2,900 environmental and social projects in Italy and abroad with third-sector organisations. The civil service application window is open until 8 April.
Monitoring the trails and wildlife of the Parco naturale dei Monti Lucretili in Lazio. Supporting cancer patients in Puglia, working on urban and environmental regeneration in many Italian cities, or on social farming in the Marche.
Or setting off to Peru to document environmental conflicts in the Amazon, or to Lebanon to protect cultural heritage in a region ravaged by war. These are all voluntary projects under the Servizio civile universale, and applications are open until 8 April. The 2026 call offers 65,964 places across nearly 2,900 projects. The vast majority (over 64,000 places) are in Italy, across 2,635 projects distributed throughout the country. The remaining 1,485 places are abroad, across 54 programmes covering Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.
This is not simply about "doing good": it means choosing a field and immersing yourself in it for an entire year. On the environmental front, there are projects dedicated to protecting parks and nature reserves, wildlife monitoring, environmental education in schools, and urban regeneration. A few examples: in the Lodigiano area, amid the fields of the Po Plain, there is a project simply called "Lodigiano terra buona": farming, territory, community. In Abruzzo, the Lega Cooperative proposes "Un corridoio ecologico": nature and landscape as a collective asset to be protected.
In Turin, the city has put together a small catalogue of possibilities: there is "Torino si fa verde", which puts volunteers to work on urban public spaces through the lens of active citizenship, and "Biofilia diffusa: tra campagna e città": a project exploring the connection between peri-urban natural areas and everyday life. And then there is "Mountains Hill Lab", designed for those who want to bridge the mountain and urban dimensions.
Caritas, meanwhile, offers projects under the programme "Custodire legami, generare futuro": "Semi di dignità" and "Semi di incontro" in Milan, and "Verso nuovi orizzonti", where the common thread is the accompaniment of people in vulnerable situations — the quiet, daily work of care that rarely makes headlines but holds communities together.
For those with a passion for culture, there are projects in libraries, museums and historical archives: from the Unione dei Comuni della Bassa Romagna, where volunteers work across innovative libraries and local communications, to the Università di Palermo, which is looking for volunteers to help showcase its collections. In Sardinia, the Città Metropolitana di Cagliari has a project called "Trame – Territori raccontati attraverso memorie etnografiche": the recovery of local memory, identity and landscape.
For those drawn to the wider world, the overseas projects offer extraordinary settings. Focsiv sends its Caschi Bianchi to monitor environmental conflicts in Peru and to work on the sustainable development of the Amazon in Ecuador. The association Acque Correnti operates in Jordan and Lebanon, focusing on the conservation of cultural heritage and the development of sustainable tourism in fragile territories. As far as Lebanon is concerned, it is of course essential to check carefully on the status of projects there, given the recent deterioration of the conflict in the region. As an alternative for international projects in that area, there is, for example, Avsi with the project "Costruire Futuro in area Mena 2026" (10 places across the Middle East and North Africa).
On the peace and human rights front — a more urgent issue than ever in this 2026 still scarred by open conflicts — work is taking place from Morocco to Bosnia, from sub-Saharan Africa to Eastern Europe.
Civil service lasts 12 months, with a 25-hour weekly commitment and a monthly allowance of €519.47. It is not a salary, but it is a real contribution, supplemented by certified training (at least 80 hours), pension recognition, and a concrete advantage in public-sector recruitment: 15 per cent of places are reserved for those who have completed civil service. Some projects also include a mentoring period to help with entry into the job market, or the opportunity to spend up to three months in a European Union country. Young women and men aged between 18 and 28 can apply — Italian, European or foreign nationals regularly resident in Italy. The call reserves a quota of places for those with disabilities or in conditions of economic or social hardship.
Applications are submitted online via the Dol platform. Before applying, it is worth exploring the individual projects — each organisation publishes detailed fact sheets on its own website. A year in the forests of Abruzzo monitoring an ecological corridor. A year in a neighbourhood library building participatory culture. A year in Ecuador, alongside Amazonian communities resisting encroachment. Each of these experiences has one thing in common: it offers an experience that goes far beyond anything that can end up on a CV.
