Itália

813

Data de início: 02-01-2012

Data de fim: 31-12-2012

Vagas: 2

Duração: 12 mes(es)

Data limite de candidatura: 10-10-2011

Financiamento: Aprovado

Subsídio mensal (Dinheiro de bolso): 115 €

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Resumo: Mainly the volunteer will be involved, at different levels and according with his/her
abilities and interests, in the activities of :
- Contrada’s children’s house
- “Youth Projects”

The volunteer will be involved also in youth projects by the team of the youth workers
so h will have the opportunity to know a lot of youngsters of the nearest municipalities.

Service and learning opportunities
The EVS projects will include numerous learning opportunities in the form of:
- Italian language training;
- Training in subjects like intercultural relations, project planning and implementation,
networking, Youth in Action programme, equality and administration, topic related to
the European Year of: Creativity and Innovation (2009), Social inclusion (2010),
Voluntary Service (2011). These training session will mainly take place through the
staff. Most of these sessions will be for the volunteer only, some others together with
the target group of youth projects. The methods implied are non – formal, a lot of
“learning by doing” and role playing/simulations will be implemented.
- The volunteer’s learning experience will also apply in his/her work tasks, being a
direct implementation of what has been learned during the training sessions.
- We offer also extensive introduction to the local culture and organise meeting and
leisure opportunities for the volunteers in their free time, helping them to introduce to
the local community and to develop new friendships.
Role of the volunteer
Mainly the volunteer will be in involved, at different levels and according with his/her
abilities and interests, in the activities of :
- Contrada’s Children’s House
- “Youth Projects”
The role of the EVS volunteer will be to contribute and to enrich Contrada’s Children’s
House activities and “Youth Projects”, participating actively and creatively in their
activities.
His/her tasks will be different from the staff’s ordinary tasks in that they do them as
part of a training.
He/she will not be made responsible of whole work areas/projects on their own; they
will always coached and be able to discuss what they think of the activities and
projects and how much responsibility he/she wants, and suggest modifications.
The staff will of course always welcome any creative ideas coming from the volunteer,
for instance in the youth area. In that way the volunteer will be integrated in the
Contrada’s Children House’s activities and in the “Youth Project” in a rewarding way,
both for him/her and for the services. Overall the volunteer will be part of a team of
leaders responsible for the youth projects. The volunteer will act as an extra hand and
special resource and will be able to develop his/her contribution in a direction that is
most interesting for him/her. The EVS – volunteer will be encouraged and supported in
the development of a personal project that comes out of the interests and/or expertise
of the volunteers. The volunteer will always work together with others, employed or
volunteers, adding a unique perspective and support. The mentor at Contrada’s
Children’s House and the volunteer will continuously evaluate the work of/by the
volunteer striving for a balanced learning process and jointly identify areas of possible
personal development.
Activities and tasks
Contrada’s Children’s House aims to ensure stress-free, family life experience,
necessary medical care, physical and intellectual development, supporting their studies
at schools, preparing children for independent life in future. It is also to make their
childhood brighter, interesting and meaningful.
Among staff there is not a physical training leader, teacher of music, teacher of
handicrafts, speech therapist - the children usually take part in work of different
activities outside the community like the home children do. Local personnel runs leisure
time activities, games, hikes, excursions, culture visits, etc.
Children are living temporary together under supervision and with assistance of
experienced staff.
At Contrada’s children’s house there are 14 places for children at risk who have no
support from their parents.
All children of Children's House attend secondary school in the town during day time.
Participation of motivated EVS volunteer is seen as an exciting innovative element
refreshing the daily routine and bringing additional educational value to the pedagogical
process.
The main idea is to provide, above all at the beginning of the service, assistance and
support to local personnel in daily work, particularly in running various educational and
free time activities for the children, adding to them an intercultural dimension. It is also
to provide some experience and practise of foreign languages and intercultural learning
both for children and local personnel.
He/she will be able to support them to organize all the activities programmed as
concerts, cine – festival, cultural events, adding an important new intercultural
dimension and, at the same time, to develop new friendships thanks to them.

Perfil: The first priority is that the volunteer is motivated and interested in meeting and
working with the target groups. Previous experience of any kind of social work with
young people is preferred, but not necessary. The volunteer should be active, energetic,
creative, taking initiatives, adaptable, open-minded, sociable, positive, responsible and
reliable. To assure a better integration of the volunteer and a relevant intercultural
experience we find importat that the candidate is interested in living in a quite natural
place with the great opportunity to know all the local community and became an
important protagonist of its daily life.
For our project it is very important that the candidate shows enough enthusiasm to
allow him/her to continue developing the new capabilities in the future and to continue
to promote and work in one or more of these fields.
Regarding inclusion we are opened to involved any kind of disadvantaged people, except
healty problems, due to the fact that the volunteer will closely work with children.
Unfortunately at the moment we cannot host youngsters on wheelchair for logistical
reason.

