Islândia
3813
Data de início: 01-07-2014
Data de fim: 30-06-2015
Vagas: 6
Duração: 12 mes(es)
Data limite de candidatura: 25-02-2014
Financiamento: Candidatura
Subsídio mensal (Dinheiro de bolso): 145 €
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Resumo: The project will be divided in 4 parts, training and language orientation (stage 1), preparation for the work (2), work in the field (3) and evaluation and planning for next season (4).
Volunteers will be in the town during during stages 1 and 4, while 2 and 3 take place in different locations across Iceland. Volunteers will have the opportunity to experience Iceland in the capital but also to work and develop projects in different places and communities all around the country.
The organization organises the workcamps with local communities, other associations and individuals all around Iceland. Jointly we develop projects aimed at fulfilling an identified need or to help in the development of particular actions.
We are in this project looking for volunteers carrying out two distinctive tasks: the tasks of an International Workcamp’s Leader and the taks of an Environmental Messenger at the organization. The volunteers will be selected for one of these roles and carry it out throughtout all of their project.
Depending on their projects, the project environment of the volunteers will differ.Volunteer in the Workcamps Leaders project and in the Environmental Messengers project will both get the opportunity to carry out projects in the countryside, but the Environmental Messengers will conduct a considerably smaller amout of projects in the coutryside.
The projects may be hosted for example at a small isolated village, at a National park or protected area, in the capital of the country, its surroundings, at an island off the coast of Iceland, etc.
While volunteers move from project to project, the accommodation will be available for them to rest and to evaluate the projects ending, as to prepare and plan those coming up.
From the beginning on, the project is a group experience, as the organization hosts several EVS simultaneously and volunteers share the different tasks common to an usual household.
In some of our projects volunteers share a big room with all the participants (short-term volunteers) of the workcamps and in some others; there will be a couple of shared rooms. Conditions will change from site to site and they basically depend on the facilities available from our local hosts; standards may be very different from one location to another one.
The organization always ensures that our volunteers have adequate lodging places well equipped; nevertheless some of them will be very basic; while some others may be luxurious.
The permanent accommodation is a shared house with other volunteers and usually they bond closely together, so the local community usually becomes an International village as the participants in the programme come from several different countries.
Volunteers will stay in a shared rooms in a house in the town and will return there for the breaks between the workcamps. The plan is that they will stay at Eiríkshús í Laugardal, a house that the organization has been renting since 2011, located inside the Botanic Garden in the valley of Laugardalur. The house has 5 sleeping rooms, living room, dining room, toilettes, storage and laundry room.The size of the sleeping rooms range between 12 and 20 square meters. The house is 3000 meters away from the organization office.
In the summer months an additional appartment will be rented for the Long Term Volunteers (EVS and other) to ensure that they can relax during their free time between camps.
Volunteers are entitled to 2 days of holidays per every month of service at the organization; usually we are flexible on this specially when family or friends visit the volunteers while in Iceland.
Food will be either provided by the organization, while volunteers find themselves in the accommodation in the town , or in the hosting projects during the different workcamps. Food shopping will be done according to the organization standard shopping list, ensuring that every volunteer has a balanced diet and the different needs of all volunteers are satisfied. The Standard shopping list will be made in agreement with the volunteers, respecting their needs.
Domestic transport to the workcamps and back to the accommodation in the town will be provided by the organization. In the accommodation in the organization provides them with bycicles for their free time and local transport.
During the workcamps in the countryside, volunteers stay there for periods of usually 2 weeks and no transport to the town is available.
Perfil: We would like volunteers applying for this project to have a motivation for working with international groups; an interest in environmental and sustainability issues might be useful when developing activities for the groups.
Volunteer’s enthusiasm and interest in order to engage with people, to work in teams but also willingness to accept personal responsibilities are highly appreciated.
A readiness to work with flexibility in changing or developing situations is essential, as well as an ability to occasionally work in high-pressure situations. English language skills are of advantage.
For the Environmental Messengers project we are additionally looking for volunteers with an active interest in conducting trainings on environmental education.
