VOLUNTEERING With L'Essentiel IN Lasne
Looking for three volunteers
Trip type
City + Country
Lasne, Belgium
Dates of the next project
01 October 2023 – 30 September 2024
Deadline to apply
Deadline 05th of june 2023 (23:59)
Hosting organisation: Essentiel

Essentiel asbl is a non-profit organisation which aim is to accompany people with disabilities in all aspects of their daily life and self-development.
The philosophy of the place follows two main principles:
- Inclusion: Essentiel’s objective is to create and maintain a social bound between people with disabilities from all generations in the spirit of solidarity. The activities are co-organized by people with disability, and opened to anyone.
- Permanent research: Essentiel’s mission goes beyond the life in the centre. It is also a place for experiments, global thinking and permanent research about the inclusion of people with disability within the society.
Essentiel is:
- A living place for 30 inhabitants with disabilities
- A place hosting workshops for the residents, but also open to people from nearby centres. A shop is open one Friday per month to sell the artistic creations
- A service «halte-répit» a care center for children for families that temporarily need a break
- A big green space behind the main building
- An inclusive kindergarten, managed by another non-profit organisation, which hosts 20 children with or without disability

Support organisation: CBB
- Promote the project and links between local and international associations
- Support the selection and preparation of European volunteers before arrival
- Manage administrative matters such as budget allowances, creation of bank account, enrollment at the municipality, insurance contracts
- Write the activity agreement
- Provide pedagogical support for the volunteer and the hosting organisation by ensuring the participation to the NA seminars, organising evaluation meetings with the volunteer and the hosting organization to reflect on learning outcomes
- Handle practical arrangements, including accommodation, health insurance, French lessons, online language tools, etc.
- Create networking activities with all ESC volunteers of the hosting organisations we support
Volunteers get involved in the daily life of Essentiel. The aim of Essentiel’s activities is to help people with disabilities have a diversified daily life and to integrate them more into the society. The place is buzzing with various activities and involve a larger audience than only the people living on site. L’Essential has a “pro-autonomy” approach, it means it is important to take into account the will and desire of the residents when building a relationship with her/him. In the same way for the daily activities, it’s always important to motivate the residents to take part into them but it will always be up to them to do it or not. Check this video , offering a nice glimpse of the daily life at Essentiel!
Essentiel provides a variety of activities:
- Sensory activities: hippotherapy, yoga, sound bath, snoezelen, cyclo-dance, cooking, animal care, storytelling, working in the vegetable garden and the greenhouse
- Sports activities: table tennis, hockey, swimming pool, games with balls, athletics, hippotherapy, walks. During spring and summer, there is a lot of outdoor activities in the green areas that surround L’Essentiel. The residents are normally eager to spend time outside and enjoy themself under the sun.
- Artistic activities: art (painting, drawing, sculpture), crafts (at the service of the store open once a month), theater and expression, music
- Cognitive activities: class, emotion workshop, speech therapy, board games
- Other activities: training of guides at the Folon museum, opening of our little shop once a month with a cafetaria part where our residents serve gourmet coffee
- Activities for the community: taking care of the animals (goats, horses, rabbits, chickens and one cat) living on site (feed them once a day), gardening, cooking, grocery shopping, maintenance of the buildings
- Group holidays: residential activities with the residents especially in the summer period
- Activities in the inclusive kindergarten (1/3 of the kids having mental disabilities): it is possible for the volunteers to be working some mornings inclusive kindergarden with a resident.



The volunteer's tasks
- Participation in the activities of your choice
Twice a day the residents can choose among 7 to 10 activities (hippotherapy, gardening, snoezelen, sewing) proposed by the staff. The volunteers will accompany the staff in one of these activities.
- Individual support
Take some time alone with a beneficiary in order to help them do something they want to or something you offer them: have a walk in the village, go on the Internet, assist them with their personel projects. before that, a meeting is organized between the primary caregiver of the resident and the supervisor of the volunteers.
- Contribution to collective life
We expect volunteers to be positive, to act as “engines”‘ within the project. We ask them to take part in the daily life of the centre by:
– Preparing meals and snacks, being at the table with the residents to share a convivial moment and possibly offer help
– Assisting and motivating residents to take part in the life of Essentiel
– Offering and demonstrating positivity and optimism in order to contribute to a positive atmosphere conducive to creativity and dynamism
– Helping the smooth running of Essentiel’s project by giving a hand when it is needed
– Offering mini-activities during the day when there is a down time
-Support the educators during residential activities (group holidays)
- Contribution to projects
We also expect volunteers to come with their own ideas for projects to be implemented together with the residents, or to contribute to the resident’s ideas.
The cities - LASNE & GENAPPE
Essentiel is located in Chaussée de Louvain, 563a in Lasne. Lasne is a town of 14 000 inhabitants in the French-speaking part of Belgium. Lasne is a semi-rural municipality retaining several working farms. The town is close to Brussels which is the capital of Belgium.
The volunteers will live together in a house or flat in the city of Genappe. They will have a private room in a fully-equipped shared apartment. Living in Genappe will allow the volunteers to be able to stay connected with volunteers from another hosting organisation located at 2 minutes walk.

