Volunteer Academy

For parents and guardians

Did you get here first?

If you are under 18, we cannot register you ourselves — it has to be your parent or guardian. Send them this:

I found an online volunteering programme run by EVEC, an organisation in Athens. Small tasks from home — translation, checking, video, social media. I would like to try it, but you have to register me because I am under 18. Everything is here: evec.org.gr/volunteers-academy/for-parents/

Once they register you, we email them a link for you. You open it, choose a username and password, and start: there is no call or interview. Our emails about your tasks go to them, so ask them to pass them on, or switch on notifications on your phone.

What this is

The Volunteer Academy is an online volunteering programme for young people from the age of 15, open worldwide. Your child reads short lessons at their own pace and takes on small tasks from home, one at a time, choosing what they work on. There is no minimum and no commitment.

EVEC Athens is a recognised Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps organisation, accredited in the Youth field. Our organisation identifier in the EU system is OID E10172681.

Why we ask you, and not your child

We require a parent or guardian for every volunteer under 18, wherever they live. The Academy starts at 15. Greek law, where we are based, lets a 15-year-old agree to an online service themselves, so asking you is our own rule, stricter than Greek law requires. Until you write to us, we hold nothing about your child at all.

What your child would do

Some of the tasks your child can choose from:

Check three of our pages on their phone and tell us what is broken — 20 minutes
Write descriptions of photos so screen-reader users can understand them — 30 minutes
Subtitle a short video — one hour
Map what exists for young people in your area — 90 minutes

Every task is read by a named person at EVEC, who explains their changes.

Publishing your child’s work

When our team approves something your child made — an article, a graphic, a video or a post — we may publish it on volunteer.org.gr, evec.org.gr, microgreens.org.gr and EVEC’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn accounts, but only with your permission. You give it with the publishing tick when you register your child. If you registered your child before the form asked this, we email you when their work is approved: the email has a button that opens a page with two answers, “Yes, I give permission” and “No, please don’t publish”. No password is needed, and the link works for 30 days. If you say no, we do not publish your child’s work, and they keep taking part in the Academy. Their first name appears only if you chose that, and the work stays theirs. You can change your mind at any time: write to academy@evec.org.gr.

What we hold — and what we do not

We hold

First name and surname initial
Birth month and year
Country and region
Languages
What they write and send in the Academy: lessons, tasks and Messages
A record of their tasks and drachmas

We do not hold

Surname
Date of birth
School or address
Phone number
Their email

Until you write to us, we hold nothing about your child — not even their name.

What you can see

Every email the Academy sends about your child comes to you, because your child gives us no email address of their own: confirmation that they joined, each task they are given, each review result, a new level, and leaving or deletion. Please pass on the ones about tasks.
You can ask us at any time for a full copy of everything we hold about your child, and we will send it
Your child knows you can ask for this

We are honest about the limit: you cannot yet log in and watch their work in real time. If you want to see what they have written, ask us and we will show you.

How we communicate

Everything happens inside the Academy. Your child can write to our team in the Academy’s Messages tab: every member of Academy staff can read that thread, so it is never one adult alone, and it allows up to 3 messages a day. Never a private channel, never a phone, never social media. Work is read and answered by named EVEC staff, every review is recorded, and there is no chat between volunteers. The one place volunteers see each other’s work is a graphics call, where volunteers propose an image for an approved article; the writer sees the images labelled A, B, C, without names. To read the article while the call is open, volunteers get a link to its document, at any age; Google may show them the name of the account it belongs to. Writers are asked to keep their name out of the document, and your child can ask for a copy made by EVEC to be given instead. If something looks wrong, your child can use “Report a problem” on any Academy screen, and every report also reaches Mrs Mirlena Charisi, who is responsible for safeguarding. The Academy’s social media actions, which pay drachmas for following EVEC’s accounts, are for adults only: your child does not see them.

If something concerns you

Contact Mrs Mirlena Charisi, President — youth@evec.org.gr. We reply to every such message within 2 working days. She is independent of whoever runs the programme day to day.

In an emergency, call your local emergency number. Across the EU that is 112, and the European child helpline is 116 111.

Withdrawing

You can withdraw your child at any time, without giving a reason. Their access closes the same day, and we email you to confirm it. Anything already published stays published, but their name comes off it if you ask. You can also have the account deleted: your child can do it in the Academy (My file → Delete my account), or you can write to academy@evec.org.gr from the address you registered with. How deletion works.