The main objectives of the project were connected to the concept of educational spiral. As described in the project application, this spiral anticipates a long-term engagement of volunteers in different activities organized besides the classical workcamps, such as various types of trainings (in the role of participants as well as of trainers), short-term voluntary events, internships, establishing a new project, etc. This engagement would help the volunteers to enhance their competences and get better prepared for their personal and professional lives. At the same time, local communities would profit from the implemented activities. The capacities of organizations would be strengthened by creating a broader portfolio of activities and a strategy on how to work with returned workcamp participants would be elaborated. Ultimately, the attractiveness of the IVS organizations would increase and a stronger community around them would be created whose members would naturally play the role of multiplicators of the activities they were involved in.
There were basically several interconnected needs we have addressed by applying for this project. As described in various needs analyses of International Voluntary Service organizations (IVS) and also regarding our own observations, there are many volunteers who take part in a so-called workcamp (2–3 weeks-long volunteering activities with international participation, taking place usually in summer) but only few of them stay engaged in other activities we organize all the year. With the K-SPACE project, we strived for a change of this situation, engaging more people in all-year activities and tying volunteers more to our organizations. This helps build the organizations’ capacities as well as reach our goals, which is to create an active, engaged society. Therefore, we have worked towards diversifying the offer of our activities throughout the year, enlarging the offer, but also engaging more regions and virtual participation. At the same time, the participants gained experiences useful for their future life, and local communities are enriched by the activities developed within the project.