Itália

943

Data de início: 01-09-2012

Data de fim: 01-09-2013

Vagas: 2

Duração: 12 mes(es)

Data limite de candidatura: 18-12-2011

Esta vaga está reservada a voluntários portugueses

Financiamento: Aprovado

Subsídio mensal (Dinheiro de bolso): 115 €

Candidatura: Para te poderes candidatar tens de fazer o teu login. Se ainda não estás registado faz o teu registo primeiro.

Resumo: Themes: Childcare, education and recreational activities, social difficulties

Special considerations about the Host organization: The Host Organization hosts children facing social and family difficulties in daily centers as well as inside a residential community. It's important to keep in mind that children are difficult to deal with and besides that, the community environment request a full immersion: there is intensive personal contact. The accomodation of the volunteers will be inside the structure. All activities are developed in Italian.

The project is located on the outskirts of Mantua between the residential areas of “Te Brunetti” and “Valletta Valsecca” and borders “Virgiliano” forest, city park and green area, full of sports facilities.

Since July 2008 the city of Lombard art was accepted among the UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the end of 2009 Mantua had 48,455 inhabitants. Adding these people to those of neighboring towns and suburbs bring Mantua to count more than 100,000 residents. The demographic trends of recent decades shows that the
hinterland, including the municipalities of “Porto Mantova”, “San Giorgio di Mantova”, “Curtatone” and “Virgilio”
has absorbed the decline of the population of the city. This demographic evolutions has attracted favorable views of transformation of the urban center and hinterlands in one single city, usually called as "Great Mantua."

In the last decade, the local population has been characterized by an increasing immigration from abroad. In the 31/12/2009, the foreign immigrants were 5740, 11, 8% of the resident population. Among those, the foreigners from EU Community had a greater trend of increase: 810 in the end of 2009, quadrupling in only
three years.

There are many cultural attractions in the city including the wonderful palaces of the historic center (“Palazzo Ducale”, “Palazzo Te”), the museums (archaeological, diocesan) and other historical and religious buildings (Cathedral of St. Peter's, Basilica Sant'Andrea, Jewish synagogue, etc.). Mantua is also famous for particular cultural events such as the festival of literature, comics' room, “Vespa” rally.

The trade and the services in the tertiary sector play an important role in the city. Among them the local newspaper “Gazzetta di Mantova" stand out seen that it's considered the oldest newspaper in Italy. Besides that, the “Banca Agricola Mantovana” (a bank) it's also well known: it was founded in 1871 that, following a takeover bid in 1999, became part of the “Montepaschi” banking group.

Perfil: The project is open to every young person who has a special interest and sensibility to children (especially those in a difficult situation) and could bring new energy and enthusiasm to the host organization, helping to improve the life quality of those children and enriching the free-time activities’ possibilities. Once that the volunteers will be permanently in
contact with children, they should have a positive behavior, be open to play games and make different kind of activities, available to listen to children with patience, and have certain initiative and creativeness. Some further characteristics would be welcome such as: basic knowledge of Italian (which could facilitate the initial integration of the volunteers in the activities) and driving license (which could be useful supporting eventual transport and/or accompaniment of children).
The volunteer should be ready to learn Italian and get deeply engaged.

Tarefas: The environment in which the activities of volunteers will be conducted are the educational community: a structure in which they live up to 10 children followed by a team of professional educators. The aim of our intervention is the return of the child in his original family circle, and if this is not possible, act in favor of foster care or adoption paths in accordance with the social services.

The activities foreseen to the volunteers are the following ones:

- Support the daily activities of children together with the educators: educational support (accompaniment to school, homework help), support the maintenance of the environments (collaboration in organizing the home and help during lunch time).

- Organization and development of leisure activities: entertainment, games, sports, music sessions, visits to museums, etc. (all the creative ideas of the volunteers are greatly appreciated).

The presence of an EVS volunteer in Villaggio represents an added value to the local community seen that they will not only enrich the quality of life of children in the village, but through contact with relatives visiting the children and their participation in the language courses and the public activities of Villaggio, the volunteers will be an example of tolerance and coexistence, which will feed the awareness of of the local community about other cultures, volunteering and social work.

In Mantua, the volunteers will not face different conditions from those recognized by the European Union. In the community, volunteers are always supported by their tutor, as well as by the team. They will live in a community structure in which there are shared spaces and the mutual respect, the cooperation and the
tolerance are crucial. In addition, volunteers can also count on the support of InCo Association (which will sustain us in the coordination of this experience, helping with the paperwork and administrative, as well as guiding and supporting the volunteers).

what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the Host Organisation,

The main role of the volunteers is to collaborate with the staff of the Host Organization by carrying out activities that will be engaged with children housed in the structure. The volunteers will always be supported by responsible and will never be forced to engage in activities that they do not like. They will be there as VOLUNTEERS, therefore, they will not substitute the role of social workers or pedagogues.

· 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 for the volunteers.
We would like to give volunteers the opportunity to get close to the work of the educators sharing, where it's possible, the planning and evaluation moments. Among the activities to be performed by volunteers it can be included:

• entertainment activities for children of Villaggio
• accompanying the children to the sports and leisure activities, summer vacation, etc.
• cooperation in the maintenance of structure (garden, play area, etc)
• small external committees.

