Eighteen fully funded European Solidarity Corps placements are open right now across 11 countries, and the range runs from a European city classroom all the way to a Kenyan preschool. You could be protecting rare feather grass and the Mountain Alcon Blue butterfly along the Austrian Green Belt, supporting early childhood education for children affected by poverty in western Kenya, bringing digital skills to rural communities in northern Ghana, volunteering with the Red Cross across food banks and nursing homes in northern Portugal, running a wheelchair handball project at a women's club in the south of France, or joining daily life at a Waldorf school in a Hungarian valley. From a Milan youth centre to a Krishnamurti inspired learning centre in Portugal, this is one of the most varied sets of placements we have gathered in a single post.
Every one of these eighteen placements is a European Solidarity Corps opportunity, which means the funding is real: travel within the usual distance bands, accommodation, food, local transport, insurance, pocket money, a mentor and language support are all covered, for volunteers aged 18 to 30. Two placements are limited to residents of a specific country, and those are flagged below. Seven of the eighteen are open on a rolling basis and will close as soon as enough good applications arrive, while the rest run through late July into mid August.
What's in this batch:
18 Fully Funded ESC Volunteering Placements · 11 Countries · Deadlines from "As Soon As Possible" to 10 August 2026
🩷 ESC Volunteering Opportunities
🇩🇪 Germany: Intercultural Community and Youth Projects 🎭
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Become part of a non profit promoting intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and democratic participation through creative non formal education. You will support community events, intercultural cooking, theatre and forum theatre projects, and workshops for children, young people, migrants and refugees. Help facilitate activities, bring your own ideas, document events and boost visibility through communication and social media, all in a warm international team. German is not required, English is enough, and you will pick up German along the way. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇫🇷 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 🇵🇱 and 14 more. Theatre, cooking and community, no German needed.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria: Youth Empowerment and Sustainability Campaigns 🌱
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Empower young people while championing sustainability, eco friendly initiatives and European values. You will organise events and campaigns from clean ups to art clubs and DIY sustainability projects, spread the word about ESC and Erasmus+ through info sessions and school visits, create content and write articles, and turn your own idea into a real community initiative. The skills come with it: non formal education, website management, design, social media strategy and a buddy support system. No experience needed. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇱🇻 🇲🇰 and 25 more. Turn one green idea into a real campaign.
🇵🇱 Poland: Intercultural Learning in a Municipal Kindergarten 🧸
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Bring an intercultural dimension into early years education at a municipal kindergarten caring for young children through didactic and outdoor activities, free play, excursions, events, art and daily routines. You assist the teachers, but the real space is yours: organise workshops, presentations and classes that introduce your culture and language to the group, and teach foreign languages informally through games and playful exercises. Patience, warmth and a habit of taking initiative go a long way here. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇬🇱 🇱🇻 🇺🇦 and 24 more. Your culture, taught through play.
📋 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 →
🇦🇹 Austria: Open Youth and Cultural Work 🎨
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Join an organisation running demand oriented open youth work for all young people aged 11 to 25, whatever their background, creating social and cultural spaces where they can develop their identity, personality and relationships. As a volunteer you take part in the various youth services and participatory projects developed together with the young people, on topics like democracy, anti racism, gender sensitive youth work, health and wellbeing, food and cooking, urban gardening, street work, sports and art. Plenty of room to bring your own initiative. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇱🇻 🇭🇷 and 15 more. Open youth work, shaped by the young people themselves.
🇵🇱 Poland: Promoting Culture and Reading at a Municipal Library 📚
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Support a municipal library serving a town in northern Masovia, which runs cultural and educational activities for all age groups alongside its traditional role. You help staff prepare and run activities for readers and residents, and create content and manage social media like TikTok and Instagram. You can also realise your own initiatives with an intercultural dimension: supporting excursions, workshops and concerts, organising language cafes and meetings at high schools, handicraft and STEM workshops, promoting reading through meetings with children, and taking photos and making videos. Open to applicants from 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇬🇪 🇬🇱 🇺🇦 and 23 more. A library that is really a community hub.
🇵🇹 Portugal: Daily Life at a Holistic Learning Centre 🌿
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Support the daily operations of a Krishnamurti inspired holistic education project in the north of Portugal. Beyond practical daily tasks like helping staff around meal times and with small repairs and maintenance, the centre runs weekly Dialogue sessions with space to explore themes like responsibility, relationships and awareness, setting a focus topic to sit with each week. Through hands on involvement you help provide a loving space for young children to grow and flourish. No previous experience needed, but a genuine interest in looking at yourself clearly, with no religion, methods or ideologies. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇫🇷 🇭🇷 and 26 more. A placement that asks you to slow down and look inward.
