Get Involved EVEC Athens
Get involved with EVEC — find your way in.
Whether you’re in Athens or anywhere in the world, a student or a professional, there’s a way to be part of what we do — and to grow while you’re at it. Pick the one that fits you.
Find your path
Several ways in — one mission.
People join EVEC in different ways: some give a few hours from home, some come to Athens to help hands-on, some spend months with us as interns building a career. Whatever your situation, your time helps us turn science into learning for young people across Europe.
The main step
Get Involved EVEC Athens — choose your way in.
Five clear ways to take part. Pick the one that fits — its page covers the rest.
Local volunteering
Help in person in Athens — grow food, run workshops, support events.
For anyone based in or near Athens, any age. Explore Local Volunteering →Online volunteering
Contribute remotely from anywhere — writing, design, social, web.
For helpers worldwide, flexible. Explore Online Volunteering →Internship (Erasmus+ traineeship)
Come to Athens for a funded traineeship and build a real portfolio.
For students on an Erasmus+ grant. Explore Internships →Contact us
Not sure which fits? Tell us about yourself and we’ll point you in the right direction.
For everyone. Contact us → Fully EU-fundedESC volunteering in Athens
Volunteer in Athens with EVEC through the European Solidarity Corps — fully EU-funded, for 14 days to 12 months. Travel, accommodation and a stipend are covered.
Ages 18–30, legally resident in an ESC programme country. Explore ESC →Step by step
Get Involved EVEC Athens — what happens after you write to us.
Every way in on Get Involved EVEC Athens runs through the same short sequence. It is written out here so you know what to expect before you commit to anything.
1 · You pick a way in — or you skip that part
If one of the cards above already describes you, follow it and read that page in full. If none of them clearly does, use the short form further down or the contact page instead. Naming what you are curious about and roughly when you are free is enough — you don’t need to have decided yet.
2 · We read it and reply within two working days
Every message that reaches Get Involved EVEC Athens is read and answered personally. Two working days is the maximum turnaround, not the average. If more time than that has gone by, assume the message went astray rather than that you were passed over, and send it again.
3 · We point you to the right door
Whichever route you take, the work runs on the four methods we developed in Athens: mycelium, microgreens, drones and solar energy, with communications, events and project work wrapped around them. No background is needed in any of them, so the only real question is which one gives you something worth doing.
4 · Get Involved EVEC Athens does not set your dates — the programme does
EVEC does not invent durations. The Erasmus+ rules for the Key Action you apply under, together with the grant agreement you or your university signs, decide how long a mobility may run. Send us the window you genuinely have and we build around it. For European Solidarity Corps volunteering, the span shown on the ESC card above is the programme’s own.
5 · You can check us before you commit
The Erasmus+ KA1 Youth accreditation, the ESC Quality Label, the OID and the PIC are printed at the top of this page and again in the panel further down. They are there so that you — or the university or organisation sending you — can check them before anyone commits to anything.
6 · You finish with proof, not a thank-you email
Whichever way into Get Involved EVEC Athens you take, it ends with a signed certificate and a reference describing what you actually did, alongside whatever went live publicly under your name.
The quick version
What we actually do here.
Whichever route you take, the work runs on four methods we developed in Athens:
- Mycelium — growing material from olive-pruning waste that would otherwise be burned
- Microgreens — a full production cycle, seed to harvest, in about ten days
- Drones — starting on a simulator, then surveying real ground
- Solar energy — building small photovoltaic rigs and measuring what they produce
No background needed in any of them.
Not sure which to pick? Here’s the quick version.
| Route | Where | Who | Funded? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Volunteering | In person, Athens | Any age | Unpaid | Hands-on help close to home |
| Online Volunteering | Remote, anywhere | Anyone | Unpaid | Flexible help + portfolio, from home |
| Internship | On-site, Athens | Students | Erasmus+ grant | A funded, portfolio-building placement |
| ESC volunteering | On-site, Athens | 18–30 · ESC programme country | Fully EU-funded | A funded long stay (14 days to 12 months) → see ESC |
Being straight with you
Who Get Involved EVEC Athens is for — and who it isn’t.
