organisation 1 1,1

Total 95 100,0






Other

questionnaire 3 3,2

Total respondants 95 -






Other




unknown 2 2,1


Duration of follow -up/evaluation activities Total %

half a day 22 23,2

1 full day 8 8,4

2-3 days 60 63,2

>3 days 5 5,3

Total 95 100,0





Other

2 months before end of project 1 1,1


of 1




Total 95 100

Overall evaluation of follow -up/evaluation Total %

bad 15 15,8

good 25 26,3


very bad 3 3,2

very good 25 26,3

Total 95 100


Yes 64 42,1


cultural work 3 4,7


youth work 38 59,4

No 88 57,9



Yes 37 57,8

No 27 42,2

Total 64 100


Yes 20 22,7

No 15 17,0

Maybe 53 60,2

Total 88 100,0


very easy 11 7,2

easy 57 37,5

difficult 69 45,4


Total 152 100,0

of 212

SECTION D


Assertive 0 - 1 0,7 45 29,6 88 57,9 18 11,8 152

Communicative 0 - 2 1,3 46 30,3 74 48,7 30 19,7 152

European 1 0,7 2 1,3 32 21,1 60 39,5 57 37,5 152

Outgoing 0 - 4 2,6 67 44,1 59 38,8 22 14,5 152

Progressive 1 0,7 0 - 58 38,2 62 40,8 31 20,4 152

Hard-working 1 0,7 6 3,9 88 57,9 42 27,6 15 9,9 152

Spontaneous 1 0,7 8 5,3 76 50,0 50 32,9 17 11,2 152

Talkative 2 1,3 2 1,3 74 48,7 60 39,5 14 9,2 152

Conservative 33 21,7 68 44,7 46 30,3 5 3,3 0 - 152

Socially aware 1 0,7 1 0,7 45 29,6 69 45,4 36 23,7 152

Caring 0 - 2 1,3 72 47,4 55 36,2 23 15,1 152

Open to people 0 - 4 2,6 49 32,2 71 46,7 28 18,4 152

Shy 39 25,7 60 39,5 45 29,6 7 4,6 1 0,7 152

Tolerant 0 - 1 0,7 51 33,6 69 45,4 31 20,4 152

Involved 1 0,7 7 4,6 51 33,6 78 51,3 15 9,9 152

Indifferent 33 21,7 58 38,2 58 38,2 1 0,7 2 1,3 152

Mature 1 0,7 0 - 34 22,4 78 51,3 39 25,7 152

Independent 1 0,7 2 1,3 32 21,1 68 44,7 49 32,2 152

Organised 2 1,3 17 11,2 70 46,1 46 30,3 17 11,2 152

Optimistic 2 1,3 10 6,6 67 44,1 56 36,8 17 11,2 152

Money oriented 29 19,1 30 19,7 81 53,3 8 5,3 4 2,6 152

Sociable 0 - 8 5,3 60 39,5 51 33,6 33 21,7 152

Lonely 33 21,7 34 22,4 67 44,1 15 9,9 3 2,0 152

OTHER

egocentric 1 0,7 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 152

flexible 1 0,7 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 152

part of the world 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,7 0 - 152

reliable 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,7 152

stressed 1 0,7 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 152

thoughtful 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,7 0 - 152

of 1

SECTION E

Skills much

less % less % the same % more % much

more % Total

I integrate in groups and teams 0 - 8 5,3 62 40,8 66 43,4 16 10,5 152

I take personal responsibility for organising activities

0 - 6 3,9 72 47,4 50 32,9 24 15,8 152

I plan my time 2 1,3 8 5,3 88 57,9 43 28,3 11 7,2 152

I solve practical problems/find solutions 0 - 1 0,7 67 44,1 71 46,7 13 8,6 152

I can help solving conflicts 1 0,7 1 0,7 67 44,1 68 44,7 15 9,9 152

I can communicate a personal idea/message

0 - 0 - 54 35,5 77 50,7 21 13,8 152


OTHER

Expressing my opinions in writing 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 0,7 151

of 212

SECTION F




had left College/University unfinished 11 7,2



were still at school 0 -

Total 152 100,0

Plans for the future Total %










OTHER




Working Life - Situation before EVS Total %



were looking for your first job 22 14,5


Total 152 100,0



Cleaning worker 1 10,0

Development worker 1 10,0

Environmental worker 1 10,0

Office assistant 4 40,0

Part-time at airport 1 10,0

Teacher 1 10,0

Youth worker 1 10,0

I found a job related to the activities that I had developed while on EVS. Please tell us what: 23 15,1

Craftsman 1 4,3

Cultural assistant 1 4,3

Dance company manager 1 4,3

Kindergarten teacher 1 4,3

Researcher at waste management consultancy 1 4,3

Secretary in a Roman TV channel 1 4,3

of 1

Social worker 5 21,7

Statistician 1 4,3

Support to disabled people 2 8,7

Support to people with learning disabilities 1 4,3

Telemarketing in bilingual agency (English/Italian) 1 4,3

Theatre work 1 4,3

Unknown job 1 4,3

Worker in my hosting project 1 4,3

Youth worker 4 17,4

I found a job but unrelated to the activities that I have developed while on EVS. Please tell us what:

27 17,8

Air hostess in local airline 1 3,7

Bartender/waiter 4 14,8

Camping assistant 1 3,7

Commercial job 1 3,7

Factory worker 2 7,4

Farm worker 1 3,7

Insurance company operator 1 3,7

Journalist 1 3,7

Kitchen chef/assi stant 2 7,4

Librarian 1 3,7

Office worker 5 18,5

Secretarial work 1 3,7

summer job 2 7,4


tax inspector 1 3,7

University teacher of Spanish 1 3,7




I decided to look for a job outside my home country. Please tell us what and where: 21 13,8

acrobatics trainer 1 4,8

anything 1 4,8

camping reception 2 9,5

catering assistant 1 4,8

international air hostess 1 4,8

international office 2 9,5

international youth work 1 4,8

IT manager 1 4,8

language teacher 1 4,8

refugee camp monitor 1 4,8


social assistant/worker 4 19,0

summer job 3 14,3

tourism work 1 4,8


I decided to create my own business/enterprise. Please tell us what: 4 2,6

environmental architecture 1 25,0

renting video screens and AV equipment 1 25,0

voluntary service training office 2 50,0

of 212



countries total %


Austria 1 4,8

Denmark 1 4,8

Dubai 1 4,8

France 4 19,0

Germany 1 4,8

Netherlands 1 4,8

Switzerland 1 4,8

UK 4 19,0

of 1

SECTION G

Expectations before EVS Fulfille

d % Partly

Fulfilled % Not

Fulfilled % Not

Expected % Total

I expected to get a lot of preparation before my departure

29 19,1 39 25,7 31 20,4 53 34,9 152

I expected to be given a lot of choice of different projects

43 28,3 34 22,4 26 17,1 49 32,2 152

I expected to be given a lot of training (technical and linguistic) upon my arrival to the hosting country

25 16,4 49 32,2 43 28,3 35 23,0 152

I expected to have a lot of moral support during my stay

52 34,2 49 32,2 18 11,8 33 21,7 152

I expected to be given a good amount of pocket money per month

68 44,7 24 15,8 10 6,6 50 32,9 152


I expected to find more about myself and what I want to do in life

81 53,3 52 34,2 6 3,9 13 8,6 152


I expected to learn important skills for my future job

49 32,2 42 27,6 15 9,9 46 30,3 152

I expected to become more independent 91 59,9 24 15,8 3 2,0 34 22,4 152

I expected to get more knowledge about other cultures and ways of life

132 86,8 14 9,2 0 - 6 3,9 152

I expected to leave my past behind and become a new person

13 8,6 28 18,4 7 4,6 104 68,4 152


I expected to learn more about the world 89 58,6 44 28,9 0 - 19 12,5 152

I expected to become stronger to overcome life’s difficulties

73 48,0 51 33,6 2 1,3 26 17,1 152

OTHER

Deeper spirituality 1 0,7 0 - 0 - 0 - 152

Expected to travel a lot in hosting country 1 0,7 0 - 0 - 0 - 152

To be useful 1 0,7 0 - 1 0,7 0 - 152

To have a good time/fun 2 1,3 0 - 1 0,7 0 - 152


bad 3 2,0

good 50 32,9

satisfactory 13 8,6

very bad 1 0,7

very good 85 55,9

Total 152 100,0

of 212

ANNEXE 3 - STATISTICAL TABLES - MULTILATERAL ACTION - 59 VOLUNTEERS

Please note that these tables refer only to the answers of those volunteers who participated in the

Multilateral action and not to all of the respondents from the Centralised strand.

SECTION A


Male 14 23,7

Female 45 76,3

Total 59 100,0


<=17 0 -

18-20 39 66,1

21-23 12 20,3

24-26 8 13,6

27-28 0 -

>=29 0 -

Total 59 100,0

Average age

ages total

17 0 0

18 4 72

19 24 456

20 11 220

21 10 210

22 1 22

23 1 23

24 5 120

25 0 0

26 3 78

27 0 0

28 0 0

Total 59 1201

average age 20,4

Nationality Total %

Austria 0 -

Belgium 5 8,5

Denmark 1 1,7

Finland 1 1,7

France 8 13,6

Germany 36 61,0

Greece 0 -

Iceland 0 -

of 1

Ireland 0 -

Italy 0 -

Luxembourg 0 -

Netherlands 2 3,4

Norway 0 -

Portugal 0 -

Spain 2 3,4

Sweden 2 3,4

UK 1 1,7

OTHER


Total 59 100,0


Austria 0 -

Belgium 3 5,1

Denmark 1 1,7

Finland 1 1,7

France 12 20,3

Germany 34 57,6

Greece 0 -

Iceland 0 -

Ireland 0 -

Italy 0 -

Luxembourg 0 -

Netherlands 2 3,4

Norway 0 -

Portugal 0 -

Spain 3 5,1

Sweden 2 3,4

UK 0 -

OTHER

New Zealand 1 1,7

Total 59 100,00


Austria 0 -

Belgium 2 3,4

Denmark 2 3,4

Finland 0 -

France 13 22,0

Germany 3 5,1

Greece 0 -

Iceland 1 1,7

Ireland 0 -

Italy 3 5,1

Luxembourg 0 -

Netherlands 3 5,1

Norway 2 3,4

of 212

Portugal 0 -

Spain 4 6,8

Sweden 1 1,7

UK 25 42,4

OTHER

Total 59 100,0


Yes 58 98,3

No 1 1,7

Total 59 100,0


English 54 91,5

French 33 55,9

German 7 11,9

Italian 1 1,7

Spanish 8 13,6

Swedish 1 1,7

OTHER

Russian 5 8,5

Turkish 1 1,7



because I was unemployed 1 1,7

because other friends did it 0 -









to help in the development of Europe 1 1,7

to help other people 16 27,1

to learn a new language 17 28,8

to learn new skills 6 10,2

to make new friends 0 -

OTHER




of 1

SECTION B


a friend 8 13,6





the radio 0 -

the T.V 0 -


your local authority 0 -




OTHER

by chance when asking for information on Exchanges 1 1,7


travel book 3 5,1


Total 59 100,0



a job centre 0 -

a local municipality 0 -



a sports organisation 0 -

a youth centre 0 -

an environmental organisation 0 -


OTHER


Total 59 100,0




a local municipality 0 -




an environmental organisation 0 -


OTHER

Documentation Centre 1 1,7

Health Services 6 10,2

of 212


theatre 1 1,7

Total 59 100,0


<=3 months 2 3,4

4-5 months 1 1,7

6 months 15 25,4

7-9 months 8 13,6

10-11 months 15 25,4

12 months 6 10,2

>12 months 12 20,3

Total 59 100,0

Average duration

months total

3 2 6

4 0 0

5 1 5

6 15 90

7 0 0

8 2 16

9 6 54

10 10 100

11 5 55

12 6 72

13 12 156

Total 59 554



Yes 33 55,9

<=1 week 4 12,1

2-3 weeks 6 18,2

1-3 months 17 51,5

4-6 months 2 6,1

>=7 months 4 12,1

No 26 44,1

Total respondents 59 100,0

Main theme of EVS project Total % anti-racism /xenophobia 1 1,7




european issues 0 -


media/communications 0 -

of 1










urban development 0 -


OTHER





Yes 35 59,3

No 24 40,7

Total 59 100,0


Yes 7 11,9

No 52 88,1

Total 59 100,0

Participating in planning of project Total %

Yes 31 52,5

No 28 47,5

Total 59 100,0

of 212

SECTION C

Participation in follow-up/evaluation Total % Yes 39 66,1

No 20 33,9

Total 59 100,0




Other

myself 1 2,6

Total 39 100,0






Other

private meetings 1 2,6







Other



Duration of follow -up/evaluation activities Total %

half a day 3 7,7

1 full day 5 12,8

2-3 days 26 66,7

>3 days 5 12,8

Total 39 100,0





Other




of 1

Total 39 100,0

Overall evaluation of follow -up/evaluation Total %

bad 1 2,6

good 17 43,6


very bad 0 -

very good 7 17,9

Total 39 100,0


Yes 26 44,1

political activism 2 7,7


youth work 19 73,1

No 33 55,9



Yes 14 53,8

No 12 46,2

Total 26 100,0


Yes 10 30,3

No 1 3,0

Maybe 22 66,7

Total 33 100,0


very easy 4 6,8

easy 31 52,5

difficult 17 28,8


Total 59 100,0

of 212

SECTION D


Assertive 0 - 1 1,7 18 30,5 29 49,2 11 18,6 59

Communicative 0 - 3 5,1 17 28,8 32 54,2 7 11,9 59

European 0 - 3 5,1 15 25,4 26 44,1 15 25,4 59

Outgoing 0 - 3 5,1 25 42,4 22 37,3 9 15,3 59

Progressive 0 - 1 1,7 18 30,5 31 52,5 9 15,3 59

Hard-working 0 - 1 1,7 32 54,2 19 32,2 7 11,9 59

Spontaneous 0 - 4 6,8 25 42,4 24 40,7 6 10,2 59

Talkative 0 - 2 3,4 30 50,8 24 40,7 3 5,1 59

Conservative 10 16,9 28 47,5 20 33,9 1 1,7 0 - 59

Socially aware 0 - 0 - 17 28,8 24 40,7 18 30,5 59

Caring 0 - 0 - 23 39,0 31 52,5 5 8,5 59

Open to people 1 1,7 0 - 17 28,8 29 49,2 12 20,3 59

Shy 20 33,9 18 30,5 19 32,2 2 3,4 0 - 59

Tolerant 0 - 1 1,7 15 25,4 28 47,5 15 25,4 59

Involved 0 - 4 6,8 22 37,3 27 45,8 6 10,2 59

Indifferent 15 25,4 19 32,2 24 40,7 1 1,7 0 - 59

Mature 0 - 0 - 14 23,7 26 44,1 19 32,2 59

Independent 0 - 1 1,7 9 15,3 26 44,1 23 39,0 59

Organised 0 - 5 8,5 22 37,3 27 45,8 5 8,5 59

Optimistic 0 - 3 5,1 27 45,8 17 28,8 12 20,3 59

Money oriented 15 25,4 21 35,6 22 37,3 0 - 1 1,7 59

Sociable 0 - 1 1,7 23 39,0 28 47,5 7 11,9 59

Lonely 11 18,6 12 20,3 22 37,3 11 18,6 3 5,1 59

OTHER

bitter 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 1,7 59

distrustful 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 1,7 0 - 59

self-confident 0 - 0 - 0 - 2 3,4 0 - 59

of 1

SECTION E

Skills much less

% less % the same

% more % much more

% Total

I integrate in groups and teams 1 1,7 2 3,4 24 40,7 27 45,8 5 8,5 59

I take personal responsibility for organising activities

1 1,7 4 6,8 17 28,8 27 45,8 10 16,9 59

I plan my time 0 - 6 10,2 34 57,6 16 27,1 3 5,1 59

I solve practical problems/find solutions

0 - 0 - 25 42,4 27 45,8 7 11,9 59

I can help solving conflicts 0 - 0 - 25 42,4 26 44,1 8 13,6 59

I can communicate a personal idea/message

0 - 1 1,7 20 33,9 31 52,5 7 11,9 59


of 212

SECTION F




had left College/University unfinished 0 -



were still at school 2 3,4

Total 59 100,0











OTHER



Work - Situation before EVS Total %



were looking for first job 9 15,3


Total 59 100,0



Bartender 1 25,0

Restaurant waiter 1 25,0

Shop assistant 1 25,0

Unknown job 1 25,0

I found a job related to the activities that I had de veloped while on EVS. Please tell us what: 8 13,6

Craftsman 1 12,5

Social worker 1 12,5

Teacher 2 25,0

Tourist Guide 1 12,5

Unknown job 1 12,5

Youth worker 2 25,0

I found a job but unrelated to the activities that I have developed while on EVS. Please tell us what:

6 10,2

Kindergarden teacher 1 16,7

of 1

Nurse 1 16,7

Office worker 1 16,7

Psychologist 1 16,7

Summer job 1 16,7

Travel agent 1 16,7




I decided to look for a job outside my home country. Please tell us what and where: 5 8,5

Anything 3 60,0

Arts and Music work 1 20,0

Warehouse worker 1 20,0

I have been turned down by all the jobs I applied to for lack of qualifications/experience 0 -

I decided to create my own business/enterprise. Please tell us what: 0 -



countries total %


France 1 20,0

Germany 1 20,0

Spain 1 20,0

UK 1 20,0

of 212

SECTION G

Expectations before EVS Fulfilled

% Partly Fulfilled

% Not Fulfilled

% Not Expected

% Total

I expected to get a lot of preparation before my departure

16 27,1 15 25,4 10 16,9 18 30,5 59

I expected to be given a lot of choice of different projects

10 16,9 17 28,8 9 15,3 23 39,0 59

I expected to be given a lot of training (technical and linguistic) upon my arrival to the hosting country

11 18,6 19 32,2 12 20,3 17 28,8 59

I expected to have a lot of moral support during my stay

22 37,3 19 32,2 8 13,6 10 16,9 59

I expected to be given a good amount of pocket money per month

21 35,6 11 18,6 3 5,1 24 40,7 59


I expected to find more about myself and what I want to do in life

29 49,2 23 39,0 3 5,1 4 6,8 59


I expected to learn important skills for my future job

12 20,3 20 33,9 5 8,5 22 37,3 59

I expected to become more independent 43 72,9 7 11,9 0 - 9 15,3 59

I expected to get more knowledge about other cultures and ways of life

43 72,9 12 20,3 0 - 4 6,8 59

I expected to leave my past behind and become a new person

4 6,8 9 15,3 3 5,1 43 72,9 59


I expected to learn more about the world 28 47,5 16 27,1 2 3,4 13 22,0 59

I expected to become stronger to overcome life’s difficulties

23 39,0 21 35,6 1 1,7 14 23,7 59


bad 1 1,7

good 12 20,3

satisfactory 7 11,9

very bad 0 -

very good 39 66,1

Total 59 100,0

of 1

ANNEXE 4- ANALYSIS OF SECTION H (VOLUNTEERS’ COMMENTS)

DECENTRALISED & CENTRALISED STRANDS

General statistics on section H total % % of total F (184)

Female respondents 127 73,8 69,0

% of total M (61)

Male respondents 45 26,2 73,8

% of total (245)

Total respondents 172 100 70,2

1. Summary o f Positive Comments A) Positive Comments female % of F com. male % of M com. total % of total com.

1) General positive remarks 121 31,2 28 36,4 149 32,0

2) Personal Dimension 184 47,4 23 29,9 207 44,5

3) Social Dimension 68 17,5 19 24,7 87 18,7

4) Misc ellaneous 15 3,9 7 9,1 22 4,7


2. Summary of Negative Comments B) Negative Comments female % of F com. male % of M com. total % of total com.

1) Personal difficulties 34 23,4 7 15,6 41 21,6

2) Programme managem ent/criteria 105 72,4 38 84,4 143 75,3

3) About the current questionnaire 6 4,1 0 0,0 6 3,2


3. Summary of Recommendations C) Recommendations female % of F com. male % of M com. total % of total com.

1) Support issues 32 53,3 18 56,3 50 54,3

2) Programme management/criteria 28 46,7 14 43,8 42 45,7


4. Summary table Comments female % of F com. male % of M com. Total % of total com.

Comments female % of F com. male % of M com. Total % of total com.