🇫🇷 France: Supporting Young People in Difficulty at a School 🏫
📅 Deadline: As soon as possible
Join a foundation of over 300 youth centres that welcomes, educates and supports 40,000 young people in difficulty and their families near Paris. Within a school group for middle and high school students and apprentices, focused on preventing school dropout and building a positive climate, you take part in the daily life of the institution and support students directly. You will welcome and integrate students, support them during activities, organise educational, cultural and sporting activities, foster intercultural exchanges, and help build students' autonomy and self confidence. ⚠️ Open to residents of Italy. Catch young people before they fall through the cracks.
✍️ Last minute motivation letter? Here's how to write one that actually gets read, and remembered. Read the guide →
🇮🇹 Italy: Youth Centre Work with Teenagers in Milan ⚽
📅 Deadline: 26 July 2026
Join a vibrant youth centre in Milan supporting young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, many from immigrant backgrounds, through fun, creative and educational activities. Your role may include after school and homework support, helping with workshops on arts, culture and human rights, supporting sports and friendly matches, joining intercultural events, language tandems and free markets, and sharing European opportunities while creating social media content. The centre is looking for sporty, empathetic and open minded volunteers who enjoy learning by doing. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇭🇷 🇪🇪 and 24 more. Milan, seen from a neighbourhood that needs you.
🇮🇹 Italy: Youth Shelter and Educational Centres 🏠
📅 Deadline: 26 July 2026
Volunteer across two structures of a cooperative supporting children and teenagers since 1985. Three days a week you support a minors shelter hosting around ten young people aged 8 to 18, who have been removed from their families and are currently unaccompanied. Two days a week you help educational day centres offering programmes for youngsters. In both settings you support daily activities like workshops, sports, games and socialisation, and help with logistics and preparation. The project's goal is to give minors safety and empowerment while building a strong spirit of teamwork. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 🇭🇷 and 24 more. Safety and belonging for kids who lost both.
🇮🇹 Italy: Supporting People with Disabilities and a Youth Shelter 💙
📅 Deadline: 26 July 2026
Volunteer across two structures of the same cooperative. Three days a week you support a centre for people with disabilities in socialisation and activities; the rest of the week you help educational day centres and a minors shelter hosting around ten young people aged 8 to 18, who have been removed from their families and are currently unaccompanied. In both settings you support daily activities like workshops, sports, games and socialisation, and help prepare and run them. A rare chance to see Italian social services from the inside. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 🇭🇷 and 24 more. Two vulnerable worlds, one week.
💡 What do organisations actually look for in an ESC volunteer? Skills, values, attitude, what makes a strong profile. Read the guide →
🇦🇹 Austria: Biodiversity Conservation in the European Green Belt 🦋
📅 Deadline: 30 July 2026
Two weeks protecting rare habitats in the European Green Belt along the Austrian and Czech border, where dry grasslands are home to many rare plants and animals. To keep these habitats alive and stop bushes taking over, you and the team carry out biotope maintenance like mowing and removing bushes and invasive plants across protected grasslands, set amid a beautiful wine growing landscape. Your work helps preserve species like the critically endangered feather grass and the Mountain Alcon Blue butterfly. Hands on nature conservation for anyone passionate about biodiversity. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇭🇷 🇸🇰 and 17 more. Save a butterfly most people never notice.
🇭🇺 Hungary: Waldorf School Life and Language Practice 🌳
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Volunteer at a small Waldorf primary school of around 150 children, set in a valley on the edge of the city with hills and forests nearby. Waldorf is a well known alternative education system built on love of nature and arts, a cooperative rather than competitive atmosphere, and balanced intellectual, emotional and physical development. The children learn English and Spanish, and your presence encourages them to practise these languages and meet people from other cultures. Your main task is simply to be part of the school's daily life: joining classes, excursions, afternoon activities and festivals, talking and playing with the children. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 and 16 more. A gentler kind of school, in a green valley.