Tarefas: After on-arrival orientation meeting, aimed at the integration of the volunteer to local
realities and explanation of aims and activities of the host project, the EVS volunteer
will be carrying out the following tasks:
- Looking after the children and helping staff in teaching them different useful skills
(20%);
- Running additional educational activities in the house, using its own facilities (20%);
- Teaching children foreign languages through joined games, songs, sport, any other
activities indoor and outdoor, which the EVS volunteer will be running (20%);
- Presenting his/her home country and its culture as a part of intercultural learning
(10%);
- Assisting local staff with all other required activities in Contrada’s Children’s House
(10%).
Another task of the volunteer can be to establish contacts with similar institutions in
his/her home country in order to have a mutually beneficial co – operation/ exchanges
between institutions in future.
Typical week day in Contrada’s Children House looks like follows:
06:45 - children wake up
07:15 - breakfast
07:30 - children go to school
13:00 - children return from the school - time for games, sport, etc.
17:00 - classes, homework, preparation for the next day at school
19:00 - dinner
19:30 - different activities or free time
22:00 - children go to bed
Main activities proposed to the EVS volunteer at Contrada’s Children’s House are
seen as follows:
- running different workshop for children (e.g. drawing, handicraft, singing, …) 25%;
- helping to organise and search different possibilities to expose the works of the
achievement made by children in the House (e.g. exhibitions) 10%;
- introducing her/his culture and running cultural evenings as a part of intercultural
learning 10%;
- organising events in the House (e.g. film watching/reading books/teaching his/her
mother tongue/cooking for/with the children etc) 20%;
helping to organise holidays, summer activities and birthdays of children 15%;
organising outdoor activities (using recourses of beautiful nature of Calvene, a
perfect place for trekking, picnic, skiting, cycling in summer) 20%.
The volunteer will be involved also in the activities of the “Youth projects” that can
offer the opportunity for him/her to work with youngsters according to his/her area of
interest. Thus if volunteer is good in crafts, we will entrust him/her with the teaching of
crafts together with our volunteers. If he/she is good at dancing, he/she will be
involved in dancing activities, etc. While helping out with such activities he/she would
himselves/herself be learning on how to organise things, what to do, younsters's
interests, how to cope with "difficult" children, etc.
The involvement of the EVS volunteers would be not only in the implementation of the
various activities organised, but also in their preparation and in their immediate
evaluation. The volunteer could help out as well in the general organisation of the
summer activities, and by taking responsibility (together with our youths) of small
groups of children, acting thus as their organizer. The teaching of crafts, and the
organisation of fun-games and other sports events would surely feature in their
activities. He/she could also get involved with the preparation of a childrens' stage
show including drama, singing and dancing.
The volunteer would be able to gain a valuable experience, which eventually could be
applied in their own country. He/she would be able to identify youth’s and childrens'
basic likes and dislikes, their non-formal education needs, and the eventual help that
could be offered to them during the childrens' free time, with the aim to complement
the childrens' formal education. On the other hand, hosting this volunteer, we would be
able to organise better our activities with youth.
Having more volunteers would also enable us to cater for a larger number of children,
offering a more personalised approach wherever needed (especially with children with
special needs).
Volunteer will be encouraged to propose his/her personal projects/ initiatives
related to the theme of this EVS project, which can be supported by the host and
coordinating organisation.
According to volunteer's skills and project's needs, priority tasks and detailed working
schedule (including holidays, breaks, etc.) will be worked out together with the head of
project and staff. In the schedule below we try to illustrate a proposal.

Monday
11.00 – 12.00 Team Meeting
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch with children
14.00-15.00 C. Children’s House
15.00-19.00 C. Children’s House
19.00 – 20.00 dinner

Tuesday
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch with children
14.00-15.00 C. Children’s House
15.00-19.00 Youth project
19.00 – 20.00 dinner

Wednesday
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch with children
14.00-15.00 C. Children’s House
15.00-19.00 C. Children’s House
19.00 – 20.00 dinner

Thursday
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch with children
14.00-15.00 C. Children’s House
15.00-19.00 C. Children’s House
19.00 – 20.00 dinner
20 – 21.00 Team Meeting

Friday
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch with children
14.00-15.00 C. Children’s House
15.00-19.00 Youth project
19.00 – 20.00 dinner

Saturday Free

Sunday Free

Total of Hours: 31
Hours in service: 29
Mentoring: 2 hours

The working hours will be 6 hours a day from 1.00 p.m., when children are back from
the school, till 7.00 p.m. Two afternoon in the week the volunteer will be involved in
“Youth Projects” for 8 hours for week. The total working time will be around 29 hours a
week, and 2 hours for team meeting (mentoring). The volunteer will have 2 days off
per week either during the week or at weekend.
Volunteers will be working under supervision and with support of local pedagogical
staff. Twice per week the mentor will meet the volunteer discussing how EVS project is
going on, in order to put in condition the volunteer to show and share which is
his/her everyday involvement in the activities. Normally in the second meeting
also the person in charge of the volunteer in the House will be present. In the
second period of the EVS project,when the volunteer will be more autonomous, the
mentoring will be reduced to one meeting per week.