Ethnic groups, religion, sexual orientation or political opinion are not taken into account.
Guidelines are followed to ensure that our groups of volunteers are formed by a multicultural, international array of individuals and also to ensure that a gender and age balance are achieved.
There are no specific qualifications or practical skills needed, as training will be given.
Selection of candidates will be based on volunteer’s motivations to join the project. Applicants are asked to send us their Curriculum Vitae (CV), a motivation letter and a the organization questionnaire. Once received and evaluated the organization’ team conducts telephone interviews with the pre-selected candidates, and makes decisions based on the results of these.
Volunteers will not carry out routine tasks or the tasks of professional staff, in order to avoid job substitution.
The work involved in this project:
1. Might be physically demanding and a reasonable level of physical fitness and health is required.
2. Can be intensive and very demanding so both commitment and patience are required.
3. Involves a lot of outdoor activities and, as weather conditions in Iceland are variable and often cold, we recommend volunteers to be prepared for harsh situations, to take with them warm, waterproof clothes and shoes. As working outdoors, we suggest volunteers to bring working and comfortable clothes as well as sturdy walking/hiking shoes/boots. A warm sleeping bag is a must.
4. Means travelling in Iceland very often. Volunteers shall be prepared to be moving around the country for at least 4 months, changing living conditions every 2 or 3 weeks as projects end and start again.
age: 18 until 30 years old
Tarefas: • what you can offer to volunteers in terms of Service and learning opportunities,
Regarding the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning of the Youth Pass, volunteers will learn and raise their profile as explained below:
This EVS project gives volunteers the opportunity to enhance their social and civic competeneces as they are always immerse in a group interacting, communicating & coordinating activities with short-term international volunteers and the locals in Iceland hosting the projects.
Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. Part of the learning is a commitment to organising activities and making decisions. The EVS volunteers facilitate and guide the activities, use, improve and share their skills and knowledge. From the issue of addressing a group, proposing activities for them, organising and coordinating them, puts responsibility on the volunteers’ shoulders.
Learning to learn. Openness, flexibility and listening skills are improved as often different opinions arise within the group and the volunteer need to take into account different levels of knowledge and interest.
At the same time, volunteers increase their Cultural awareness and expression as the groups of volunteers usually come from diverse backgrounds and their levels of understanding, as language skills differ greatly.
Communication in the mother tongue and foreign languages skills of the EVS volunteers are usually greatly improved given the diversity of the groups and the different levels of language skills within the participants.
Mathematical and digital competence is increased as volunteers often need to collect fees from the workcampers, change Euros into Icelandic crowns or making calculations in some of the projects as calculating areas to re-vegetate, measuring growth of trees or helping with the bookkeeping of the projects.
Coordinating groups of people put volunteers in a position of having a strict logical way of thinking and acting.
There are many learning opportunities for the volunteers, as explained above and the following collateral ones:
To learn how to manage projects with groups.
To organise activities for volunteers with less opportunities.
Workshop and discussion topic facilitation.
Apprenticeship of manual, technical and professional skills (masonry, woodwork, carpentry, gardening, etc.)
To learn photography; start to learn musical instruments and art techniques.
To learn Icelandic and other languages.
The Youthpass will be introduced on the project-related on-arrival-training where its value, importance and utility will be described along with the process of making it. During the project, through the mentor and the project manager will provide support for the learning/Youthpass process.
• what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the Host Organisation,
As mentioned before, there will be a clear division of the EVS volunteers selected in this project in International Workcamp’s Leaders and Environmental messengers.
The volunteers selected for the International Workcamp’s Leaders project will be mainly in charge of leading the international workcamps at the organization, acting as a link between the icelandic hosts and the International short term volunteers.
The basic aim of the Environmental messenger project is to raise awareness about environmental issues both within Icelanders, being hosts of the organization workcamps, and among the International volunteers taking part in the mentioned projects. Environmental messengers will also be a source of knowledge on specific topics of significant relevance about environment, nature protection and sustainable development. They will encourage the actors in those projects to undertake simple but easy-to-implement actions which will affect the way we use our resources and we deal with the environment and the world we live in.