The duties of our volunteers will include the support of the educational staff in organizing the every-day-life activities (helping with the preparation of lunch, supporting homework, accompanying children from the school, etc), and contribute actively in the organization and coordination of recreational and educational activities (e.g. games inside and outside the house, handicraft activities, swimming, cinema, music workshops, etc).

Horário: Their exact timetable will be worked out according to the timetable of the social workers/educators, the activities of
the children and their needs.

A possible timetable may look as following:

• From 12-15:00 - Organization of the afternoon’s activities together with the educators besides supporting and having lunch with children
• 15.00 – supporting the children in doing their homework and language lessons
• 17.00 - participation in sport activities and different workshops
• 18.30 – supporting with some work at the houses
• 19-19.30 - End of the working day.
Normally the volunteers work from Monday to Friday and will have 2 consecutive days off. The working hours won't be always from Monday to Friday. Sometimes there will be a shift system, meaning that from time to time the volunteer will participate in the activities organized for the weekends. In this case, the volunteer will have some days off during the following week.

The exact activity can change a lot and depends on several things like weather, season, humor of children, material at disposition, specific need, etc. They will always be discussed together with the “SOS mother” and the educational team of Villaggio. They can be, for example:

• table games and puzzles;
• outside games (like hide-and-seek, play catch, etc);
• manual activities (painting, baking, gardening, etc.);
• sport activities (swimming, playing soccer, volleyball, etc.);
• cultural activities (cinema/films, some special exposition, visiting a museum, discussing a topic, etc.)

The volunteers will have the possibility to propose and implement as many new activities they would like. Their ideas will be always taken into consideration and discussed together in order to find and organize the scope and result predicted, providing also to the volunteer the opportunity to develop their own organizational and creative capacities.

Condições: The volunteers will live in an apartment inside Villaggio SOS with a kitchen so they can be autonomous during their free time During the service, they will have the meals with the guests of the community.

Formação: The competences and attitudes we expect the volunteers to acquire during the service are the followings:

· intercultural sensitiveness and knowledge in intercultural communication
· competences in the organization and coordination of projects
· abilities in leading and coordinating groups
· knowledge about new socio-cultural realities which are different from their own one
· the opportunity to discover and develop new competences collaborating as volunteers in a non-profit organization
· competences concerning the social work with children and youngsters (especially those living in difficult realities)
· sensitiveness concerning the rights of the children
· improvement of abilities in the field of animation and promotion of recreational activities (free-time activities but also pedagogical and educational ones)
· personal growth: independence, self-confidence etc.

The volunteers will get the possibility to acquire these competences through the duties they will carry out at the hosting project which includes mainly the organization of the everyday-life activities and the promotion of recreational and educational activities. They will be always supported by the staff of Villaggio, which will explain and discuss with them the scope of each action, its on-going and result, showing and teaching them how to proceed this kind of social work.

During the performance of the recreational and educational activities, the volunteers will have the possibility to organize and carry out projects related to their own culture, to the aspect of intercultural communication and any other topic they think would be appropriated. When they will have acquired confidence with the guests of the SOS houses and the hosting project in general, they can develop their projects independently in the moment they would like to. They will always be supported and guided by the “SOS mothers” and the other
collaborators of Villaggio and the house they are. The volunteers will learn to work autonomously and to rely on their capacities and knowledge, developing self-confidence. Besides that, the opportunity of being abroad, without the family and usual friends, using a different language and facing a different reality will give them the chance to reflect, to open their mind and to grow up as individuals. The several meetings promoted will also be a nice opportunity, allowing the volunteers to change experiences with each other and grow up together as a group.

Regarding the Italian language course, until the volunteers aren't autonomous from the linguistic point of view, they will have the chance to lean on courses organized by private schools or literacy courses organized by the Province of Mantua (http://www.segretariatiimmigrazione. com / corsialfabetizzazione). It would be possible also to think about organizing some meetings (such as Tandem in the University) between students and international volunteers Mantua.

During the whole period of the voluntary service, monthly meetings will be organized between the central office of the Villaggio and the volunteers. It should be an added moment for the exchange between the Villaggio and the volunteers and a space to talk about possible problems, perplexities and curiosities. Furthermore, the EVS coordinator of InCo will arrange regular meetings in order to verify if the project as a whole is going well concerning all the different aspects.

Documentação: HOW TO APLLY:

1-) If you would like to participate in this selection process, please mention on the top of the application "Selection process 2012 – Villaggio SOS di Mantova”

2-) You should send us in
the application following documents/information:
- CV (in English or Italian, better to follow the Europass format)
- motivation letter specific to the host organization in which you would like to do your service
(in the motivation letter you should explain why would you like to participate in the EVS, why
Italy, why this specific project, what do you think you could learn, which could be the difficulties
you could face, etc.);
- a picture (if you haven't added to your CV)
For the moment, there is no need to fill other forms or send any document by regular post. The
email with the documents and information requested should be sent to
3-) After the 19th December, the selection will be officially closed and we will proceed with some
phone interviews.
We will be waiting for your application!