The project “Pathways to Belonging” has reached an important milestone with the arrival of its first team of young volunteers, who have completed a 59-day volunteering stage. Their presence marks the transition from the preparation phase to real, on-the-ground action, bringing the project’s vision to life through direct community involvement.
These young volunteers have actively contributed to a variety of activities, including language learning support, cultural integration initiatives, mentoring, and community-based events. Using non-formal education methods and intercultural learning approaches, their work has focused on creating inclusive and safe spaces where dialogue, mutual understanding, and personal development can flourish. Through these efforts, the project aims to reduce social isolation, enhance skills development, and improve access to educational and professional opportunities for young refugees.
At the same time, the volunteering experience has provided participants with valuable personal and professional growth. Over the course of their 59-day stage, the volunteers developed key competencies, strengthened their sense of responsibility, and embraced the core values of the European Solidarity Corps, empathy, commitment, and active civic engagement. Their experiences reflect not only individual growth but also their contribution to building a more inclusive and supportive community.
Stories from Our Volunteers
My experience as an ESC volunteer with the FNT was wonderful. I met nice people who were eager to help and teach me something new every day, creating a supportive and motivating environment. At the beginning of the program, I had little experience with Canva and digital design, but with guidance and practice, I gradually developed important technical and creative skills. This experience helped me become more confident in my abilities, improved my teamwork and communication skills, and taught me how to manage my time more effectively while working on different tasks.
Through this volunteer experience, I also discovered a passion for creating videos and reels, which allowed me to express my creativity in new ways. Stepping out of my comfort zone helped me grow both personally and professionally, as I learned to adapt, take initiative, and accept feedback.
Another part of my role as a volunteer involved writing descriptions for social media posts, which turned out to be one of the most enjoyable activities for me. I loved trying to make the captions as engaging and fun as possible by incorporating creative wording, catchy phrases, and plenty of expressive emojis. This process allowed me to combine creativity with communication and made the work feel exciting rather than routine.
This experience also helped me realize that I have a strong passion for writing and expressing ideas in an original way. Overall, this volunteer stage was both rewarding and inspiring, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to gain new skills, discover hidden passions, and grow in a positive and supportive environment.
~Alexia
As part of the Activities and Services devision, I would like to start with the things I really appreciate while volunteering here, such as meeting new people, creating my own program and schedule, developing communication and understanding of others, and participating in different events or organising them myself.
By going to this centre, I met a bunch of different people, which I consider very important while you are a teenager/young adult, because such people can become your friends for the rest of your life.
Also, I consider that being a youth volunteer helps you to develop yourself mentally and gives you a lot of opportunities and skills in your future, regarding applying for a job or some international projects.
Because of that, I would recommend at least trying to become a volunteer and see how it will be for you personally. It is a very good chance to obtain new experiences and try new things in your life!
To sum up, I like to be a volunteer here, and I would say that it is worth starting your experience as a volunteer in such an amazing place!
~Yehor
These months I was given tasks concerning social media posts from image creation on Canva to video creation and editing on CapCut. For me everything felt very natural, because I’ve always loved working on social media and using my creativity to build community and organic engagement. We saw a lot of positive reactions quite quickly on the pages, which helped me understand even better what the followers love to see from us. I was also tasked to create photo and video materials during some of the activities, happening at The Youth.
Overall this experience helped me a lot to understand even better what working in this field of social media and in such a youthful environment is like. Even though I already had previous skills in Canva and Capcut, I learned even more, things that maybe I wouldn’t have learned without this push from the volunteering opportunity. I met amazing people, who were all dedicated to their work, which helped me become more productive and actually determined to come to the centre and get as much work done as possible. Time really flies, so for me this experience really helped me realize even more how this social media field fits like a glove to me. I take this project as a push for my future career, a pus to start learning more and start growing as a person, so I can one day have the job of my dreams. And I can honestly say that this volunteering opportunity felt like a step closer to that dream.
~Raluca
The volunteer experience at FNT within the ESC program can generally be assessed as satisfactory. The working format involved interaction with a wide range of people and allowed a certain degree of autonomy in time management.
Regarding communication, no difficulties were encountered, as prior to this experience I had worked in a large IT team and already possessed a professional level of communication skills. The communication style within FNT can be described as acceptable and sufficiently informal, which can be considered a positive aspect of the working environment.
Introductory information was provided in sufficient detail. Responsibilities, internal rules, and working procedures were explained at the initial stage. No significant difficulties were encountered in understanding organizational processes or role distribution.
Overall, participation in the program can be considered a form of work experience that provides basic training and practical involvement in volunteer activities.
~Volodymyr
I am very glad that I took part in this volunteering stage with the National Youth Foundation team; it was an experience that helped me grow a lot. During this time, I learned many new things about PR, communication, copywriting, social media, and much more. I was actively involved in creating content for The Youth Center's pages, participating in various activities to take photos and videos, and I developed my graphic design skills in Canva. I also gained a much better understanding of how to efficiently use the Microsoft suite, which I know will be very helpful in the future.
Beyond the technical side, I made new friends with whom I worked daily to grow our social media accounts and to promote the youth ecosystem and the center's activities as best as possible. It was a pleasure working alongside passionate people and seeing how our work helped increase the visibility of the projects. I am grateful for everything I learned here, and I would love to participate in such initiatives in the future because it was a complete experience.
~Alex
My experience of volunteering at FNT within the ESC programme has been largely positive and enriching. Being part of the Activities and Services division allowed me to interact with many new people, take initiative in creating my own ideas, organise my time more freely, and improve my communication skills while participating in or helping to organise different events.
Attending the centre regularly helped me build connections with people from diverse backgrounds. I strongly believe that at a young age, such interactions are especially valuable, as they can lead to meaningful relationships and friendships that last for years.
Volunteering as a young person also contributes greatly to personal growth. It encourages self-development, builds confidence, and provides useful skills that can be beneficial for future career paths or involvement in international projects. Therefore, I would recommend giving volunteering a chance, as it offers a safe space to explore new interests and gain practical experience.
I enjoy being a volunteer at FNT and consider it a meaningful and worthwhile experience. It is a place that offers learning, personal growth, and new opportunities, making it a great starting point for anyone interested in volunteering.
~Kristina
My experience as a volunteer was a really great opportunity to try something new and step out of my comfort zone in a warm, friendly, and energetic environment. I really liked the relaxed atmosphere, the openness of the team, and the fact that from the very first day I felt listened to and encouraged to contribute my ideas.
The time I spent there helped me develop new communication and creativity skills, learn more about how a communication department works, and how messages for young people are created. At the same time, I learned to work better in a team, collaborate with different people, and adapt quickly, something I feel will help me a lot in future projects.
Honestly, I would recommend this experience to any young person who wants to grow, experiment, and be part of a very warm community.
~Iustin
My last two months as a volunteer for FNT at The Youth have been an incredible journey of growth. I had the creative freedom to design and plan our Instagram presence, learning how to communicate impactfully with a young audience while staying ahead of digital trends.
~Stefan
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
“Pathways to Belonging” (EU-UKR-PB), project number 101239630, is funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps, under the Key Action “Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas” (ESC-SOLID-2025-VTHPA). The 24-month project is coordinated by the National Foundation for Youth (Romania), in partnership with Collectif pour un Service Civique Européen (France) and Stowarzyszenie Projektów Międzynarodowych LOGOS Polska (Poland). It aims to support the social inclusion, civic participation and personal and professional development of young Ukrainian refugees, drawing on a safe-spaces methodology delivered through the network of youth centres coordinated by the National Foundation for Youth.