A) Positive comments 388 65,4 77 50,0 465 62,2

B) Negative comments 145 24,5 45 29,2 190 25,4

C) Recommendations 60 10,1 32 20,8 92 12,3


of 212

ANALYSIS OF SECTION H (COMMENTS OF THE VOLUNTEERS) – DECENTRALISED STRAND

A) Positive comments female % of total F

resp.

Male % of total M

resp.

Total

Com.

% of total

resp.

1) General positive remarks 83 19 102

Best time of my life/wonderful/very important/very positive

experience

59 72,8 13 44,8 72 65,5

Thank you for this opportunity 24 29,6 6 20,7 30 27,3

2) Personal Dimension 97 9 106

becoming independent 4 4,9 0 0,0 4 3,6

becoming more idealistic 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

becoming more self-confident 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

being able to travel abroad for little money/for free 3 3,7 1 3,4 4 3,6

being open to new ideas/open-minded 3 3,7 1 3,4 4 3,6

developing personal character/knowing more about yourself 15 18,5 0 0,0 15 13,6

developing personal skills 4 4,9 0 0,0 4 3,6

discovering how much you like to socialise 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

discovering your talents and interests 3 3,7 0 0,0 3 2,7

distinguishing your real priorities in life 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

escaping unemployment 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

finding a job/a career 10 12,3 1 3,4 11 10,0

finding the right kind of studies 3 3,7 1 3,4 4 3,6

finding your best friend/partner 3 3,7 0 0,0 3 2,7

gaining experience about life 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

gaining practical experience 3 3,7 1 3,4 4 3,6

growing up 3 3,7 1 3,4 4 3,6

improving/learning a language 6 7,4 1 3,4 7 6,4

learning about people 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

learning about your own culture 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

learning how to cope with problems 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

learning how to manage your money 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

learning to accept frustration 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

learning to get up early 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

living in a multicultural context 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

making lots of friends/meeting different people 19 23,5 2 6,9 21 19,1

re-evaluating your ideas/opinions 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

showing tolerance and empathy 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

3) Social Dimension 40 11 51

all young people should do EVS/be able to benefit from it 18 22,2 4 13,8 22 20,0

EVS allows you to learn about new cultures/promotes

interculturalism

9 11,1 3 10,3 12 10,9

EVS brings together people from all walks of life 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS helps developing a more humane world 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS promotes a European feeling/citizenship 5 6,2 3 10,3 8 7,3

EVS promotes democracy 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS promotes volunteering 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS promotes young people's social integration 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

of 1

possibility of helping other people 4 4,9 0 0,0 4 3,6

4) Miscellaneous 5 5 10

Thank you for caring about us even after EVS 4 4,9 3 10,3 7 6,4

We are willing to help you to promote the programme 1 1,2 2 6,9 3 2,7

of 212

B) Negative Comments female % of total F

resp.

male % of total M

resp.

total % of total

resp.

1) Personal difficulties 24 6 30

Alcohol addiction by one fellow volunteer 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Couldn't learn a new language with EVS 3 3,7 0 0,0 3 2,7

EVS activities were not beneficial/did not help in finding a job 8 9,9 1 3,4 9 8,2

Hosting project was not interesting 2 2,5 1 3,4 3 2,7

Lack of language skills put performance at stake 4 4,9 1 3,4 5 4,5

Lack of support to develop new ideas after return 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

Personal difficulties with integration in hosting country 3 3,7 1 3,4 4 3,6

Racial discrimination 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

Re-integration difficulties (with friends and family) 3 3,7 0 0,0 3 2,7

2) Programme management/criteria 58 24 82

Barriers to mobility inside Europe 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

Disparity between job description and actual activities 5 6,2 3 10,3 8 7,3

European Commission decided wrongly about termination of

good EVS organisation

0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

EVS certificate was not signed by an EU official 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS excludes non -Europeans (lack of reciprocity) 1 1,2 1 3,4 2 1,8

EVS is a waste of money for the EU/Hosting projects cheat

with their budgets

1 1,2 2 6,9 3 2,7

EVS is too bureaucratic 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

Job substitution/feeling exploited 4 4,9 2 6,9 6 5,5

Lack of communication between sending and hosting

projects

2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

Lack of information before departure 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

Lack of organisation/no real project/bad management of

pocket money

17 21,0 2 6,9 19 17,3

Lack of respect for volunteers 3 3,7 0 0,0 3 2,7

Lack of status for volunteers 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Lack of support from Hosting/Sending project/National

Structure

11 13,6 6 20,7 17 15,5

Mismatch between hosting project and volunteer's

expectations

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

No formal support for volunteers who decide to remain in

their hosting countries

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

No possibility to change from hosting project 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

No possibility to choose hosting project 2 2,5 1 3,4 3 2,7

No possibility to evaluate the experience 1 1,2 1 3,4 2 1,8

Report of Evaluation Seminar never came 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Volunteers do not get their certificates on time 1 1,2 2 6,9 3 2,7

Volunteers from different countries are treated unequally by

EVS

3 3,7 0 0,0 3 2,7

3) About the current questionnaire 3 0 3

The questionnaire should be in the volunteers' mother tongue 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

Bored with too many evaluations (including this

questionnaire)

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

of 1

C) Recommendations female % of total F

resp.

male % of total M

resp.

total % of total

resp.

1. Support issues 23 18 41

1.1 Before EVS

Volunteers should be given the right kind of motivation to go abroad 1 1,2 2 6,9 3 2,7

There needs to be clear information on EVS 0 0,0 2 6,9 2 1,8

Volunteers need better preparation to participate (introductory and language

courses, etc.)

5 6,2 3 10,3 8 7,3

Volunteers should not be mislead by too many high expectations on EVS 1 1,2 1 3,4 2 1,8

1.2 During EVS

Ex-volunteers should be asked to share their knowledge with new volunteers 1 1,2 2 6,9 3 2,7

Group projects need more support 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Integration in the hosting country is facilitated if volunteers are not alone in the

project

1 1,2 2 6,9 3 2,7

More support is necessary from sending/hosting projects 1 1,2 3 10,3 4 3,6

National Structures should give more support to hosting and sending projects 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

There should be at least one advisor per country to give practical advise to

volunteers

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

There should be more meetings amongst volunteers for sharing of experiences 3 3,7 3 10,3 6 5,5

Volunteers should have at least one mid-term evaluation 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

1.3 After EVS

European Union should help the volunteers to find a job after EVS 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Ex-volunteers who remain in their hosting country after EVS should get formal

support

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

National Structures should give ex-volunteers the chance to do EVS twice 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

National Structures should help ex-volunteers to find a job 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

National Structures should help ex-volunteers to find studies in conformity with

EVS

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

2. Programme management/criteria 13 12 25

Europe needs a programme like EVS to build its future 2 2,5 0 0,0 2 1,8

EVS needs to be more open to young people without skills or with social/physical

problems

0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

EVS needs less bureaucracy/forms must be made simpler 0 0,0 2 6,9 2 1,8

EVS should be directed more at 18-19 year olds to help them choose their

studies

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS should be open to people of all ages 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

EVS should promote the participation of volunteers from poor/difficult European

regions

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

EVS recruiters in different countries should be funded by the European

Commission

0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

Group projects should be more carefully selected 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Hosting projects should have enough activities for the volunteers 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Hosting projects need stricter rules and more control 2 2,5 3 10,3 5 4,5

Hosting projects should involve more the local community in the project 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Networks of projects need redefining 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Schedule of volunteers should be more flexible to avoid job substitution 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Selection of volunteers needs to be better done 0 0,0 2 6,9 2 1,8

of 212

There needs to be more freedom of movement for non-European volunteers 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

There should be more choice of countries the volunteers would like to go to 1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Transfer of money to hosting projects should be made before arrival of the

volunteers

1 1,2 0 0,0 1 0,9

Volunteers should be given more pocket money 0 0,0 1 3,4 1 0,9

of 1

ANALYSIS OF SECTION H (COMMENTS OF THE VOLUNTEERS ) – CENTRALISED STRAND

A) Positive comments female % of total F

resp.

male % of total M

resp.

Total Com. % of total

resp.

1) General positive remarks 38 9 47

Best time of my life/wonderful/very important/very

positive experience

30 65,2 5 31,3 35 56,5

Thank you for this opportunity 8 17,4 4 25,0 12 19,4

2) Personal Dimension 87 14 101

becoming independent 6 13,0 0 0,0 6 9,7

becoming more extrovert 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

becoming more idealistic 0 0,0 1 6,3 1 1,6

becoming more optimistic 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

becoming more self-confident 2 4,3 1 6,3 3 4,8

becoming more talkative 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

being able to travel abroad for little money/for free 3 6,5 0 0,0 3 4,8

being open to new ideas/open-minded 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

dealing with your social disadvantage 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

developing personal character/knowing more about

yourself

8 17,4 1 6,3 9 14,5

developing personal skills 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

discovering your talents and interests 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

distinguishing your real priorities in life 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

escaping unemployment 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

finding a job/a career 7 15,2 0 0,0 7 11,3

finding the right kind of studies 6 13,0 1 6,3 7 11,3

finding your best friend/partner 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

gaining experience about life 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

gaining practical experience 3 6,5 2 12,5 5 8,1

growing up 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

improving/learning a language 4 8,7 1 6,3 5 8,1

learning about people 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

learning about your own culture 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

learning how to cope with problems 6 13,0 0 0,0 6 9,7

living in a multicultural context 4 8,7 1 6,3 5 8,1

making lots of friends/meeting different people 12 26,1 2 12,5 14 22,6

re-evaluating your ideas/opinions 7 15,2 1 6,3 8 12,9

showing tolerance and empathy 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

3) Social Dimension 28 8 36

all young people should do EVS/be able to benefit

from it

8 17,4 3 18,8 11 17,7

EVS allows you to learn about new

cultures/promotes interculturalism

10 21,7 3 18,8 13 21,0

EVS brings together people from all walks of life 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

EVS helps developing a more humane world 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

EVS promotes a European feeling/citizenship 2 4,3 1 6,3 3 4,8

EVS promotes democracy 0 0,0 0 0,0 0 0,0

of 212

EVS promotes involvement at local level 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

EVS promotes volunteering 0 0,0 1 6,3 1 1,6

EVS promotes young people's social integration 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

possibility of helping other people 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

4) Miscellaneous 10 2 12

Hosting project was very interesting/helpful 5 10,9 0 0,0 5 8,1

Thank you for caring about us even after EVS 2 4,3 1 6,3 3 4,8

We are willing to help you to promote the programme 3 6,5 1 6,3 4 6,5

of 1

B) Negative Comments female % of total F

resp.

male % of total M

resp.

Total

Com.

% of total

resp.

1) Personal difficulties 10 1 11

EVS activities were not beneficial/did not help in finding a

job

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Feeling isolated in hosting project 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Feeling lost and confused after EVS 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

Feeling too controlled by hosting project 0 0,0 1 6,3 1 1,6

Hosting project was not interesting 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Personal difficulties with integration in hosting country 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Re-integration difficulties (with friends and family) 4 8,7 0 0,0 4 6,5

2) Programme management/criteria 47 14 65

EVS is a waste of money for the EU/Hosting projects cheat

with their budgets

1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

EVS is too abstract 0 0,0 1 6,3 1 1,6

EVS is too bureaucratic 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Hosting project asked for participation fee 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Hosting project was too religious 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

Insurance cover did not work 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

Job substitution/feeling exploited 3 6,5 0 0,0 3 4,8

Lack of communication between sending and hosting

projects

1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

Lack of information before departure 7 15,2 1 6,3 8 12,9

Lack of organisation/no real project/bad management of

pocket money

5 10,9 2 12,5 7 11,3

Lack of respect for volunteers 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

Lack of support from Hosting/Sending project/National

Structure

8 17,4 3 18,8 11 17,7

Mismatch between hosting project and volunteer's

expectations

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Mismatch between hosting project and volunteer's skills 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

No access to hosting projects' database 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

No formal support for volunteers who decide to remain in

their hosting countries

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

No possibility to do EVS twice 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

No possibility to evaluate the experience 3 6,5 0 0,0 3 4,8

No possibility to help in informing other young people about

EVS

2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

No recognition of EVS at national level 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Volunteers did not know they were participating in EVS 3 6,5 2 12,5 5 8,1

Volunteers do not get their certificates on time 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Volunteers from different countries are treated unequally by

EVS

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

3) About the current questionnaire 3 0 3

Some of the dimensions in the questionnaire were too

general

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

The questionnaire does not give enough room for personal

comments

2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

of 212

C) Recommendations female % of total F

resp.

male % of total M

resp.

Total

Com.

% of total

resp.

1. Support issues 9 0 9

1.1 Before EVS

There needs to be clear/more information on EVS 2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

Volunteers need better preparation to participate

(introductory and language courses, etc.)

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

1.2 During EVS

More support is necessary from sending/hosting projects 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

There should be more meetings amongst volunteers for

sharing of experiences

2 4,3 0 0,0 2 3,2

Volunteers need to be formally told what their tasks are 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Volunteers should be trained for their return home 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 6,3

1.3 After EVS

Former volunteers should be asked to help with the re-

integration of returnees

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

2. Programme management/criteria 15 2 10

EVS needs less bureaucracy/forms must be made simpler 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

EVS should avoid the harmonisation of hosting projects in

different countries

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Hosting projects need stricter rules and more control 4 8,7 0 0,0 4 6,5

National Structures should be more controlled 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

The hosting projects' database should include comments

from previous volunteers

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

There is a need for an i nternational volunteers' association 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

There needs to be a recognised status for volunteers 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

There needs to be more freedom of movement for non-

European volunteers

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

There should be more choice of countries the volunteers

would like to go to

1 1,6 0 0,0 1 1,6

Volunteers should all receive a monthly Newsletter 1 2,2 1 6,3 2 3,2

Volunteers should be given free transportation in hosting

country

1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

Volunteers should be given more pocket money 0 0,0 1 6,3 1 1,6

Younger volunteers can benefit more from EVS 1 2,2 0 0,0 1 1,6

of 1

ANNEXE 5 – SECTION H – FULL COMMENTS

DECENTRALISED STRAND

Editing: We have made very little editing of the volunteers’ comments. We have corrected the

orthography in all cases but we have only corrected their grammar when relevant to the overall sense

of the sentence. With this we wanted to change as little as possible the meaning and the way in which

volunteers express themselves, taking also into account the fact that only a small minority of the

respondents have English as their mother tongue.

Code: each comment has been coded in order to be easily tracked back to its respective

questionnaire, for each comment you have a code composed of Decentralised (DC), country name

(AT-UK), Female (F) or Male (M), Comment (COM), and number (1-…). This code is only relevant for

the questionnaire in question and for its section H.

Categories: This list contains already a preliminary treatment of the comments with them having been

divided into Positive, Negative and Recommendations. In each case the code allows you to trace the

links between the different split texts.

q AUSTRIA

Female volunteers

Positive comments Negative comments Recommendations

DCATFCOM1. I’d just like to say that

this half year with the EVS in Spain was

a very important experience for me, and

I was glad to have the possibility to go

to a foreign country without paying

money because I couldn’t have afforded

it. Thank you!!

And with the EVS it’s possible for

everybody because it doesn’t depend

on money.

DCATFCOM2. Although I would have wanted

to choose the definitive programme myself.

DCATFCOM1. I really hope that this project

is lasting because in the Europe of the

future it’s definitely necessary to have the

experience of living in a foreign country.

DCATFCOM2. In my opinion the EVS

programme is a very good opportunity

for young people to gain experience and

develop their personal skills and

character. I’m glad to having

participated in it.

Please keep it up and give all young

DCATFCOM5. Although I didn’t have much

choice of different projects (because I wanted

to go to Ireland and nowhere else).

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Europeans the same chance that I

luckily had.

DCATFCOM3. It was a wonderful year

and I’d like to do it twice!

DCATFCOM4. Thank you for giving me

the opportunity to spend such an

extraordinary time abroad.

DCATCOM5. I’m grateful I got this

chance to go abroad. Thank you!

I got a wonderful hosting project.

q BELGIUM

Female volunteers


DCBEFCOM1. Afterwards I was glad that I

stayed, because new EVS people came and I

didn’t feel lonely anymore (until now one of

them is my boyfriend, though I wasn’t looking

for one). At the end I really liked it and stayed

for 2 more months. Until now I still keep in

touch with the people of the home! I have a lot

of respect for the people who are working with

handicapped people, because it takes a lot of

energy.

Now, I find it a good experience.

I want to thank everyone who makes it possible

to have such an experience.

DCBEFCOM1. But the first 3 months (after the

language training of 1 month) it was very hard time, I

didn’t get the support from my sending organisation I

was expecting. I realise that I was one of the first

volunteers (March 1997) in Belgium, but therefore I

was expecting even more support.

When I asked to change (during my stay) they said

No, that was something that disappointed me very

deeply.

DCBEFCOM2. Overall feeling about my

exchange is positive. DCBEFCOM2. but I expected more work (was bored

now and then), more experiences (didn’t learn too

many new things). Above all I expected that my

experiences would help me to find a job in Belgium,

but till now it didn’t help me a lot. It’s not seen as a

professional experience (but I’m only 4 months at

home…).

The situation in Belgium for volunteers, or returning

volunteers, is very poor (no status, no allowance, etc.).

DCBEFCOM3. I think EVS is a very good

initiative that makes Europe “smaller”. I wish

good luck and good continuation to everybody

involved!

DCBEFCOM4. I expected a good organised project

and respected volunteers Rights (a project, language

lessons, clear budget, support). If not realised, I

expected support and possibility of more help to

change project.

DCBEFCOM5. It has been great to meet all DCBEFCOM5. A lot of problems could have been

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those different people. I have over 200 pictures

of my 9 months, which are a very good

memory.

More people should get this chance like EVS.

avoided because of administration and financial

problems.

I never heard anything from the National Structures in

my hosting country, only for a short 15m mid-

evaluation conversation.

DCBEFCOM6. It was difficult to adapt in my home

country. I had difficulties to have a good relationship

with friends from home. I felt that I was different, had

changed, didn’t really know how to handle my

experiences…

Male volunteers


DCBEMCOM1. To end I want to say

that my project, my experience was

very good. Thanks!

(joke) Just one remark: I’m

disappointed that when intercultural

learning and meeting succeeds (I met

my girlfriend in Italy) afterwards the

difficulties are not on the shoulders of

the European community (it costs me

a lot of money to travel to Italy, to

meet my girl! It would be helpful if

Europe paid a part of my ticket for

this intercultural meeting…

DCBEMCOM2. It is important to notice that

I was one of the first volunteers to join

EVS. In that respect the project itself still

suffered from “child diseases” and the

scenario I had to follow was an

experimental draft. This made it even more

“challenging” for me, so it’s not at all a

complaint. There was however no

preliminary database available nor was

there a fixed standard procedure or

previous experience to obtain feedback

from. Consequently the project is not

exemplary for or comparative with the more

recent EVS initiatives.

DCBEMCOM1. Very important: back up

not only from hosting project but also

contact from and with the sending

project; hosting where there is much

possibility to interact with other people;

clear information!

Not having always backup, language

training, clear information does not mean

necessarily a bad project, but you have

to be prepared for it and take the things

in your hands. If you don’t expect this,

when you have the wrong information,

this can be hard!

Necessary to prepare the volunteer for

the worst and to give solutions if so. It is

important to say that the EVS experience

depends on/is made of the volunteer

himself and the sending project and the

SOS can only be a support.

Contact between volunteers can be very

helpful.

Remark: two sorts of expectations I

learned on an evaluation weekend; to

learn about anew culture is impossible in

an international group; to meet other

people from different countries is

impossible on your own in a project. Very

important to point out clearly if a project

has only one or two or many international

volunteers.

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DCBEMCOM2. It may help to clarify

for you that I combined my EVS

project with my final year of studies at

the University of Gent. They were

paralleled activities. Since I only had

to write my thesis I didn’t need to

attend any classes, which made it

suitable for me to leave for a foreign

experience. After my return to

Belgium I spent two months on

finishing my thesis, succeeded and

started looking for a job. For this

reason I filled out both studies and

working life on your questionnaire,

since these followed my voluntary

service period in very close

succession.

q DENMARK

Female volunteers


DCDKFCOM1. I can’t give other

“negative” things because everything

else in my stay was for an A+, I really

loved it and enjoyed it. Thank you for

all help. Keep up that good work!

DCDKFCOM1. A friend of mine (don’t

know if he was even in the EVS

programme!) went to a place where they

weren’t really aware of the job behind, he

didn’t get enough tasks. I know it’s a very

individual thing, but I just thought that you

need to be aware!

