From shea-butter and basket-weaving women's cooperatives in northern Ghana and renovating a countryside farmhouse into an inclusive space for vulnerable young people in northern Italy, to natural building and restoring a historic hiking trail in a peaceful Greek village, companionship at an elderly residence deep in the Black Forest, a "Circular Library" reuse and social-reintegration project in Spain, digital skills and ICT training in a Ugandan community, upcycling a youth hostel in Slovenia, arts education across some twenty schools in Portugal, and youth empowerment and anti-domestic-violence work in Georgia — this batch of 21 fully funded ESC placements spans 13 countries across Europe and Africa.
Every ESC placement is fully funded — flight, accommodation, food, monthly pocket money and insurance. A large group of deadlines falls between 15 and 31 July 2026, with several placements running on into August.
What's in this batch:
21 ESC Volunteering Placements · 13 Countries · Deadlines from July into August 2026
🌱 ESC Volunteering Opportunities
🇮🇹 Italy — Support for People with Disabilities and a Youth Shelter 🏠
📅 Deadline: 10 July 2026
Split your week across a long-running cooperative's structures: supporting people with disabilities in socialisation and activities, helping at daytime educational centres, and assisting a shelter for young people removed from challenging family situations. Run workshops, sports and games, support logistics, and see Italian social services from the inside. Open to applicants from 29 countries across Europe — three different worlds of care in a single placement.
🇮🇹 Italy — Youth Work with Teenagers at a Milan Youth Centre ⚽
📅 Deadline: 10 July 2026
Join a vibrant youth centre supporting young people, many from immigrant backgrounds, in disadvantaged Milan neighbourhoods. Provide after-school and homework help, assist in workshops on arts, culture and human rights, support sports and friendly matches, and help with intercultural events, language tandems and social media, all through learning by doing. Open to applicants from 29 countries across Europe — frontline youth work where it changes the most lives.
🇫🇷 France — Promoting Europe and Intercultural Exchange 🇪🇺
📅 Deadline: 15 July 2026
Join a Europe Direct centre in southern France informing citizens about the EU and youth mobility programmes. Facilitate intercultural exchanges with the local community, promote the educational service for schools, create and run workshops for young people, organise intercultural events with other volunteers, and manage the centre's social networks. Open to applicants from 26 countries across Europe — be the friendly face that makes the EU feel real to people.
📋 New to ESC volunteering? Everything you need to know — how it works, who can apply, what costs are covered — is in one place. Read the complete guide →
🇬🇭 Ghana — Women's Empowerment and Sustainable Livelihoods 💜
📅 Deadline: 15 July 2026
Be a catalyst for social change in the economic empowerment of women in northern Ghana. Support programmes around shea butter production, basket and cloth weaving, help strengthen women's skills and build lasting cooperatives, engage with school-age children, and open new European markets for artisanal products, building bridges between local communities and international buyers. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — your work here can open a whole European market for a village's craft.
🇩🇪 Germany — Organising Intercultural Student Events on a University Campus 🎉
📅 Deadline: 16 July 2026
Join a student NGO running Germany's largest student conference and a year of intercultural campus projects. Take a hands-on role in event organisation alongside a 40-strong international team, and grow your skills in project management, communication and creative tools — real event-management chops on a buzzing campus.
🇬🇪 Georgia — Youth Work and Empowerment Programmes 💪
📅 Deadline: 19 July 2026
Lead dynamic youth programmes engaging children and young adults aged 8 to 25. Support at-risk youth, raise awareness of domestic violence, facilitate workshops and discussions, and work with young people and local stakeholders to develop clubs, social education and creative projects. As a mentor and coordinator of local volunteers, you'll foster informed decision-making and community involvement. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — a mentoring role with real responsibility from day one.
✍️ Last-minute motivation letter? Here's how to write one that actually gets read — and remembered. Read the guide →
🇺🇬 Uganda — Digital Skills and ICT Training in the Community 📱
📅 Deadline: 19 July 2026
Play a key role in building digital capacity at a Ugandan youth organisation. Deliver targeted training on digital skills, communication and social media marketing, manage and upgrade digital platforms to boost engagement, and run ICT sessions for staff and local partners like schools and community organisations, fostering sustainable digital development. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — leave behind digital skills that keep paying off long after you go.
