European Voluntary Service „EMPATIJA“

European Voluntary Service
„EMPATIJA

Panevezys County, Lithuania
10 months

 

Summary of the project:

As a volunteer, you will work in a wide range of fields, such as culture, youth, sports, children, arts, disability. Our projects offer a mix of specific activities in several of these fields. The goal of the project is to promote the tolerance and empathy of young people at local and national level.

Project location: Panevezys County, Lithuania
EVS Activity date: on 01/09/2017  and end on 30/06/2018 .
Participants: from 6 countries- 1 from Bulgaria, 2 from Austria, 1 from Germany, 1 from Spain, 1 from Turkey, 2 from Italy which will be hosted in 5 organizations from Panevezys County.

The objectives of the project are:

  • to foster the empathy between non-disabled youth and youth with fewer opportunities;
  • to change the public attitude towards the excluded youth groups;
  • to develop a sense of European citizenship and identity between the young people;
  • to encourage young people to be active, creative, responsible, empathetic.

Direct target groups: EVS volunteers and youth in Panevezys town and district.
Indirect Target groups: organizations working with young people with special needs.
The Project motto: “seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.”  (Alfred Adler)
The activities will be carried out with the support of professional facilitators (such as trainers, youth workers, experts in the youth field, youth leaders, youth trainers, etc.) and will take place in a diverse range of environments and situations:

     1. Youth day care centre/Jaunuolių dienos centras (PIC no: 948104967)
http://pjdc.lt/
https://www.facebook.com/Jaunuoli%C5%B3-Dienos-Centras-323700284494685/
Dear Volunteers,
Volunteers at JDC will work together with mentally disabled youth. They will do daily work in the chosen activity: pottery, art, sports, household chores, IT, music, technology, wool felting, theatre and so on. They will support and help young people who have special needs and who are not capable to work with the group.
In addition to the daily activities the volunteers will carry out many public projects such as: organizing exhibitions, concerts, sports festivals for town community that should show abilities of mentally disabled youth and change public attitude. Volunteers will organize special events for non disabled young people at general educational institutions that disseminate the idea of volunteering and to change young people’s attitudes to mental disability peers.
Volunteer should also always find time:
– to be with disabled peer and help him, talk with him and support him.
– make friendship with mentally disabled youngsters;
– help mentally disabled in his/her everyday life;
If you are not afraid of challenges and are a friendly with mentally disabled young people we are waiting for you in our organisation.

     2. Visit Mykolas Antanaitis gymnasium in Krekenava/Krekenavos Mykolo Antanaičio gimnazija (PIC no: 929356225)
http://www.kmag.lt/
https://www.facebook.com/kmag.lt/?ref=ts&fref=ts
Dear Volunteers,
Small Krekenava town in Panevezys district is the right place, if you are looking for a peaceful school in countryside. There is friendly stuff, teachers, who can introduce you with modern equipment and renovated classes. Krekenava gymnasium has beautiful surroundings and is attended by plenty of diverse children.
Gymnasium consolidates pupils from 1 to 12 grade, so you would meet a lot of various and interesting children. It’s possible to participate in teaching process during lessons.
You will have possibility to organise brain games and other activities and take part in ones. You will can improve your English language skills in discussions with students, by watching movies in English and discussion about them. Also you will can take part in the art lessons, sing or play with various instruments. By spending time actively you will can play basketball and do exercises in the training room.
Also you will can visit sightseeings of Krekenava region park.
That’s a fine way for you to get more speaking skills, new social experience and know about other country.

     3. Panevėžys Local Labour Exchange/Panevėžio teritorinė darbo birža (PIC no: 923325444)
https://www.ldb.lt/tdb/panevezys/Puslapiai/default.aspx
https://www.facebook.com/jaunimui/?fref=tsDear Volunteers,
First of all we are so glad that you are coming to our organization in Panevėžys, the fifth largest city, which is situated in the middle of Lithuania. Panevėžys Local Labour Exchange is a budget organization. It implements state employment guarantees on the local level and offers support for jobseekers who want to find a job more quickly, giving them the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills to compete and succeed in the labour market, helps employers find qualified labour force.
Panevėžys Local Labour Exchange consists of several different departments and sub departments – one of them is the Youth Job Centre. The main objectives of the Youth Job Centre are to help youth integrate into labour market, develop skills needed to compete in labour market, motivate to lifelong learning and help adjust to changes in labour market. The other sub-department – EURES. The purpose of EURES is to provide information, advice and recruitment/placement (job-matching) services for the benefit of workers and employers as well as any citizen wishing to benefit from the principle of the free movement of persons.
Volunteers in the Youth Job Center and in EURES consult clients about culture and living conditions in their home countries, volunteering benefits and possibilities. They help in Youth Job Center’s and EURES routine jobs, such as help to organize seminars about situation in labour market, career planning, work search on internet, basic of entrepreneurship, Europass documents, CV and motivation letter preparation. They participate in the meetings with social partners and delegations from abroad, youth conferences and workshops, development of communication and publicity of events. Moreover, they help organize European Union language clubs for clients. Volunteers can find the best activities for them and submit proposals or initiate new projects.
Our expectations for volunteers would be: reliability and commitment be broad minded, not afraid to ask for help and enthusiastic. We hope that our volunteer will be active to integrate into our community, which includes many of the social partners from government organizations to start-ups with youth clubs that keep cooperating.
We await the pleasure of welcoming you to the Panevėžys Local Labour Exchange!

