The projects funded under Humanitarian Aid volunteering should:

• where relevant, facilitate the transition from the humanitarian response to long-term sustainable and inclusive development
• contribute to strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable or disaster-affected communities;
• reinforce disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction;
• link relief, rehabilitation and development;
• ensure a high level of safety and security for volunteers.

Additionally, to increase the quality and impact of the action on local communities, projects could include complementary activities. They should also facilitate the active involvement of local staff and volunteers from the countries and communities in which they are implemented.

The following activities are supported under Humanitarian Aid Volunteering:

Individual volunteering: is an activity in the field of humanitarian aid of a duration of 2 to 12 months, excluding travel time.
This type of volunteering provides young people with the opportunity to carry out tasks needed to support the activities undertaken by the host organisation.
Individual volunteering activities take place cross-border, in a country different from the country of residence of the volunteer(s), as detailed in the section on general eligibility criteria – “geographical location”.
Mentor expertise should support the individual volunteering activities.

Volunteering teams: are activities that allow in principle teams of 5 to 40 participants coming from at least two different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme to volunteer together for a period between 2 weeks and 2 months (up to 59 days , excluding travel time).
Volunteering teams activities take place cross-border, in a country different from the country of residence of the participants, as detailed in the section on general eligibility criteria – “geographic location”.
In volunteering teams, volunteers are deployed over a short period of time to perform a clearly defined activity, which can be realised in a short time frame. Despite their short duration, these activities will be valuable both for the volunteers and for the communities benefitting from this service. This format may facilitate the participation of people with fewer opportunities due to the short duration and the participation in a collective endeavour.
Specific mentor expertise could be involved in support of the activities of volunteering teams and could be reinforced where young people with fewer opportunities are involved.

The advantages of this specific type of group activities compared to individual volunteering activities include the following:

• Volunteers will carry out the activity in a group. This can be an incentive for young people who do not feel ready to embark into challenging experiences on their own;
• The activity will be shorter in its duration. This can foster the participation of those young people who cannot commit for a long period of time because of their studies or jobs, but still want to be of help for the local community.

Complementary activities: are relevant side activities related to the projects and designed to add value, give more resonance to their results and increase their impact on local and/or regional level. Such complementary activities aim also at raising awareness on the value of volunteering and solidarity at local level, reaching out to the local community. The complementary activities that require the physical presence of (a) volunteer(s) should take place within the timeframe of the volunteering activity.
Complementary activities can contribute to capacity building of local organisations and communities, to create a feeling of ownership by actors at local level. Specific expertise and experienced/professional profiles can be contracted in this framework, aiming to ensure further support to volunteers (including people with fewer opportunities) and intergenerational sharing of experience.
Complementary activities could include meetings, coaching, conferences, job shadowing, training courses, practical workshops involving local youth, etc.