To initiate the project entitled “Overcoming boundaries, opening doors”, within the last months partnerships have been developed and strengthened again between the German Association Open Door International e.V. (ODI), KENTRO EIDIKI PAIDEIA (Special Education Center, Greece), University of Madeira Students' Union (AAUMa, Portugal), Tandem NGO (Greece), Rifugio Re Carlo Alberto bzw. AFSAI (Italy), Family Crisis Centre (Latvia), VERTIGEM (Portugal), NGO OPORA (Russia) sowie Yerevan State University of Languages and Social Sciences (Armenia). In the autumn 2016, ODI will for the first time host a volunteer from Denmark in cooperation with Dansk ICYE. This consortium has initiated this new EVS-project with the title “Overcoming boundaries, opening doors“. Delighted by the idea to discover and get to know Europe and its neighboring countries together more closely and to raise European awareness and solidarity among each other, the partners have formulated the following key objectives:• Supporting young people from socially and financially vulnerable families and with health issues• Promotion of intercultural understanding, international friendships, solidarity in Europe and its neighboring countries and democratic awareness• Setting up of long-lasting cooperation and friendship between the partners/ project countriesTwo major themes derive from this:• Intercultural understanding and exchange, purchase of intercultural skills for all persons involved on an interpersonal level• Sensitization and support of a common European idea and its diversity, of solidarity and the awareness of peace and democracyThe European Voluntary Service Project aims to support especially youngsters with fewer opportunities. This refers to young people from financially vulnerable families or to young people with health issues. The volunteers will differ from age, gender and socio-cultural background. The interest and basic idea of the individual institutions and also the skills and competence of each volunteer influence the project and the major activities. Following the motto of a common Europe and its values as well as solidarity, the activities are realized on the following three levels: a) the volunteer’s active participation in the organization and its projects, b) the volunteer’s support of projects initiated by the organization (e.g. events, workshops, meetings, and excursions), c) projects initiated by the volunteer himself (e.g. in the occasion of certain cultural events).The allocation of tasks of the different partners is clearly structured and defined. As coordinative sending organization, ODI takes over a large part of the planning before the project begins: writing proposals, preparation of the volunteers and the theoretic planning of the project in coordination with the partners. Coordination, instructions and implementation of the main activities, as well as the volunteers’ looking after during that time, is the task of the partner organization in the relevant country. In advance to the youth encounter, both partners work together on a common plan. The coordinators of the relevant country are responsible for the administrative and logistic organization on-site. In the context of the main activities and their daily life, both the supported youngsters and every other concerned person should experience an exchange between different nations and thus get a deeper inside in Europe with its cultures and mentalities. Thanks to this intercultural exchange, new (international) friendships are established, prejudices are reduced and tolerance towards foreigners is strengthened. The activities are to support the creation of a European awareness with common democratic values for every person involved. In that way they gain intercultural, social and communicative skills. Seen from a long-term perspective, the supported youngsters will develop a strong European awareness and thus serve as ambassador of Europe and the European Union all over the world. An online-blog helps to document the project nationally and internationally. Everyone involved in the project takes part in that blog, which serves therefore as a medium of exchange among them.