„Pass Ahead 2“

The EVS project “Pass Ahead 2” is sequel of the successful project “Pass Ahead”. The aim of the project is to include two young people who want to work with youth, as they are part of the organizing team for events of different nature, but aimed at young people and to learn how to run an NGO. They will be a part of our organization and will be involved in every aspect of the work of the association – from taking care of the communication with the partners, through meetings with young people discussing issues related to the opportunities for learning and development through EU programs, to implementation of “Erasmus +” projects or other programs aimed at the development of young people, both personal and professional. The project will be implemented in the picturesque Renaissance town of Tryavna and will last 12 months. During this time, the volunteers will be part of the implementation of our projects and local initiatives, as one of the most significant, in which they will participate will be working with children from kindergartens and the Center for Rehabilitation and Social Integration, where they will help the educators and the social workers in the activities related to art, such as painting, coloring, modeling, etc. and also in the outdoor/indoor sports activities with the little one`s. They will help in organizing various exhibitions, where kids will present their work. Furthermore, they will also help in the implementation of another initiative related to youngsters from the town` schools – outside the classroom activities and events that will be organized jointly with the primary and secondary school and the National School of Fine Arts. These Actions will be in the form of organizing various sport events, picnics, hiking and trekking in nature, as basically they are designed to awaken the love of nature, awareness for its protection and various forms of sports and outdoor entertainment. Non-formal education and methods of learning by doing will be mainly overlap in the project as volunteers themselves will have complete freedom to propose and implement their ideas for different events and initiatives. The results of this project will be bilateral – volunteers will learn a lot about the work and the organization of work in an association from a firsthand and young people in other hand will have contact youngsters their age from another country and thus give them a very good example that borders no longer exists, if you want to realize and pursue your dreams but the limits we have are those we set ourselves. Intercultural experience that both parties will share is also very important, because in a small town like Tryavna two very different cultures will meet, and this in turn will open the minds of young people from the town about the different cultures and will be one more step to crossing the boundary of the unknown. Long-term benefit of this project is again a bilateral – volunteers will gain quite solid knowledge about working in an association and its management, and will also learn many new techniques for working with children and young people which will inevitably help in their personal and professional development in the future, and young people from the town will gain invaluable international experience without going outside Bulgaria, but in contrast, will receive the incentive to acquire more knowledge about the world and then come back home and help in the development of a better society and a brighter future for us all.

Project Activities:

The main activities planned in the weekly program are as it follows:

Activities in the office of CYA: from Monday to Thursday the volunteer will work in the office from 16:00 to 18:00. He/She will have to prepare the activities and the materials for the workshops in the kindergarten (looking for ideas, games, songs, materials); organize the “Language coffee” (searching for discussion topics, materials, games, energizers, songs, curiosities, news, cultural and intercultural information, and so on). He/She will also organize promotion of the different activities organized, like giving out flyers, preparing posters, videos, and so on. The volunteer will take care of the website and social network`s pages (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), he/she will contribute to take care of the communication with the partners and any other organization’s need. He/She will prepare the materials for the project`s blog, mentioned in article 4.1.3.
Activities in the kindergarten: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9:30 to 12:30, he/she will help the teachers during the kindergarten’s activities and/or may propose them any kind of workshops (like to make toys out of recycled materials – rabbits/cats out of toilet paper rolls, snowmen out of socks and rice, sea turtles out of plastic bottles,…), games and songs for children from 4 to 6 years old (in Italian or English as well), support to the basketball teacher, by helping her during the trainings.
Activities in the Centre for Rehabilitation and Social Inclusion – from 9:30 to 12:30, every Thursday, he/she will help the social workers during their activities and/or may propose them any kind of workshops, games, to sing songs in Italian or English, etc.
Language coffee: every Thursday, from 18:00 to 20:00, either in the office or in Club “Jubox”, the volunteer will organize a language exchange for teens from the town. He/She will prepare the room and the activities, will decide with the other volunteers discussion topics, games, looking for curiosities and news to improve the language skills in English and/or Bulgarian between the volunteers and the locals.
Volunteer`s day: every Friday afternoon the volunteer will organize different activities for youngsters from the town, like logical, funny, language games, workshops, art, sport, leisure activities, handcrafting, jewellery, etc. He/She will spend the morning searching for ideas and preparing the promotional materials for the next Friday and preparing the materials and the room for the planned activities the same day. This activity is a complete open space for any kind of creative idea the volunteer has – outdoor games, movie projections, debates, dancing classes, karaoke, hiking, etc.
Video blog: every Friday, in time chosen by the volunteer, he/she will have to record/create a video/short movie and/or write a written blog post, sharing his/her experience for the past 7 days. This material will be uploaded on the project`s blog page at http://cya.tryavna.eu/

