<< Background >>Our consortium applied this project as we encountered a problem and a need in the european volunteering projects. Moreover, at an international level this problem increased due to the covid-19 pandemic and related lockdown measures have produced significant interruptions in young people’s lives, the impact of which is still to be analysed and understood in the future. With borders closed and airlines grounded for almost six months, COVID-19 effectively shut down the global tourism industry at a scale never witnessed before. Besides leisure travel, restriction of movement threatened to destroy international volunteer sector and NGOs, devastating the projects that depend on them for support. The pandemic has especially hit hard the recruitment of international volunteers, with some organisations already forced to reinvent their activities.During a previous KA2 project, coordinated by Deses-3, REEVOL – “The referee for volunteering” with the reference number 2018-2-ES02-KA205-011520, an APP was created as, in which organizations involved in EVS, further ESC, had the opportunity to share possible problems that may occur during a volunteering project, as well as solutions. After analysing and interpreting the data collected, Deses-3 propose this project, Safe&Informed Volunteering, which comes as a response and solution to an issue that was identified as being the cause of most of the problems shared: the lack of previous structured and objective information regarding the community where the hosting organization is located (village/town/city – neighborhood). Most of the volunteering projects are sharing previous information regarding the activities to be performed, the accommodation and only general information regarding the village/town/city. This may lead to a mismatch between the expectations of the volunteers and the reality that they find when they reach the place. It is highly important to know all the features of a community in terms of cost of life, quality of life quality, leisure and free time activities (culture, sports) and some other details such as the probability of people to speak english, the average age of the residents and so on. That is why our project comes as a solution to the encountered problem and needs of our organizations and the target groups (explained below), by creating an APP (project result) with information generated by local and/or foreign volunteers on the villages/towns/cities of organizations which host ESC project. This information will be in the form of reviews and divided in topics of interest regarding services and facilities relevant for the integration of the volunteers into the local community.Target groups:o Direct target group: young people, especially the ones with an interest in volunteeringo Indirect target group: ESC accredited NGOs or planning to get accredited, NGOs active in local/national/european/international volunteering and their representatives, volunteers coordinators, tutors, mentors, leaders, youth workersAs it can be identified during the form, the project has been designed with respect to the environment. This ecological way of working will allow project participants to contribute to sustainable development. For example it is planned only tree meetings, to reduce the printed materials for dissemination bu using online activities, to set the transnational meetings considering the carbon footprint, etc.<< Objectives >>The objectives of Safe&Informed Volunteering (SIV) were set according to the priorities tackled, the needs encountered both inside the partners’ organizations and in the field of youth volunteering in general. These objective were further correlated with the activities planned to create the main result, which is expected to improve the partners’ work in volunteering projects by integrating it in the daily activities.- Create an instrument to improve the participation of all young people in ESC projects in an informed and secure manner- Facilitate previous preparation of volunteers for the ESC projects - Foster the integration of the volunteers in the project community (village/town/city – neighborhood)- Improve the collaboration between hosting organization and volunteers- Develop the sense of initiative and social entrepreneurship of youth and youth workersWe expect to fulfill he needs of the direct TG during the entire project and through the result itself, being an active part in the creation of the project result, gaining knowledge and skills, such as critical thinking, time management and organization, sense of initiative and social entrepreneurship. We expect them to learn both theoretical and practical matters on how to design a technological product with a social and community beneficial purpose. Our project also aims for them to become engines of positive changes in their communities and to act as multipliers of the results, but also to further create innovative solutions to existing needs in the youth participation field.The indirect TG will be integrated in the projects’ activities from the very beginning with the purpose to create a database of ESC accredited NGOs which are interested to appear and contribute to the content of the app. This way we ensure they get to know the project and the benefits of the project’s results from the very beginning and that they will use the app to improve their work with volunteers and to facilitate the selection process. We expect them to be encouraged by our project and innitiative to innovate themselves and to further research on this topic and create new projects which will serve to activate and dynamize the volunteering, active citizenship, sense of initiative and social entrepreneurship of their volunteers, youth workers etc.<< Implementation >>The activities planned to implement are divided into management activities (related to coordination, quality ensurance, sharing and promotion) and activities which will serve in the process of creation of the project result, the APP.These activities involve both the direct and indirect target group in the creation of the content of the APP and in ensuring it’s quality, relevance and sustainability.In order to reach the final result, 10 main activities were planned, following the working methodology DBR (Design Based Research), used by multinationals and start-ups in the design of innovative products/services which serve the needs of the users. Each activity will have a leader to coordinate the tasks needed and to ensure that they are performed on time.The activities planned are the followings:• Contact the acredited ESC NGOs from each partners country (Led by P1)• Create a data base of cities/town/village with the active NGOs from each partner's country (Led by P2)• Online Focus group (Led by P3)• Obtain reviews regarding the cities/town/village of the ESC acreditated organizations from Spain, Romania&Portugal(in terms of living cost, life quality, leisure time activities, english level of the citizens etc.) (Led by P3)• Design the app (Led by P4)• Create the app (Led by P4)• Pilot test of the app (Led by P1)• Feedback collection of the pilot test, centralization and interpretation of the data (Led by P2)• Final design of the app taking into consideration the feedback of the pilot test (Led by P4)• Create a sustainability mechanism through an ESC network (Led by P1)Moreover, in order to ensure the outreach and exploitation of the result, a sharing and promotion plan was drafted, by P3 (the leader of this activity), which will be updated in the first months of the project and all partners will need to follow.<< Results >>The main project result, which will be concretized into an APP, a free digital tool which will support NGO’s active in ESC, youth workers and educators in their work and will improve the selection process of the volunteers and also the development of the volunteering projects.The APP will serve as an instrument to improve the participation of all young people in ESC projects in an informed and secure manner, will facilitate pre-preparation for European volunteering, as well as integration at the site of volunteering and will overcome the mismatch between the expectations of the volunteers and the reality of the project’s place. The APP will be designed containing categories representing important aspects regarding the cities/towns/villages in which there are located ESC accredited organizations, to facilitate the acces of details regarding the cost of living, access to facilities and services, safety, free time activities etc. The categories and their relevance, as well as the content will be generated after an online focus group with the direct and indirect target group from each partner's countries, ensuring in this manner the pertinence of the entire content of the APP.More tangible results will be generated through the sharing and promotion activities during the entire life cycle of the project. - Sharing promotion and communication plan - Sharing and promotion strategy- Sharing and promotion guide- The logo of the project- Content to be published on the project websites and on the partners’ website- Posts regarding the project to be published on the social media pages of the project and of the partners- Photos and videos taken during the multiplier events or any other sharing and promotion event- Project’s brochure and infographics- A FB group for the ESC accredited organizations networkThroughout the project one of the priorities will be to make visible the project, the needs that we have demonstrated, the problems associated with those needs as well as the SOLUTION that we provide, in such a way, we are not only manifesting and making visible the problem but our interest in providing youth associations, centers, or any other sector easily accessible and useful digital tool.Intangible resultsThe intangible results are expected to be seen in the partner organizations, direct and indirect target group in terms of:● Improved participation of young people in ESC projects in an informed and secure manner● Improved previous preparation of volunteers for the ESC projects ● Faster integration of the volunteers in the project village/town● Improved collaboration between hosting organization and volunteers ● Expanded knowledge and skills of the youth workers in using innovative digital resources to improve youth participation in volunteering ● Hosting organizations and youth workers, volunteer coordinators enabled with a tool to provide to their possible volunteer in order for them to take a better informed decision