European Voluntary Service
in Liepajas Jaunie Vanagi
31st May till 28th of July 2017
Would you like to get new experiences and volunteer in a open-minded child and youth organisation in another country from 31st May till 28th of July 2017? With the European Voluntary Service project of the Liepajas Jaunie Vanagi this is possible!
Liepajas Jaunie Vanagi, Liepaja – Latvia
The child and youth union “Liepajas Jaunie Vanagi” (Liepajas Young Falcons) was founded in 1993. Members are between 5 and 30 years old and are mostly young people with fewer opportunities – most of them come from low income families. Our aim is the promotion and protection of rights and interests of children and the encouragement of active and creative youth development.
Liepajas Jaunie Vanagi supports young people in taking initiative and realising their ideas. Together with the different age groups we organise international meetings, sport days, camps, educational activities etc.
We want that young people become empowered to become active in the society, to spend their leisure time as funny and productive as possible, to have an international spirit and to be aware that children have the right to take decisions.
Doing a ‘European Voluntary Service’ (EVS) with LJV means:
- Living for 2 months in another country
- Working in a child and youth organisation together with local volunteers
- Discovering the host country together with other EVS volunteers or local volunteers
- Gaining intercultural experience and learning the language of your host country
- Implementing your own ideas and organize activities for kids and youngsters
- Teaching your own language
- Prepare and organize practical outdoor and indoor activities for kids and youngsters (It means volunteers must be able to communicate in English, let’s say – average level)
- Working with non-formal education methods by teaching teenagers to become leaders
The EVS programme is financed by the European Commission. The grant covers:
- Accommodation
- Allowance for food and local transport (90 euros for food and monthly transport ticket) + free lunch during activities Monday-Friday
- A Latvian language course
- Pocket money ( 91.5 euros)
- Health insurance
- Travel costs to and from the host country (based on max of travel costs)
We are looking for someone who is:
- Aged between 18 and 30
- Good communication skills in English (basic knowledges of latvian language will be taken as adventage)
- Able to commit 2 months to volunteering in another country
- Computer literate
- We are particularly open to young people with fewer opportunities (geographic,economical etc.)
- Basic knowledge of non-formal education
- Open-minded with a good sense of humour
- Familiar with outdoor activities and team building basics
And finally about work
Your main task will be prepare, plan, organize and most important – lead indoor and outdoor activities for local kids and new leaders academy for teenagers. What it means in reality? Its max 38 hours of work per week. Its 6 hours per day. Keep in mind its Latvian summer. And summer in Latvia is very different then summer in your countries. Big chance of rain, cold and almost no sun.
Also you will have a chance to teach kids your language. All activities is going to be organized in non-formal way, using a lot of fun and creativity.
So you need to prepare program, run it and support each other! You will work in team with 12 EVS volunteers from Spain, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Portugal and also together with local volunteers. This will be done in first days, during on-arrival training.
For latvian language lessons we will agree concrete time which will be better for all of you.
Please note, that you might need some extra time for planning activities.
The work is hard, because there is a lack of local volunteers, so prepare for really hard work.
Your project will ends with day of evaluation.
Latvian language courses:
As you maybe know, there are no official language courses for short term EVS. Anyway, we are gonna have some obligatory lessons in the beginning and after we are more than open to work with those volunteers who really want to improve their Latvian and want to have at least basic knowledge of local language, which is considered one of the oldest and beautiful languages in Europe!
Besides that, as a volunteer you will have a chance to have free time to spend in your own way. We can suggest best places to visit and help with arranging transport etc., but you are free on your choice!
As example I should mention that last year we found a time and organized common Baltic trip for all volunteers. And it was amazing!
Arriving and departure:
Because project starts at 31st of May, would be super cool to have you here at 30 of May. 31st of May you will have day of technical information and first lesson of latvian language, get your money, get to know city, try to swim in sea etc. – meeting with project leader and methors. Your on arrival training will start at 1st of June. We need to see fresh, happy faces.
Departure is one day after the project ends, so 29 of July. And again – if by any reason you need to leave 1-2 days before official ending, it could be done, just need to agree. Also you can stay longer and enjoy summer in this beautiful place Liepaja, just after 28 July its on your own expenses.
Living conditions:
All volunteers will be accommodating in private house in the city centre. Well, house is old and always could be better, but lets say – conditions are ok. Like normal hostel. It also means there is possibility that in some rooms could be another guests. BUT you don’t need to share a rooms with them, no worries. Kitchen, fridge, washing machine is for your service.
Location are excellent – 3 min to seaside, right in the main park and 10 min from most of pubs etc. Office are in walkable distance, like 20 min from your house. But if you are super lazy and ready to walk 5 min to tram stop and then 5 min from tram stop and ride 3 stops, we give you some transport tickets.
You don’t need blankets, pillows or sheets, all will be provided by landlord. Even if we go to trip, rafting, trekking or even mashroom picking, we have enough sleeping bags and tents in our organization.
Yeah, yeah – we have wi-fi as well, we don’t need to go check our emails in Lithuania. So wi-fi are available almost everywhere – in office, in flat, most of public places, like public transport stops, parks etc.
If you want, your mentors will help you to buy local number and SIM card for easier communication. But as you wish. It’s cheap and has fair amount of free internet.
You will prepare meals for your own. For that you will have money in cash.
Financial conditions:
Project reimburses you 100% of travel costs, if you are not exceed travel limit for your country. We will pay for your language courses, accommodation, you will have insurance, free transport ticket to use in city. Pocket money (91.50 euro) and money for food (90 euro). During working days tea and coffee are available all the time in the office. Pluss you have warm meal! (well, during activity days, but anyway) During on-arrival training all meals will be paid. Even you think money isn’t enough, its fair amount if you prepare common meals and not going to eat in restaurants. Till now all volunteers said it was enough to have normal meal and even beer in weekends.
All of you are going to have on-arrival training. All of you will have mentor, who is responsible about solving your problems and make you feel more comfortable in Latvia. As soon as we have all volunteers, I send you names of your mentors and contacts.
About reimbursement of travel costs. We will reimburse your travel costs just and only when you will give to us invoice, boarding passes and any tickets for coming to Latvia and send us back way boarding passes, after returning home.
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)
Applicants MUST:
- Have a vilidе ID/International passport.
- Possess valid European Health Card.
- Fill in the application form and send it to: stanimir.chukov@gmail.com – APPLICATION FORM
- In the title of the e-mail, write down the name of the project.
- Apply before 01. 05. 2017.
Български