🇵🇹 Portugal — Arts Education and Community Work with Youth 🎨
📅 Deadline: 25 July 2026
Join a cultural and social organisation for a volunteering experience connecting arts, education, youth participation and community work. Follow and support secondary school students creating artistic performances in theatre, music, dance and visual arts, help with artistic preparation, backstage, materials, communication and events, in a project involving around 20 schools. Open to applicants from 10 countries across Europe — help hundreds of students put on the show of their lives.
💡 What do organisations actually look for in an ESC volunteer? Skills, values, attitude — what makes a strong profile. Read the guide →
🇮🇹 Italy — Renovating a Countryside Farmhouse for Inclusion 🛠️
📅 Deadline: 26 July 2026
Join a team giving new life to a countryside farmhouse near a regional park in northern Italy, making it a safe, inclusive space for highly vulnerable young people in future exchanges. Over 38 days of hands-on, community-based work, help renovate the structure, do green maintenance, run upcycling workshops, manage community cooking, and spread the word on waste management and sustainability. Open to applicants from 20 countries across Europe — build, with your own hands, the space that will welcome others.
🇩🇪 Germany — Companionship and Care at an Elderly Residence (Black Forest) 👵
📅 Deadline: 27 July 2026
An immersive placement at an elderly residence in the Black Forest, where a warm, family-like team cares for its residents. Spend time with seniors one-to-one and in groups, join board games, reading, singing, meals, events and excursions, and support their independence, gaining valuable care and language skills. Open to residents of Italy — companionship as a full-time calling, in a storybook setting.
🇵🇱 Poland — Creative Activities and Play in a Kindergarten 🧸
📅 Deadline: 30 July 2026
Join a kindergarten team and help children grow through creative, playful learning. Assist teachers with daily activities, run arts and crafts workshops and games, support outdoor events and celebrations, encourage social skills and curiosity, and share your own culture through intercultural learning. Open to applicants from 29 countries across Europe — the youngest, most joyful classroom in this batch.
🗺️ Not sure if your country is eligible? The full list of ESC and Erasmus+ programme and partner countries — including many outside the EU. Check eligibility →
🇪🇸 Spain — Youth Information and Community Activities at a Town Hall 🎲
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Join a town hall in the Murcia region and work across its youth information service, play centre and recreational school activities. Help young people discover study and work opportunities, prepare awareness activities for schools, and promote European mobility programmes while championing solidarity, equality and inclusion. Open to residents of Italy — see how local government actually serves its young people.
🇫🇷 France — Ambassador of European Mobility 📣
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Take on the role of "Ambassador of European Mobility" for young people in the south of France, working on the principle of peer-to-peer information. Produce multimedia resources, share your own mobility story, run intercultural workshops, and help co-develop events and tools that promote cross-border mobility and citizenship. Open to applicants from 26 countries across Europe — your own journey abroad becomes the message.
🇩🇪 Germany — Community Life, Gardening and Sustainable Living 🥕
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Join a community experience preparing a biodiverse garden to boost the self-sufficiency of a rural collective. Reconnect deeply with nature while gardening, building, cooking and creating art together, learning skills hands-on and cultivating dialogue, reflection and environmental awareness in a supportive team. Open to applicants from 39 countries across Europe — a genuine reset, at the pace of the garden.
🚫 "I'm not qualified enough." "I don't speak the language." Four common ESC myths — and the facts that prove them wrong. Read the facts →
🇭🇺 Hungary — Creative and Leisure Activities for Young People 🎭
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Join a cultural and youth centre organising creative and leisure activities for young people aged 12 to 24. Run handcraft, music and group-game sessions, support a personal development programme through singing, stories and relaxing time, and help deliver events like museums' night and summer and winter festivals. Open to residents of Armenia, Georgia and Russia — a dedicated route in for applicants from the Caucasus and beyond.
🇬🇷 Greece — Natural Building and Rural Restoration 🪵
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
A hands-on team project for sustainable rural development in a small, peaceful Greek village. Help renovate a former primary school into a guest house using natural building, woodworking and traditional stone techniques, restore a historic hiking trail once walked by generations of local children, and experience an alternative way of living close to nature. Open to applicants from 65 countries worldwide — learn ancient building crafts while bringing a village back to life.