• the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Please give examples of typical activities/tasks for the volunteers.
The scope of activities for the volunteers will change during their stay in Iceland and can be chronologically clearly divided in the already mentioned four (4) different stages:
1. EVS Volunteers arrival. The organization will organise an on-arrival project-specific & language orientation training. During this time volunteers will be given enough tools and theoretical knowledge combined with practical tasks in order to prepare them for the stay and the activities on the field. Volunteers will be introduced to four main topics, the hosting organisation, Iceland, environment and leadership. Intercultural, recreational and integration activities will be organised with the active involvement of the volunteers.
This will also be a time to meet fellow European Voluntary Service volunteers. Subsequently, the organization will use the training to help them get to know each other and establish a good atmosphere amongst the group of long-term volunteers.
In 2012, there were 11 EVS volunteers coming from countries such as Austria, Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and the UK.
Before the starting date of their first international volunteers’ camp, the volunteers selected for the Environmental Messengers project will take an active role during their preparation to become Environmental messengers. The role of the environmental messenger is to raise awareness about specific environmental issues in an interactive way amongst the international volunteers present. Messengers will be given the opportunity to develop their own interest in particular topics (e.g. ecology, sustainable development, efficient use of resources etc.) through research during stage 2. There may also be the opportunity to learn from guest speakers as well as using the tools (games and activities) prepared by previous volunteers.
The staff and members of the organization will provide guidance and will follow up on the development during this stage. It is important to realise that developing successful environmental activities requires both initiative and commitment. The volunteers will take an active role during their preparation to become Environmental messengers.
Environmental messengers, shall be able to collect and acquire enough knowledge on a few topics of high relevance for the activities to be carried out in the next stage.
During the first two stages volunteers will have weekends free and work will be carried out within usual week-working-days, Monday to Friday.
2. Before going to lead the workcamps, volunteers have a “pilot project” where experienced leaders & few EVS volunteers participate; the conditions are similar to those of the regular camps. This aims at building confidence within a comfortable environment (with few short-term volunteers, if any), to experience “in real” how a workcamps is run, to face possible challenging situations and to try out the tools given in stage 1.
This is a great opportunity for Environmental Messengers to practise their activities in a comfortable environment.
3. On field work takes place when the camps are implemented. Workcamps are the most common form of short-term volunteering and are projects where a group of volunteers live and work together on a project which has been identified by a local partner. They generally last for 2 weeks.
As mentioned in (2.) above, the first workcamp will serve as a ‘training’ or pilot project, with the majority of participants being EVS with only a small amount of short term volunteers, where the Environmental Messengers can practice their activities.
There are different types of projects depending on the needs of our hosting partners and they can be:
- Nature conservation or environment protection: Ecological research, removing invasive growth, building of walking paths or hiking trails, cleaning of the coastline, reforestation and erosion control works, etc.
For example, working in the National Parks and protected areas with the Icelandic Food & Environment Agency (Umhverfisstofnun)
- Renovation and restauration. Construction or renovation of a building, monument or community building, etc.
For example renovating and reconstructing the old sculptures & monuments with the association of Samuel Jonsson in Selardalur (West fjords) or with Gunnarsstofnun in Skriðuklaustur in the East of Iceland.
- Cultural and sports events: Support of festivals, celebrations, gatherings or happenings.
For example working with the Football Association Þróttur at the Rey Cup - Football Festival for kids, or with the Medieval Festival at Gásir in the North of Iceland. Helping preparing the venues and during the events.
- Agricultural projects: Organic farming, tree-nurseries, planting trees, weeding, harvesting vegetables.
For example working with the Reykjavik City in the Botanical Gardens
- Awareness Campaigns and global education projects. Organising public events, distributing leaflets, doing workshops and talking to foreign visitors and locals.
For example working with IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) in our Anti-whaling campaigns.
