European Solidarity Corps: TOSCA (NET)

As newcomers to the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) program we were looking for an opportunity to gain knowledge, to establish new partnerships and to learn from players in the field in order to gain the necessary experience and knowledge to create a successful project with high quality and impact. My expectations were to learn about ESC, build capacity and partnerships and learn about the relevant aspects for a successful application and implementation of an ESC project. More specific I wanted to learn about the criteria and relevant aspects of the development and implementation of a successful ESC project and build competences in designing and implementing an ESC project. Since we have not worked with this program before one of the biggest motivations was to build partnerships with other participating organizations and to learn from good practice and experience.

Through the set-up of the training mostly all of my expectations and interests were met, and I was able to clarify the questions that I had. Especially the fact of having a representative of a national agency in the training was very beneficial because we received first-hand experiences of the reality of the national agencies and also suggestions on how to improve a project and information on what formally is possible and what not. Due to the diverse group I could also learn a lot from the rich experience of other participants of which some have been working with volunteers for many years under the previous EVS program. This biggest value to me brought a project design session in which we created project plans in groups and gave feedback to each other. I learned a lot about how to design a project with regard to the core quality criteria of the European Solidarity Corps.

The participation in this training course was very beneficial and it will directly translate in our upcoming volunteering projects. I can recommend participating in upcoming TOSCA training courses to anyone who is already involved or is planning to get involved in ESC projects and is looking to broaden their understanding and to network with members of other organizations committed to quality in volunteering activities.