Eurodesk

SOURCE: REGIONAL VOLUNTEER CENTRE IN KIELCE

In small towns, and especially in rural areas, the knowledge of the opportunities offered to young Europeans by EU-funded programmes is rudimentary. Having in mind that lack of knowledge means exclusion, we joined the Eurodesk network to open up young people to the experiences they could have

Dominika Caune, headteacher of the Bolesław Krzywousty Complex of Secondary Schools of Mechanics in Kołobrzeg

The information network

Eurodesk is an information programme operating within the Erasmus+ structures. It does not award grants, but supports other initiatives related to non-formal education and youth work. It also co-operates with more than a thousand youth organisations and institutions working for young people across Europe. Network members share information, experience and know-how. The Eurodesk Poland is one of the largest and most active networks in Europe. In 2020, it consisted of more than 50 organisations and institutions, which on the regional and local level reached out to young people with information about the opportunities offered by the European Union programmes implemented at home and abroad. The Eurodesk National Centre in Poland provides training to employees of these organisations so that they can organise and participate in events, conduct lessons and workshops and answer questions. One of the means of communication with young people is the www.eurodesk.pl website. It features a database of grant programmes that support learning mobility and co-operation in Europe. It is the largest source of such information in Polish internet. It collects information about more than 300 initiatives. Young people who look for information on opportunities related to education and training, volunteering or activity

in other parts of the world can also use the European Youth Portal, an internet platform run by Eurodesk. In the years 2014–2020, the Polish version of the portal was one of the European leaders in terms of the number of featured materials. In this period, the Eurodesk National Centre published nearly 2,000 articles, news and other information pieces about events. The publishing offer has also expanded. In 2017, the Centre issued a publication entitled Internships in international institutions, which launched a new publishing series in a larger format, richer in content and more journalistic in nature. Previous publications devoted to working, volunteering and studying abroad were published in the form of pocket guides (Altruist in action, or all you want to know about volunteering abroad, 2014 and 2017; Legit, or how to work legally in Europe, 2015 and 2018; Studying is a challenge, or how to become a student in Europe, 2017). The following publications in the new series were devoted to youth exchanges (International youth exchanges, 2018) and volunteering (International youth volunteering, 2019).

In the 2014–2020, the Eurodesk Poland website was visited by over 2 mln unique users

Over 3,000 events, 2,000 posts, 9 workshops and games – this way Eurodesk has marked its presence in past 7 years

A Europe-wide “Time to move” campaign was launched in 2014 to promote mobility in the continent. The number of events organised as part of the campaign has grown each year, and for four years now Poland has hosted the largest number of the events. In six years, 585 events took place under the banner of “Time to move”. During the first consolidated Erasmus+ framework, the Eurodesk National Centre reached out to several hundred thousand new recipients in schools, at fairs and during information events. The most important activities were lessons and workshops, including the ones devoted to Euro-projects, Euro-studies, Euro-work, Euro-activation and Euro-volunteering. In the years 2014–2020, the Eurodesk Poland Network informed about the European Solidarity Corps (“Youth to be heard”) and discussed the Europass documents (“Career docs”). It also published two games: Euro-opportunities and Time to move. In total, the network conducted 2,479 lessons for 49,160 students.

In 2020, Eurodesk launched a new website. It is a modern and intuitive tool, which features advanced search engine, presents international mobility offers and a database of good practices, which is a collection of inspiring information about projects and interviews with their authors as well as descriptions of youth organisations and institutions working for the benefit of youth. The presence of the Eurodesk on the internet was complemented by its activity in social media. Each year, the Eurodesk National Centre published several hundred posts on Facebook, which reached almost half a million recipients. From 2020, Eurodesk Poland also runs a profile on Instagram, where it promotes mobility, presents good practices and their authors. 2014 the first “Time to move” campaign is launched to promote the mobility of young

Europeans. During the meetings, which attract over 800 participants, the opportunities for working, studying and volunteering abroad are presented in several dozen Polish towns and cities

2015 Eurodesk Poland recruits   20 correspondents of the European Youth Portal. In a few months, they post over a hundred articles, and

Poland becomes a leader in terms of the number of texts published on the portal!

2016 the EDUinspiracje Awards   is expanded with a new category: European Information for Youth, which is intended for the Eurodesk network organisations.

The first winner in the category is the University of Information

Technology and Management in Rzeszów

2017 the network organisations are actively involved in the celebrations of the European Youth

Week and stage 30 events

2018 the top year in terms of the number of lessons and workshops conducted by Eurodesk Poland. A total of 21,820 students participate in 958 lessons on mobility and youth activity

2019 the network is involved in promoting the European Commission’s pan-European contest entitled DiscoverEU. Eurodesk consultants answer nearly 400 questions about the initiative

2020 Eurodesk focusses on social media presence. An Instagram profile complements a popular Facebook profile and the website is revamped