International workcamps bring together volunteers from different backgrounds aiming at building up understanding & encouraging peace while working for an identified need, groups range from 5 to 30 volunteers.
The responsibilities and roles of an EVS International work camp leader opposed to the responsibilities of an Environmental Messeger:
International Workcamp leader – roles and responsibilities:
The responsibilities and roles of an EVS International work camp leader will vary according to the hosting community and the type of project, but the following list gives an idea of what they could normally be responsible for :
* Helping the volunteers feel comfortable with the project, welcoming and talking to them, to establish a good relationship and to ensure they do not have avoidable problems, and that they remain happy with the project.
* Budgeting the food and other costs of the volunteers.
* Motivating the group of volunteers to ensure that they are able to carry out the agreed programme, such as organising the day-to-day working schedule and ensuring that everyone gets to work on time.
* Coordinating arrangements such as meals and cleaning to ensure that the needs of the volunteers are met.
* Ensuring sufficient balanced food and other health and safety considerations of the volunteers..
* Involving everyone so that no volunteer feels excluded from the group or alienated from the project and managing the group dynamics so that it does not split into sub-groups.
* Providing the time and space for ideas to develop from within the group, particularly in relation to the social programme, but also having ideas for activities that can be organised for the group in the evenings.
* Feeding back the organization regarding the outcome and evaluations of the single projects.
Volunteers need to take enough days free (at least 4) between workcamps to rest and be ready for next one.
The work in the field is extremely demanding and volunteers will be highly active, which requires a great deal of energy, enthusiasm, self initiative and ability to work under extreme conditions, travelling and moving very often, meeting new people and leaving them after relatively short time.
During this stage EVS volunteers will be under personal supervision of the organisation, contact will be constant through telephone and visits to the sites by the organization staff.
In all of our projects the organization has a local on-the-site project coordinator, who is running the specific project and who knows the local circumstances at its best. The local on-the-site project coordinator has been informed and trained by the organization in the different issues that entail working with international volunteers, as the safety and risk assessment for the project to ensure all quality, learning, and welfare standards of each volunteer.
The local-on-the-site project coordinator (verkstjóri) is in charge of work related matters in the project, this includes having proper tools, materials, coordination of the work, division of the tasks, and supervision of the group of volunteers, their safety and security. S/he is in charge of instructing the volunteers on the work, how to use the tools, materials and of setting objectives for the work.
The “verkstjóri “welcomes the volunteers on arrival, trains and guides them throughout the project, supervises and evaluates the results of the working days.The EVS volunteers assist her/him in the development of the project, its achievements and the dynamics of the group.
The organization signs contracts and written agreements with all of our partners around the country to ensure the quality of the projects and the learning content for the volunteers participating.
Environmental Messenger – roles and responsibilities:
Environmental messengers will get the opportunity to organise several environmental work camps during their stay. They will be responsible as a group for organising activities, events and work that raise awareness in Iceland and amongst the volunteers about relevant environmental topics (e.g. recycling, waste management, water or air pollution, soil erosion, reforestation, fish stocks depletion, climate change, the UN MDGs, fair trade, healthy living, eco-tourism, etc.).
This will be an exciting opportunity for the volunteers to engage an active community to think about and act on environmental issues. To support the theoretical base for the work camp, volunteers will have the opportunity to go on excursions and arrange activities to put the theory into action. They will develop important skills in team-work, organisation and leadership. The organization will help the volunteers by providing access to a network of contacts and information as well as advice and support from their staff. A leader will always be present during this work camp so that the messengers can concentrate on the environmental activities.
These type of workcamps, called Environmentally Aware: In the town have been developed by former Environmental Messengers of the organization, and will be located in one of our volunteers bases in the town . They are one of the main pillars of our Environmental messengers project.
During the normal workcamps the responsibilities of an Environmental messenger will vary according to the hosting community, the type of project and areas of interest of the participants.
