How to become a volunteer in Leipzig

We have three different flats for our volunteers. All flats are shared flats with kitchen, bathroom and living rooms. All volunteers have their single bedroom. One flat is directly in our social cultural center »Die VILLA« and has a big roof terrace. VILLA is closed to the City center near the train station. In VILLA flat live 7 volunteers. Another flat is just around the corner, there we host 5 volunteers. In the eastern part of the city (10 minutes from the city center by Tram) is our third flat. This flat we share with two other ESC organizations from Leipzig.

Shared rooms (Bathroom, Kitchen, Floor, Living room):

• fully equipped, included washing machine

Single Bedrooms:

• fully equipped with bed, chair, desk, cupboard, lamps

General information:

We offer pillows, blankets and bedsheets. Please bring your own towels.

We offer food money, pocket money and money for local transport. Cleaning supplies, toilet paper and hygiene products has to cover by volunteers.

On your arrival we will bring you to the flat and give you all documents you need (renting contract, ESC confirmation etc), and in the first days in Leipzig we help you for orientation, we go together to the registration office and open with you bank account. We will prepare welcome-meetings with all the volunteers, and we’re every time open for your ideas! Because the ESC is your time, your chance and your project to start! We will support you in any way.

You will be supported by Kathrin, Philipp Thomke and/or current and former ESC volunteers.

Please take into consider, that we will provide and register you in a language course. This course is a support for those of you, who don’t know or don’t know much from the german language. This course is not a full and intensive language course. It will be one time per week for two hours / almost 3 months (private teacher or language school). Much more you will learn the german language by doing, by working in your host organization, by meeting people around and in our social culture centre or by searching a tandem partner. We have a language evening in our house each Tuesday evening, here you can meet people from Leipzig as well as international people and train different languages including German. In addition, you can make an online German course which is provided by the National Agency. So keep your mind open – the ESC and learning another language is a process.

Please bring a passport photo to Leipzig. We need it in the first days for the registration in the city and for the Leipzig Pass. With the Leipzig Pass you will get many reductions for entries like in cinema, zoo or theatre and for the local transport.

Volunteers need a supporting sending organization in their home country. You can easily find one by checking the database of ESC (you can search for your country and city).

All applicants need to register at the ESC PASS tool and the register number. Details about it and instructions how to do it you find here.

The city of Leipzig is located in the north-west of the Free State of Saxony. The city and its 600,000 inhabitants became known throughout the world in the fall of 1989 as the center of the peaceful revolutionary movement in East Germany. It is home to the second-oldest university in Germany, as well as serving as an important trade fair center. Around one million people visit Leipzig every year, enjoying the city's lively atmosphere and diverse cultural offerings. In addition, Leipzig has beautiful parks and two lakes that can be reached by public transportation.