What are workcamps

International voluntary workcamps are the most common and widespread form of international volunteering.

Workcamps generally last 2 – 3 weeks and consist of about 10 – 20 volunteers drawn from a number of countries. Projects are often in remote areas, in regions where local people may have minimal opportunity for meeting others from different countries.

The volunteer groups bring new ideas and experiences into communities, providing a stimulus for ongoing work.

The individual volunteers benefit from the interaction both within the group and with the local communities. The experience gives them the opportunity to travel to another country, use their time productively and make a positive contribution to the local community. They also have the chance to widen their horizons through meeting and learning from each other and local people.The educational element of workcamps is to dynamically engage volunteers formally and informally in emotional and physical development  underpinned by diversity, equality, peace and mutual understanding.

You can watch an explanatory video, created by the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations (YRS-VSS is a member of) with the support of the European Youth Foundation, about this particular form of volunteering that is existing since the end of the world War I.

Workcamps are an alternative way to discover cultures and places through shared experiences. Workcamps personnalize the world by bringing you to the world and bringing the world to you through participation and mobility.

The flood relief workcamps in Serbia will be following the usual workcamp standards. They will have a strong educational value, but also an underlined value of solidarity, a strong statement in favour of the active role that youth has and can take in a society.

WHY WE ORGANISE WORKCAMPS

There is a strong added value of international voluntary service and of short term international voluntary projects (workcamps) in particular, as non-formal education tool and, as a simple and affordable expression of active citizenship and solidarity, as a practical means of intercultural learning and of combating xenophobia, as a contribution to the personal growth of participants as well as an impulse to local communities.
Principles under which workcamps are organised worldwide:

• Full and effective participation especially of young people 
• Respect for interculturality and diversity
• Social inclusion and accessibility 
• Promotion of peace and mutual understanding
• Acknowledgment of lifelong learning through non formal education
• Promotion of solidarity by cooperation and networking

Based on the following evidence-based approaches:

• Human-rights education and democratic citizenship based approach;
• Empowerment of young people;
• Empowerment of persons with fewer opportunities;
• Non-formal education approach.