The importance of volunteering for the EU's economy, society and individuals has long been acknowledged by EU policy makers. 92 to 94 million adults are involved in volunteering in the EU (23% of all Europeans over 18 years old). Today you may be the person with the ability to help, but tomorrow you may be the recipient of someone else's volunteer effort. Volunteering is prioritized field of the EU Commission which supports an appropriate volunteering dimension, promoting notably cross-border volunteering. By recognition and validation of voluntary skills the EURAVON project support the Council Decision (2010/37/EC) states volunteering is a core expression of civic participation and democracy, putting European values such as solidarity & non-discrimination into action and contributing to the harmonious development of our societies. EURAVON's volunteering topic is an important creator of human and social capital, a pathway to integration and employment and a key factor for improving social cohesion. It is a highly visible expression of European citizenship, as volunteers contribute to shaping society, helping people in need, encouraging tolerance and respect human rights and democracy and other people and cultures. This project is developed to support the EU Commission's Communication on EU Policies and Volunteering: Recognizing and Promoting Cross-border Voluntary Activities in the EU (COM(2011) 568 final) as well as in Johns Hopkins University’ study namely "Volunteering in the European Union" (GHK 2010) where is it stated that in EU there is: • a current lack of a clear logical framework: In Turkey, Bulgaria, Cyprus and The Netherlands currently did not have a clear legal framework and clear rules for youth volunteers and volunteering. • a current lack of recognition: skills that are gained through volunteering activities are not always sufficiently recognized or given credit. • a current lack of supportive tools for the organisations from the Third sectors. • insufficient data on best practices and examples on volunteering. The Aims & Objectives of this proposal, lasting 24 months, are: - development, implementation and seeking accreditation and EU mainstreaming of methodology and EURAVON tool for recognition, validation and certification non-formal and informal learning deriving from voluntary civil services' experience of youth. As an outcome this system will provide "Declaration of competencies" which will consist of: reasoning capability; capability to use words properly; capability to interpret passages; perception of own perseverance; capability to face challenges; capability to process information in a creative/flexible way; professionals attitudes per sectors: business, editorial, medico-social, administrative, sport, information etc.). This will fully support the main goals of Third sector organizations (TSO), universities and other organisations who are working with volunteers around Europe through which they could attract more adults to such experience (piloting involving at least 100 volunteers and minimum of 30 TSO). - through enhancement and further exploitation of 8 key competencies toolkit to support acquisition of key transversal competencies by youth volunteers. - to foster transnational mobility of volunteers (i.e. Study visits) through the startup of a network among TSO which will strengthen the link between volunteering and health/welfare with regard to the ageing society. EURAVON outputs will foster cross-border social cohesion and social inclusion and will develop solidarity by voluntary activities which will increase peoples’ tolerance towards disadvantaged groups in society and help reduce racism and prejudice. Through EURAVON's enhanced 8 key competencies kit will improve the access of youth’ volunteers to the knowledge society as well as the promotion of the active citizenship. The mutual benefits of volunteering which stem from the migration of non-member state country Volunteers (by involvement of Turkey as initiator of such project) to the EU will also be taken into account by EURAVON. In this context EURAVON is closely connected to the Council Resolution on a renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field (2010-2018) - EU Youth Strategy and fully suports Pathways 2.0 towards recognition of non-formal learning/education and of youth work in Europe. Through EURAVON’s support of voluntary services will also increase the involvement of Youth in those activities in direction that volunteering contributes to the Europe 2020 growth strategy in particular to the EU’s employment rate target of 75% by 2020, by helping people learn new skills and adapt to changes in the labour market. The EURAVON is supporting the third priority of Strategic Partnership (Erasmus + Programme guide, v.1/2014.p. 27/p.96) namely activities that facilitate the recognition and validation of knowledge, skills and competencies acquired through formal, non-formal and informal learning;