Genappe is a town of 15 000 inhabitants in the Belgian province of Brabant Wallon. The town has its own cultural centre, a library, a youth centre, a swimming pool opened during summer, some options in sports and arts (there is an academy proposing dance, music and theatre) and culture. Genappe is quiet and social life is not very vivid but a lot of events are organised by “Le Monty”, also hosting ESC volunteers. Supermarkets and several shops are available in the center. Nevertheless, Genappe has no train station on its own, though buses are leaving every 30 minutes for the nearest station at Braine L’alleud, Nivelles and Ottignies, slightly bigger towns. From these stations, cities such as Namur, Charleroi or Brussels are less than an hour away. There is one direct bus going to reaching Brussels (the capital of Belgium) in about 1h.
Genappe and its eight villages offer amazing places, several castles and other landmarks, testimonies of a rich past history where the presence of famous personages such as Godefroid of Bouillon, Louis XI or Napoleon is still perceptible.
Despite what was above mentioned, Genappe is still located in a semi rural area, where more than 80% of its territory is covered by field and some woods. In the countryside surrounding Genappe, several delineated walls, farms, craftspeople, local groceries can welcome you in order to make you try the local delicacies.
This project is therefore very suitable for volunteers who are not attracted by a very lively nightlife, but mostly by quiet evenings and outdoor activities during the week-end. ESC volunteers usually do regular group activities during the free days.
The country - BELGIUM
Squeezed between the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, Belgium is one of Europe’s tiddlers. The north is flat, with a beach of 65km along the North Sea full of resorts, except for a few patches of windswept dunes. In the south you will not find mountains, but the hilly forests of the Belgian Ardenne. We have 4 seasons well contrasted, cold winter and sunny summer… But be ready to look up to a grey sky at least half of the year.
Despite the rainy clouds, Belgian people are usually warm. A lot of cultural and free events happen during the year, which makes your journey in this little country entertaining and resourceful.
This project will take part in the south of the country where we speak French. Be therefore ready to learn and speak French! Especially as this project involves kids.
- Specialities : FRIES and BEERS and FESTIVALS
- AREA: 30,518 sq km
- POPULATION: 11.420.163 million
- CAPITAL: Brussels (pop: 1.191.604)
- REGIONS: Flanders (North), Wallonia (South), Brussels – Capital
- COMMUNITIES: Flemish, French and German speaking community
- LANGUAGE: Dutch (±59%), French (±37%) and German (±1%)
- CURRENCY: Euro
Working Hours
4 or 5 days a week, from 10 am to 5 pm with two consecutive days off per week. One afternoon per week, the volunteers can leave earlier to join the French conversation table taking place in Genappe, with the other ESC volunteers. The schedules are usually quite fixed except if there is a holiday trip or visit outside of the center.
Accommodation
You will live in a shared apartment in Genappe, a town located at 20-30 minutes by car. A car can be made available by the hosting organization to come to and go back from work (if the volunteers are in possession of the driving license). Each volunteer will have his/her private room and shared common space. Three other ESC volunteers live just next door (in the hosting organization “Le Monty”).
Food
You will receive a budget and will prepare your own meals at home. During the working days, a free (just for ESC volunteers) meal is served at l’Essentiel (veggie friendly)
Pocket Money
Participation in the European Solidarity Corps is free of charge, except for exceptional contribution to travel costs. You will therefore receive free board and lodging during the whole activity. In addition, you will receive pocket money for personal expenses throughout the duration of the activity, including holidays.
Insurance
You get covered, throughout the activity period, by the obligatory European Solidarity Corps insurance plan (HENNER) that the European Commission sets up. This coverage is only complementary to the mandatory coverage of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which you must obtain prior to departure.
In certain cases, when national rules deprive participants from coverage under EHIC for the duration of the placement, HENNER will provide full coverage. However, you must provide proof that obtaining the EHIC in your case was not possible. You should contact your National Agency for advice on your specific circumstances. You must read carefully the insurance-related information before the project.
Language course
OLS + French lesson. We provide an online language course as part of the budget from the Commission. You will need to complete a level test before the activity starts. We encourage you to join free French lessons given in the municipality or around if possible. We recommend that the participant starts practicing French prior to their arrival in Belgium and that they participate in as many activities as possible in order to get better at the language.
- Aged 18-30 years old
- Open-minded, curious, enthusiastic, empathetic
- Able to work in a team, with different target groups
- Willing to learn French: having basic skills in French help a lot because the team work is mainly in French (although some workers will be glad to practice English) and because a lot of residents only speak French
- Interested in working with people with disabilities
- Ready to propose, take initiative, discuss and give your opinion. The team is made up of dynamic, young and easygoing workers you can count on!
- Flexible in terms of working hours and types of tasks
- Before departure, being in contact with a support/sending organisation to receive information and preparation
> Look up for a support organisation in your region via this link - Project open to everyone, regardless of their nationality, religion, believes, diploma, or professional experience
- Able to give copy of certificate of good conduct related to the work with minors before starting the activity
How to apply ?
Deadline: 05/06/2023 (23:59)
1. To join the European Solidarity Corps programme, create a profile on the European Youth Portal (click on “register” at the bottom)
2. Answer the questionnaire below (you will be asked to attach a CV at the end of the form)
3. If you’re feeling creative, feel free to send us any additional material related to your application to esc@compagnonsbatisseurs.be (optional)
The creation of a profile on the ESC portal AND fulfilling the form are compulsory for us to take your application into consideration. In the days following the deadline, we will contact the pre-selected volunteers for a Zoom meeting.