🇫🇷 France: Sport, Inclusion and European Projects at a Handball Club 🤾
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Join a women's handball club in the south of France that brings together around 300 players across 17 teams and, beyond competition, runs educational, inclusive and European projects promoting solidarity, cultural exchange and active citizenship. Across the year you help lead intercultural activities during school holiday camps, support the development of a wheelchair handball project, and contribute to sustainability initiatives on match weekends. Depending on your interests you may also organise club events, welcome international teams and bring your own ideas to enrich club life. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 🇭🇷 and 20 more. Sport as a tool for real inclusion.
🗺️ 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 →
🇭🇷 Croatia: Inclusive Volunteering with Young People with Fewer Opportunities 💙
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Support the development of inclusive volunteering in a Croatian city, working with young people with fewer opportunities and health difficulties. Across schools, the local community and the organisation's office, you will prepare and lead workshops and activities, inform young people on different topics both live and on social media, design and take part in adjusted voluntary activities in the community, and promote inclusive volunteering, the ESC programme and intercultural learning. You will also join the organisation's regular youth information and solidarity work. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇷🇸 🇧🇦 and 23 more. Make volunteering itself more inclusive.
🇵🇹 Portugal: Community Support with the Red Cross 🤝
📅 Deadline: 4 August 2026
Spend eight months volunteering for the Red Cross in northern Portugal, with hands on experience in community engagement and direct contact with vulnerable groups. You support a wide range of activities: logistics at the food bank, activities at an elderly nursing home and at a rehabilitation centre for people recovering from addictions, sessions at a local primary school and a permaculture farm. There are also chances to help with a pilgrim shelter, environmental initiatives and local fundraising events. Tasks are varied and practical, a great fit for anyone who prefers working in the field rather than behind a desk. Open to applicants from 🇷🇸 🇦🇱 🇭🇷 🇺🇦 🇲🇰 and 19 more. A different vulnerable group every day of the week.
🇬🇭 Ghana: Digital Skills and Inclusion in Rural Communities 💻
📅 Deadline: 5 August 2026
Bring your digital energy to a community organisation in northern Ghana, blending IT, communication, staff training and community empowerment. You will manage the organisation's social media and create engaging content, provide basic IT support, improve internal digital organisation, and every week or two deliver digital skills training for staff on online tools, data organisation and basic cybersecurity. Beyond the office you will lead digital literacy training in rural communities, adapting to low resource settings, and shape your own digital innovation project with lasting local value. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇹🇷 🇷🇴 and 26 more. Close a digital gap that really matters.
🇮🇹 Italy: Inclusion and Solidarity with Vulnerable Communities 🤝
📅 Deadline: 10 August 2026
Join a ten month project bringing together nine volunteers from across Europe to support inclusion, solidarity and community participation. You will collaborate on services for people with disabilities, children and teenagers in difficult situations, homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers. Depending on your interests and the organisation's needs, you might work in socio educational activities, creative workshops, sewing, gardening, cooking, bike repair, community theatre and communication. No previous experience required, just motivation, curiosity to learn Italian and the drive to help build a more inclusive community. ⚠️ Open to residents of Spain. Nine volunteers, one very human mission.
🇰🇪 Kenya: Early Childhood Education in a Farming Region 🎒
📅 Deadline: 10 August 2026
Support early childhood education in low income communities in western Kenya. Working alongside local teachers at a community resource centre and nearby pre primary schools, you will strengthen children's physical, cognitive and emotional development through play based learning, literacy support and creative activities. The focus is capacity building and sharing skills for sustainable, long term improvement. You will support the daily life of preschools and kindergartens, mainly with children aged 3 to 6, at a centre serving around ninety children affected by poverty, orphanhood or HIV, who receive free education and meals during the day. Open to applicants from 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇹🇷 🇷🇴 and 26 more. The earliest years, where help matters most.
Eighteen placements, eleven countries, one shared promise: your travel, housing, food, insurance and pocket money are covered, so all you bring is yourself. Their characters pull in every direction. Some are built around the very young, from municipal kindergartens in Poland and a Waldorf school in Hungary to a Kenyan preschool serving children affected by poverty and HIV. Some are built around inclusion and care, spanning three Italian placements across shelters and disability services, a Croatian inclusive volunteering project, Red Cross work in Portugal and a women's handball club in France. Others put you close to the planet or to a cause, from butterfly and grassland conservation on the Austrian Green Belt to digital literacy in rural Ghana and sustainability campaigns in Bulgaria. Two placements are limited to residents of a specific country, so check those first. Seven are open on a rolling basis and will close as soon as they fill, while the rest run through late July into mid August. Find the one that sounds like your next year, and get your application in while the place is still there.
