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Léargas Annual Report 2019 forward
European Solidarity Corps The European Solidarity Corps funds and supports young people between 18 and 30 to volunteer or work in projects that benefit communities. It offers an inspiring and empowering experience for those who want to help others as well as learn and develop themselves. Young people can volunteer or work, in their own country or abroad, through the Volunteering, Traineeships, Jobs, or Solidarity Projects strands.
European Solidarity Corps Highlights of 2019 In April 2019 we ran a residential training course called ‘Be the Spark!’, to help young people be the change that they want to see in their community and beyond. It was specifically designed to help young people develop their own Solidarity Projects, and the projects that emerged as a result addressed many difficult issues in communities - including inclusion, climate action, active citizenship and solidarity. In 2019 we also selected and trained a pool of ‘Quality Label experts’, to help us reach out to rural communities. These experts supported local organisations across the country to explore how they could use the programme to support and complement their own work. Involvement in the European Solidarity Corps continued to rise across Ireland, and by the end of year we had reached a 90% geographical spread. We had also set ourselves a target that in 2019, 35% of participants in the volunteering strand would be young people with future opportunities. We exceeded that target and by the year’s end almost 60% of participants were young people with fewer opportunities.
