The continuous world emergency with COVID-19 widespread and its numerous coming aftermaths outlined that European land-mass was challenged with a snowballing rate of unemployment and we had to act opportune and professionally. At the time, more than ever youthful individuals should have acted capably and together. Not only viruses, but solidarity, profitable involvement and useful sympathy could cross the national borders as well. Before the widespread, youth unemployment in particular had been a best EU need for numerous years, because it not only put a part of weight on the welfare systems of Europe. Studies had shown that it was actually hindering in numerous regions, both physiologically and mentally, resulting in bad health and diet, social confinement, low self-esteem and in the worst cases, long-term psychiatric issues. Some of these impacts can be difficult to counter once they have taken root, so it was imperative to handle the issue at the earliest possible stages. One of the key ways to increase people’s sense of meaning and self-worth, was through volunteering. Studies had shown that unemployed people who volunteered were happier and became more self-confident. This was one of the reasons the EU continued to allocate so many resources to volunteering activities. One had to only look at the EVS initiative, that had grown and become established in many countries over the last 20+ years and changed the life and future of countless young people. The latest, large-scale EU voluntary initiative, the European Solidarity Corps (originally aiming to include 100.000 young Europeans between 17 and 30 by 2020) was set to hopefully be launched this year, showing further the importance that was placed on volunteering. Increasingly youthful individuals were getting to be mindful of how volunteering could be a step towards work openings, which managers esteem a foundation in deliberate work. But these days there were so many openings for volunteering, that it could be difficult to explore and indeed take the introductory steps towards getting to be included in meaningful way. We ought to have motivated and appeared youthful individuals the opportunities, but from involvement and research we know that they too ought to have interfaced with what they did, to be enthusiastic about what they volunteered with. We didn’t need youthful individuals to just jump into something unreflectively, since they listened volunteering is “the right thing to do”, and then jump out of it once more the another week, since something else caught their attention. Where did you begin and how did you find a way that could bring you from volunteering to work, inside the field you're passionate for? Volunteering for a social and civic cause almost always brought some benefit, but we thought that much more could be gained by using a ‘Steered Volunteering’ approach. This meant starting from the level of the individual youth and their personality, interests and dreams, and helped them see a way to reach these dreams through active, social behavior and skills that could be gained through voluntary activities. Our purpose with this activity was a youth exchange that took place in Favara (Italy) – located in a region with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Europe and a country dramatically damaged by COVID-19 pandemic. Our main goal was to help young, unemployed individuals become more aware of how they could properly steer the focus of their employment dreams and develop the necessary steps towards achieving them, through volunteering activities. The outcome of this approach was a more sustainable, self-conscious and motivated base of individuals, who were more involved in the development of their communities and sending organizations. The broader target group was unemployed youth, including those not in education, employment or youth exchange as well as those facing multiple obstacles to employment, whether it be due to socio-economic, cultural, religious/racial or structural/geographic issues. The five main objectives of the project, in relation to our target group, were: - Creating awareness about the many transversal skills that could be gained from volunteering. - Fostering enthusiasm towards volunteering in regards to their own personal and career development. - Increasing effective employability. - Stimulating a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit. - Encouraging positive attitudes towards people with fewer opportunities and people from different cultures/countries of origin.