The Voluntary Social Year (FSJ)

The Voluntary Social Year is a form of the state-regulated youth voluntary service that enables young people aged 16 to 27 after completing school to gain knowledge and experience that offer important guidance for their own career and life. In addition, through a youth voluntary service, young people learn to better assess their own abilities. They use their interests and strengths for the common good and often experience this as an enrichment for their own lives.

Period of deployment
An FSJ usually lasts 12 months, but at least six and a maximum of 18 months. If you are between 16 and 27 years old and are interested in an FSJ, you must first contact a legally approved institution.

In order to carry out the FSJ and consequently to function as a place of assignment, the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family must approve the sponsor of the FSJ.

Sponsors of the Voluntary Social Year If you want to be recognised as a sponsor of the Voluntary Social Year (FSJ) in Berlin, please contact the information office of the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family for referral to the appropriate office. On the current list you will find the FSJ organisations recognised in the State of Berlin:

• List of FSJ sponsors (as of october 2020)
• Youth portal jup!, Information about the sponsors in the FSJ
• Information for administrations, partners, EU

In addition to welfare and health care facilities, the FSJ assignment locations are increasingly also children’s and youth welfare facilities, including the field of extracurricular youth education and youth work.

The FSJ in sports, the FSJ in culture and the FSJ in monument preservation offer other assignment options. There is also the option of completing the voluntary social year abroad.

• Information and directory of contact points – Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth

• To the International Youth Voluntary Service

In addition to the youth volunteer service, the Federal Volunteer Service (BFD) offers all interested parties aged 16 and over the opportunity to do something for themselves and for other people. Unlike the FSJ and the European Voluntary Service, people of all ages can get involved in the BFD for six to 24 months.

• To the Federal Volunteer Service

The European Voluntary Service (EVS) enables young people between the ages of 17 and 30 to work and live in a non-profit project in another European country for two to twelve months. Registration takes place within certain application deadlines.

• To the European Voluntary Service