The Helping Others Participate and be Engaged in Society 2- HOPES2 – was a project within the framework of the European Voluntary Service that involved 11 young volunteers from Italy, Spain, Portugain and France who spent 9 months working with non-formal education methods in social institutions form the city of Craiova. The project general objective was to raise the level social inclusion and tolerance towards youth with fewer opportunities and disabilities through non-formal education programmes that rise their level of self-confidence, autonomy, life skills and soft skills while providing a learning environment that contributes to the personal and professional development and life-long learning process of both the target group and the volunteers. The project was structured in 3 phases: - Preparation, Adaptation and Training Phase(PAT) – a programe designed prepare the volunteer for implementing the project helping them better understand project objectives, roles and responsibilities, tasks and working methods as well as developing concrete skills such as non-formal working methods, team work, communication, social work and other relevant skills that will be useful in the project implementation. - Non-formal education and social inclusion programme which was the core activity of the project and consisted of a 9 months EVS stage. The volunteers of the HOPES2 Project will be directly involved in the planning, organization and implementation of 6 non-formal education programs(Cultural awareness programme; Languages and multilingualism programme; Creativity and self-expression stimulation programme; Building, social integration capacity, soft skills and autonomy programme; Social Inclusion Awareness campaign; Life-long learning opportunities for youth; Sports and outdoor activities programme) that address personal and professional development needs of 250 beneficiaries in 4 social assistance institutions, 3 high schools, 1 center for the elderly, 1 sport club and 1 detention center for juveniles. The volunteers’ tasks were diverse and focused both on social and personal development of the volunteers as well as improving the target groups (socially assisted persons) situation/status (cotributing to social inclusion, developing personal confidence and socialization, etc). - Evaluation and follow-up phase. This took place in the last month of the project and has been orientated towards evaluating together with the volunteers, project partners, beneficiaries and other stakeholders the degree to which the project achieved its objectives, the impact of the activities and planning the follow-up activities to the project. For the volunteers who are to be the direct and primary beneficiaries of the EVS project and the learning objectives of the project it had a great impact on their personal and professional development targeting the acquisition of competences from the area of: social work, how social institutions work and adapt to the needs of their beneficiaries, how to increase and work towards social inclusion thus increasing experience in these areas,project management, planning and evaluations, strategic development, risk management, working in the NGO sector, international relationships, fund raising and social communication