DCDKFCOM1. I think that it is very

important that you make sure that all the

volunteers participate in at least 1 intro-

course and 1 term-course! It’s really a

good way to share expectations and

experience, preparing and evaluating the

stay! (I went on a YMCA intro/mid-course

+ EVS mid-term).

It’s also important that the hosting place

have enough to do for the volunteer! ( I

don’t know if that’s your responsibility).

DCDKFCOM2. I was interested in an

evaluation but the one I knew about took

place in Brussels and was unfortunately

cancelled.

DCDKFCOM2. I would however very

much like to participate in general

evaluations of EVS. I have Thought a lot

about how EVS could be improved and

how young people could be better

prepared before their departure. If you

are better prepared before you leave, you

gain so much from your stay. An insight

in the culture, the language, etc…But

most important an insight in how it might

be. Ex. other volunteers telling you about

their stay . I now have insight knowledge

about Portugal I wish to share with other

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people.

q GERMANY

Female volunteers


DCDEFCOM1. Living in a community

with other volunteers of the

programme was a very good

experience and is highly

recommendable.

Thanks for the programme and this

evaluation. It seems you are really

putting an effort into making the EVS

as helpful for people as possible.

That’s great, thanks.

DCDEFCOM2. Whereas some of the EVS

participants we met at the seminar felt

sometimes a bit lost.

DCDEFCOM. 1 Among EVS volunteers I

got to know there was no one from a

poor country or a European trouble spot

– what’s the reason? Is there nobody

who’s interested? Is EVS not advertised?

Is money a problem? I suppose the

participation of people from these

countries in the programme would be a

great benefit for everyone concerned.

DCDEFCOM2. I did not only take part in

the EVS scheme, but was at the same

time a German Red Cross volunteer and I

feel we (20 German R ed Cross girls)

lived in a very clear structure and

experienced a lot of moral support. I

liked the idea and the chance to meet not

only German and British people but

volunteers from all over Europe.

And I am glad we had to write our

reports because I wo uldn’t have done

it for myself but I think it is good to

have to sit down and think and write

about yourself and now a few months

later it’s nice to read my report to

remind me of my year in England.

DCDEFCOM3. Of course there have been

some problems duri ng my EVS. For

example with the pocket money and the

money for living. I got less than the half of

the money for living then another volunteer

living in the same country (he also lived on

his own in a student hall). There should be

better restrictions for the money so that

volunteers in one country get almost the

same.

DCDEFCOM3. But I think if somebody is

going abroad with EVS, the person

should be open to the new country and

open to problems and difficulties.

DCDEFCOM3. That’s why I haven’t

expected so much and I was

wondering how good EVS functioned.

Thank you for the great time in

Finland.

DCDEFCOM5. Another point was that we

liked the European idea but couldn’t really

find a reason to exclude non-Europeans

(probably the administration knows, but in

reality there was a Czech girl, some

Moroccans + Turkish…)

DCDEFCOM7. I had nearly no

expectations concerning the project and

the work of EVS and I would really

recommend to the new volunteers not to

have too many expectations of whatever

they want to do. No one can tell someone

else exactly how something will be.

Wherever you go you will expect and live

through a situation completely different

as somebody else, because I loved my

work other may still have many difficulties

with for example the client group. What I

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tried to say was that too much

information could put someone into a

very strong expectation and because of

this to be disappointed. Less is

sometimes more.

DCDEFCOM4. though it sounds a bit

stupid I think it is true to say that the

EVS changed my life. For the first, I

really do feel that, as a volunteer, I

started to be more open to new people

(and new ideas!), more able to feel and

show tolerance and empathy. My

different approach lead to positive

experiences and as I was also living on

my own (or, rather with a roommate) for

the first time (and did quite OK, I think) I

became more self-confident and

independent.

The practical work I did within my

project also suited my (beforehand

“hidden”) interests and talents.

The whole experience, living abroad

and working in the project, allowed

me to distinguish what my priorities in

life really are. I am thankful that I had

the opportunity of passing such a

wonderful and useful time abroad.

DCDEFCOM6. though I didn’t like my job

and it didn’t give me any new skills as far

as I can see.

DCDEFCOM9. The organisation of the

projects themselves, quite often the

frame should be more strict, more

organised.

DCDEFCOM5. The most important

experience of my EVS was that I

discovered how much I like to

socialise and how easy it seems from

time to time, and how difficult it might

get under some circumstances. I

loved the time I had.

DCDEFCOM7. But that doesn’t mean that

there haven’t been any problems. For

example, did nobody at work really know

what I was allowed to do and what not,

when I had to come, etc. something they

should have been informed of by the EVS

organisation of Great Britain.

DCDEFCOM10. In my EVS time in

France I participated (half time) in a

group project. We were 8 young people

from all over Europe: living, washing and

forced to solve all problems together. We

were so different in age (from 17-24),

mentality and expectations that I would

suggest to be very careful with future

group projects!

You need as a group very competent

support and a concept or pedagogical

method in the background.

If such an intensive exchange and

experience shall succeed (that means in

my opinion: you can look back with a

good, satisfied feeling and integrate this

in your life) a very good preparation has

to be done.

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DCDEFCOM6. I had a very good

time.

But staying abroad, living

independently, experiencing such a

lot of new things and making friends

was great. I’d return to Great Britain

at any time. Thanks for this

opportunity and all the support.

DCDEFCOM8. Even if I took part in the

pilot project EVS which sometimes gave

me the feeling that I was “used” as a

guinea pig, because partly the organisation

of the programme was quite chaotic.

Maybe not everything was perfect.

DCDEFCOM11. Please integrate the

Swedish Church volunteers better in EVS

seminars, that means: they should be

invited to every seminar… otherwise it is

not possible to become integrated in the

group of other volunteers.

DCDEFCOM7. I would like to say that

it was a great experience to live and

work in my project and with all the

lovely people of the Royal Howard

yARD HOSPITAL IN CARDIFF, WALES.

I got on very well with the other

volunteers, the people of the hospital,

my client group, my work.

DCDEFCOM9. Even if there are still lots of

points quite unorganised, such as: the

pocket money (not regularly, rather late…).

DCDEFCOM13. I think they give you so

much (these experiences) – but for the

future volunteers that should be made

clear before their departure: that they

have to expect a wonderful, adventurous

time on the one hand, but also be

confronted with various difficulties that

could be very hard to solve, to live with.

DCDEFCOM8. I never wished to have

missed all this experience. I gained more

“life relevant” experiences, I got to know

more about my own personality and I

made many new “very good” friends as

ever before in my life -time!

Thanks to all the people who made

this possible for me!

DCDEFCOM14. The first thing I’d like to

criticise is that my sending organisation

(IJGD) didn’t care for me during my stay in

England. It was just possible to get along

because of my English hosting

organisation. Even to get in touch with

IJGD was very hard, if not impossible.

From my point of view the organisation

didn’t calculate at all, which made it

impossible for me to stay another half year.

I also couldn’t improve my English as much

as I hoped because I had a flat with

another German girl. I would have rather

preferred to live with someone from

another country.

DCDEFCOM9. It is one of the great

experiences one can make in her/his life.

I had a great time – thank you!

Go on with EVS! It’s a great idea!

DCDEFCOM15. The last question I

answered with a 3, this is only concerning

the project itself and not the country.

DCDEFCOM10. All in all it’s a great

idea! Go on!

DCDEFCOM18. In my last month in

Finland I made a big mistake. I have

reproached my friends with

misunderstanding. I asked them quite often

why they couldn’t understand me. The

answer of my friends was very sad. And so

I was thinking again about me, my life and

my friends. I realise that they couldn’t know

what I Thought, felt and what kind of

experiences I have done in 6 months. They

weren’t in Finland or in any other country.

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Because of this I have drawn a line under

these 6 months. When I arrived home I

didn’t want to speak about my EVS with my

family, because I have learned that they

wouldn’t understand me. And I was right.

They can’t understand that I’m happy when

I see a little part of blue sky or when I see

just a little bird. Because they haven’t had

the same experiences or impressions like

me or the other volunteers. It was the same

with my old friends. I haven’t told them

about my time in Finland.

Coming back to Germany wasn’t so easy

for me. I missed my new friends and this

easy/relaxed living, this lead on easy life. I

missed the blue sky, the lakes and the

forests. In Germany was a grey sky, when I

came back. And it was always raining. It

was strange and also maybe also awful to

hear the German language everywhere.

On the airport in Germany everybody was

staring at me.

Actually I would say it was very good to

draw a line after this special time. So there

wasn’t the possibility to disappoint me

again.

DCDEFCOM12. It was the best year

in my life (till now).

DCDEFCOM13. I think that it’s hard

to evaluate the EVS experience in

general as very poor/very good. I

mean that I for myself made so many

different experiences (excellent as

well as horrible ones) which I’m still

thinking about, try to interpret them,

etc. But all in all these experiences

were so rich that I am so glad that I

made them and I wish that other

young people will be able to make

them as well.

In any case: thank you for everything!

DCDEFCOM14. Besides this was

really a great experience and I don’t

regret one minute of my stay abroad.

DCDEFCOM15. Italy is a wonderful

place to live in. I would do it again!!

DCDEFCOM16. I would always do it

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again! I loved it! It was excellent!

DCDEFCOM17. My experience

during my volunteer service was very

rich concerning my personal

development. I learned to cope with

problems I never had before (e.g.

deal with old people, pain during

illness) and to make ends meet with

daily troubles.

I enjoyed my way of life Although it

was fairly hard sometimes to get up

early and to carry on when my ideas

weren’t successful.

DCDEFCOM18. I only said that it was

great and that I want to go back to

Finland. This is my greatest dream.

In October was my seminar.

Organised by my sending project. I

met there a lot of other volunteers.

Some of them I know a little bit longer

than others. I haven’t chat so much

with unknown people before. Mostly

we talked about EVS, the integration

and the future. It was so interesting to

hear the experiences from the other

volunteers and to see similarities

between all our experiences. This

seminar was very great.

During my EVS I met 3 other German

volunteers. With one of them I stay

very close. She is like a new sister for

me. She helped me so much in

difficult times during the EVS.

And it is great to give the youth of

Europe the chance to go to a foreign

country: for a better understanding;

for making new friends all over the

world; for making special

experiences; and so on. Now I would

say that we – the volunteers –must

say Thank You!, to all who have

given us this chance. Thank you very

much!!

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Male volunteers

Positive comments Negative

comments

Recommendations

DCDEMCOM1. It was really a good experience in my life. I’ll never forget this big

time. And I wish I could do much more to give the chance back to other youths. If

I have the chance to do it again I would say yes of course.

To meet guys from all over the world is crazy and funny, now I know that it could

be easy to live in Europe or anywhere in the world. I give big kisses on them who

made it possible for me. Thanks a lot.

DCDEMCOM2. My EVS was a great experience for me. I liked it very much. I

think everybody should do an EVS.

DCDEMCOM3. First thank you very much for your interest.

The answer to question number 8 is not correct anymore. Since last weekend I

participated in a Future Capital project. We started to create an international EVS

homepage. Then it would be possible for all those who want to do EVS in the

future to get information of volunteers returned to their home country. Our next

meeting will be in January, then we will have contacted many volunteers and add

their individual reports to our homepage.

q FINLAND

Female volunteers


DCFIFCOM1. In any case, for me it was

quite easy. I got a job, because of my

working experience in EVS I find an

apartment and survive all this

bureaucracy. I’m good integrated to

Austria. I have lot of friends, I’m

working voluntary when I have time, like

a mentor for new volunteers in Vienna

and in some other social organisations.

And the best is that I get lots work offers

from Finland and from Austria just

because of my EVS project. I’m sure

that because of EVS, I could work like a

social worker (which is my education)

everywhere in the world, not just in

Europe.

Thanks for the beautiful programme!

DCFIFCOM1. Dear Mr. Amorim § co!

I’m little disappointed that you, like

everybody else, forgot us the volunteers

who are staying after EVS in the hosting

country. There is every month more and

more ex-volunteers who try to make their

life in new home country, after EVS,

without support.

There is so much support / evaluation / follow-

up for volunteers but we get nothing, EVS is

perfect system: we learn a new job, get new

friends, learn to survive with foreign language ,

fall in love to the beautiful hosting country.

Then we decide to stay. Next day after our EVS

project, we are staying here without nothing; no

work, no apartment, no money, no social

insurance… that is a shock, what never

happened in normal life.

DCFIFCOM1. I think that in every EVS

country there should be at least one

person who could give some advises.

What should I do with my health

insurance? Who to do work application?

Where to look for an apartment?

Please, try to remember that there is lot

of volunteers who use EVS like a jumping

board to live in new country. Say that we

are here, give us a little support!

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We have to work hard to organise this

everything. Sometimes I Thought that I’m

doing something wrong, a good volunteer

goes back….

DCFIFCOM2. I have travelled before

and lived some months in the United

States and Wales. I already am

independent and all those things that

living abroad makes you. If you

would have asked me after U. S.A.

and Wales , the answers would have

been extreme in very positive way.

But other ways, the experience was

great, a lot of new friends all around

the world (best part of travelling) and

great jobs( at least on paper). You

wouldn’t get a chance like this in any

other way. Helped me to get a job in

kindergarten.

But the opportunity was great!

DCFIFCOM2. Of course the language

made it difficult to work in the museum, I

couldn’t do the job I was supposed to and

the job turned quite boring .

DCFIFCOM3. I just have to say that

the two first weeks of my stay in

England was great! We were a group

of volunteers in Worchester preparing

for our work and learning more

English! The teachers were superb!

Especially Andy & Ann Bevan.

DCFIFCOM4. I’m just a bit bored of these

“couple pages evaluation

forms/(applications)” . I have filled in 3

(about 8- 15 pages each) different ones….

OK - for different organisations, but…

DCFIFCOM4. I enjoyed my time in

Ireland (EVS) very much and after

those experiences I decided to

change my career. I applied and got

a place in the college what I wanted

(Degree programme in social

welfare). I feel I’m in the right place –

finally!

DCFIFCOM5. although we had many

problems in organising my EVS

DCFIFCOM5. It was probably the

best year of my life and I wouldn’t

want to change a thing!! I was just on

the phone to England, to my ex-

roommate for 45m…

I wish more people could be able to

take part to EVS and get the same

experience that I did. At least I know

something good comes from

European Union …please go on

giving young people chances to go

abroad , to see and feel!!

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q FRANCE

Female volunteers


DCFRFCOM1. My EVS was (in the

beginning) a job like any other. I

worked with wonderful people, who

helped me to learn about the culture,

the language (but I also paid myself

for a language course). The job was

very good, my home too, and the

money enough.

Interesting questionnaire.

DCFRFCOM1. But I saw a lot of

differences between volunteers and what

we had to do, how much money we had

per month, where we lived (for me a big

apartment that I chose, for others a Hotel

and they didn’t have any choice!).

DCFRFCOM1. I think that for a European

project so good the responsible has to

take care of the project. Many

organisations need EVS because without

it they just may have to stop the good

work, but many are doing it just because

of the money from Europe. You have to

be careful to see who gets the money!!

Another good example of this is the on-

arrival seminar! I hope EVS will look at

the misuse of money more carefully in

the future.

DCFRFCOM2. First, thank you for

your interest even if we are back

home. It was a pleasure to answer

this questionnaire.

Nevertheless, my EVS was one of

the best experiences I had in my

whole life.

DCFRFCOM2. I think I have already given

my point of view to Géraldine Libreau

during an interview just after my EVS

project, especially concerning the not well-

organised project I participated in the

Netherlands.

DCFRFCOM2. I just remark one thing.

When I found the information of the

existence of the EVS through a small

article extracted from a College

magazine, the reason why I decided to

do it was to help a local community

outside France. But, today this idea has

changed. In fact, all the media promote

that fantastic programme, I mean, not in

a good and consequently the young

people see a good way to escape instead

of being really motivated.

DCFRFCOM3. In the end, it allowed

me to meet people who

accommodated me and became

friends. For me they were the

material and moral support that I

needed (accommodation, evenings

out…).

DCFRFCOM3. I only received very little

moral support from my hosting project. My

tutor could only speak her mother tongue,

which made communication rather difficult

(as I didn’t speak German when I arrived).

As for the structure that sent me, they only

cared about my problems when I had

solved them!

DCFRFCOM4. It’s a pity that there aren’t

a lot of meetings between the volunteers,

for example in the same area to know if

there are other volunteers…

DCFRFCOM4. I spent a very good

EVS in Italy. I learnt a language and

culture.

Thank you.

DCFRFCOM7. I only regret not to have an

experience that I would have used in

France.

Because such an experience cannot help

to find a real job

My experience was not what I expected at

all.

DCFRFCOM7. I would advise very young

people (around 18-19).

But it’s OK for teenagers who don’t really

know what studies to choose.

DCFRFCOM5. In a nutshell the EVS

experience is a righteous human

experience, but it doesn’t change us

in one year, so just an advice: The

DCFRFCOM8. First as regards my EVS

experience: I think the hosting organisation

had not expected could be the

expectations of EVS volunteers. There was

DCFRFCOM8. Anyway it‘s in the interest

of European builders because the young

generation is tomorrow’s Europe.

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EVS makes us stronger and weaker

at the same time. I’ve become more

idealistic, but realities are different,

more materialistic. It means that a

“good” return lasts more than 1

month (maybe years) so that as

some friends (who had been in other

countries) said to me: “oh, that was

like a dream”. In face of nobody I

could say that was a dream. That

was a reality, more friendly, more

social, more respectful to anyone and

that could exist for us if we, if I try to

fight for these values.

a clash between the two expectations. All

was a bit improvised. Particularly they had

not expected our demand for sense. We

wanted to do something that could make

sense, something useful with the means to

realise it.

DCFRFCOM6. EVS is great

memories! Activities were difficult

sometimes (because of weather), but

very profitable. I met very nice people

and now I have so many friends in

Greece (more than in France!). It’s a

good experience!

UNFORGETTABLE!!!

Thank you very, very much.

DCFRFCOM7. As a volunteer I

learned a lot about human beings

through the bad moments.

But I really encourage young people

to participate in the programme.

DCFRFCOM8. But in other fields,

(culture, landscape, nature , travel,

friendship) we experienced

marvellous things.

As regards EVS in general: I think

the main quality is democracy. It

gives the opportunity for any person

to realise it no matter the social class

your are in, no matter the skills you

have (I don’t know what is the

situation in facts) so very different

kinds of people can meet. It gives

also the opportunity to discover a

European country, an unknown way

of life and maybe (even if

unconsciously) to develop a

European feeling. So for all those

reasons (and others): long life to

EVS! (even if it costs a big amount of

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money!). Good luck with the

conclusions of the questionnaire! I’m

interested in the conclusions.

Male volunteers


DCFRMCOM1. Thanks to the EVS

for my stay. I have plenty of

unforgettable souvenirs.

DCFRMCOM1. Unfortunately my project

was not very interesting. I was not very

useful there. It is really a shame.

DCFRMCOM2. The EVS programme

really deserves to expand. It needs to be

more open to young people without skills

or with social/physical problems.

There is a big need of decentralised

information, of a physical/virtual place

where EVS would become a key point. I

think that only us as volunteers, with our

own experience, are able to create such

a network and I am ready to take part in

it.

DCFRMCOM2. I now work at the

Information Point Europe of the

Modena City Hall. I launched the

Infobus of the European Citizens

project, financed by DGX (6500

ECU). We will tour Italy in 28 stages,

give information on the Treaty of

Amsterdam and on the EVS

programme. All cities that host us will

organise a special event through their

IPE/carrefour in schools, in squares.

We live on Monday 23rd of

November 1998 from Milan.

DCFRFCOM3. About my job, Ok it was

sometimes strange, but I was so surprised

that one country (Denmark!) tells the

European Commission that one of its

associations is strange and that the

Commission decides not to give the new

EVS anymore to this organisation. I think

this organisation was a very good

experience for the EVS programme, but for

a project like this we need a special

preparation.

DCFRMCOM4. More organisation and

serious work is necessary for projects in

Southern countries.

DCFRMCOM3. If I wanted to put

anything else it will be that EVS

programme should have started a

long time ago, because it’s very

important for all people.

I don’t know if you know the magical

sensation that it is when somebody

like me who doesn’t speak another

language expect his own can speak

with other foreigners. I say it again it’s

something like MAGIC. And to live in

an international milieu is something

very interesting.

