🇵🇱 ESC Volunteering in Poland 🧒 Community Centre Activities for Children and Young People 🎨

Description

URGENT CALL! ESC volunteering in Opole, Poland! Ukrainian speakers especially welcome!

Join Horyzont, a local community centre for children and young people, for 6 months (your winter semester abroad) or stay for 1 0–12 months for the full ESC “gap year” experience. Preferred arrival dates are 28 September-4 October or 12-14 October 2026.

Horyzont is part of the children’s everyday life: a place where they come after school to spend time together, learn, play and take part in different activities. As a volunteer, you will take an active role in the centre, planning and leading your own activities, workshops or lessons based on your skills and interests. These may include arts & crafts, games, sports, music, English, intercultural activities or completely new ideas of your own. You will also work alongside the Horyzont team and support activities already happening at the centre.

Accommodation, food and transport arrangements

Volunteers live in a shared coeducational apartment in Opole, with shared bedrooms arranged with everyone’s comfort and privacy in mind. Internet is provided. Volunteers receive 550 PLN/month for food and 6 EUR/day pocket money. Transport needed between the accommodation and hosting organisation is provided and may differ depending on the placement (e.g. a monthly city or regional transport pass). Travel to and from Poland is reimbursed according to the applicable ESC distance bands (check distance here and the reimburment possibilities here ).

Training during the activity

Volunteers take part in the official ESC training cycle, including an on-arrival and/or mid-term training, usually organised in Warsaw or Toruń. You will receive ongoing support from your coordinator, mentor and Horyzont team. Polish language support is provided through an online course, with additional lessons available if needed for the volunteer’s tasks and work at the hosting organisation. During a long-term project, there may also be opportunities to join other learning activities, such as language courses, workshops or Erasmus+ trainings, depending on what is available during your stay.

Participant profile

We are looking for volunteers who genuinely enjoy spending time with children and young people and would like to become part of the everyday life of Horyzont.

You don't need to be a professional teacher or youth worker. Previous experience with children is welcome, but not essential. What matters most is that you are patient, responsible, open-minded, creative and willing to take initiative.

We are looking for volunteers who come with their own ideas and are ready to turn them into activities, workshops or lessons for the children, while also being happy to support the Horyzont team with activities already taking place at the centre. Whether your thing is arts and crafts, music, theatre, sports, languages, games, photography, dance or something completely different, we would love to see what you can bring to the project.

The volunteering schedule is approximately 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Since the centre works with school-age children, activities take place in the afternoons, after the children finish school. You should therefore be comfortable with an afternoon-based schedule rather than expecting typical morning office hours.

You should be able to communicate in English, as it will be the main language used between volunteers and project coordinators. If you enjoy languages, there will also be opportunities to use them creatively with the children, for example through informal English/other language activities, games or conversation sessions.

Ukrainian speakers are particularly encouraged to apply! Many of the children attending the centre are from Ukraine, so speaking Ukrainian is a great advantage for everyday communication, building trust and creating activities that everyone can fully participate in. If you speak Ukrainian and enjoy working with children, we would be very happy to hear from you.

Because this placement involves regular activities with minors, selected volunteers must provide a criminal record certificate before coming to Poland.

We currently offer two possible lengths of stay: a minimum of 6 months , which can work perfectly as a winter semester abroad, or 10–12 months for those looking for the full ESC “gap year” experience.

This is an urgent call, so we are particularly interested in candidates available to arrive 28 September-4 October 2026 or 12-14 October 2026.

Activity details

Activity type

Individual volunteering

Activity dates

From 28/09/2026 to 30/06/2027

Location

Damrota 10/103, Opole, Poland

Deadline

30/09/2026

Project code

2025-2-PL01-ESC51-VTJ-000378366

Topics

Looking for participants from

50 countries can apply. The activity takes place in 🇵🇱 Poland.