     4. Pažagieniai School/Pažagienių mokykla-darželis (PIC no: 935011131)
http://www.pazagieniumokykla.lt/
https://www.facebook.com/pazagieniumokykla
Dear volunteer,
You are invited to grow and develop yourself in a safe enviroment together with our children and our staff. We want to offer you a special opportunity to spend 9 month in a friendly rural School close to a very beautiful town Panevėžys (Lithuania), which is situated between two capitals Vilnius and Riga with a distance of 150 km from each.  50 kindergarten children (age 2-6) and 50 primary school pupils (age 7-10) learn and grow in our school. There are 10  teachers and 3 teacher’s assistens. Our kindergarten groups work from 7 a.m. till 6 p.m. from Monday till Friday. But we expect that you will spend 6 hours in our school daily and share your skills and abilities with our children and staff or parents. We believe you are energetic, curious and happy, you love communicate and take cere of children, you can either draw or sing or do sports and are willing to share your competences with our children and staff.
Looking froward to hear from you!

     5. Panevezio vision center „Linelis“/Panevėžio regos centras „Linelis“ (PIC no: 939916615)
http://linelis.mir.lt/
https://www.facebook.com/Panev%C4%97%C5%BEio-regos-centras-Linelis-653223501374245/?fref=ts
Dear volunteers,
We expect the volunteer to have a desire and motivation, to be able to interact with visually impaired children. Also we hope the volunteer to realize his/her potential, to become a teachers’ assistant and a friend, to be able to integrate into the daily-life of children and into the daily-work of educators and specialists in order to form professional, high quality and productive relations between children, their parents, educators, specialists and a volunteer.
If you like to organize your free-time, you are communicative, empathetic, characterized by creativity, and you are not afraid of challenges – your place is with us!

Abouth the venue:

Panevėžys, the capital of Aukštaitija Ethnographic Region, has been the fifth largest city in Lithuania for more than a century. It occupies 50 square kilometers with 100 000 thousand inhabitants, the majority of whom (96 per cent) are Lithuanians. The rest are Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Byelorussian, Jewish people.
Panevėžys is situated in the middle of Lithuania; it is halfway between two Baltic capitals – Vilnius and Riga. The city lies in a good geographical position which plays a major role in communication with other Lithuanian cities and the city of Kaliningrad(Russia). The Via Baltica highway runs through the city and connects it to many Scandinavian and West European countries.
Panevėžys is a member of the Union of the Baltic Cities. It has 12 partner towns abroad: Lünen (Germany), Goes (the Netherlands), Kalmar (Sweden), Lublin (Poland), Kolding (Denmark), Mytishi and Kaliningrad (Russia), Gabrovo(Bulgaria), Rakvere (Estonia), Daugavpils (Latvia), Vinnytsia (Ukraine) and Maramures County (Romania). Friendly contacts have been established with Chengdu (China), Ivano- Frankivsk ( the Ukraine), Szarvas (Hungary), Ramla (Israel), Ozurgeti (Georgia), Lecce (Italy) and Ferizaj (Kosovo).
Panevėžys lies on the banks of the river Nevėžis, the sixth longest river in Lithuania. The river gave its name to the city itself. Senvagė (the Old River Bed ) is considered the symbol of Panevėžys and is a famous place for leisure time and festivals.
It boasts of Laisvės Square where modern ideas intertwine with old ones, Respublikos Street famous for its art galleries.
Panevėžys has a reputation for being a clean , cosy and green city. At the same time it is an important industrial spot. Over 30 000 people work in the companies of Panevėžys. The production made in these companies makes 70% of the value of all city gross domestic product. Currently the city hosts major Lithuanian companies: Joint Stock Company Linas Agro, Construction Company STATYBOS TRESTAS, Road Construction Company PANEVĖŽIO KELIAI, Company AMILINA, Energy Company PANEVĖŽIO ENERGIJA. Every year direct foreign investments into the companies of Panevėžys increase. Norwegian Industrial park, the only in Lithuania is functioning in Panevėžys. The Municipality of Panevėžys provides favourable conditions for starting businessmen and for huge investors.
Some people think of Panevėžys as the city of Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre, some – as the city of the world famous International Ceramic Symposia; others – as the capital of cycling and Ultra Triathlon where world champions Diana Žiliūtė, Edita Pučinskaitė, Simona Krupeckaitė and Vidmantas Urbonas were brought up.
Panevėžys artist, such a photographer Algimantas Aleksandravičius make their city known in the world. The city is also famous as the home of the Chamber Orchestra , the Folk Dance Group Grandinelė and young pianists.
See more about Panevezys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCvCM2Y1io
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeFZPdFXV4

