What challenge inspired this recipe?
This best practice came out from the evaluations of EVS activities organized some years ago. Often, the young people who enjoyed the most their volunteer timelife were young people who had an active social and cultural life along their project (member of the local basket-ball club ; singer in a local choir ; enjoying every week-end to discover the country, to visit museums…). At the opposite, we could notice that volunteers with less positive experience had limited, when not at all, activities out of their volunteering project. We were obviously sharing proposals and inviting them to attend external activities, but we were lacking of an incentive. It is how came the idea to allocate a specific budget dedicated to “move and meet”.
Ingredients :
In each of our volunteers residence, we installed a box, with an envelope for each volunteer resident. It is used to collect the proves of expenses and the request of reimbursement.
Step by step guide
This “best practice” is integrated to the financial conditions of each of our ESC mid and long term activity. It is stated in the activity agreement signed with the volunteers.
A long term volunteering is a global experience and it is important that you take any advantage from it. During your volunteering, you can practice sports and/or fine arts, discover Belgium, make new friends, meet locals, enjoy entertaining times with them… In order to encourage this, we provides to each ESC volunteer hosted in its project an extra budget for social and cultural activities.
How much is the SOCU budget?
Your extra-budget for social and cultural activities is 25EUR/month of activity. Thus, for a 12 months volunteering, the total of your extra SOCU budget is 300 EUR.
How can I receive this budget?
The budget is given to the volunteer in 3 transfers:
1st instalment = 1/2 of the total budget. It is transferred to your bank account at the beginning of your volunteering
2nd instalment = 1/4 of the total budget. You will receive it after you have spent and duly reported the use of the 1st instalment.
3rd instalment =1/4 of the total budget. You will receive it after you have spent and duly reported the use of the 2nd instalment.
What are the eligible expenses?
You can spend this money for social, cultural or discovering activities
in (name of the country) during your volunteering with (name of the LEAD organisation) More extensively, you can use it for anything that supports you in enjoying and discovering your new environment. In case you doubt if an expense is eligible, please ask for confirmation to your
project officer.
Here is a list of usual activities refunded for the SOCU budget.
Cultural activities: entrances to a museum, an exhibition, a concert, a
cinema, a theater play, a festival; registration fees for a workshop
or a course of music, of fine arts…
Social, discovering and touristic activities: bus or train tickets for your
journeys in Belgium; accommodation in a youth or low budget hostel;
entrances to a local fest such as a carnival, to a paid visit of a
castle or a park, entrances to an entertainment park (Adventure
valley Durbuy ; Walibi ; Plopsacoo ;…), rental of a bike or a
cuistax at the see coast, rental of a kayak, a boat trip in the
Bruges channels, entrance to an escape game…
Sport: registration fee to a sport club, to the gym, to a competition (Brussels 20km ; Namur semi-marathon…) ; entrances to the swimming pool…
Train or bus tickets for any trip outside of Belgium (including Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany) are not eligible expenses to be reimbursed within this budget!
What happens if I don’t spend my budget?
The budget is provided only for eligible reported activities. If you don’t report about the use of money advanced to you, we will ask you its reimbursement. In case you have a budget leftover at the end of the volunteering, you cannot require it.
VERY IMPORTANT: you have to report about the use of the SOCU
budget. This means that you must keep all the tickets, invoices, receipts related to your expenses. You must also keep them recorded in the table here below. Your proves of expenses (tickets…) and the completed table must be given to your project officer, once you
have spent the last received instalment.
Important to highlight!All in all, we consider this practice as a success. We can notice now that most of our hosted volunteers move around Belgium, develop activities and contacts along their project. The volunteers appreciate this “extra budget”; which permits them to invest in activities without touching to their usual pocket money. |
Before you start cooking, keep in mind…
This practice implies an additional administrative follow-up :
Need to collect tickets and proves of expenses
Need to follow-up each individual budget
Need to order the reimbursement
Obviously, offering this extra budget also implies an extra financial charge to the LEAD organisation, when the ESC funding are more and more limited in regard of the actual cost of life.
