The project "Connect for recognition, inspire the innovation!" involved two young Europeans coming from Belgium and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in a one year long volunteering experience in International Young Naturefriends (IYNF), a Europe-wide network of youth organizations. We aimed to offer them the chance to discover the world of international youth organization by spending one year of their European Voluntary Service in the IYNF Secretariat in Prague as well as to participate in its international and local activities. Our objectives were to enable volunteers to get inspired and develop desired key competences, expand their knowledge and get new skills that will be useful for their future personal as well as professional life when entering the labor market. The EVS project was implemented between 7th of March 2015 until 6th of March 2016 and took place in a lively multicultural environment. In 2015 IYNF celebrated 40 years of its existence, hence our topic of the year which was guiding all our activities like a red thread, was "40 years of connecting and inspiring". This EVS project was connected to this celebration as well and volunteers had a chance to contribute to the promotion of the naturefriendly values of respect, solidarity, equality, sustainability and love and care for nature. They took part in international educational activities where we were looking back at the past of IYNF, trying to recall what was learnt, get inspired and motivated by the previous generations of volunteers, by the best practices and use them in the future. More concretely, volunteers` tasks were closely related to media and digital communication as that was one of the focuses of the project. I.e. create content of IYNF`s digital media channels (website, facebook, youtube channel); co-create the bi-weekly courier, and write articles about their topics of interest. They were given a chance to be creative while pictures and video taking and editing. They also supported the day-to-day operations of the IYNF office; got involved in the international activities by supporting the organizational part, communicating with the participants and if interested also facilitating. Volunteers were also encouraged to work on and develop their own creative ideas. Thanks to all the above mentioned tasks they were able to get a clearer idea on how an international NGO is run, what is needed for organizing a successful international (as well as local) event and how social media and promotion works. Volunteers had an opportunity to get fresh insights into the world of non-formal education and to realize the importance of team-work and cooperation in an international environment. A vital part of their EVS project was development of their own personal projects. As a youth organization focused on non-formal and experiential learning, the principles and methods of non-formal education, mainly the `learning by doing` methodology were essential parts of this EVS project as well. Volunteers could try out new things without the fear of not succeeding as every task was seen as a learning opportunity. As IYNF`s work touches direct environmental experience, healthy green lifestyles and active participation, these aspects were omnipresent during this EVS project as well. We consider as the most important result of the project the significant improvement of volunteers’ key competences and their personal development and growth. Thanks to the above mentioned tasks, volunteers were able to develop mainly their digital competences and basic competences in technology; foreign language skills (English and Czech); social & civic competences; higher cultural awareness and expression; sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and last but not least, their learning to learn competence. The self-development and growth is also the most significant long term benefit of the project - it will surely ensure higher chances of the volunteers’ when searching for job and entering the labor market. Through social media and direct contact in local and international events, other young Europeans - within and beyond the IYNF network - were able to get inspired and motivated by the positive experience of the EVS volunteers in order to become volunteers themselves or to join other types of international youth activities on the European level.