Age limt of the volunteer:

As you might know the age limit for an EVS project needs to be between 18-30.

Project language:

The language of your project will be English during the work time and you will learn Lithuanian too. Lithuanian language courses will be provided by a proffesional teacher and/or a volunteer. They are not mandatory, but are strongly recommended due to the daily work with of the volunteers.

Monthly allowance:

Each volunteer will receive 200 Euro per month which are as it follows: 80 Euro for pocket money and 100 Euro for food. Also in workings days all volunteers will get lunch near the volunteering place, covered by the hosting organisation.
The participant shall receive a financial support from EU funds for 10 months. The total amount for the mobility period shall be determined by multiplying the number of days/months of the mobility with the rate applicable per day/month for the receiving country concerned. In the case of incomplete months, the financial support is calculated by multiplying the number of days in the incomplete month with 1/30 of the unit cost per month.
The reimbursement of costs incurred in connection with special needs, when applicable, shall be based on the documentation such as invoices, receipts etc provided by the participant.
The financial support may not be used to cover similar costs already funded by Union funds.

Travel cost reimbursement:

100% of the participants‘ travel costs will be reimbursed within the valid budget sums calculated according to the official rules of Erasmus+ programme. If a sum exceeds the limit, the excess will be paid by the participants themselves. The reimbursement limit is 275€ per participant from Bulgaria.

Important: In order to obtain reimbursement for the tickets, you need to obey the following rules:
1) You need to present ALL THE TICKETS, including RETURN TICKETS, which you will send after realization of the project, otherwise YOU WILL NOT BE REIMBURSED (DO NOT FORGET TO KEEP YOUR BOARDING PASSES FROM AIRPORT CHECK-IN)
2) You need to use PUBLIC TRANSPORT e.g. planes, trains, buses, trams or underground.
3) You need to depart from the country.
4) It is recommended to make scans of tickets before your arrival in case you lose them. The reimbursement will be done only in euros.

Insurance:

Every participant should have valid European Health Card.
Each participant will get full health insurance provided by CIGNA health insurance company.

YouthPass:

Every participant is individually entitled to receive a Youthpass Certificate, which confirms participation and validates the non-formal learning (NFL) experience of Training course project. Validating the learning experiences of participants is important in itself and the document can be of benefit in terms of the educational or employment future of the participant. Through Youthpass the European Commission ensures the Training course activity is recognized as a non-formal learning experience.
(*For more information on Youthpass you may click on this page to check it online)

Relevant documents and links about the EVS:

EVS Info KIT: http://éc.éuropa.éu/youth/tools/évs-info-kit_én.htm
Erasmus+ Commission Website: http://éacéa.éc.éuropa.éu/érasmus-plus_én
Erasmus+ Home Page: http://éc.éuropa.éu/programmés/érasmus-plus/
Erasmus+ Programmed Guide: http://éc.éuropa.éu/programmés/érasmus-plus/discovér/guidé/indéx_én.htm
Erasmus+ Youth: http://éc.éuropa.éu/youth/indéx_én.htm
Youth pass Page: https://www.youthpass.éu/én/youthpass/for/évs/subpagé/
Voluntary Agreement:http://cya.tryavna.eu/bg/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/05/Volunteering-Agreement.doc

 

In order to apply for this project, fill in THIS APPLICATION FORM and send it to: stanimir.chukov@gmail.com

IMPORTANT!!!
In the title of the e-mail, write down the name of the project.
The deadline for applying is 31. 07. 2017