This project, entitled "Learning by doing: EVS 2016/17" consists of two project activities. The project will send 2 young Norwegian volunteers to the programme countries France and Greece for long-term EVS project activities of up to one year. The participants have been selected due to their demonstrated interest and motivation to undertake this long-term project, which has already included a level of preparations, and will later include also evaluation.The project as a whole has two main objectives:1. To promote voluntary work and mobility opportunities for young people.2. To further develop our network of reliable European partners for better quality partnerships.The project further aims to promote international volunteering as an opportunity for the people involved to contribute to actions which benefit the community in which they are located, international solidarity, and to be an opportunity for personal development and acquirement of competencies.This project, being a KA1-project, knits in with the following objectives of the Erasmus + programme:- "To improve the level of key competences and skills of young people..."- "To foster quality improvements in youth work, in particular through enhanced cooperation between organisations in the youth field".We believe the EVS project addresses a few needs for all parties directly involved. For the two Norwegian participants we know they would like to get the hands-on experience a long-term project will offer them, with the feeling of ownership, activity management responsibility, team work, creativity development, and more, that they will be assisted to. The entire project, including both project activities, will be undertaken adhering to the values and principles of non-formal education.On a European level, we maintain that this project's results, both long- and short term, will assist in developing solidarity and promotes tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union.For the participants themselves we envision the following key competencies to be boosted:- Communicating in another language. The languages of communication will be English and, as soon as possible, French and Greek, respectively. - Digital competence. The volunteers will use different computer programs in order to design informative materials about activities in the youth centres. The volunteers will also be encouraged to create audio-visual publicity material for promotion purposes and more.- Learning to learn. The volunteers will receive continuous assessment of the learning process through the support of the mentors and the project coordinators. The volunteers will be asked to develop a personal learning plan and can tailor it to the needs and possibilities of both the project and their own. All volunteers are encouraged to be organised and autonomous in their work within the organisations. The volunteers will also need to understand how to organise their time, how to manage different tasks, and more.- Social and civic competences. The volunteers will work actively with youth in their local communities in France and Greece. They will be encouraged to transfer their skills, knowledge and experience to other young people both in the community and in her own countries when they return. Spending time in this project will give them the chance to live with people who come not only from different countries but also from different social and cultural backgrounds. She will thus be helped to approach and understand different ways of thinking and living.- Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. During the project the volunteer will be encouraged and supported to propose and develop their personal project which will give them the opportunity to experiment and learn how an action plan is implemented.- Cultural awareness and expression. The volunteers will work alongside young people and youth workers. And within the project they will have the opportunity to design innovative and creative activities within the objectives and activities of the host organisations using and discovering more of their own qualifications and skills.- Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology. The volunteers will plan activities and workshops during their time abroad, which are also foreseen to include budgeting.Given the participant-oriented learning goals of EVS, we further hope that the project will have a direct impact on young people in both hosting locations and the home region of the sending organisation to boost the interest and engagement in voluntary work, active participation, and wish to participate in mobility projects of their own.