Except this, I hope and wish that the

EVS programme will live a very long

time, because the more people know

DCFRMCOM4. I hope that people who will

do an EVS project where I went will be less

disappointed. I hope things will change

because it’s a waste of money for the

European Community.

I hope I will receive something that proves

that EVS really exists and not just this

questionnaire .

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each other, the more people

understand each other.

DCFRMCOM5. Very enriching

experience with lots of contact

amongst young people. Very

beneficial seminars, Although short.

DCFRMCOM5. There was a slight lack of

information before my departure.

DCFRMCOM6. I am very happy with

my EVS. I have worked in Norway in

clubs for disadvantaged young

people. I am happy with the

experience that I have obtained

during my stay.

Your questionnaire is very well made

and I hope that my answers will help

you in helping other EVS volunteers.

Thank you for your questions.

My sending organisation is now

hosting a Norwegian volunteer with

EVS for six months.

q IRELAND

Female volunteers


comments

Recommendations

DCIEFCOM1. EVS scheme was exactly the correct step to take after completing

a Masters in Sociology. I was able to learn more practical things related to the

field I would like to be involved in. I was able to start to, gain practical knowledge

after obtaining the theoretical side.

I met many wonderful people. And all of my opinions and ideas were challenged

in a safe and supportive environment. Thus allowing me to re-evaluate many

things.

q ITALY

Female volunteers


DCITFCOM1. My experience has

been quite satisfactory.

DCITFCOM1. Even if I was not able of using

this project to find a job in the social sector or

enter the school for Social Work that exists in

DCITFCOM1. To avoid situations like

job substitution the hosting

organisations should not oblige

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However, I continue my studies in the

faculty of Sociology.

my town.

The main problems that I found during my

EVS were: homesickness in spite of having

around me other volunteer going through the

same. The fact that I did not speak well the

language of my hosting country made it

difficult for me to express my feelings and the

evaluation seminar that we had did not touch

upon this topic very much. People can have

all sorts of problems during EVS, you must

know that a volunteer girl in my group almost

became addicted to alcohol.

I also did job substitution. My work was

similar to that of any paid staff member. This

upset me taking into account the fact that this

is not what volunteering is supposed to be. I

can understand that it is difficult for an

organisation to avoid the temptation of

exploiting the work of a volunteer.

volunteers to have always the same

schedule, they should be more flexible.

I would like to keep updated on the

development of EVS and I am willing to

provide you with more practical

information about my experience. I

have a lot to say.

DCITFCOM2. I think that being

involved in daily life with people of

other countries and cultures in a very

good way to learn thinking in different

ways, looking at the same things from

perspectives, to get a more open

mind and, of course, learn or improve

a foreign language. All this is, in my

opinion, what makes EVS

programme a very good idea!

DCITFCOM3. Unluckily, as much as you

enjoy your experience, as much you feel

sadness and homeless when you come

back, for example now in Italy, I don't feel

very satisfaction even if I'm studying and

doing something I want to do. I feel I have a

gap inside to me, that's my independence

,the way I was there living my life as deeply

as it's possible I don't think I am better than

other people. But after this time, in England, I

have some problem to find interesting people

here , I have some problem in my

communication with others. Before , I was

curious for the life of others , now no much

more , because they don't have anything

here, to tell you ( or just they don't want to tell

you….), so I reckon due to this experience

you might feel yourself one of the most lucky

person in the world but one of the most sad

too.

DCITFCOM2. However, I think the

sending organisation should be more

present during the experience ,

especially at its beginning and after the

arrival back to the volunteers' home

country. This will allow the volunteer to

feel safer and supported.

DCITFCOM3. This experience has

been one of the best I've ever done. I

am absolutely sure about that and I

reckon to suggest it to anybody Due

to this experience, I could do three

things at the same time: learning a

new language , doing a voluntary

service, picking up a new culture.

Because of this I had the chance to

DCITFCOM5. I have been six months in

Germany and I haven't much learned about

language because I have never studied

German before: I have always spoken

English!!

DCITFCOM4. I would like to let you

know about my experience and return

two of my advises:

- the EVS national structure should get

involved in finding European volunteer

a local job ( not a local

community/voluntary activity without

retribution) related to what he/she did

during his/her EVS project.

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understand me more, discovering

parts of myself I didn't know before.

After you're back , you must have

some conflict with yourself, but I think

only with a conflict you can grow up,

so this experience is fantastic…

- the EVS national structure should

offer a second possibility of going on

EVS

DCITFCOM5. I haven't changed a lot

my character during my stay in

Germany but since I'm back in Italy,

I'm trying to have a different life than

the one I had before EVS.

DCITFCOM7. Now I 'm looking for a job and

in Palermo where I live it seems to be

impossible. This experience as EVS

volunteer was important for my life that but I

would like it to be significant for my working

life.

DCITFCOM5. It's important to chose

countries in which volunteers want to

go and if that's impossible, it's a good

idea to organise language course

before leaving or, at least, soon when

volunteers arrive in their projects.

DCITFCOM7. My EVS experience

was very good for me.

DCITFCOM9. Even Although I came across

some difficulties such as lack of organisation.

DCITFCOM6. I think that the European Voluntary Service could be perfect if it helped the young volunteer at the end of this project, finding for him a sort of studies, in accordance with what he had done during EVS in the hosting country or everywhere.

DCITFCOM8. As for me, it was the

best experience of my life; Although I

know it wouldn't be fair on other

young people who have never taken

part to an EVS project, I would like to

be a volunteer abroad again.

DCITFCOM10. I expected to have more

moral support : in my hosting project, I didn’t

find a real tutor.

I had some problems with the money, which

owned to my sending project with a very big

delay (my hosting project had to advance).

DCITFCOM7. European community

should do more for European

volunteers when they come back

home, giving them an opportunity of

work , but this is a problem for many

other people young people in Europe . I

hope something will change for us!

DCITFCOM9. My own experience

has been really satisfactory. I would

have liked to have been much more

involved in the office activities – once

back home, I had the chance to get a

job in my sending agency in Padua

where I deal with volunteers willing to

join in the EVS project. I strongly

believe in this project and I hope to

give a contribution from my personal

experience.

DCITFCOM11. The only problems in my

experience were the lack of contacts

between the sending and the hosting

organisations and the tutor: she was very

nice at the beginning of my project but then

she disappeared .

DCITFCOM8. I am 27 now and find

really sad I won't be able to join an EVS

project anymore because I am too old! I

wish everyone who is willing to join this

kind of project could have the chance

too, I guess it's never too late to l earn

or to give.

DCITFCOM11. A very good thing

was knowing the responsible person

for EVS in Germany. She came and

visited many volunteers in order to be

sure everything was O.K in our

projects.

It was a marvellous experience that

every young boy/girl should do!

DCITFCOM13. I didn’t have any support from

my organisation.

DCITFCOM15. I think that the hosting

organisation could do a lot to involve

the volunteers and the local

community, which could have an

important occasion to enter in contact

with people from other European

countries . Otherwise, the presence of

the volunteer cannot bring much more

than the work itself and can become

hard for the young people taking part in

the EVS.

DCITFCOM12. I started my EVS

experience for fun . After my second

DCITFCOM14. I didn’t answer some

questions because I couldn’t understand all.

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month as a volunteer in England, I

realised I was changing and growing .

I felt that my presence and my work

were becoming really important for

the staff and the residents as well.

I’ve been working in a “bail and

probation hostel” for six months; this

is a place that doesn’t exist in Italy ,

so now I know something about the

law courts in England , the social

security department , etc….I’ve been

working in a multiracial context and

(except for the problems I had owing

to the language during the first

month), the atmosphere was always

happy and friendly . We used to

make jokes about our language,

accent and traditions.

I’m still in touch with the staff of the

hostel and a couple of residents.

I hope EVS will soon develop ‘cos I

think it’s a great chance to find out

what’s the real meaning of being

European citizen. Thank you.

DCITFCOM13. Almost all of my

expectations have been fulfilled.

DCITFCOM15. I would have liked to receive

some support for my integration in my

hosting country society. It is never easy to

make up a proper social life in a foreign

country, where your (voluntary) working

place doesn’t offer you any chance to meet

people of your age, plus you live and work in

the same place.

DCITFCOM14. but one thing is

certain, I have had the chance to live

one of the most beautiful experiences

of my life. Thank you for everything!

Male volunteers


DCITMCOM1. I was good in my

project with the people who worked in

the children garden where I was

involved.

But fortunately, I was followed by

people very nice, who worked in the

DCITMCOM1. I had some problems about

the contact with the sending project and with

the responsible in my hosting project (who

lived three hours away from the town of my

project).

DCITMCOM4. But I think that it would

be better to do a good training before

starting.

I would like to work like EVS promoter

in my city. Do you know how I can do it

if I want to have a contact with my local

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house – family where I lived.

I advise the EVS experience to other

young people to find out about

themselves too.

government? ..I think in my city the

people are not informed about that and

to know this fantastic opportunity to

have a social, working and independent

experience.

DCITMCOM2. At the end of my EVS

experience I was very satisfied and

I’m very happy to underline 5 for the

overall evaluation.

DCITMCOM2. What I regret is the lack of

responsibility of the national structure that

brought many problems to the sending

organisation. Still more I haven't received all

the money and I have many doubts to get it.

My project in Germany was to work with

social disabled children. My preparation

before the departure was to clean the floor of

the house at the sending organisation!

There's too much waste of money!!

DCITMCOM5. I always Thought that

the most important thing for the EVS

programme is that the volunteers can

show and speak about their

experiences with other young people:

I'm trying to find someone that help me

to "work" with the images I filmed

during my year in Portugal, to do a

documentary about the project. I'm

going to ask to my national structure if

it's possible that they help me in the

beginning of 1999.

DCITMCOM3. I didn't have any

problems with the hosting

organisation.

DCITMCOM3. The only problem was the

sending organisation, during my stay in

Greece it didn't demonstrate worry about my

moral and economic situation. I didn't receive

all the cost of living allowance.

DCITMCOM6. It will be better to realise

a true structure control about hosting

organisation.

DCITMCOM4. I think that the EVS is

one of the most important thing that

they can do in my city because we

have lot of young people that are

unemployed and it's very difficult for

them to start to have a normal social

life.

With the EVS you have big

possibilities to learn other languages

and to have a contact with a different

culture and with a working possibility.

DCITMCOM4. But I would like to work in the

same way than my EVS. But the problem is

that in my city it is very difficult to do

something because if you want to develop

your own ideas , you have to know some

political man . If you do not know anyone you

will always be out. I hope you will

understand what I asked you and I hope to

receive a reply as soon as you can.

And also there are lots of associations that

are doing it to get some money.

I was very unhappy when I saw that I didn't

receive any contact from my association in

Italy : that's why I decided I won't go and visit

them and showing my work. They also gave

lot of problems to my fantastic hosting

association in Madrid.

DCITMCOM7. Thank you for your

interest. I am very happy that

someone is asking me how was the

EVS experience

DCITMCOM5. Probably, I dreamt too much

about my return in Italy, because I Thought

to be able to find a way to show how many

new skills (human and professional) I learned

….the fact not to know my sending

organisation before my departure , it's now

my biggest problem , because I haven't

anything to do in this moment and my

experience isn't useful for me and for

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someone else. I'm feeling so sad.

q LUXEMBOURG

Female volunteers


DCLUFCOM1. The EVS is an experience I

would not like to miss in my life at all. I mean

everyone of us youngsters one day in his life

needs the opportunity to get away from home,

some need to find about themselves, others

want to get an insight into a certain field of

work, and some want to escape

unemployment.

The EVS for me means an ideal programme

for personal expectations, and above all

contributes to build up Europe!

DCLUFCOM1. Even if I had too many problems with my

hosting project like:

-there didn’t really exist a project!

-the work wasn’t at all what was described initially, and

so on…

q NETHERLANDS

Female volunteers


comments

Recommendations

DCNDFCOM1. I’m really happy I did an EVS project. I really learned so much,

especially about my own culture, this is a thing I didn’t expect at the beginning.

q PORTUGAL

Female volunteers


DCPTFCOM1. I don’t have any reason to

complain about my EVS experience,

everything turned out all right.

DCPTFCOM1. The major problem that I had (but all the

volunteers had it) was with the so-called “pocket

money” that I received only 5 months after my arrival in

Italy.

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Male volunteers


DCPTMCOM2. Thank you also for

this wonderful experience that I had

and I wait new information about new

projects and others. Thank you for all.

DCPTMCOM1. Speaking a language that

you don’t know and is hard to learn ,the

characteristics of the people , if they are cold

, conservative, not sociable…so, you can

imagine what happens if your heart and mind

is in another place , another person…and so

is life.

I wish to get my EVS diploma or certificate

as soon as possible!

DCPTMCOM1. I think that the

volunteers should be better selected.

Some of them, have no sense of

responsibility and are quite “anti-social”

…

From my experience , I hope the

volunteer has more support in the

hosting project. Someone who knows

to hear us because we are strangers in

a strange land!

DCPTMCOM2. Important: I’m waiting yet for

reports and photos and other things about

the seminar that we made in Vienna , with all

the persons involved. It was in February

1998.

DCPTMCOM2. I think the main point in

this project is how to give continuation.

I believe two organisations have more

contact during the project will be better

for every part. It’s important , in the

beginning, the contact with the two

organisations and the voluntary.

About the language, it’s better for all if

the voluntary has already knowledge of

the foreign land. The integration will be

easy and the work will be more

productive .

Another point will be the selection . It’s

not worth to put someone working with

handicapped without any kind of skills.

DCPTANGMCOM3. I got a very bad

experience in the prison, the police asked me

my documents, when they saw I was not

European born, they asked my residence

permit. I showed them my documents from

Portugal, because I Thought now we are in

the European Community and with the

Portuguese documents I could stay in

Holland; they said no. So I went to prison 5

days because they called me illegal, but I

wasn’t.

My hosting project now wants me to go back

and work for them, but I can’t because I’m

not European-born. I live in Europe since

June 1993…

DCPTANGMCOM3. I think there are

lots of prejudices and laws that damage

foreign people completely, namely

African foreigners. I think it is

necessary to create ways to give more

freedom of movement to Africans living

in the European Community, because

there is lot of cold racism.

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q SPAIN

Female volunteers


DCESFCOM1. I think that EVS is a

very ambitious project, that I find

very positive, because it gives us

young people the possibility to go

outside our countries, something

we not always have the chance to

do by ourselves.

I think EVS is also good because it

brings down frontiers and opens up

our minds to an intercultural

exchange, and enriches us all. To

some volunteers it can have a lot

of influence in their professional

careers, opening a lot of doors.

DCESFCOM3. Either way, I can say, the

association I was working for did the same but

the problems that I had came in part because

they weren't very professional sometimes, and

they didn't know what happened with the

volunteers who were working for them and

their situation. Sometimes the volunteers felt

like the last person and there was a pressure

over us coming from the clients on the

organisation of our association over there in

England.

DCESFCOM7. But I think that both

(volunteers and organisations –sending

and hosting) need more support and

monitor the events. I don’t know who has

to give this support, but maybe the

National Structures.

DCESFCOM2. I’d like to thank

EVS in Britain: Ann & Andy Bevan

for their support, kindness and

great job with us.

That was one of the most valuable

experiences I’ve had so far in my

life.

DCESFCOM4. I wish this study had been

written in my maternal language.

DCESFCOM3. During my project I

had bad times, and I can say that

during those bad times EIL always

was with me, ad they gave me their

support. the positive thing is that the

project made a big change in my life, I

can’t say I’m the same person, and

even with problems it is the best thing

I’ve done in all my life

Thanks to give the choice to

express what the project has been

for me, and give me the choice to

participate in EVS programme.

Cheers

DCESFCOM10. I must say that everything

could have worked and been better if it was

not for the Spanish National Structure.

Spanish volunteers couldn't have relied on

national structure’s support since they had no

assistance from Spanish National Structure.

Spanish national structure should have

supported Spanish volunteers instead of

making awkward for those to participate in the

EVS programme.

Comparing to some other volunteers from

England, France, Denmark and Austria, it's

insulting the rough treatment we have

received from our national structure compared

with that treatment which our project fellows

coming from Denmark, the UK, Austria and

France received.

We are young people who come from a poor

country, we’re not criminals. What's more, no

one has ever Thought about doing well at the

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EVS expenses. On the contrary, people from

poorer countries -with no savings will not have

the chance to take part in an European

project, such the one I've participated in

because, as I said before, Spanish National

Structure won't assist you, on the contrary,

they will put obstacles in the way of the

volunteers. It happened to me.

DCESFCOM4. This programme

has been a good experience for

me and I hope it goes on for a long

time.

DCESFCOM5. I participated in two

evaluation activities before my

return to my home country. The

first after three months, the second

one at the end of my project. Both

of them were very useful.

My sending and hosting project

organisations were the same

international organisations. I had

quite good support and training for

my first couple of weeks and during

my wonderful experience as an

EVS experience.

I would like to express my gratitude

out of this great opportunity for

young people.

DCESFCOM6. Only to say thank

you for this opportunity you gave

me , in growing up like a person ,

because I live a new experience

and also I meet people. To help the

other people, it was really nice ,that

is the way you can know

something about the other culture

and other country.

Only repeat thank you for

everything.

DCESFCOM7. I think EVS is a

good opportunity for young people

and for organisations too.

DCESFCOM8. I want to thank again

EVS for the best year of my life till

this moment. I’m sure I obtained from

this experience much more than I gave

to.

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Congratulations for this EVS

programme.

Thank you for giving me the

opportunity to learn that my

happiness is there where

somebody needs me!

DCESFCOM9. I really enjoyed my

experience as a volunteer for EVS.

It was a wonderful time of my life. I

made a lot of good friends and I

discovered a side of me that never

Thought to be there.

Now I am able to use my new

skills, to develop my personality

and I found a job in the host-

country related with my voluntary

work. It is a great idea and I hope

in a near future that more people

are able to have the chance I got.

Thanks to it , I have found my way

on life (well more or less); so

thanks a lot for making it possible.

DCESFCOM10. The EVS is in

itself a great idea.

Male volunteers


DCESMCOM1. I think that the EVS

gives a nice possibility to go out of

your country and open your mind

(new culture, learning a new

language…) while you are working

to create a more fair Europe.

DCESMCOM2. Because there are many

hosting projects that are no more than fairy

tales, full of empty words, with no relation to

what happens in reality.

DCESMCOM2. To avoid problems for

everybody, hosting and sending

organisations, and volunteers, there

should be a way to make the transfer of

money to the projects before our arrival

there.

Hosting projects should be controlled

somehow, so that they follow what they

have described in the database.

The meetings with other volunteers are

according to me very positive and

enriching.

DCESMCOM3. Thanks for that

unforgettable year which changed

my life. Let’s carry on the hard

work and keep it up! After I finish

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my studies here in Spain and will

go back to live and work in

Sweden. I love the whole country.

q UNITED KINGDOM

Female volunteers


DCUKFCOM1. They sent me to

language school, which was useful

and helped me a lot. I had a

wonderful time at my placement

despite this mistake.

One year after going to France, I

have now decided to go into

teaching practice. This will involve

extra training, but I believe this is

the profession for me. Thank you

very much for the opportunity of a

lifetime!!

DCUKFCOM1. Due to a misunderstanding, I

was sent to an association that expected me

to have at least 5 years of training. I had 2

years of training, 10 years ago, which wasn’t

very useful to me or them. It was extremely

embarrassing and I felt uncomfortable

throughout my stay , even Although they were

really kind and understanding.

DCUKFCOM4. Networks need refining

but I’m sure that with time the Structure

of EVS will improve with experience.

DCUKFCOM2. It opened a whole

new world up for me. I had always

had a sense that there must be

some environment, other than the

business world and academia,

where people worked out of

different values and motives. I was

frustrated by my inability to get any

long-term chance to gain

experience within this world.

As an EVS volunteer with Jesuit

Volunteer community, I was placed

in a very small adult learning

centre in a disadvantaged area of

Dublin. It opened up doors to a

whole thriving world of community

work; and particularly community

education that was a real boost

and gave me a real sense of where

it is I can and want to make a

difference. Thank you!!

DCUKFCOM4. But I feel there was not

enough support by people who had the power

to make a real difference to the problems I

encountered for example: my accommodation

was unsuitable and it took me 4,5 months for

my hosting project to find an alternative. This

was too late and ruined my stay. Also we

never heard of SOS until 4 months after

arriving and I had no idea of how to contact

you.

But the work that I did in Italy was not

particularly beneficial.

DCUKFCOM6. Extensive project

preparation in host country is a must.