Horário: Even if in Contrada’s Children’s House the volonteer will be involved in the activities for
30 hours in a week, saturday and sunday are free. In the case that some trips were
organized on saturday and sunday the volunteer will be able to make up 2 free days.
The EVS project will be designed with the volunteer and the sending organisation and it
would take place in the service mentioned, following the volunteer’s interests and
his/her skills and competences.

Condições: The volunteer will be accomodated in a room inside the Contrada’s Children’s House.
The living area with two rooms and a kitchen is common. The house is fully furnished
with TV, broadband, micro oven, refrigerator and freezer, toilet with bathroom.
In the Children’s House all drugs, including alcohol, are prohibited. Smoking is not
allowed indoors. Common resources like kitchen and living room have to be looked after.

The volunteer will have a professional mentor with a tutorial function in charge of
personal integration and to accompany the learning process of the volunteer, supporting
his/her awareness about the intercultural experience going on.
A reinforced mentorship will be putted in practise, accompanying the individual
meeting in a private space, like the office, with another meeting on the service, involving
also the person of the educational team in charge of him/her.
The volunteer will have two supervisors one in the Contrada’s Children’s House and
another one in the team of youth workers, taking care of the volunteer integration in the
community and in the youngster’s group.
Once a week (or more if necessary) a team meeting with all collegues working on the
youth projects has be planned with the support of the coordinator, in order to face all the
pedagogical and personal problems and dynamic occuring in the work with youngsters.
The volunteer will be always present.

The host organisation ensures:
- that the volunteer work is safe and been assessed for risk;
- that every effort is made that project meets high health and safety standards;
- that the volunteer is trained and familiar with the volunteering work and have access to
adequate safety equipment if needed;
- that the volunteer will get all the practical and psychological support from the staff.
It will be important that the volunteer receive as much information as possible prior to
departure and an adeguate preparation from the sending organisation.
In case of involvement of volunteers with fever opportunities, if possible, an advanced
planning visit will be organized to facilitate the volunteer’s integration in tne project
environment, to identify potential problems and to provide any further information that
coul be useful for his/her integration.
During the project the volunteer has the Children’s House coordinator as his/her main
contact person who is in charge of the basic needs (the accomodation, the money for
food, the contact to the coordination office, the mentor, the work which has to be done,
…).
Besides this, the volunteer will have a mentor, who will be on disposition to the volunteer
any time and for any issue.
The volunteer will be handed the information regarding the management of any incidence.
Our strategy is as follow: for any kind of problem we always check with the volunteer
first to find out if he/she can solve the problem on their own or needs our help. In
addition, to learn to solve conficts, we try to guide the volunteer to suggest a solution
him or herself.
The volunteer is aware from the beginning that he/she can discuss any kind of
problems with their mentor or any member of the team, and for this we try to gain
their trust and confidence.
In any case we will detail below our management method in case of any problem:
1) Problems with Accommodation:
There could be two kinds of problems:
- the volunteer doesn’t like the house, neighbourhood or room: we talk with him/her
explaining how flexibility and adaptation capacity are part of intercultural learning. If
the difficulty can’t be solved we try to look for another housing solution.
- problems with the people that share the house/room: we try to get to the root of
the problem, mediating between all the parts.
2) Problems concerning integration:
The mentor and a cultural program especially designed to introduce the volunteer to
his/her new reality are the first tools for integrating the volunteer in the community.
Problems with homesickness, loneliness and other social problems will be handled
with greatest care and focus from all staff at the youth center and also with support
from the organisation.
In addition all the staff from the youth center will help him/her to contact with other
volunteers or people that the association works with. Psychological help is also
available from the team. If the volunteer has any special interest in any sport we can
help to find a contact person so he/she can continue with their interest here.
3) Problems with work and tasks:
The volunteer will be presented his/her weekly work plan on the weekly meeting. Any
doubt can be discussed with the team particularly during the meeting. She/he can
talk with the mentor at any time. The plan we propose is not indeed to be mandatory
for the volunteer, they are simple guidelines to help him organise, and it is open any
suggestion or personal contribution from the volunteer.
4) Health Problems
If the volunteer needs to visit the doctor, anybody from the organisation can help
him/her find one and accompany them.
It will be very important to keep the sending organisation informed about the
development of the project and ensure that they have regular contacts with the
volunteer to prevent problems or to deal with crisis situation.
After the departure of the volunteer an evaluation will be organised, together with
the sending organisation, to identify and discuss any items that arose during the
project in order to improve procedures for future projects.
by everybody. External guests are not allowed.

Documentação: CV e Carta de Motivação