Get Involved EVEC Athens is a routing page, and a routing page is only useful if it is willing to route people away as well as in. Here is where each door is genuinely open, and where it is not.
Get Involved EVEC Athens is for you if
- You are based in or near Athens and can help in person. Local volunteering is open at any age.
- You are anywhere else in the world and can give a few hours from home. Online volunteering is remote and open to anyone — writing, design, social and web.
- You are a student on an Erasmus+ grant, looking for a funded traineeship placement.
- You are 18–30 and legally resident in an ESC programme country, and you want the stay covered — travel, accommodation and a stipend are included.
- You have no background at all in mycelium, microgreens, drones or solar energy. None is needed for any of the routes.
Get Involved EVEC Athens is not for you if
- You are looking for a salaried job. None of these routes is paid employment with EVEC. Local and online volunteering are unpaid; the funding behind the traineeship and behind ESC comes from the Erasmus+ programme and the European Solidarity Corps.
- You are writing on behalf of an organisation. The ways in above are for individuals. Schools, NGOs, training providers and sport clubs belong in the section below, where the conversation is about hosting mobilities and joining KA2 cooperation partnerships instead.
- You want ESC but fall outside its rules. The 18–30 age band and the residence condition belong to the European Solidarity Corps, not to EVEC, so there is nothing here that anyone can waive. Online volunteering stays open to you either way, and local volunteering does too if you are in Athens.
- You want a traineeship without a grant. The internship route assumes an Erasmus+ grant is already in place, which is what makes it a funded placement.
If you fall in the gap between two of those lines, say so in your message rather than guessing. That is why a contact card sits among the ways in on Get Involved EVEC Athens rather than being buried at the foot of the page.
For organisations & partners
Run an organisation? Partner with us instead.
The ways above are for individuals. If you represent a school, NGO, training provider or sport club, EVEC partners on Erasmus+ projects in your field — hosting mobilities and joining KA2 cooperation partnerships. Pick your sector to see how we work together.
Shared benefits
What you get out of it.
Real, published portfolio work
Articles, designs and campaigns that go live under your name — not classroom exercises.
A certificate and a reference
Signed proof of what you actually did with us — ready for your CV or university application.
A multicultural community
Friends and collaborators from across Europe — in Athens and online.
New skills
Hands-on experience in communications, events and project work inside a working European NGO.
Real impact
Your hours become real activities for young people — never busywork.
Who you’re joining
An accredited Erasmus+ & ESC NGO, based in Athens.
A non-profit in Zografou, Athens, with 20+ Erasmus+ & ESC projects since 2017. Your time goes to a team the EU has vetted and trusted.
More about EVEC →Erasmus+ KA1 Youth
2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397
ESC Quality Label
2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138
OID · PIC
E10172681 · 909448430
Organisation
Non-profit NGO, Zografou, Athens · 20+ projects since 2017
Before you write
Get Involved EVEC Athens — the questions people ask first.
Plain answers to what comes up before anyone commits to anything on Get Involved EVEC Athens. If your question is not here, put it in the short form below and it gets answered directly.
How quickly will someone reply?
Within two working days at the most, whichever way into Get Involved EVEC Athens you write about. Every message is read and answered personally, so if you asked something specific — a date range, a skill you want to use, a route you are unsure about — the reply is about that.
If two working days pass and nothing arrives, write again. A lost message is far likelier than a decision to ignore you.
How long would I be with you?
For as long as the Erasmus+ rules covering your action allow. EVEC does not set durations and will not pretend to: the rules for the Key Action you apply under, and the grant agreement you or your university signs, are what decide the length of a mobility. We are not the ones making those rules — Erasmus+ is.
That is why no number of days or weeks appears anywhere on this page as an EVEC rule. Any figure we invented would be ours rather than the programme’s, and you would find out it was wrong at the worst possible moment. Tell us the window you actually have and we build around it. For European Solidarity Corps volunteering, the span quoted in the comparison table above comes from the programme itself.
Do I need a background in mycelium, microgreens, drones or solar?
No. No background is needed in any of them.