Language training is essential –

intensive for the first month would be

appropriate in order for volunteers to

participate fully in their chosen project

DCUKFCOM3. It was such a

fantastic experience. However, it

has meant that I have now

returned and feel completely

unmotivated by the prospect of

DCUKFCOM5. After an initial disaster of being

sent to Rome and an unprepared project, I

was sent to Sicily.

The hosting projects were awful (no

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literary studies and job applications

to huge multinational firms for

management/financial positions!

I have realised there is so much

need for help that my time will be

better spent if I head for a career or

life with a voluntary organisation.

I’d like to become an aid worker

but realise there is much

experience to be had before that

dream can be realised. I think I will

never be very well off (!) but it’s

good to know I’ m decided as to my

future ambitions. There is so much

work to be done that to me, it

seems like a waste of a life to

aspire to work in a bank as

management consultant,

etc…there are plenty of people

who really, really want to do that - I

believe there aren’t enough people

helping to manage/sort out so

many other areas in the world

covered by voluntary work.

excursions, no moral support, no language

lessons for us).

The lack of language lessons was such a

shame, especially as this meant we couldn’t

communicate with the hosts. Also, I was sad

to return home and find there few

opportunities for jobs within the EVS scheme

(having many qualifications and a vast

experience I Thought I could have been

helpful!)

DCUKFCOM4. I have gained many

new skills.

I think that EVS is a brilliant idea

and a wonderful opportunity for

young people.

DCUKFCOM6. My host project was non-

existent, and I was given menial tasks to

complete as no direct objectives for volunteers

had been defined.

DCUKFCOM5. It was a fantastic

experience that I will never forget and

which taught me a lot. But the warmth

of the Italian people was amazing. I

stayed in the country for an extra 3

months after the project.

However, this was the best

experience of my li fe, it wasn’t all

easy and enjoyable but this made

me a better person I wish all

youngsters had this opportunity.

DCUKFCOM8. I was very disappointed with

my certificate from EVS as I was proud of my

achievements as an EVS volunteer and

wanted a certificate to be equally proud of, to

treasure ,rather than have a photocopied

sheet of paper, unsigned by any official

representative of the scheme. I apologise if

this appears too strong.

However, there was not a direct link between

the youth centre and the project and therefore

it was not clear on my part or the centre what

my particular role was. The head of the youth

service who was familiar with EVS left after a

month and a half of my being there and so I

did not have anyone to refer to, in terms of

making sure that my project was being

followed.

DCUKFCOM7. My project was

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originally 6 months but I prolonged

it to be for a year. At the beginning

I Thought 6 months was too long ! I

did things in my project that I never

Thought I was capable of, e.g.

performed a speech in French in

front of about 80 people. I’m also

proud of myself to be able to

communicate in another language

and express myself almost as good

as in English.

This experience has made me

really appreciate what it is to be a

“foreigner” and experience certain

levels of prejudice, which has

made me a lot stronger person.

Even Although France is just next

to the United Kingdom, the

difference in culture was quite

dramatic at the beginning (can’t

imagine doing a project like India

or Africa). I’ve overcome these

cultural barriers and am living and

looking for work in France with a

“français”! DCUKFCOM8. I had a brilliant

experience and learnt a lot about

myself and other cultures as I was

placed in a very multicultural area.

I was given a choice of youth

centres to work in as there were 6

in the area which was really good.

My host family was very supportive

, particularly when I had problems

with my housing and the town hall.

I really enjoyed working with the

youth leaders who were of a similar

age and have formed strong

friendships. I widened my circle of

friends by keeping in contact with

the other EVS in the area and their

work colleagues

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Male volunteers


DCUKMCOM1. As a whole, I did

find EVS a positive and worthwhile

experience.

DCUKMCOM1. My main disappointment was

that my . work did not match my skills and

experience. I have a BA Honours degree and

a MSc and so was disappointed that my work

was largely clerical. (photocopying, etc…) . I

often felt that my boss saw voluntary work as

cheap labour, rather than enabling new

opportunities for both parties.

Our “regional mentors” were not available at

the “crucial time” and we did not think they

were able to give professional support.

DCUKMCOM1. I also feel it is important

to ensure that support structures are in

place at the start of a placement.

Support is vital if any vulnerable young

people are taking part.

DCUKMCOM2. Simply – this was

the best experience of my life. EVS

has helped on the way to mature

adulthood, and it has given me so

many opportunities and so much

vision. I would enthusiastically

encourage anyone to take the

opportunities EVS has to offer and

just do it. Thanks for 6 excellent

months. Keep up the good work!

DCUKMCOM4. I would like to receive the full

certification relating to my project.

There has been far too much paperwork and

documentation involved in this project.

DCUKMCOM3. More preparation ,

pocket money , language training. Make

the paperwork easier for sending/

hosting organisations . Fund posts for

dedicated EVS recruiters in regions (i.e.

Wales). Increase the age limit so I can

go again please.

DCUKMCOM6. The EVS project

has had a great impact on my life

and the way I usually think, and for

the better.

I have not returned to Scotland yet

and plan to stay until the summer

of 99. I have an extension to plans

and am currently studying at an Art

college.

DCUKMCOM5. At first, I found it quite hard to

settle but I suppose that was inevitable since it

was a totally alien environment to me i.e. I had

never worked with so severely handicapped

before and in such a close environment. It was

also quite hard to follow everything that was

being said to me in terms , for example,

instructions about the work since I was at the

time far from being fluent in German.

DCUKMCOM4. And I would like to see

the debureaucraticalization process

sped up as a matter of urgency.

DCUKMCOM5. Something which I found

to be very helpful during the year was

the seminar, of which there were five

during the course of the year, which was

organised every two months

approximately and was when every

other volunteer like me met up. It was a

good chance to compare notes, listen to

people’s inevitably differing experiences

within their differing working

environments and, perhaps most

importantly, to discuss relevant issues

and receive advice and support.

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ANNEXE 6 – SECTION H – FULL COMMENTS

CENTRALISED STRAND

Editing: We have made very little editing of the volunteers’ comments. We have corrected the

orthography in all cases but we have only corrected their grammar when relevant to the overall

sense of the sentence. With this we wanted to change as little as possible the meaning and the way

in which volunteers express themselves, taking also into account the fact that only a small minority

of the respondents have English as their mother tongue.

Code: each comment has been coded in order to be easily tracked back to its respective

questionnaire, for each comment you have a code composed of, country name (AT -UK), Centralised

strand (C), type of action: Multilateral (MUL), Flagship (FLG), Third Countries (3C), World Cup

(WC), followed by Female (F) or Male (M), Comment (COM), and number (1-…). This code is only

relevant for the questi onnaire in question and for its section H.

Categories: This list contains already a preliminary treatment of the comments with them having

been divided into Positive, Negative and Recommendations. In each case the code allows you to

trace the links between the different split texts.

Ø MULTILATERAL

⇒ Belgium

Female


BECMULFCOM1. About F: the job I found

relates to my EVS experience , but also to my

studies.

About G: some things were not expected, but

fulfilled. The EVS experience has a serious

impact on my life now. I met my boyfriend in my

project and my life has become more

international. At the moment, we live together in

Belgium. Maybe we’ll move to Germany later.

So, I have started to learn German.

BECMULFCOM1. About D:

characteristics. I think I didn’t change

much because of my EVS experience

. I think it may have to do something

with my age (24) .

About E: again, my skills didn’t

change so much. I think I developed

most of those skills while being a

volunteer in Belgium for different

organisations from the age of 18 till

24.

BECMULCOM1. At the age of 18, a

similar experience would have

caused more changes.

BECMULFCOM2. The impact of EVS: as you

can see from the questionnaire that I have

BECMULFCOM2. I would like to add

a few more comments to this

BECMULFCOM2. Making the new

programme a better one:

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enclosed with this letter I have a very positive

opinion on my EVS that took place in

Solidarités Jeunesses Poitou-Charentes –

Maison des Bateleurs during 9 months. I think

that in general this type of experience of

volunteering is beneficial to all young people

who are looking for their way in life, but I think

that Solidarités Jeunesses adds an extra

dimension to the programme due to its

specificity. I don’t have to explain the type of

projects developed by Solidarités Jeunesses

(the French branch of YAP) because I know

that you have already met certain EVS

volunteers that have participated in the Step by

Step project of Solidarités Jeunesses.

What EVS has taught me:

- a wish to get involved at local level, to

make things happen now. After the

different work camps that I have done in

different villages of Poitou-Charentes I

understood the importance of re-

energising the rural world. There needs to

be very little done for a village to become

active again and a more attractive place

for both young and not so young. T here

only needs to be a spark to set the fire…

and at Solidarités Jeunesses I learned

how to be that spark and to wish to be

involved at local level.

- the acquisition of an international

awareness. Solidarités Jeunesses hosts

youngsters from both classical EVS and

“in a process of integration”, non-European

volunteers, young people from the inner

city areas in France. In fact SJ is open to

all people who are looking for their way in

life. I lived on a daily basis with people

from different social and cultura l

backgrounds. This “mixture” has opened

my eyes and now I am more sensitive and

open to the world.

- To know how to listen. My EVS at SJ

helped to make the transition between a

student life and an active one. My

volunteering allowed me to learn informally

about life, changing me and making me

make other choices in my life. I have not

only had easy moments, far from that, I

almost gave up, but today I am stronger. I

evaluation since I find it always very

frustrating to be confined to a

multiple-choice questionnaire. I am

well aware that having to deal with

900 answers implies this approach

that allows you to make the

necessary statistics but on the other

hand it does not give young

volunteers the possibility to express

themselves fully, ambiguities

included.

I will be very short. Please make

sure that you pay attention to the

following risks:

- too big a harmonisation (due to

constraining rules) that may not

allow hosting projects to

develop the programme

according to their own identity;

- to allow fake projects to exist

and to put obstacles on the way

of those that are doing a really

good job.

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have acquired life values that are more in

accordance with who I am even if they are

different from those I have been educated

to have. I have the feeling that the Maison

des Bateleurs has really opened my eyes.

⇒ Germany

Female volunteers


DECMULFCOM1. A good idea! Could

I please get informed about the

outcome of the questionnaire?

Thanks!

DECMULFCOM3. What I would like to

know id if there’ll be any confirmation or

certificate of EVS to be able to prove after

(in interviews or applications) what we did

during the time of our EVS. I’ve got such

a confirmation only from my hosting

project and the sending organisation, but

I was told that there’ll be something “more

formal” from the European Commission.

Sometimes, especially in front of

administration offices, it was hard or even

impossible (for “children money” in

Germany) to get a valuable recognition of

my EVS.

DECMULFCOM3. That’s why I see a very

big importance in the development of the

administration of EVS. Will there be a law

that recognises it? I hope that in this point

people will also be more informed before,

during and after!, their EVS.

It would be interesting to get some

information about other organisations, to

enable people to exchange their objectives

and to know about different activities and

seminars (like in Budapest). I only got to

know people from YAP and its branches.

DECMULFCOM2. It was the best

thing I could have done: I learned

things I would never have Thought

about otherwise; I hope the talks and

discussions I had with people over

there helped them to re-evaluate

things as much as me.

I gained experience I don’t ever want

to miss!

DECMULFCOM4. After getting back to

my home country I suffered from a

depressive illness that had started

already during my EVS year and that

lasted all in all about two years. Half a

year after my return to my home country I

had to break up my studies at University

and I spent several months in psychiatric

hospitals. One should therefore consider

– concerning question D and E – that my

feelings , thinking and behaviour were

changed by my illness.

DECMULFCOM8. In general I think it is

very important to keep on reflecting about

EVS and it is important to get some

“pushes” from the outside!! I would like to

get regular information about how EVS is

developing and the possibilities to keep

active. It might be very important to

organise meetings to exchange with

people who are doing EVS at the moment,

who have done one a long time ago. So

we could exchange experiences and hear

how other people re-integrate.

The most important point to me is that you

keep on promoting EVS and work for an

international volunteer structure. Or at

least have the aim of going further than

only Europe.

DECMULFCOM3. I wanted to thank

all the people that helped me to

realise this programme. It has been

such a great experience for my life

and I’d tell anyone to do it, I’d also do

DECMULFCOM6. I would have liked to

have had more support during my stay.

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it again…

DECMULFCOM5. The time I spent in

England with the EVS programme

was so good and exciting that I hope

many young people will get the

support of the EVS to make

experiences affecting their lives!

DECMULFCOM8. I have problems to

describe myself after my experience, one

point is that I am unsure about my gains

at the moment and feel like my life is

messed up. This might be an effect of

having seen over the borders of my own

little world. How to integrate other life

concepts in your own?, and so on… this

conflict makes it difficult for me to judge

myself.

The second point is that as you say “all

characteristics that apply to you…” stands

in contrast with my own experience. I

guess if I would still be in the project I

would have ticked the way that most of

the characteristics improved positively.

But I realised that they do not apply to

me, I’m in a different situation right now

and have difficulties to fit in. Some parts

of my character seem to have stayed in

the project (in that special situation which

was given there). So I’d tend to tick a lot

of negative points.

There are parts of the explanation of the

points that are much too general and I

couldn’t identify at all. So I didn’t tick

them.

Personally, even Although I have some

difficulties right now to handle my

experience.

DECMULFCOM7. These months

have become a very important part of

my life. I would do it again and

recommend it to everybody. EVS

made me wish to learn more about

other cultures and languages. Now –

after all these experiences – I can

better understand difficulties and

problems of foreigners in my country.

It hope it’s possible to study in

another country for some time and

one day find a job where you can

work in different countries and help to

create a better understanding in this

world.

DECMULFCOM9. But I was living there in

the country and there was no bust to the

city, so it was very difficult for me to go

out. And my bosses (a priest and his

“girlfriend”) were horrible persons,

unfriendly and I had to work more every

day. I just stayed there the whole time

because I loved my group of 30 physical

disabled girls and boys.

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DECMULFCOM8. I’ll never regret

those 9 months and never want to

miss that part of my life.

DECMULFCOM11. Partner organisation,

Time for God, was too religious for

myself, I expected Christians who were

open to others instead of rejecting other

perspectives.

DECMULFCOM9. My hosting project

was a big catholic home for disabled

people and the work with them was

great. And because I made some

great friends there.

DECMULFCOM12. The sending

organisation in Germany was not really

organised. They acted a little self-

righteous and I got a lot of information

late.

DECMULFCOM10. EVS was an

extremely good experience for me

and if I’m able to support it in any way

I would like to do that. Could you

send me information about that?

DECMULFCOM13. I’ve sta rted my year

abroad through Diakonischewerk and

TFG and after half of my service I got

supported by EVS (or better, accepted),

like half of the other volunteers who

started with me. Our sending organisation

had a problem with the fact that the other

half didn’t get accepted and wanted us to

sponsor our supporting money towards

the organisation (which would have been

divided through all the participants).

But nobody really explained to me

anything about EVS and how it works (or

why I became part of it…). It was all a bit

confusing and people of my sending

organisation got a bit worn out and kind of

blamed EVS volunteers that they didn’t

give away the supporting money and so

on. I have never heard anything straight

from the European Union (EVS) at all,

only through Diakonischewerk/TFG which

were a bit stressed out with EVS (I hope

you could follow me).

DECMULFCOM11. Brilliant

opportunity to meet up with people of

foreign countries, you’ve never been

in touch with (e.g. Tammy from the

USA, lovely friend!).

DECMULFCOM15. At home it was not

that easy because my family and friends

expected the old person coming back and

some couldn’t accept the changes and

tried to push me back into the old

scheme. And I’ve realised that I’ve lost

some EVS skills because of this.

DECMULFCOM12. I am really glad

to have been in this programme. I

made relevant experiences. My host

organisation was very good and

everybody was really helpful. The

EVS programme is a very important

tool for the European integration and

a great way for young people to go

out and get working experience and a

DECMULFCOM16. Unfortunately going

back to my home country was also a step

back to everyday life at home.

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glimpse of social reality.

DECMULFCOM14. After working with

people, which have difficulties in

social life, I was completely sure that I

want to be a social worker. And I want

to do the two terms of work

experience in Norway which are part

of my studies. Maybe later I will try to

find work in Norway as well. The

plans that I had before EVS changed

completely – but I am very happy

now.

DECMULFCOM17. Despite the

overwhelming bureaucracy (both in the

EVS and in the study programme).

DECMULFCOM15. For me EVS was

the beginning for a lot of changes in

my life and personality. It was the first

time in my life to be on my own and it

was my chance to find out what kind

of person I really was. I became more

extrovert, more talkative and

independent. I’ve changed a lot. And

it was easy for me to save these

changes back home because two

months after my returning I moved to

another city to start my studies. So I

got to know a lot of people and they

got to know a new/changed person.

EVS was the best that could have

happened to me after leaving school

because this time is usually the time

you find yourself and the experience

of EVS helped a lot. I’m convinced I’ll

always be happy to think about EVS

and I’ll tell everybody about it as a

lucky and cheerful time in my life –

even to my grandchildren.

DECMULFCOM16. I was very happy

with the placement I was sent to.

Even if my first intentions were to get

an easy way to go abroad (and as an

alternative to Aupair) I soon felt that

there was more behind it than just my

own leisure. I learnt to care for others

and that was far more experience

than I hoped for.

I have never been that happy and

balanced within myself than during

that year – never before and never

after. I wish anytime I could start all

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over again: going back to my

placement and being a happy person.

DECMULFCOM17. My EVS

experiences have made me want to

have experiences in other European

countries also throughout my studies.

At the moment I am studying in Aix-

en-Provence as part of an integrated

Franco -German (Tübingen-Aix)

Masters programme (Germanic

History).

It is a great experience to be an

“ambassador” for my country and at

the same time to be a European, and

one which I would not like to miss. I

am on the right track to

understanding: Europe is a Europe of

people!

Male volunteers


DECMULMCOM4. Thank you for

this experience!

DECMULMCOM1. My volunteer service in

France was a lot more related to AFS, my

sending organisation, than to EVS. I fact I

didn’t get into contact with the EVS

programme very much.

DECMULMCOM2. You need more money

to participate in leisure activities (especially

in the beginning) to get to know the local

people!

A monthly reader would be good (about

experiences and activities in other towns

and countries).

DECMULMCOM5. After my stay

in Spain I was very assertive

about what to do in the future:

continuing with my studies

(medicine) I felt uncomfortable

with before; start learning about

Chinese Medicine to give my

studies a special flavour; move to

another city. The two first points I

could achieve, but unfortunately I

was not able to move to another

city (due to bureaucratic obstacles

concerning my career). So this is

a dream which is yet to be fulfilled!

What I wanted to say is that the

EVS made me a lot more

confident about my life and

decisions and was an absolutely

DECMULMCOM2. EVS is very abstract!

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great time in my life!

DECMULMCOM6. There is so

much that you can’t say with

words! I would do it again, right

now! Thank you!

DECMULFCOM3. I have never had a direct

contact with EVS. So the programme still is

more or less “under the shadow” of my

sending organisation. I did not have any

special input from EVS apart from spending

money.

DECMULMCOM7. I’d like to

participate in further organisation

or evaluation programmes or

seminars for EVS programmes.

With my volunteer’s experience I’d

like to inform other youth

organisations and individuals.

Further I’d love to get some

information about the possibility of

making some stages with an EVS

organisation or evaluation projects

in Brussels. Please contact me

with more inf ormation.

⇒ Finland

Female volunteers


FICMULFCOM1. What I can say!

The experience was just great! I

am happy that nowadays there is

a possibility to go abroad for free.

I can assure you, without EVS I

would not be the same person. I

would not have these wonderful

memories to think over and over

again. And to know that I can

solve my problems and difficulties

by myself really makes me

stronger than I was before. Mine

was good anyway. Thanks.

FICMULFCOM1. Just to tell you: all the EVS projects are not good

enough. You should check them up more carefully .

⇒ France

Female volunteers


FRCMULFCOM1. My EVS project

has been a good transition for me

FRCMULFCOM2. I participated in a follow-up

evaluation during EVS. I regret to have no

FRCMULFCOM3. I think it is very

important to be well integrated in the

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between my studies and my

professional life. My experience

has helped me to find a job (social

work) which I like. Then it gave me

the ambition to continue my

studies on Education. During my

experience in England I met many

different people… that was

wonderful. Also being in a foreign

country on my own was very

educational in social terms. It’s the

right moment to let you think and

find yourself… it’s like a good

sociological and psychological

therapy. Without my EVS

experience I keep thinking that my

life would have been so “rosy”…

After EVS I felt much more

optimistic… it was like a

refreshment! I would be pleased to

work/help you in doing a sort of

sensitisation among young people

in order to incite them to be

involved in such an activity…

maybe our youth would be less

depressed! Thank you again.

response to the questions that we have put

during this meeting. I had no evaluation

activity after my return. I don’t know what

evolution there is in the programme. I hope to

get some paper about this study.

working team (at least in my case, since I

was in a residential project). It is

necessary to be well aware of your tasks

right from the start for a quick integration.