Working time		Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Morning
9:30	12:30	Art workshops in the kindergarden	Italian day in the kindergarden	Sport activities in the kindergarden	Art workshops in the Social Center	Volunteer`s day	Free day
Noon
12:30	16:00	Lunch Break
Afternoon
16:00	18:00	Activities in the office
18:00	20:00				Language coffee

Activities out of the weekly program:

Information meetings: organized in schools, participation in them will be open to all students from first to twelfth grade.
Detour eco and cycling paths: weekly detour routes with volunteers from the association and members of the Association “Velo Club” – Tryavna. These patrols will include young people from schools for educational purposes. Because it will not be “closed” events, always outsiders such as guests of the city will be able to join, because the volunteers will be trained by climbers and mountain guides what to expect along the way (flora and fauna). They will also undergo training in first aid by the Red Cross to ensure the safety of all.
Charity workshops organized jointly with the Center for Rehabilitation and Social Inclusion: the activities will be carried out in multi-sensor room in the center.
Charity workshops, organized jointly with Kindergarten “Kalina” – the participants will be children between 4 years – 6 years old. Activities will be carried out in the appropriate places in the kindergarten.
Extracurricular activities organized by the association for school children – age of the participants will be between 7 years to 18 years depending on the activities, the places will be different. In case we are out of school, the group will include teachers and / or parents to help with the care for younger students. Some of the planned activities to date are:

– Sports day for families whose purpose is to show parents how important and fun it is to spend more time with their children;

– “Treasure hunting” in the city to get to know the history and secrets of it. The initiative is linked to institutions such as museums, galleries, Municipality.

– Monthly organizing club, “I breathe,” in which children will be organized games, which will test their knowledge of a topic, but also will learn many interesting things. Topics include: “The Universe”, “Cinema and Music”, “Indians”, “Mystery.” The topics will be the most diverse, if necessary, children will be masked appropriately. The games will be held outdoors.

– Club “dream and read”, which is divided into two parts. In one part will gather young children in nature and will be read tales. With older students will organize debates and readings of essays, books, movies, lyrics of favorite songs.

IMPORTANT – ALL THE ACTIVITIES WILL BE ORGANIZED DEPENDING ON THE WEATHER.

Additional information:

Eligible participants: Italian citizens or based in Italy at the age 17-30.
Duration: 12 months, starting on 1^st of September 2017.
Working hours: ~30 h/week with 2 days off/week and 2 working days for holidays/month.
Working language: English.
Accommodation: Fully equipped and covered by the organization (electricity, water & Internet).
Travel costs: Reimbursement for a return ticket depending on the rules of Erasmus+.
To check the distance, click at the link.
Monthly allowance: 200 Euro (110 Euro organizational support and 90 Euro pocket money)
Linguistic support: 100 study hours with a professional teacher.
Insurance & Health assistance: Full insurance with Cigna will be provided to each volunteer. The cost for issuing it will be fully covered by the hosting and sending organizations. Before you come to Bulgaria, we highly recommend that you ask for a European Health Insurance Card.
Others: Before arrival, we advise you to get an ISIC (International Student Identity Card) and/or EYC (European Youth Card).