Mycelium means growing material from olive-pruning waste that would otherwise be burned. Microgreens run a full production cycle, seed to harvest, in about ten days. Drones start on a simulator and then survey real ground. Solar means building small photovoltaic rigs and measuring what they produce. Each one is learned by doing it.
Does taking part cost anything?
There is one flat answer we can give, and it concerns the online Volunteers Academy: it is free for everyone. No fee, at any age, under-18s included.
The other ways in are not one thing, so they cannot honestly share one answer — local volunteering, an Erasmus+ traineeship, ESC and group hosting each work differently from one another. Name the route you are considering and you will be told the arrangement that actually applies to it. We will not call a route free when it is not.
Is Get Involved EVEC Athens only for people who are in Athens?
No — online volunteering is remote and open to helpers worldwide. Writing, design, social and web work reach us equally well from another city or another continent.
Athens matters for the other three — local volunteering, the traineeship and ESC — because that work is done in person: growing food, running workshops, supporting events.
I am under 18 — is anything on Get Involved EVEC Athens open to me?
Yes. Local volunteering in Athens is open at any age, online volunteering is open to anyone, and the online Volunteers Academy is free for under-18s exactly as it is for adults.
The two funded routes are where age and status start to matter: an Erasmus+ traineeship assumes you are a student already holding a grant, and European Solidarity Corps volunteering starts at 18.
I am over 30, or I do not live in an ESC programme country.
Then ESC specifically is not available to you, and no amount of goodwill on our side changes that — the age band and the residence condition are the European Solidarity Corps’ own, not ours to widen.
Nothing else on Get Involved EVEC Athens closes, though. Online volunteering is open to anyone from anywhere, local volunteering welcomes any age if you are in Athens, and the traineeship route turns on student status rather than on age.
I found an open call dated months ago. Is it dead?
No — and it is worth saying plainly, because visitors usually assume the opposite. A call keeps its “Open Call” tag on purpose. We leave calls open until the right volunteer applies, so an older date means the match has not happened yet, not that the opportunity quietly expired.
If it is still tagged as open, it is open. Apply to it.
Can I just come to the office?
You can. EVEC is at Polifimou 17 in Zografou, Athens, and the office is open every working day from 09:00 to 16:00.
It still helps to write first, so that someone who knows the route you are asking about is expecting you.
What do I actually walk away with?
A signed certificate and a reference describing what you actually did; articles, designs and campaigns published under your own name rather than filed away as exercises; hands-on experience of communications, events and project work inside a working European NGO; friends and collaborators from across Europe; and hours that became real activities for young people rather than busywork.
Those are the same five things listed further up the page, and none of them is route-specific.
How do I know EVEC is genuine before I commit?
Check the identifiers rather than the adjectives. EVEC is a non-profit NGO in Zografou, Athens, holding an Erasmus+ KA1 Youth accreditation (2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397) and an ESC Quality Label (2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138), with OID E10172681 and PIC 909448430, and 20+ EU projects since 2017.
Get Involved EVEC Athens prints those numbers twice for exactly that reason: so they can be checked — by you, or by the university or organisation sending you — before anybody asks you for a commitment.
I still cannot tell which route is mine.
That is exactly what the short form below is for, and it is a good message to send. Describe yourself in a few lines — where you are, what you would like to get better at, and roughly when you are free — and you will be told which routes fit and which do not.
Sorting that out is the whole job of Get Involved EVEC Athens. There is no obligation, and no route on this page begins with a commitment.
Everything on Get Involved EVEC Athens is either work already running in Athens, a rule the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes set for us, or something you can verify from the accreditation numbers printed on this page. If the one detail you need is missing, ask for it.
Not sure which one yet?
Tell us what you’re interested in — we’ll point you to the right door.
One short form. Name what you’re curious about — volunteering in Athens, volunteering online, a traineeship or an ESC placement — and roughly when you’re free. You don’t need to have decided yet. We read every message and reply personally.
No obligation · Ask anythingTell us what you’re looking for
Ready? Pick your way in — or just say hello.
Or email us at erasmus@evec.org.gr
Or come and find us: Polifimou 17, Zografou, Athens — open every working day, 09:00 to 16:00. Written enquiries are answered within two working days at the most.