When we arrive at this stage we can do

fantastic things.

It is also important to be aware that in 6

months time we are expected to return

back to our countries. It is absolutely

essential to be prepared for this, allow for

people to reflect, stimulate them to

integrate in the project but also make

them understand that one day they will

have to leave (this was at least my

personal choice).

FRCMULFCOM3. I was very

happy with the hosting place. This

project has been really beneficial

for me. The exchanges with the

other volunteers where very

helpful in reassuring me.

FRCMULFCOM4. After my first EVS I wanted

to go a second time to another country. But

this didn’t seem so easy and I’ve regretted

about it. I also wanted to take part of a

training for the future EVS but Experiment

France didn’t give any follow-up to my

request. I’m sorry about it as well.

FRCMULFCOM4. Now I am going

on with my studies and will apply

for a job with the Unions.

Male volunteers


FRCMULMCOM1. Thank you for

keeping in touch.

FRCMULMCOM1. The sign Save Our Soul is maybe not such

a good idea for a European Organisation.

FRCMULMCOM2. My national co-

ordinator Andy Bevan was very nice and

reassuring.

FRCMULMCOM2. The end of my work is a very bad memory

because I realised that I was not considered at all. I had

problems with my direct co-ordinator in the hospital about my

private life and one evening I was asked to leave in 2-3 days,

like a snap, a tantrum of my co-ordinator about me.

I was in a very big organisation, to the volunteer and to the

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organisation this is bad because they don’t have any

exchange with your co-ordinator, and because of this they

can have their own ideas about you and what they want you

to do. She had absolutely nothing to say about my job for two

simple reasons: I was OK, the nurses were happy about me

and I found my place; She was interested in me doing my job

(except when she asked the police to make me leave), the

patients had more consideration and were happier to see me

than her.

I find it strange to be asked to leave by a miserable wish of a

failed co-ordinator. I know that I’m not the only volunteer who

was asked to leave like that, this co -ordinator in the

Whitchurch hospital decided it, just on her own impressions,

instead of forgetting it and being objective. If I could I would

do the same, ask her to leave.

Nobody helped me when I had a problem, and one year after

you send me this paper, it’s nice of me to answer it. It’s not

because of your organisation. It’s because I don’t want to

keep it for me, I hope the other volunteers I know, who had

problems with her will do the same.

⇒ Netherlands

Female volunteers


NDCMULFCOM1. There wasn't any form of

communication with any EVS structure (except the

French)

It is only 6 months after finishing my project that I hear

where I can complain about the EVS ; like that , I think it's

not fair that I had no access to the international database.

It wasn't clear at all in the beginning how many

hours/weeks we had to work according to EVS rules.

Our host project wasn't informed at all about the

philosophy of EVS; we were seen like nice publicity and

cheap workers, they didn’t understand and we neither

what our purpose was over there.

The head of the national structure in France is a very

close friend with the head of our host project who lives in

Paris, and never comes to the centre where we stayed

during our EVS. So , they must have talked a little bit, and

decided that it would be a nice idea when his association

NDCMULFCOM1. It could be a good idea

to exchange addresses, to make a

magazine, with experiences, stories,

recipes, made by the volunteers and sent

to all EVS participants at that time. A kind

of transport –free -obligatory for the host

project that the volunteer can use

whenever he wants. I think there should be

more control for the national structure .

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should receive some nice European girls who wanted to

work like normal employees and could be a nice

advertising for his association. So, that's how we came in

a centre where they have never said "yes" to the EVS,

they didn't even know what it was. They Thought that we

came to get to know the French culture: No, exchange

work like normal employees (40 hours a week) with full

responsibility. although they did what they could they

weren't too happy with us , I think…

⇒ Spain

Female volunteers


ESCMULFCOM1. It was a good experience in all the ways. I opened my eyes to

a new life. At first, I Thought "this is not for me" , in the end I didn't want to leave

The most important was the people around me, My God! They were the best . I

think I am really lucky. I'll never forget all of them. I could spend hours talking

about them… Thanks a lot.

⇒ Sweden

Female volunteers


SECMULFCOM1. I was a very

good experience.

SECMULFCOM1. Even Although I had to work

as hard as anyone employed in the home for

elderly people were I worked.

It didn’t change me very much because I was

pretty much formed as the person I am today. I

was independent and assertive before I left (it

wasn’t like when I went as an exchange student

when I was 17, it formed me as the person I am

today).

SECMULFCOM2. The most important

thing is information everywhere. I have

been spreading out info to all places and

people I know. But still not enough.

SECMULFCOM2. I did an

exchange year in the USA, 93/94.

But this year I did in Germany

was even better. I really learned

about the culture. I had my

Thoughts of Germany, namely

because of a close relative who

was in a concentration camp

during the 2nd World War, so it

was a challenge for me to go to

Germany. My perspectives and

Thoughts changed completely, in

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a very positive way. I am happy

for that. I really do hope this can

be something for young people. I

had the opportunity to teach for

one year (more as well, but I had

to continue to go to University, so

I had to say no) which would have

been impossible if I didn’t have

this year. I really do hope a lot

more people can have the

opportunity to do an EVS year!

⇒ United Kingdom

Female volunteers


UKCMULFCOM1. My overall

experience at EVS was very good,

mainly because of my host family

and the friends I made .

UKCMULFCOM1. My actual project was not very

good, as there was little for me to do.

UKCMULFCOM1. It could be better if

projects had to describe the exact

situation and jobs the volunteer is

expected to do before they are

selected. This would prevent

volunteers from feeling useless and

not needed as I did at times.

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Ø FLAGSHIPS

⇒ Austria

Female volunteers


ATCFLGFCOM2. I know that

the situation of the volunteers

is better now. This project is

good.

ATCFLGFCOM2. But not good enough. This project

always sounds very good, but the organisation part

is overlooked. There are too many things, which the

leader has to do on his, own. This is the reason why

there are mistakes (big ones) in the first and the

second part which started.

Like me, the volunteers in Autumn 98 didn’t know

where they go and what they do there or they didn’t

learn enough.

The seminar in the beginning was very important for

them, but the logic, which was worked out, was

wrong. This was the reason why this seminar was

such a mistake. Everybody was disappointed!

- the volunteers because they didn’t learn

enough about their project, what they are

going to do for the next 6 months;

- the ex-volunteers because they Thought that

the leader of the seminar should use our

knowledge more and better;

- the leaders because the participants gave

them the feeling that this seminar was not a

success.

I hope the situation of the volunteers will get better.

ATCFLGFCOM1. Give more people the

possibility to participate.

Check projects better before sending

volunteers.

Create a database with reports of

former volunteers about the projects.

Ask volunteers to write a detailed report

about their project.

If places are not filled by a country let

them be filled by another country where

not all people who want to can

participate (e.g. Portugal-Austria).

⇒ France

Female volunteers


FRCFLGFCOM1. I was involved with 2

associations: one was a music association and the

other one artistic. Both of them used these activities

to help people to have more self-confidence and

show their capacities. But people from the hosting

project understood my position and helped me to

find some interesting things to do that I chose. For

example, in the music association I helped some

FRCFLGFCOM1. When I went to Cardiff I didn’t

know what I would do, and about the hosting

project.

At the beginning it was a bit difficult to know what

to do, because I wasn’t an artist at all!

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music tutors who went to play guitar, percussion

with disabled people. I enjoyed a lot of this contact

with this population (I had already some

experiences with multi -handicapped teenagers,

adults with mental problems…).

I went also to a school for children with behaviour

troubles. I helped a tutor to do an artistic atelier with

them. At the last session, they’ve done a little show.

With the artistic association I learned how to cut

mosaics, I helped them to paint all the walls of a

nursery on the theme of the countryside. I

participated in the ateliers. At the end of the 6

months I decided not to carry on because my job

was more of assistant than actor and I had found a

summer job in France.

I keep a really good record of that experience and

I’m really happy to have done it. During this time I

met a lot of people from all over the world. Now I’m

still in touch with some of them. I would like to have

another experience in another country because it

brings you a lot.

FRCFLGFCOM2. I’ve found your questionnaire

interesting. Thank you for taking care about the

future volunteers.

FRCFLGFCOM2. But there is an important point

missing, which made for me some problem to

answer some questions: not every volunteer

comes back home after, there is some who tried

to begin a new life in their “new” (hosting) country.

For this reason I couldn’t answer to some of your

questions. I’m sorry.

⇒ Germany

Female volunteers


DECFLGFCOM1. It’s been a pleasure

to join this project! But I think this was

what made us even more independent

and self-confident as we had to do a

lot on our own – (it was great not to

pay any money as well). I feel quite

mature now, more than before, to

make decisions and live my life. I still

have a lot of contact with my Spanish

friends and I’m going to visit them next

year. And I’ll meet the new volunteer

who is working i n “my” host project –

we became friends when we met at

the preparatory seminar where I was

DECFLGFCOM1. It was quite hard sometimes to carry on

because many things weren’t organised that well…

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to share my experiences as an ex-

volunteer. So: Thank you!!!

⇒ Greece

Female volunteers


comments

Recommendations

GRCFLGFCOM1. Actually, when I finished my

EVS programme, I went back to Greece only for

a few weeks and then I left for London

(studies).

I have to admit that this service helped me to

grow up, to know how it is to live alone in a big

country, to make my own decisions. Now that I

am in London I realise how important it was to

live once in Berlin, without parents, relatives

and to be an independent person. I am very

happy and lucky that I did this.

GRCFLGFCOM2. I think that the people who take part at

the exchanges need more support during and after the

exchange.

GRCFLGFCOM2. I would like to have more

information about what’s going on and what will

happen in the future wi th these exchanges.

⇒ Ireland

Female volunteers


IECFLGFCOM1. I’ve been involved with the EVS since the pilot project in 1996.

It has given me the chance to see other countries and learn about other

cultures. I’m almost speaking another language – French. I know now who I am

and where I come from. I come from a disadvantaged area in Cork City. Before I

went on EVS I Thought this was a normal place to live. But when I saw the way

other people lived and told them about my area Drugs & Crime normal life and I

saw the reactions I Thought what am I doing with myself? I had left school at the

age of 15 and I had no job. Now I’m back in College doing my Diploma in Youth

& Community and I’m also working full time. I hope to go on and do my degree

and one day be fluent in speaking French.

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⇒ Netherlands

Male volunteers


NDCFLGMCOM1. My contribution in the Youth Exchange Project brought me a

lot more that I beforehand expected. Working at a Cambridge theatre, I got

introduced to fine arts, learned marketing/managing skills and improved my

English in word and writing. Moreover, I also got introduced to the organising

European cultural network, Trans-Europe Halles. Attending two cultural

meetings during the time, I got to know people from around the whole of Europe.

This gave me a genuine awareness of being European and encouraged me to

think like one. This, unexpected extra gave my exchange a huge added value.

And restlessness that denied me to stay long in Holland…

⇒ Portugal

Male volunteers


PTCFLGMCOM1. The existence of some hosting organisations which main

purpose is to catch E.U funds, doesn’t make vanish the idealistic side of the

EVS?

⇒ Spain

Female volunteers


ESCFLGFCOM1. These 6 months in

Austria were the best in my life. I miss all

the people I met there and I am looking

forward to going and visit them. I like

German and Austria is my favourite

country, I want to know more about the

country and the language. Sometimes I

don’t know what to do because I think of

my time in Austria and I would like to go

there working but I like being also with my

friends and my family here in Spain. At

the moment I am thinking of going 3 or 4

months to a country in South-America but

I don’t know when, how… That is just an

idea.

My life, my points of view changed after

my experience in Austria. I think at the

ESCFLGFCOM1. I’m looking for a job as well but there

aren’t a lot of opportunities.

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moment I am more open minded, more

independent. I see thing from another

point of view. I can stand the problems

and I think always in a positive way. I am

happy!!

Male volunteers


ESCFLGMCOM1. I want to stress that

Although my general evaluation of the

programme is positive.

On the other hand I would like to give

motivate all those who made it possible for

me to live this wonderful experience, the

EVS, to keep up this fantastic humane

work.

ESCFLGMCOM1. I went through quite a hard time when I

hurt my right knee. And when I say that I went through

quite a hard time I am not referring to the physical pain,

which is obvious, but to the emotional trouble when I

realised how little my EVS project was organised as far as

my insurance in my hosting country was concerned. In fact,

the type of insurance that my EVS National Structure had

found me let me completely unprotected and I don’t even

want to think how much worse it could have been if I had

had a much more serious accident… I just wanted to write

down this for the record to avoid this from happening to

any other future volunteers.

⇒ United Kingdom

Female volunteers


UKCFLGFCOM1. I found the entire experience very worthwhile. I’m intending to

spend the next 3 months in Germany, hopefully re -finding my German!

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Ø THIRD COUNTRIES

⇒ Belgium

Male volunteers


BEC3CMCOM2. For me SAVSO

(Jan.97 EVS) was a great experience

that told me: that I am able to work

abroad; That I am able to work for

development; more about other

(different from European); a practical

experience (but short). All this visiting

a different country and meeting with

nice people. Thank you EVS. Then

EVS has to continue and to increase:

it’s important!

BEC3CMCOM1. I was disappointed with

the fact that the comments that we had

made 3 months after our return have not

been taken into account. The travel

organisers seem to be completely

unconcerned by the living conditions we

had, while they were comfortably installed

at the hotel… Moreover they pretend to be

very generous people, but where did the

money that was supposed to be used for

our lodging go to? Did it go under the

cornfields, or what?

BEC3CMCOM1. You should check the

NGO Chantiers d’Afrique, their motto is

“To count on Africa”. (things are not

going to change with people like them).

BEC3CMCOM3. It was an exceptional

experience to establish intercultural

contacts, a good lesson on social

interaction in a very open atmosphere

in contrast with the “cold” and isolated

Western world. It was an illustrative

example that working together

amongst different cultures is better

than building up things alone. This is a

must for all the young people who find

themselves under the influence of this

capitalist society, so that they can

confront and work out their prejudices

about other cultures.

BEC3CMCOM3; But I also saw the negative

influence of our Western world in the South.

With this I mean to say that the cars and

trunks that we export destroy the

environment also there and make life

sometimes even dangerous for the locals

(they often run over people…).

It was also the experience (Although

uncomfortable) of not being left alone in

peace, and of being observed all the time.

⇒ France

Female volunteers


FRC3CFCOM1. I was very glad with

my EVS.

FRC3CFCOM1. In my case, I kept

struggling in order to find my project.

Sometimes it was a bit difficult.

FRC3CFCOM1. But I think it is very

important to be sure that the local

organisation has a REAL project for the

volunteer.

FRC3CFCOM2. I was 1 month in

South Africa with SAVSO and 20

other European volunteers (January

1997). It was a very good experience,

FRC3CFCOM2. I don’t know if what I

have done is the EVS?

But I am very sad that I have no contact

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which I will never forget. Thanks. anymore with the other European

volunteers and the other African. Perhaps

because I am very far from Europe. I

come back to France in 4 months –

perhaps at my return?

FRC3CFCOM3. I would like to have more

information about people that were

volunteers: their missions… and be able

to contact them by phone, e-mail or letter.

There is a problem with the insurance.

⇒ Italy

Female volunteers


ITC3CFCOM1. I’m very glad with my

experience in Mostar because of the people I

was working with (local people and other

volunteers). Concerning myself I think that the

project has had a good impact in my life and

overall it has been useful to change the way to

look at other cultures and ways of life.

ITC3CFCOM1. But I’m really unhappy towards my

sending organisation (as I wrote to you more that 1

year ago).

⇒ Sweden

Male volunteers


SEC3CMCOM1. I think these projects need to be organised in a better way.

The communication betwe en our country and the host country was quite bad.

Especially concerning preparations and pre -programme planning.

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Ø SPECIAL EVENT (World Cup)

⇒ Denmark

Female volunteers


DKCWCFCOM1. I participated in an EVS

project concerning the World Cup in soccer

in France. I must say that the idea of

sending young people of different nations to

an event like that was really great. When I

applied for this EVS it was based on my

interest for the sport. But there was so

much more to it than that. We were 9

volunteers from all over Europe and

suddenly we had to figure out an every day

life together. We had to try to fit into the

French culture and mentality but also try to

become a group with all our different

cultures. But when I come to think of it

everything actually went extremely well and

fast. The problem was solved – which is

positive. After resettling I started working at

a leisure centre for kids, which was really

great. I could decide myself whatever I

wanted to do – no limits or demands. So the

work was actually based on personal

interest and initiative. The World Cup was

an excellent adventure and we all got

involved from the very beginning of it. In the

beginning we helped out with all kinds of

practical things – and then we were all

divided into other groups. That was okay.

And finally I got to work as a translator

which was quite an interesting job. The

conclusion of my stay in France is that it

was a great experience and something I

wish possible for others in accordance to

another major sport event. I have really

learned a lot and it’s something I will never

forget.

DKCWCFCOM1. In the beginning it was really difficult to

get use to speaking French all the time and to become

part of their culture.

And there’s just a few small things which could be better. I

don’t know if the “faults I found are cause by the fact that

my hosting country was France – but here’s what I think

about my project:

Lack of information from hosting place. I began my EVS

on a sports institution for youngsters and after 2 weeks of

introduction and language education they didn’t know

what to do with us. 3 of 9 volunteers were living at this

certain place and after 3 weeks the problem was solved

by moving us all around.

But even Although one of the 3 hosting organisations

showed a capability of solving the problem – I still think

that it was an unpleasant situation. The 3 of us living at

these institutions didn’t really feel that welcome and we

were quite surprised that nothing was arranged for us

there before the World Cup.

Except for the fact that they didn’t use all our language

skills as they could. I was placed somewhere where I was

making access passes to the stadium mostly to French

people. Others were moved to places where they could

use their language skills. 3 of us didn’t get to work

another place before we had a major argument with one

of the co-ordinators. I know that all the French volunteers

didn’t get to change jobs at all but I just think that they

should have used our language skills more than they did.

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⇒ Spain

Female volunteers


ESCWCFCOM1. For me the European Voluntary Service has been the

experience of my life, it has been a great dream. This has been the first time that

I left home during a big period but it was worthwhile. I went to Paris, the most

beautiful city in the world, to work in a sports organisation until the start of the

World Cup of Football. I love football and I enjoyed very much this competition.

Everything was well and moreover the opportunity of working, living and making

relationships with other young people of Europe and of the world…Thank you for

everything that you have done for us! Thank you very much!

⇒ United Kingdom

Female volunteers


UKCWCFCOM1. I had a wonderful

six-month in France, a very enjoyable

and rewarding experience. When in

Toulouse I was given excellent

support from my host and the local

ministry. Nevertheless, given my

overall six months, I now hold the

EVS in high regard given the

opportunity it provided me, and I

hope that it will continue long into the

future as a very worthwhile and

valuable service for young people.

UKCWCFCOM1. However the support I received from the

National Structure was very disappointing, both before and

during my stay. Despite the efforts of my regional organisation to

get information beforehand from the British Council, little was

forthcoming, and I was given only 3 days notice of my departure.

But no contact from my National Structure throughout my stay.

Whilst this did not affect my experience, my anxiety before

departing was increased by lack of information and notice.

Also, I would have appreciated the opportunity to voice my

concerns in person to those concerned and talk to other British

volunteers on my arrival home, but the opportunity was not

provided.

I did not view a mail questionnaire as an adequate forum for us

to analyse our experiences.

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ANNEXE 7 – TESTER GROUP- TREATMENT OF DATA

Objectives of the tester group

As mentioned by us in our document “Framework for the Study”, we wanted to test our preliminary

questionnaire with a group of 16 volunteers, in order to learn from their suggestions and also from

their answering patterns and so improve the final version.

In fact, many of the changes that we have made to the final version of the questionnaire have been

based on their answers, but also on their specific suggestions concerning the layout and contents of

the questionnaire.

We were satisfied with the fact that 12 out of the 16 volunteers answered back. We had done a

previous analysis of these results where there had been only 10 responses to our draft questionnaire

(08/10/98) but in the meantime two more have arrived (UK volunteers).