🇪🇸 Spain — Traperos de Emaús Circular Library with Reuse and Social Reintegration ♻️
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
A pioneer non-profit in collecting, reusing and recycling second-hand objects, running a social enterprise that employs people at risk of exclusion. Work mainly on a "Circular Library" project: classify donated books, welcome the public and explain the project, manage in-shop sales and online e-commerce, create content and run online visibility, organise events and liaise with authors, publishers and distributors, also contributing to direct support of beneficiaries. Open to Italian residents only — books, circular economy and social justice, all in one role.
✍️ Writing your motivation letter? Here's how to make it land — and be remembered. Read the guide →
🇵🇱 Poland — Summer Team Volunteering with a Local NGO 🧹
📅 Deadline: 1 August 2026
Join a team of young people in the summer activities of a rural NGO. Clean local paths and collect trash, repair and repaint facilities and furniture, help maintain the building, office and garden, support local and regional projects, and create social media content promoting the organisation's values and your own culture. Open to applicants from 35 countries across Europe — a short, hands-on summer with a tight-knit team.
🇸🇮 Slovenia — Upcycling and Renovating a Youth Hostel 🛠️
📅 Deadline: 4 August 2026
Join a team of volunteers from across Europe to give warmth and story to the rooms of a youth hostel, using discarded materials in the most nature-friendly way. Explore, plan and create welcoming spaces, bringing your ideas to life for a hostel that offers people with fewer opportunities a safe space to grow and gain first work experience. Open to applicants from 30 countries across Europe — leave a physical mark that welcomes travellers for years.
💡 What makes a strong ESC profile? Skills, values, attitude — what organisations really look for. Read the guide →
🇨🇿 Czechia — Skills Workshops with Adults with Disabilities 🧶
📅 Deadline: 15 August 2026
Support a centre helping adults with mental and combined disabilities build work and social skills for greater independence. Assist in workshops and therapeutic activities, get creative with knitting, crochet, sewing, ceramics and woodwork, and accompany clients on leisure activities, sports, cultural events and excursions. Open to applicants from 28 countries across Europe — craft and care, side by side, every day.
🇨🇿 Czechia — Daily Support at a Centre for Adults with Disabilities 🎨
📅 Deadline: 15 August 2026
Support a centre helping adults with moderate to severe disabilities lead active, self-sufficient daily lives. Assist with morning routines and snacks, join singing and music sessions, and work one-on-one on creative and therapeutic activities like handicrafts, art therapy, pottery and exercises for fine motor skills and memory. Open to applicants from 29 countries across Europe — patient, one-on-one work where small wins matter enormously.
Twenty-one fully funded ESC placements across 13 countries in a single batch — and the range of causes here is unusually wide. Shea-butter and basket-weaving women's cooperatives in northern Ghana, renovating a countryside farmhouse into an inclusive space for vulnerable youth in northern Italy, natural building and restoring a historic hiking trail in a Greek village, companionship at an elderly residence in the Black Forest, a "Circular Library" reuse and social-reintegration project in Spain, digital skills and ICT training in Uganda, upcycling a youth hostel in Slovenia, arts education across some twenty schools in Portugal, and youth empowerment and anti-domestic-violence work in Georgia — these are not opportunities you'll see grouped together again.
The spread runs from Europe into Africa. Italy leads with three placements — a disability-and-youth-shelter role, a Milan youth centre and a farmhouse renovation — while Germany offers three too, spanning campus events, a Black Forest elderly home and rural community gardening. France brings two Europe-and-mobility roles in the south, Spain two (a Murcia town hall and the Circular Library), Poland two (a kindergarten and a summer NGO team), and the Czech Republic two disability-support centres. Ghana, Georgia, Uganda, Portugal, Hungary, Greece and Slovenia round out the map with everything from women's economic empowerment to natural building. The two Italian placements close first on 10 July, a large cluster falls on 31 July, and the two Czech disability-support roles close the batch on 15 August. Choose yours.
