Solidarity within the European Solidarity Corps

Since the launch of the European Solidarity Corps programme, the issue of the solidarity dimension of mobility activities has been debated by the different stakeholders of the programme. The first question asked was: “Are the voluntary activities in the European Solidarity Corps and EVS the same?”.

However the topic and the content (tasks) of a voluntary activity embody a core feature of its solidarity dimension. The concept of Solidarity within the European Solidarity Corps cannot be only considered through the content or the topic of the activities realised by the volunteers.

Solidarity has to be considered through a holistic approach. That means that the local context and the process of the project have to be considered as well as the relations between the stakeholders of a European Solidarity Corps voluntary activity: the participant, the receiving organisation and the local community. This paper has to be considered as the personal contribution of a practitioner to a wider question of the solidarity dimension in the European Solidarity Corps.