About this document

The results presented to you in this document have no statistical value of course. They are mere

indications and our comments do try to reflect this fact. We have not tried to infer from these results

anything too definitive or to see in some of these percentages a small-scale model of the study

outcomes. This also explains why we have decided not to comment some of the tables in it,

considering that not much could be concluded from them and we did not intend to stretch reality in any

way42.

Total tester group – 16 Total respondents – 12 (75% of return) 43

Respondents per country/organisation

Country/Organisation Respondents Target

ŒIL/ENVOL44 1 2

Experiment in Europe45 2 2

Belgium-Flemish 2 2

Sweden 2 2

Italy 1 2

Portugal 1 2

42 Please note that in the tables, all the information in Italic was added by the volunteers to our pre-arranged options. 43 One of the respondents did not fill in the questionnaire for not believing in this type of data collection. This explains why in some cases the different percentages are obtained taking into account only 11 respondents in total. 44 Flagship Network. 45 Multilateral Network.

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Austria 1 2

UK 2 2

Total 12 16

Comments: We were mildly disappointed with the level of return that we have obtained. We were

expecting that at least 90% of the tester group members would have responded to our request for

comments and suggestions for improvement of the questionnaire. We thought that specific targeting

with recommendations from the National Structures, personalised letters and a clear explanation of

the purpose of our study would help us in obtaining a lot more of feedback. This made us be

particularly careful in preparing the cover letter to accompany the final version of our questionnaire.

We hope to motivate the volunteers who will have to respond to it as much as possible. In fact, a total

return of 30-40% for the final questionnaires would be very positive, but less than 10% would be very

disappointing.

Group A) questions (personal details)

Gender of the respondents

Male 6 50%

Female 6 50%

Total 12 100%

Age of the respondents during their EVS

<=17 0 0%

18 0 0%

19 1 9%

20 2 18%

21 1 9%

22 0 0%

23 4 37%

24 1 9%

25 2 18%

26 0 0%

27 0 0%

>=28 0 0%

Total 11 100%

Comments: The perfect distribution between male and female respondents is merely a coincidence,

our global statistics and the many oral reports obtained from those working in the field, confirm that

there are more girls participating in the programme than boys. The results in the tester group are

probably very similar to what we will find in the larger pool of respondents to the questionnaire, a

concentration of participants within the age range 20-25, i.e., those who have finished school, are at

university or have finished university.

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Nationality of the respondents

Austria 1 8%

Belgian 2 17%

British 4 34%

German 1 8%

Italian 1 8%

Portuguese 1 8%

Swedish 2 17%

Total 12 100%

Comments: The higher number of British respondents is explained by the fact that both for the

Flagship and Multilateral networks one of the volunteers was from the UK, adding up to the two

respondents obtained through the UK National Structure.

Legal residence of the respondents

Austria 1 8%

Belgium 2 17%

Germany 1 8%

Italy 1 8%

Portugal 1 8%

South Africa 1 8%

Sweden 2 17%

UK 3 26%

Total 12 100%

Comments: With the exception of one of the British volunteers, whose legal residence is in South

Africa, all others have their legal residence in the country of their nationality.

Hosting Country

Austria 1 8%

France 1 8%

Germany 2 17%

Greece 1 8%

Italy 1 8%

Portugal 1 8%

Spain 2 17%

UK 3 26%

Total 12 100%

No comments

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Knowledge of foreign languages before doing EVS

Yes 7 55%

No 5 45%

Total 12 100%

Foreign languages known before doing EVS

English 6 86%

French 2 29%

German 0 0%

Spanish 1 14%

Russian 1 14%

Italian 1 14%

Total respondents 7 --------

Comments: As expected by us, most of the respondents new other languages before their EVS, and

again the best known language for those who answered Yes to the first question, was English (after all

foreign languages are part of most countries school curricula, English being at the top of the

choices)46. However, the number of those in the tester group who did not know any foreign languages

before departure is also quite high, this percentage being influenced by the fact that none of the British

volunteers spoke other languages before doing EVS. It is important to point out that after their EVS

experience, even if sent to non-English speaking countries they all learned English well enough to

have understood our request and questionnaire. Furthermore, they have all made their additional

comments in English though we have underlined in our letter that they could answer back to us in their

respective mother tongues or even the language of their hosting country. We can conclude from this

that even if not all of them knew English before EVS they all learned it while on the programme.

Motivation of the respondents to do EVS

To find out about myself 2 18%

To learn a new language 2 18%

To help other people 1 9%

To get working experience 5 45%

For the adventure 4 36%

Because I was unemployed 0 0%

To become more independent 0 0%

To give myself a fresh start 0 0%

To complement my studies 0 0%

To get away from home 0 0%

To make new friends 3 27%

To learn new skills 2 18%

It was a cheap way of going abroad 0 0%

Because other friends did it 0 0%

46 See also corroborating results of Eurobarometer for 1997.

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To help in the development of Europe 0 0%

To get to know another culture and country 2 18%

To find out about other people 1 9%

It was too good an opportunity to miss 1 9%

Total respondents 11 ------

Comments: Though not statistically relevant it is nevertheless interesting to see that the majority of

the respondents decided to participate in the programme, either because of professional “worries”

(working experience, learning new skills) or for the sense of adventure. We might think that these two

elements do not go together, but it may well be that the attractiveness of the programme resides in

this balance between “serious plans for the future” and “fun”.

Group B) questions (participation in EVS)

Main source of information about EVS

A local information centre for young people 0 0%

Your local newspaper 2 19%

Your local authority 1 9%

A previous participant 0 0%

A National Newspaper 1 9%

Your Youth organisation 1 9%

A friend 0 0%

Your school/university 0 0%

The radio 0 0%

The television 1 9%

Your EVS National Structure 1 9%

Direct invitation by the organisers 1 9%

A list of organisations for work abroad 1 9%

CJP Magazine 1 9%

Youth Work magazine 1 9%

Total respondents 11 100%

Comments: There is no clear pattern regarding the respondents’ source of information on EVS, but it

is clear that publications in general take the lead in the case of the tester group. If we take together the

percentages relating to local and national newspapers, as well as the three last ones (in italic) added

by the volunteers to our list we get 46% of all cases.

The respondents’ sending organisation

A local youth organisation 1 8%

An EVS National Structure 1 8%

An EVS National Structure 1 8%

A sports organisation 0 0%

A European youth organisation 2 17%

An environmental organisation 0 0%

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A religious organisation 0 0%

A local municipality 4 35%

A job centre 0 0%

A youth centre 1 8%

A “Foyer” 1 8%

A local development organisation 1 8%


Comments: It is interesting to notice that a local municipality sent 4 of the 12 respondents on EVS. It

will be interesting to see if this conforms to the global picture and how much of it can be related to the

dimension of community development within E VS. Youth organisations play also an important role as

sending organisations in the tester group, with a total of 3 respondents (local and international

organisations added up).

The respondents’ hosting organisation

A local youth organisation 6 55%

An old people’s home 1 9%

A development organisation 0 0%

A local municipality 0 0%

An environmental organisation 0 0%

A local community centre 2 18%

A religious organisation 2 18%

Total 11 100%

Comments: The majority of the respondents was hosted by a local youth organisation, something that

may explain why in the following table the highest percentage concerns those projects working with

children and youth.

Main themes of the hosting project

Art and culture 2 18%

Rural development 0 0%

Equal opportunities 0 0%

Media & communications 1 9%

Support to disabled 2 18%

Support to youth/children 3 27%

Environmental work 1 9%

Urban development 0 0%

Health promotion 0 0%

European issues 0 0%

Support to migrants 1 9%

Support to elderly 1 9%

Protection of historical monuments 0 0%

Anti-racism & xenophobia 1 9%

Youth information 1 9%

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Sports & leisure time 0 0%

Support to homeless 0 0%

Support to unemployed 2 9%

International youth work 1 9%


Comments: Though there is no theme that clearly dominates, it is nevertheless obvious that most of

the respondents were hosted by local projects, dealing with what we could call social and community

issues.

Possibility to choose their hosting project

Yes 10 91%

No 1 9%

Total 11 100%

Comments: We would have expected all the respondents to have been given the chance to choose

their hosting project, but it is possible that those who participated in a multilateral or flagship network

were constrained to accept what was available, which may explain the one respondent who could not

choose a hosting project.

Consultation of the database of hosting projects

Yes 6 55%

No 5 45%

Total 11 100%

Comments: The numbers are quite balanced, with a slightly higher percentage of volunteers having

consulted the database of hosting projects. Considering that this was the pilot phase of the

programme we did not expect that all the respondents had consulted the database to choose their

hosting projects. On the other hand, in many cases their hosting projects might have pre-selected a

number of projects in an area they were already interested in. Again it will be relevant to see the

numbers obtained with our final questionnaire (are the instruments that we have in place, such as the

database of hosting projects, accessible to the volunteers?).

Planning of activities in hosting project

Yes 6 55%

No 5 45%

Total 11 100%

Comments: A very balanced result for the tester group in terms of participation and involvement of

the volunteers in the planning of their activities. This is of course an important dimension to have into

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account, when it comes to helping young people to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility. Is

this also true for the rest of the volunteers in EVS?

Duration of EVS stay

<=3 months 0 0%

4 months 0 0%

5 months 1 9%

6 months 6 55%

7 months 1 9%

8 months 0 0%

9 months 1 9%

10 months 0 0%

11 months 1 9%

12 months 1 0%

>=13 months 0 0%

Total 11 100%

Comments: The majority of the respondents did 6 months of EVS. It will be interesting to see if this

applies to the reality of our global target group, or if instead there is more variety in the periods of the

volunteers’ stays. Our empirical data from the certification of the volunteers, tells us that a large

majority prefers the 6 months period, maybe because of its good balance between short and long

term, security and challenge.

Remaining in the host country after EVS

Yes --- --------

<1 week 0 0%

1 week 1 25%

2 weeks 3 75%

3 weeks 0 0%

>3 weeks 0 0%

1 month 0 0%

2 months 0 0%

3 months 0 0%

4 months 0 0%

5 months 0 0%

6 months 0 0%


No 7 64%


Comments: It is clear from looking at the numbers that the majority of the respondents of the tester

group returned home right after their EVS. Those who stayed did it for a little while, but then again, if

they had remained any longer in the hosting countries they wouldn’t have been part of our tester

group.

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Group C) questions (returning to your home country)

Participation in follow -up/evaluation activities after return

Yes 9 82%

No 2 18%

Total 11 100%

Organiser of the follow-up/evaluation activity

Sending organisation 3 33%

National Structure 6 67%


Comments: The big majority of the respondents participated in a follow -up/evaluation session after

their return, but we expected that all of them would have done so. In most cases it is the National

Structure that organises this event. It will be interesting to see when analysing the data from our final

questionnaire if this is indeed always the case. This is the more important as sending projects are

expected to play an orientation role after the return of their volunteers.

Type of follow -up/evaluation activity

A big seminar with other volunteers 2 22%

A training session with other volunteers 1 11%

A small workshop with other volunteers 3 33%

An individual interview with a youth worker 2 22%

Information session with candidates to EVS 1 11%

Talking in high schools about EVS experience 1 11%


Main focus of follow-up/evaluation activities

Evaluation of EVS experience 6 67%

Giving career guidance 0 0%

Helping with re-integration back home 1 11%

Informing about educational opportunities 0 0%

Telling a group of volunteers about EVS experience 1 11%

Information session with future EVS participants 1 11%


Comments: The respondents participated mainly on group events for the follow-up/evaluation of their

EVS experiences. What is interesting to see is that in two cases the respondents, after their return,

have been talking about EVS to potential candidates, without this really being comparable to a follow -

up/evaluation of the experience. It is unfortunate that for none of these respondents did the follow -

up/evaluation activities had anything to do with giving them professional or educational guidance. If

this is the global trend there is definitely something to be done there.

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Duration of follow-up/evaluation activity

½ day 3 34%

1 day 3 33%

2-3 days 3 33%

> 3 days 0 0%

Total 9 100%

When the follow -up/evaluation activities took place after EVS

< 1 month after 4 44%

1-3 months after 4 44%

3-5 months after 1 12%

Total 9 100%

Comments: The respondents did not have to wait very long to have their follow -up/evaluation

activities after their return, which is definitely positive. It will be interesting to see if this is the global

picture for all of the volunteers.

Overall evaluation of follow-up/evaluation activities

Very bad 0 0%

Bad 0 0%

Satisfactory 6 67%

Good 1 11%

Very Good 0 0%

No answer 2 22%

Total 9 100%

Comments: It is not very reassuring the fact that only one of the respondents evaluates the follow -

up/evaluation activities as good. The majority finds it only satisfactory and 2 of the respondents

preferred to avoid saying anything about this. If this is the case for the majority of the volunteers, it is

again an aspect that will have to be looked at quite carefully in the future.

Involvement in community/voluntary work after return

Yes --- ---------

Youth organisation 1 25%

Sports & Environment 1 25%

Support to elderly & children 1 25%

EVS Future Capital 1 25%


No 6 55%

No answer 1 9%

Total 11 100%

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Relation of voluntary/community work with EVS experience

Yes 2 50%

No 2 50%


Plans to become involved in voluntary/community work

Yes 2 33%

No 0 0%

Maybe 3 50%

No answer 1 17%


Comments: It is apparent, at least in the tester group, that the majority of the volunteers does not

engage themselves in voluntary or community work after their return (maybe EVS has been enough to

satisfy their more immediate wishes). Those who decide to continue doing voluntary or community

work don’t seam to be interested in doing only things related to their previous EVS experience, but

then again the data that we have does not allow us to conclude anything of relevance on this issue. If

we take the answers of those who have not done any voluntary or community work after their return,

we would say that in reality very few of the respondents are really interested in doing so in the future,

the “maybes” being most of time polite ways of saying “no”.

Group D) questions (Personal description after EVS)

Items Much less Less The same More Much more No answer Total

Assertive 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (27%) 6 (55%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Communicative 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 7 (64%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

European 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 6 (55%) 4 (36%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Outgoing 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 6 (55%) 4 (36%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Modern 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 9 (82%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Hard -working 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 5 (45%) 6 (55%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Spontaneous 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 4 (36%) 7 (64%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Talkative 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 5 (45%) 5 (45%) 1 (10%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Conservative 3 (27%) 6 (55%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Socially aware 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 8 (73%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Caring 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 5 (45%) 4 (37%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Open to people 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 7 (64%) 3 (27%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Shy 3 (27%) 5 (46%) 3 (27%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Tolerant 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 6 (55%) 3 (27%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Unorganised 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 8 (73%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Reserved 2 (18%) 4 (36%) 4 (36%) 1 (10%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Involved 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 6 (55%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Indifferent 2 (18%) 6 (55%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Intolerant 3 (27%) 5 (46%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

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Serious 0 (0%) 4 (36%) 4 (36%) 3 (28%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Independent 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 7 (64%) 4 (36%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Organised 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 8 (73%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Optimistic 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 7 (64%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Money oriented 0 (0%) 3 (27%) 7 (64%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Sociable 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (27%) 7 (64%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)

Lonely 0 (0%) 5 (45%) 2 (18%) 3 (27%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Experienced 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (11%) 0 (0%) ------------- 11 (100%)

Comments: This will be one of the tables that we will follow with particular interest when the first

answers to the questionnaire start arriving to the SOS. Without being too exhaustive as the group in

question is rather small, we could not avoid mentioning nevertheless the fact that the majority of the

respondents have experienced a positive increase in being communicative, European, socially aware,

open to people, tolerant, involved, independent, optimistic and sociable, just to mention a few. It is

also interesting to notice that for some of the volunteers in the tester group (3), having participated in

the programme has made them feel more lonely, something that as probably to do with the lack of

understanding some of them seam to meet with, when coming back and trying to communicate their

experience to relatives and peers.

Group E) questions (Personal skills after EVS)

Skills Much less Less The same More Much more No answer Total

I integrate in groups and teams 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 7 (64%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

I take personal responsibility for organising

activities

0 (0%) 0 (0%) 4 (37%) 5 (45%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

I plan my time 0 (0%) 2 (19%) 3 (27%) 5 (45%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

I solve practical problems 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 7 (64%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

I can help solving conflicts 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 4 (37%) 5 (45%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

I can communicate a personal idea/message 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (27%) 6 (55%) 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Comments: This is a very important dimension of the questionnaire and one that is directly related to

the employability potential of EVS. It is clear that the respondents in the tester group feel that they are

now readier for teamwork, solving practical problems and mediating in conflicts, as well as to pass

their ideas more clearly to others. If the majority of our global pool of volunteers corroborates these

numbers, this will definitely imply that EVS has a positive influence on the development of a number of

skills very important in today’s working environments.

Group F) questions (Future projects after EVS – Education and Work)

Educational situation before EVS

Had finished school 2 18%

Had finished College/University 6 55%

Were still at school 1 9%

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Were still at College/University 2 18%

Had left school unfinished 0 0%

Had left College/university unfinished 0 0%

Total 11 100%

Comments: The results in this table are very consistent with what we have found in the age table

before. The only “surprise” is the one volunteer who still was at school before EVS. The majority had

finished school or university (the latter is clearly the majority). This may well reflect the global situation

of EVS volunteers.

Educational plans after EVS

Decided to finish previous studies as planned 4 36%

Decided to change area of studies in accordance with EVS experience 1 9%

Decided to go back to school to complete unfinished education 0 0%

Decided to finish studies 0 0%

Decided to go to University as planned 0 0%

Decided to start a new area of studies unrelated to EVS experience 1 9%

Decided to take up further University studies unrelated to my EVS experience 1 9%

Decided to do vocational training/more practical studies 4 36%

Decided to study the language of the hosting country in depth 3 27%

Decided not to have anything to do with traditional education 1 9%

Decided to take up further University studies related to EVS experience 1 9%

I decided not to engage myself in any type of education (traditional or not) 2 18%


Comments: Again we must insist that these results have no statistical relevance, but it is nevertheless

interesting to see that 2 of the respondents do not wish to have anything more to do with any type of

education after EVS, and that a significant number decided to start more practical studies after their

return. This could well be related to the fact that for many of them in the tester group the main

motivation to participate in the programme was to get working experience. On the other hand, also a

significant number of respondents in the tester group have decided to finish their studies, which makes

us think that participating in EVS can be lived as an interval in their lives, before continuing as

planned. Also a relevant number of volunteers in the tester group have decided to start studying the

language of their hosting countries.

Working situation before EVS

Were employed 6 55%

Were unemployed 2 18%

Were looking for 1s t job 2 18%

Were doing an apprenticeship/training/stage 1 9%

Total 11 100%

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Comments: We were surprised to realise that the majority of the respondents were either working or

doing professional studies before EVS, this somehow does not match with the fact that they wanted

working experience through EVS. This is something that will have to be looked at in the future more in

detail. It could also be that the job experience the volunteers had had was not consistent with their

wishes, and EVS was seen as something more related to their professional objectives.

Working plans after EVS

Found a job in the sector interested in working for Community support work

1 9%

Decided to start looking for a job but did not find anything yet 3 27%

Found a job but contract is already over/soon to be over Hotel receptionist

1 9%

Decided to create own business/enterprise Community Multimedia (through Future Capital)

1 9%

Decided not to look for a job 1 9%

Decided to go back to previous job Forestry Engineer

1 9%

Found a job related to EVS experience 1 9%

Has been having lots of unrelated jobs since EVS 2 18%

Has been turned down by all jobs for lack of qualifications/experience 0 0%

Decided to find a job related to EVS experience 6 55%

Decided to look for a job abroad Spain or South America (1) Portuguese speaking Africa (1)

2 18%

Total respondents 11 -------

Comments: Many of the respondents have started looking for jobs after their return home, and many

– the majority - have also decided to look for something directly related to their EVS experience. It is

also interesting to remark that one of the volunteers has decided to start his own business with the

possible help of Future Capital, and that another one found a job related to the EVS experience. It

would be very interesting to see if this is indeed a global trend or just a coincidence in the tester group.

