EVEC Volunteer Academy · Online · From age 15
Volunteer from wherever you are.
Real tasks for a real organisation — translation, research, checking, writing, video. Each one takes an evening. You choose what you work on, and everything you finish earns drachmas and goes on your record.
Who can take part
Find your age. Here is what is open to you.
Everything below is online, so where you live makes no difference — and if you are somewhere with little else going on for young people, that is exactly who this was built for.
15 – 17
- Short lessons on how Erasmus+ youth projects work, at your own pace
- Real tasks, with a deadline and a named reviewer
- Checking our Greek pages, image descriptions, subtitles
- Research on open calls across Europe
- Building our Greek–English glossary
- Translation, once you have a few tasks behind you
- Writing answers to questions we get every week
A parent or guardian registers you first — our own rule, stricter than Greek law requires — and keeps the right to withdraw you at any time until you turn 18.
18 and over
- Everything above, plus
- Cataloguing our project photo archive
- Research that feeds our funding applications
At 18 you also become eligible for European Solidarity Corps placements in Athens and across Europe. Those age rules are set by the European Commission, not by us.
How you move up
Three levels. You move up by finishing things, not by being chosen.
Promotion happens automatically when you reach the number of completed tasks. Nobody decides, nobody has to be asked, and there is no waiting.
Σπόρος
Seed
You do tasks that someone else has designed. Everything is written out — what to do, what finished looks like, and who will read it.
From your first dayΦύτρο
Sprout
Our team can now also give you the longer tasks marked for level 2 — drafting a proposal to your municipality, for example, or reading a study and taking notes on it. Longer tasks earn more drachmas, because drachmas follow the time a task takes.
After 5 finished tasksΚαλλιεργητής
Grower
Our team can also give you the level-3 tasks, the longest on our list, such as writing both sides of a European debate about young people.
After 10 finished tasksWhat you would actually do
Small, finishable, and genuinely used.
Nothing here is invented to keep you busy. Every task on the list is something we need done and would otherwise not get to.
Every task is read by a named person who explains their changes. Coming back with revisions is the normal outcome, not a mark against you.
What you get back
Drachmas — and a record that means something.
Drachmas (₯)
Approved work and every module of lessons you finish earn drachmas, the Academy’s own points. You spend them in the Academy on EVEC’s certificates, from Bronze at ₯100 up to The Talent at ₯10,000. Each certificate can be earned once, and it is yours for good.
- Earned when your work is approved (articles: when they are published), not when it is sent
- Earning them makes you an active volunteer. When EVEC selects participants for its programmes, active volunteers get priority, alongside each programme’s own rules on who can take part. Priority, not a guaranteed place.
- Personal to you and not transferable. They are points, not money: they cannot be exchanged for money, and they do not pay for fees or travel.
- They do not expire while your account exists
- If you are 18 or over, you can also earn drachmas for following EVEC’s social media accounts and engaging with their posts. These actions are for adults only.
Recognition
A certificate of participation, a record of the hours you have given, and a named credit on the work you produce — if you want one, and only where you have agreed to it.
Your record and your certificates are in the Academy, under the My file tab. You can print your record or save it.
If you stay with us until you are 18, a real record of what you have done makes you a strong candidate for a European Solidarity Corps placement.
Under 18? A parent or guardian registers you, receives our emails about your tasks, can ask us for a copy of everything, and can take you out at any time. We have written all of it down, including who to contact if something concerns you.
Read the information for parentsQuestions
The Volunteer Academy: things people ask before starting.
How much time does this take?
As little as you want. Most tasks take an evening. There is no minimum, and stopping for a month and coming back is completely fine — just tell us so we do not chase you.
Do I need to be good at English?
For some tasks, yes. For plenty of others — checking our Greek, mapping your area, making content — Greek alone is exactly what is needed. Each task says what it requires.
I am under 15. Can I still take part?
Not yet. The Academy starts at 15, the age at which Greek law lets you give consent to an online service yourself — we still ask for a parent or guardian until 18. Come back on your 15th birthday: a parent or guardian then registers you. If you live in or near Athens, ask us about local volunteering in the meantime.
Will I have to talk to other volunteers?
No. There is no chat between volunteers, at any age. You write to our team in the Academy’s Messages tab, which every member of Academy staff can read. The one place volunteers see each other’s work is a graphics call, where volunteers each propose an image for an approved article: the writer sees the images labelled A, B, C, without names.
What happens to work I produce?
We use it — that is the point. You keep ownership, and you can use it yourself. When you register, a tick of its own lets us publish work our team approves on evec.org.gr, microgreens.org.gr and EVEC’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn accounts (for under-18s, the parent ticks it). Your name appears only if you choose it (or, if you are under 18, your parent does). If you leave, anything already published stays published, but your name comes off it whenever you ask.
Is this paid?
No. It is volunteering. Drachmas are points, not money, and cannot be exchanged for money. You spend them in the Academy on EVEC’s certificates, and earning them makes you an active volunteer, with priority when we select participants for our programmes.
I do not live in Greece. Can I join?
If you are 18 or over — yes, from anywhere. The work is online and most of it needs no Greek at all: design, video, subtitling, research, social content.
If you are under 18 — also yes, from anywhere. A parent or guardian has to register you, wherever you live. That is our own rule and it applies to everyone.
Who you would be volunteering for
The Volunteer Academy runs inside a recognised Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps organisation.
EVEC Athens has run European youth projects since 2017, and holds accreditation in the Youth field and the ESC Quality Label.
Erasmus+ accreditation
KA1 Youth field.
2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397ESC Quality Label
Volunteering quality mark — active.
2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138Organisation IDs
Our official identity in the EU system.
OID E10172681 · PIC 909448430Co-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 EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Volunteering from outside Greece? You are welcome. The Academy is open wherever you live, from age 15 — everything is remote, and briefs are written in English as well as Greek. Register the same way as everyone else.
Starting
Tell us who you are. It takes three minutes.
We ask for your first name, roughly where you live, and what you would like to work on. Of your surname we ask only the initial, and of your birthday only the month and year. We never ask for your school.
If you are under 18, the first step is your parent or guardian: they register you on our page for parents, and we email them a link to pass on to you.
18 or over? Sign yourself up — two minutes. Confirm your email, sign in, and your dashboard is ready: no interview, no call.
On Android, you can also use the Academy as an app:Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
We will ask you for:
- Your first name and the initial of your surname
- An email address, a username and a password
- Your birth month and year
- The region and town where you live
- Which languages you speak
- What you would like to work on
If you are under 18, a parent or guardian registers you first; we cannot register you without them. Send this page to your parent →
Questions? Write to academy@evec.org.gr. We reply within two working days.
