Youth Work and Opportunities

At Gelişen Nesil, volunteering isn't just taking a role at an event or lending support somewhere. It is, above all, a process where young people discover themselves, take responsibility and learn to create together.

Many young people want to volunteer but often don't know where to start. Questions like “What can I do?” or “Am I right for this?” play on their minds. That is exactly where we step in. We try to make volunteering more understandable, more reachable and genuinely experienceable. Because for us volunteering isn't just “helping” — it means thinking, creating and learning together.

That's why we organise workshops, run trainings with youth workers and hold peer-learning meetups. We talk about and experience together topics like teamwork, communication, taking responsibility and creating safe spaces.

In our workshops we don't just lecture. We play games, think together, sometimes role-play, sometimes share what we've been through. Because we believe the best learning happens by doing and by learning from each other.

Our dream is for volunteering not to be something fleeting — but a journey where young people find themselves, grow stronger and, in time, bring their own ideas to life.

The European Solidarity Corps is a European Union programme that supports young people's participation in activities benefiting society. It offers young people the chance to volunteer, gain experience in different countries, meet new cultures and develop solidarity-based projects in their own communities.

For us, ESC is not just an opportunity to “go abroad”. It means a young person getting to know themselves while volunteering in another country, seeing different ways of life, taking responsibility and looking at social issues through a wider lens. It is also a powerful tool for young people to produce solutions for needs they see in their own cities and turn them into solidarity projects.

At Gelişen Nesil we see the European Solidarity Corps as a learning space that develops young people's volunteering awareness, strengthens the culture of solidarity and reaches from the local level to Europe. We support young people in getting to know ESC opportunities, using the European Youth Portal, preparing for volunteering projects and turning their own solidarity ideas into projects.

In this scope we run information sessions, volunteering workshops, project idea development activities and capacity-building for youth workers. Our aim is for more young people to access volunteering and solidarity opportunities in Europe — and for young people in Bursa to develop local solidarity projects that start from their own needs.

European Solidarity Corps — European Youth Portal: the official European source on age range, registration and activity types for young people who want to join ESC.

SALTO-YOUTH is a key support platform offering European-level training, resources, methods and networking opportunities for youth workers, trainers, youth organisations and project teams. Through its training calendar, method tools, partner-finding systems and thematic resource centres, it helps organisations working in the youth field build their capacity.

For Gelişen Nesil, SALTO-YOUTH is one of the core resources we draw inspiration from in volunteering, youth work, non-formal learning, inclusion, participation and project development, and one that supports the development of youth workers.

salto-youth.net: the European youth platform bringing together the training calendar, project tools, partner-finding systems and non-formal learning resources for youth workers.

The solidarity section of the European Youth Portal is the official starting point for young people who want to register for volunteering projects, browse open opportunities and join the European Solidarity Corps. Registered young people can apply directly to volunteering opportunities published by organisations across Europe.

youth.europa.eu/solidarity: the official portal for registration, searching opportunities and applications.