During this time, environmental messengers may be required to support the role of the work camp leaders. As such, the activities they run as messengers will be in addition to the tasks they must complete as leaders. (E.g. Helping the leaders in carrying out and organizing the on-field work.) The main opportunity to develop their environmental focus will be during the environmental work-camps. As the environmental work-camps will be based in Reykjavik, during the other workcamps the Environmental Messengers will have the opportunity to work in the Icelandic countryside.
Additionally, they shall start drafting an “Environmental/Eco-guide” on a topic(s) of their preference, which will be then finalised at the end of their service. This “Environmental/Eco-guide” will serve as a knowledge database and an important tool to be used for future messengers to implement and develop.
In general, environmental messengers may be responsible for the following:
* Bringing to Icelandic hosting communities, its inhabitants and international participants in the projects, activities related to environment, nature protection and sustainable development.
* Developing activities such as study sessions, workshops, group discussions, role games, practical activities on the field, presentations, exhibitions, different exercises, etc. All those, as mentioned before, oriented to raise awareness, to exchange perspectives and knowledge but also to encourage partakers to become active citizens in the development and shape of the world and environment we live in.
* Taking care of the adequate use of resources & supplies in the workcamps. Part of the messengers’ task is to help in turning the activities more environmental by suggesting practical actions that should be taken.
* Collecting, gathering and processing information of relevance for the volunteers .
* Producing resource materials, documents and information related to the workcamp, which will be then distributed at the end of the project to the participants and the hosting communities. This might include articles of particular interest, summaries of the activities organised, results achieved during the camp, pictures and videos made within the project, evaluations and reports of the actions, contact data of international and Icelandic participants, sets of recommendations for upcoming projects, etc.
* Organising an International evening; which is a social event, where locals are invited to mingle and interact with the International volunteers. Through this, we aim at fostering the cross-cultural side of the projects and at giving Icelanders the chance to learn about volunteering, EVS, the YiA Programme & the different opportunities offered in this field.
* Organising free-time activities for the participants. These activities might include hikes to discover the surroundings, field trips, sport exchanges with the locals, excursions, inviting locals to share their knowledge or skills with the International group, facilitation of events.
* Helping the volunteers feel comfortable with the project, welcoming and talking to them, to establish a good relationship and to ensure they do not have avoidable problems, and that they remain happy with the project.
* Updating constantly, either directly or through the staff of the organisation, the official web-site posting actual information about the past, present and future activities within the frame of their project.
Volunteers need to take enough days free (at least 4) between workcamps to rest and be ready for the next one.
The work in the field is extremely demanding and volunteers will be highly active, which requires a great deal of energy, enthusiasm, self initiative and ability to work under extreme conditions, travelling and moving very often, meeting new people and leaving them after relatively short time.
During this stage EVS volunteers will be under personal supervision of the organisation, contact will be constant through telephone and visits to the sites by the organization staff.
4. After the camps’ season, volunteers will return to the town and a structured evaluation of their experience will be undertaken. The feedback and input will be used in order to plan next years and to raise the quality of the service. In this stage volunteers choose their tasks and have the option to develop their own ideas and projects, they decide on the priority tasks and choose themselves their own.
The different tasks are presented and given a priority, then EVS volunteers decide which ones they would like to join or to do as their personal/group project. In 2011 EVS volunteers decided to work on the following tasks:
Future of the EVS project:
- EVS Selection & Mentoring
- Guide for long-term volunteers & Environmental materials
- Planning of the next on-arrival training
- Guide & Check lists for local hosts
Public Relations, Visibility & Media
- Projects and workcamps reports
- News releases & web-site updates.
- Promotion Activities for the organization.
Housing support:
-Work in Eiríkshús, Vatnsstígur, Vesturgata & Úlfarsfell
-Bicycle repairing & fixing
- Housekeeping & Logistics
Workcamp Leaders and messengers for projects.
- Icelandic traditions & culture
- Autumn & Winter Photo Marathons
- Reykjavik International Film Festival – RIFF
- Red Cross, Family Support (Fjölskylduhjálpinni) & Support Association of women Mæðrastyrksnefnd.
Documentação: CV + Carta de Motivação em Inglês
