SENIOR EUROPEAN VOLUNTEER EXCHANGE NETWORK | promotes international voluntary service in Europe as an educational and life long learning tool for senior citizens

Welcome!

SEVEN is an international network of 29 organisations promoting senior volunteer exchanges.

SEVEN's member organisations include NGOs, local governments, universities and research centres with at least 5 years' experience in the co-ordination and management of senior volunteer programs.
This website offers information on the achievements and future outlook of projects involving senior volunteers, aimed at prospective volunteers as well as organisations and local governments.

If you want to learn what has been done and what is possible to do, just take your time and discover the different sections of the website. A forum on adult learning and international voluntary service in Europe is open to all who wish to contribute to the debate.

Hot Issues

Study on Volunteering in the EU is now available online

A study on volunteering in the European Union was launched by DC EAC end
of 2008 within the context of its reflections on volunteering and
possibly the preparation for a European Year of Volunteering. Its
results including national reports are online now: download them here LINK

Join a workcamp this summer!

Meeting in Vienna Many organizations in Europe and worldwide have been organising voluntary service workcamps for the last 90 years. Initiatives lasting 2/3 weeks gathering individual volunteers from different countries who work on specific projects in the social, cultural and environmental areas. Discover a selection of recomended projects proposed by organisations in Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Japan, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Stay tuned: more projects in the next days. Learn more following this link .

GIVE! programme turns into SVP - Senior Volunteering Programme

SVP is the new name of the programme launched by the European Commission for transnational senior volunteers exchanges. Find here the description and the application form. If you wish to submit a SVP project to the European Commission for the next round of selection of 2010, we propose in this section a list of organizations who are looking for a partner. Check out the cards of the potential GIVE projects and contact directly the organizations in order to explore the possibility of a co-operation…Go to partner finder

Should you be interested in adding your own project, please contact info@seven-network.eu. Please note that the GIVE program only covers the 27 EU countries + Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Turkey

The third meeting of the network...

Meeting in Vienna was held in Vienna from the 30th November to the 3rd December 2009 with the presence of 75 persons, representatives of organisations, local governments and national agencies of the lifelong learning programme in Europe. The report will be available online soon.

download the report

Course "Manager for virtual learning in the field of seniors’ voluntary work in Europe" (MVL)

MVL Cource in Ulm This course, shortly MVL, is intended for those, especially in seniors exchange projects in Europe, who wish to apply the new information and communication media in seniors‘ education and want to become aquainted with virtual learning. The course's presence phase takes place in Ulm (Germany) from June 7th-11th, 2010. Before the meeting in Ulm will be a virtual introduction and after it a virtual review. You may apply for a grant at your national agency to cover the costs of the course. Please apply before January 15th, 2010 for this in-service training! Further information in flyers: EN | DE And on the website In case of any questions you may ask the course's organisers at ZAWiW of Ulm University: Gaby Körting and Ralph Schneider, Tel. +49 731 5023195. After your acceptance of the grant you need to register at ZAWiW, see the above mentioned website.

Event on the „UNO International Volunteer Day“ at the 5th of december 2009 in Strasbourg

Each year at the 5th of december the worldwide UNO International Volunteer Day is celebrated. On this occasion also in 2009 the french association for voluntary work “Féderation du Bénevolat et de la vie Associative/FFBA “ organized in the „European Parliament“ in Strasbourg the „3rd European Forum of Voluntary Work“. Protector of this ceremony was Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France. During the event the „European Throphies of Voluntary Work“ have been awarded. In this context a competiton proceeded for which the participants could submit their projects. Under others Dr. Dietmar Eisenhammer took part, who is as a „Senior Volunteer“ member for ISIS - Institute for Social Infrastructure in Francfort/Main in the SEVEN-Project. During the event in Strasbourg he was awarded beside the first three winners. This competition takes place again also in 2010.

Want to learn all about senior exchanges?

ACTIVE course for ACTIVE people!

The second edition of the ACTIVE training course: Active Citizenship Training Initiative for Volunteers in Europe is a training event for all those interested in learning how to set up and manage a transnational senior volunteers exchange. The course was held in Rome (IT) from 25th to 29th January 2010. Programme of the course can be downloaded here. materials from th etraining course will be displayed soon.

The Orientation of the European institutions on adult learning

On 23 October 2006, the European Commission adopted a Communication calling on the Member States to promote adult learning in Europe: "it is never too late to learn". One year later, the communication was completed by the action plan "It is always a good time to learn". At the moment all the European institutions are tackling the issue with opinions and resolutions. If you are Interested to learn more about the contributions of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the Committee of Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee, read more.