Group G) questions (Expectations versus outcomes)

Expectations before going and after EVS

Expectations Fulfilled Partly

fulfilled

Not fulfilled Not

expected

No answer Total

Expected a lot of preparation before departure 2 (18%) 3 (27%) 1 (9%) 4 (37%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Expected a lot of choice of different projects 5 (46%) 2 (18%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Expected a lot of training upon arrival to host country 4 (37%) 3 (27%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 1 (9%) 11 (100%)

Expected a lot of moral support during stay 5 (46%) 3 (27%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected good amount of pocket money 5 (46%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to learn new language 7 (64%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to find more about themselves and what they

wanted to do in life

5 (46%) 3 (27%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to make lots of good friends 6 (55%) 3 (27%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to learn important skills for future job 5 (46%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

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Expected to become more independent 6 (55%) 2 (18%) 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to learn more about other cultures and ways of life 9 (82%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to leave past behind and become a new person 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 7 (64%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to find a boyfriend/girlfriend 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 8 (73%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to learn more about the world 5 (46%) 4 (36%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to become stronger to overcome life’s difficulties 5 (46%) 4 (36%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (18%) 11 (100%)

Expected to explore/see some of host country 0 (0%) 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) ------ 11 (100%)

Expected to be useful to other people 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) ------ 11 (100%)

Expected to have a good time 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) ------

I expected an adventure! 1 (9%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) ------

Comments: We were surprised to realise that a significant number of respondents did not expect to

receive a lot of preparation before departure (lack of information from the sending project?; trying not

to have too many expectations and get disappointed?). Almost all of them felt that their expectations to

learn a new language and to learn more about other cultures and ways of life were fulfilled. Though

the majority of the respondents did not expect to put the past behind and find a boyfriend/girlfriend

with EVS, this was important for 2 of them in the first case and 1 of them in the second case. Overall,

the volunteers in the tester group have either fulfilled or partly fulfilled their expectations with the

programme.

Overall evaluation of EVS experience

Very bad 1 8%

Bad 0 0%

Satisfactory 0 0%

Good 2 17%

Very Good 9 75%

Total 12 100%

Comments: The tester group was obviously very happy with their EVS experience. This is something

that can be explained with the fact that the members of the tester group were chosen by their

respective National Structures/Organisations, and that the latter may have only given us their success

stories. However, this was not always the case, since one of the volunteers who refused to fill in the

questionnaire also let us know that her experience had been very bad. We think that the results from

the final questionnaire will be more balanced and less extreme than these results.

Group H) questions (additional comments)

Negative comments Positive comments Recommendations

The Spanish training course was badly organise d (El

Escorial, October 1997). I sent my comments already

to the Flemish and Spanish National Structures

EVS changed my life. Thanks. Let me know if

there is anything more I can do to help other

EVS volunteers

I visited my hosting project two

months before I started working

there. It was the best way to get

informed, afterwards I really knew

that I wanted to start there. My

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motivation was higher and I was

totally convinced to go to Madrid for

such a long period

(…) when the day came that a questionnaire landed in

the post I was so disappointed. Have you lost the

ability to talk to people? What are you going to learn

by crosses made on a paper? Maybe reality is easier

to face on these bases? I will not fill in this

questionnaire because I refuse to be just a number in

statistics! I think what I've done during my six months

in France and what I've become after that should be

met by more interest and respect from your side!

All in all it has been a great possibility, I hope

a lot more young people (and many adults as

well) can participate

Give more importance to the type of

work and the responsibility of the

volunteer for that work, to avoid

naïve expectations and poor skills

I didn’t get any language training. I really wanted a

language course in the beginning because of two

reasons: get into the language, and to meet friends in

the same situation I was in

I really enjoyed my stay in Spain and I wish I

could do it again

Give more information about the

real goal of EVS to the projects

I had to be very flexible during my stay at home. I

hoped to have a quiet time but it has been very difficult

to find a job. I felt very strong abroad and immediately

after my return but this feeling is easily destroyed

My boyfriend will come to Sweden to do EVS

here

Make all the young volunteers

understand that EVS is about

voluntary service, not an easy way

to travel

It would have been good to have been able to have

had more contact with my National Agency, i.e.:

newsletter, etc., to both receive and return news.

My experience as volunteer has been really

good

You must be prepared to work hard

and not treat the EVS as a glorified

holiday

Why didn’t volunteers from different countries have the

same pocket money? Rather unfair.

EVS is great for young people who want to

learn about other cultures, traditions, habits

and languages

I feel that discussing my own project

with my hosts before going there

was definitely worthwhile

I think EVS is a very good way to make

young people aware of the European

communities, of voluntary work and an

important chance to know more about

people, the world and yourself

I think it's really important to follow-up things

like this and I was glad to be able to share my

experiences as a volunteer

I think that the seminar at the beginning of my

year was excellent – it was an ideal chance

to meet and get to know other volunteers.

Thus whilst living in my host town I knew I

was part of this community but also of a

network of volunteers in Germany – this was

good

Overall an excellent life experience wh ich I

recommend to any young person

Whoever thought of the Future Capital

scheme deserves a medal. What an excellent

opportunity to use the EVS experience. Long

may this continue!

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Comments: The additional comments made by the volunteers were very teaching, and they have

confirmed to us the importance of interviewing the tester group in depth as part of our study, for a

more qualitative approach to it (see SOS document “Framework to the Study”).

The respondents have taken this opportunity to make certain recommendations too, namely the

importance of giving volunteers the possibility to visit their hosting project beforehand so that they can

make up their minds. And surprisingly for us, the importance of giving more information to the

volunteers, and stressing more their individual responsibility towards the programme (don’t treat it like

a glorified holiday). It was also quite interesting to see that the majority of them, even if they had made

negative comments, wanted to underline once more the importance of this experience in their lives

and recommend it to other young people.

Two of the negative comments have to do with the language training provided to the volunteers.

Another of the comments, though not put directly in that way, makes us think that for some volunteers

it is very important that upon their return they are given the right kind of moral support, to avoid the

feeling of optimism from being “easily destroyed”.

One of the strongest comments came from the one volunteer who refused to fill in our questionnaire,

because of not agreeing with this method of studying the personal impact of the programme. We had

the chance to talk to this volunteer on the phone and explain more in detail the purpose of the tester

group and the aim of our study. We have also sent a letter to the volunteer acknowledging the bad

hosting experience and we have met in the meantime to talk about it, face to face, as part of our study.

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ANNEXE 8 – LIST OF INTERVIEWS AND INTERVIEW GUIDE

NAME OF VOLUNTEER GENDER + AGE

SENDING COUNTRY

HOSTING COUNTRY

DURATION OF STAY

DATE + DURATION OF THE INTERVIEW

STRAND

1. Lisellote Møller F 19

Denmark Ireland 6 months 23/10/98

2.5 hours

Centralised - Flagship

2. Neja Hansen F 19

Denmark Portugal 6 months 23/10/98

2.5 hours

Centralised - Flagship

3. Malin Johansson F 21

Sweden France 6 months 24/10/98

3 hours

Decentralised

4. Lisa Isaksson F 23

Sweden Spain 6 months 24/10/98

2 hours

Decentralised

5. Filip Standaert M 25

Belgium Spain 11 months 29/10/98

2.5 hours

Decentralised

6. Roman Broszeit M 22

Germany United Kingdom

6 months 16/11/98

2.5 hours

Centralised – Multilateral

7. Céline Decloedt F 24

Belgium Spain 9 months 26/11/98

3 hours

Decentralised

8. Mary Cinnamond F 22

United Kingdom

Spain 9 months 26/11/98

3 hours

Decentralised

9. Alexandra Sutherland F 26

United Kingdom

Austria 9 months 28/11/98

2.5 hours

Centralised - Multilateral

10. Nick Hamer M 26

United Kingdom

Austria 6 months 28/11/98

2.5 hours

Decentralised

11. Arndt Schmolke M 26

Germany Austria 10 months 28/11/98

2 hours

Decentralised

12. Nirvta Banghar F 23

United Kingdom

Italy 9 months 29/11/98

3 hours

Decentralised

13. Elena Vicentini F 21

Italy United Kingdom

5.5 months 14/12/98

3 hours

Decentralised

14. Raffaele Fabrizi M 27

Italy Ireland 6 months 15/12/98

4 hours

Decentralised

15. Jorge Pinto M 26

Portugal Italy 6 months 11/01/99

3 hours

Decentralised

16. Alexandra Leitão F 23

Portugal Italy 6 months 12/01/99

2 hours

Decentralised

Total 16 Average time (2.6 h)

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INTERVIEW GUIDE

Note: Before the interview starts, and if possible, try to chat with the volunteers about non -EVS things to establish some sort of “rapport”. Thank the volunteers for their time and interest; make them feel at ease and praise their English; explain the scope and purpose of the interview; tell them about the estimated time; explain the work of the SOS and its relation to DGXXII of the European Commission; ask permission to use the tape recorder; don’t show interview guide while talking; let them speak freely but keep them to the point; ask if they have any doubts or questions. Time: 01h 45m – 02h (give volunteer more time if possible and if you feel it necessary for him/her to express his/her ideas fully) General information: Full name Age Sending country Hosting country Project duration Main Questions: 1. How did you hear about EVS for the first time? 2. What were you doing at that time? 3. Why did you decide to participate? 4. What were your main expectations? Were they fulfilled? 5. What happened during your stay? Can you tell me about a positive and a negative event? Was

there anything special during your stay that you would like to talk about (people that you met, the tasks you had, etc.)?

6. How did you handle difficulties? Was there anyone to help? 7. Was it hard to get back to your country? Did you want to stay in your host country? Were you

anxious to get back? 8. How did you settle in during the first days/weeks after your return? 9. What was people’s reaction upon your return? Did they say that you had changed? How? 10. What did you do/are doing after your return? Does it have anything to do with your EVS

experience? In what way? 11. Do you think the participation in the EVS programme has influenced you? In what and how? 12. Do you feel different now that you have don e EVS? How different? 13. Do you ever think of going back to your hosting country or going somewhere else abroad? 14. What are you planning to do in the near and faraway future? Why are you planning to do that?

What are you doing/will do to achieve it? 15. Would you like to add something else? Have I forgotten to ask you something important?

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ANNEXE 9 - QUESTIONNAIRE

About this study… The Structure of Operational Support (SOS) for the European Voluntary Service (EVS) is conducting a small study amongst the participants of the EVS programme to learn more about their experience and its impact in their lives, namely after the conclusion of their voluntary service.

We are of course very interested in knowing your opinion and impressions on how important it was and has been the experience you have had within the EVS programme. Your answers will be an important tool to help us in realising how much the EVS programme has been achieving its objectives. We would like to thank you in advance for the time you have set out to answer our questions.

A) A FEW PERSONAL DETAILS ABOUT YOURSELF: 1. You are… male c female c 2. How old were you when you started your EVS? ………… years 3. What is your nationality? ………………………………… 4. What country do you live in? ……………………….………… 5. What country did you go to with EVS? ………………………..……….. 6. Did you speak any foreign languages before going on EVS? Yes c No c 7. What foreign languages did you speak before EVS?: English c French c German c Spanish c Other c please tell us which …………………… 8. What was your motivation to go on EVS? (tick only the 2 most relevant boxes) to find out about myself c because I was unemployed c to make new friends c to learn a new language c to become more independent c to learn new skills c to help other people c to give myself a fresh start c a cheap way of going abroad c to get working experience c to complement my studies c because other friends did it c for the adventure c to get away from home c to help developing Europe c other c please tell us what ………………………….………………………...

DC

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B) A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR PARTICIPATION IN EVS: 1. You first heard about the possibility of going on EVS, via: (tick only the most important source of information) a local information centre for young people c your school/University c your local newspaper c a National newspaper c the radio c the T.V c your local authority c your youth organisation c your EVS National Structure c a previous participant c a friend c direct invitation by the orga nisers c another source c please tell us which …………………… 2. Your sending organisation was… (tick only the one that describes it more accurately) a local youth organisation c a European youth organisation c a local municipality c an EVS National Structure c an environmental organisation c a job centre c a sports organisation c a religious organisation c a youth centre c another type of organisation c please tell us which ………………………………………… 3. Were you able to choose your hosting project? Yesc Noc 4. Did you consult the international Database of hosting projects? Yesc Noc 5. Did you participate in the planning of your activities in the hosting project? Yesc Noc 6. Your hosting organisation was… (tick only the one that describes it more accurately) a local youth organisation c a local municipality c a local community centre c an old people’s home c an environmental organisation c a religious organisation c a development organisation c a social work organisation c another type of organisation c please tell us which …………………………. 7. How long did your hosting project last? …………… months 8. Did you remain in your hosting country after the end of your project? Yesc …… weeks/months Noc 9. What was the main theme of your hosting project? (tick only the2 most relevant themes) Art and Culture c Environmental work c Protection of historical monuments c Rural Development c Urban Development c Anti-racism/xenophobia c Equal opportunities c Health promotion c Youth information c Media/Communications c European issues c Sports/Leisure time c Support to Disabled c Support to Migrants c Support to Homeless c Support to youth/children c Support to Elderly c Support to Unemployed c Other c please tell us which ……………………………………………………………

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C) A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RETURN TO YOUR HOME COUNTRY : 1. Did you participate in any follow-up/evaluation activity after your return to your home country? Yes c No c 2. If yes, who organised this activity? Your sending organisation c Your National Structure c Other c please tell us which …………………………………….. 3. What type of activity did you participate in after your return? (tick all the appropriate boxes) a big seminar with other volunteers c a small workshop with other volunteers c a training session with other volunteers c an individual interview with a youth worker c other c please tell us which ………………………………… 4. What was the main focus of this follow -up/evaluation activity? (tick only the 2 most relevant boxes)

evaluation of the EVS experience c helping with your re- integration back home c giving you career guidance c informing you about educational opportunities c other c please tell us what ……………………………………... 5. How long did this activity take? half a day c 1 full day c 2-3 days c more than 3 days c 6. How long after your arrival to your home country was this activity organised? Less than 1 month after c 1-3 months after c 3-5 months after c Other c please tell us how long after ……………… months

7. What would be your overall evaluation of this activity? (1 very poor - 5 very good)

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8. After your return home did you get involved in any type of local community/voluntary activity? Yes c please tell us what type of activity ……..……………………………………………… No c 9. If your answer to question 8 was YES, is this activity in any way related to what you did during your EVS? Yes c No c 10. If your answer to question 8 was NO, are you planning to become involved in a local community/voluntary activity? Yes c No c Maybe c 11. How was your re-integration back home? Very easy c easy c difficult c very difficult c

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Characteristics - - - = + ++AssertiveCommunicativeEuropeanOutgoingProgressiveHard-workingSpontaneousTalkativeConservativeSocially awareCaringOpen to peopleShyTolerantInvolvedIndifferentMatureIndependentOrganisedOptimisticMoney orientedSociableLonelyOther:

D) DESCRIBING YOURSELF AFTER YOUR EVS EXPERIENCE: 1. Read the following list of words carefully and tick all those characteristics that apply to you after having returned to your home country (- - much less; - less; = the same; + more; + + much more, than before of your EVS experience)

E) DEVELOPING YOUR PERSO NAL SKILLS 1. Read the following list of skills carefully and tick all those that apply to you after having returned to your home country (- - much less; - less; = the same; + more; + + much more, than before of your EVS experience)

Skills -- - = + ++I integrate in groups and teamsI take personal responsibility for organising activitiesI plan my timeI solve practical problems/find solutionsI can help solving conflictsI can communicate a personal idea/messageI can take a leading roleOther (please tell us which):

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F) YOUR DECISIONS /PROJECTS FOR THE FUTURE AFTER RETURNING TO YOUR HOME COUNTRY: 1. Education 1.1 Before going on EVS you…. had finished school c had finished College/University c were still at school c were still at College/University c had left school unfinished c had left College/University unfinished c 1.2 What you have done/plan to do after your return: (tick only the 2 most relevant boxes)

After getting back to my home country… XI decided to go back to school to complete my unfinished educationI decided to finish my previous studies as planned (school, college, university, trainingcourse, etc.)I decided not to finish my studies (school, college, university, training course, etc.)I decided to change/start to a new area of studies in accordance with what I had doneduring EVSI decided to change/start to a new area of studies unrelated with my EVS experienceI decided to do vocational training/more practical studiesI decided not to have anything to do with traditional educationI decided not to engage myself in any type of education (traditional or not)I decided to study the language of my hosting country in depthOther (please tell us what):

2. Working Life 2.1 Before going on EVS you… were employed c were looking for your first job c were unemployed c were doing an apprenticeship/training/stage c 2.2 What you have done/ plan to do after your return: (tick only the 2 most relevant boxes):

After getting back to my home country… XI went back to my previous job. Please tell us what:……………………………………………………………………….I found a job related to the activities that I had developed while on EVS. Please tell uswhat: ……………………………………………………………………………………I found a job but unrelated to the activities that I have developed while on EVS. Pleasetell us what: .…………………………………………………………………………….I have been having lots of small and unrelated jobs since thenI decided to start looking for different jobs but have not found anything yetI decided to start looking for different jobs but only when related to my EVS experienceI decided to look for a job outside my home country. Please tell us what and where:…….…………………………………………………………………I have been turned down by all the jobs I applied to for lack of qualifications/experienceI decided to create my own business/enterprise. Please tell us what:…………….…………………………………………………………I decided that I was not interested in looking for a jobOther (please tell us what):

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G) EXPECTATIONS AND RESULTS OF YOUR EVS EXPERIENCE (tick all the relevant boxes, for those expectations that do not apply to you tick not expected)

1. Your Expectations before going on EVS Fulfilled PartlyFulfilled

NotFulfilled

NotExpected

I expected to get a lot of preparation before mydepartureI expected to be given a lot of choice of differentprojectsI expected to be given a lot of training (technical andlinguistic) upon my arrival to the hosting countryI expected to have a lot of moral support during my stayI expected to be given a good amount of pocket moneyper monthI expected to learn a new languageI expected to find more about myself and what I want todo in lifeI expected to make lots of good friendsI expected to learn important skills for my future jobI expected to become more independentI expected to get more knowledge about other culturesand ways of lifeI expected to leave my past behind and become a newpersonI expected to find a boyfriend/girlfriendI expected to learn more about the worldI expected to become stronger to overcome life’sdifficultiesOther Expectations (please tell us which)

2. What would be your overall evaluation of your EVS experience? (1 very poor - 5 very good)

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H) ADDITIONAL COMMENTS : 1. Is there anything else you would like to let us know about your experience? If so please write your comments below and do not hesitate to add extra pages if needed.

PLEASE SEND US YOUR ANSWERS TO: OR FAX US TO: ++32-2-549 55 99 SOS for EVS c/o Luis Amorim Rue des Drapiers 35 B-1000 Brussels Belgium

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Assertive You are confident about yourself and you are capable of letting people know how you think and feel. You are capable of making your own point and getting your ideas through. Communicative You are interested in interacting with other people and sharing your thoughts and feelings with them. You talk easily to other people and you usually initiate a conversation or join in if asked. European You feel more than just a citizen of your country of origin, and you identify with a wider cultural and geographical reality: Europe. You relate to the common things that you share with other people coming from different countries in Europe. Outgoing You are open and friendly. You like being with other people and enjoying life. Progressive You are interested in new ideas and opportunities. You believe that innovation can help societies to move forward. Hard-working You are active and you put a lot of effort into what you do. You care about your work and you are persistent in achieving your aims. Spontaneous You react to people and events in a natural way. You do not hide your emotions and your impulses. Talkative You like talking to other people and you do it often. You enjoy communicating and sharing your thoughts and feelings. Conservative You prefer traditional ideas and ways of doing things. You usually tend to be cautions when approaching new things. Socially aware You are informed and interested in social issues. You understand and pay attention to the social issues around you. Caring You show interest for other people’s ideas and emotions. You are concerned with other people’s feelings and personal problems. Open to people You like to meet with people you already know and with new people. You let people come into your life. Shy You have difficulties to get in contact with other people. You usually prefer to be alone and not to come forward when in a group. Tolerant You accept behaviours and beliefs different from yours. You value the fact that people can think and behave in different ways. Involved You engage yourself in improving things around you. You like to participate in different types of activities and projects. Indifferent You are not concerned about other people and things around you. You do not care for what happens to other people and for things that do not relate to you directly. Mature You make careful and balanced judgements about life and other people in general. You are responsible and capable of making the right decisions and taking the appropriate actions. Independent You do not need other people’s opinions and ideas to tell you what to do. You can take your own initiatives and live life according to your ideas and convictions. Organised You like to do things following a specific order. You think that a set of rules is important to achieve a certain objective. Optimistic You believe that the world can become a better place. You usually expect the best possible outcome from people’s actions or events. Money oriented You wish to accumulate money. You think that money is one of the most important things in life. Sociable You enjoy the company of others very much. You like social relations, and you think that they are very important. Lonely You feel isolated from other people. You feel cut off from contacts with other people.

List of Meanings

study on the impact of evs.pdf

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