VERSO (Volunteers for European Employment) is a new pan-European development and knowledge-sharing project funded by the European Regional Development Fund, INTERREG IVC.

VERSO seeks to improve the quality of life for people across Europe by means of learning and sharing the best practice of voluntary work to improve European employment as well as social capital, social cohesion and the quality of life.

Unemployment is increasing all over Europe. The problems cannot be solved within the frameworks provided by the traditional systems - neither the welfare state, the family nor the market offer adequate solutions for unemployed citizens who turn to them for assistance. New and innovative approaches are needed all over Europe.

Volunteering can provide a pathway to new skills and eventually a paid job; civic society and volunteerism can also be instrumental in creating new types of social spaces capable of including or connecting with marginalized groups whose employment needs are not currently met by the established employment systems.

All over Europe, there are valuable good practice experiences in creating fruitful collaboration between regional political authorities and volunteers of civil society in the fight against unemployment. But a cooperation between regional political authorities and research institutions is essential in order to identify the good practice experiences that works and identify how it is possible to transfer them from one particular national, social and cultural context to another.

VERSO will develop a best practice catalogue to be used by the participating regions, and the project will ultimately result in a range of research-based policy recommendations in 2014. These recommendations will identify effective forms of volunteerism, and indicate how they can be transferred to contexts across Europe.