A travel race has started in the Netherlands: in the next two weeks, 12 teams will compete against each other and will travel through the entire country. During the trip, they will have to visit projects that are supported by the EU. One of the teams, Team Steam, will represent YouthNetworks and will visit volunteers and organisations around the country.
Team Steam will try to collect a hundred heroes: volunteers or people who do good for others. These will be placed on the website, www.100heroes.eu. The website is currently under construction.

If you are a hero, or if you know a hero for our collection, we’d love to come and visit you and your organisation. We’ll write about the organisation and the volunteers working there, which will give you a chance to present yourselves and your organisation, and will earn us points: it’s a win-win situation! However, we will only be able to visit organizations or volunteers that are in the Netherlands. Also, if you are a organization sponsored by the EU but don’t have any volunteers at the moment, we would still be happy to visit you.

Team Steam consists of former YouthNetworks community trainer Albert Meijer and newcomer Margje Boersma. Contact us at albert@100heroes.eu or margje@100heroes.eu.

You can also follow us on:

Facebook (EN): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Steam/235618673122063
Twitter (NL): http://twitter.com/teamsteam2
Hyves (NL): http://teamsteam.hyves.nl/
Waarbenjij.nu (NL) : www.teamsteam.waarbenjij.nu

Youth and Environment Europe, known as YEE, is a network that unites 46 youth environmental organisations in Europe. These member organisations cooperate and make common international projects to raise awareness about environment and appreciation for nature. YEE-ers are young, enthusiastic and they want to make a change!

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If you are interested in doing your EVS abroad, please take a look on the Scriptamanent Contest blog, where you can read the stories of 19 EVS volunteers!

Barbara Woroch, Poland: “I have always been interested in Russia and a plan to go there has always lived independently somewhere back in my mind. So, after the graduation, when I asked myself this fundamental question ”What do I want from life NOW?” there was only 1 possible answer. 3 months later I entered the office of NGO “One World Association” in Poznan. Agnieszka, my best coordinator ever, who has known me earlier, wasn’t surprised that I wanted to go to Russia. “Find a project for me”, I asked. “I have to go to Russia.” After 3 weeks I knew that I was accepted, I would live and work in Nizhny Novgorod for 9 months and take part in a project “Konkort”, working with mentally disabled youngsters. At that time I was simply happy.” 

Curious to the rest of her story? Please, visit the Scriptamanent Contest blog.

And the two winners are ….

The Student Youth Council from Georgia has been established in 2001 by four student organizations, promoting establishment of high education standards in Ozurgeti (Guria region, West Georgia). The*Student-Youth Council* is a public union, which aims at solving the problems that youth and students are facing by protecting their rights, promoting knowledge and skills, filling informational gap, realizing youth’s intellectual, creative, cultural and sport potentials. Nowadays the organization works in the following programmes:

• Youth integration and assistance for their active involvement in public life;
• Assistance to promote and develop volunteering;
• Assistance to establish and develop democratic govern/self-govern.

*Student-Youth Council* is also involved in the “Youth in Action” programme. They already took part in 25 different kind of activities such as 5 “Youth Exchanges”, where the organisation was co-organizer sending organization and the co-organizer host organization of two projects as well as. Since 2008 *Student-Youth Council* is also involved in EVS projects. So far 20 EVS volunteers worked in their organization and they also send15 Georgian volunteers to Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary and Romania.

Are you curious to their realized work? Watch all their videos on the Student Youth Council YouTube channel.

Currently Student Youth Council plans to apply for the 1st February deadline with the EVS hosting project concerning the EuroClubs. The project will take place in the city of Ozurgeti and will last 6 months. The placement where the volunteer will to develop her/his EVS is Guria region, in the western part of Georgia. The project aims at assistance of volunteer introducing the different possibilities from Europe that are provided by the youngsters;promoting youth programs; spreading the information about YiA and EVS in general; development of cooperation on European level at the place, where the volunteer will be accommodated and where she/he will undertake to participate voluntarily in an active citizenship and an informal inter-cultural education experience.

The most important activity will be the promotion of the project itself, promotion of the Youth in Action Programme in general and further promotion of voluntary work in local society, what makes the step to Europe and European integration. The main focus of the project will be the volunteer`’s active involvement in local youth work activities, that range from daily Euroclubs` work, regular cultural events to one-event-activities providing young people with specific knowledge about cultural heritage, history, values, languages and other skills, expand their European awareness and develop the cooperation between the young people with different backgrounds.

Searching for another EVS organization? Please visit www.youthnetworks.eu for more EVS vacancies!

Would you like to share your extraordinary day-to-day work with citizens around Europe? Join the European Year of Volunteering 2011 (EYV) celebrations. Share your achievements, challenges and enriching experiences. Two organisations working with volunteers will be selected in each European country. A member of the EYV team will visit you and produce films, radio chronicles and written articles about your amazing work. This media products will be promoted among television channels, radio stations, and press and Internet groups during the year. For more detailed information about the selection process and the application deadlines, please visit the 2011 EYV website.

The European Year of Volunteering 2011 (EYV) is a celebration of the commitment of millions of people in Europe who work in their communities during their free time without being paid. Their efforts and those of the many thousands of volunteering organisations make a huge difference to our lives in countless ways. The year is also a challenge to those Europeans who do not volunteer, to let them know that they can also make a difference. The launch conference of the EYV 2011 by the European Commission will take place in Budapest (Hungary) on 8 January 2011. Find out more about:

• The goals and benefits of EYV 2011.
• The updated calendar of the EYV 2011
• The call for proposals for flagship projects in the framework of the EYV 2011.

Check also out the European Year of Volunteering 2011 Alliance website and the European Commission website about the European Year. Both homepages are developing continuously and soon you will be able to find partners or volunteers for your projects or advertise activities for instance.

Internview is a short documentary which provides a rare glimpse into the experiences of interns in Europe and by going beyond policy to see how interns and ex-interns feel about internships systems. The video is a part of the Youth Forum’s ongoing advocacy work that strives for an EU Quality Charter on Internships. Although internships provide important opportunities for young people and can help with the transition from education to employment, there has been a recent trend for internships to replace jobs in Europe. ‘Internview’ introduces you to Brunel (23), Aleksandra (28) and Renasha (25) who all stress that the standard of internships depends upon the discretion of the employer, that there is no minimum standard and that there is little social protection for interns.