Long-term volunteering opportunity in the western part of Austria
Project details
- Number of volunteers: 1
- Duration: October to September (changes possible)
- Topics: Youth (Youth Work, Participation, Youth Policy, Street Work, Events, Workshops, Excursions, Projects), Children (Work in Residential Complexes, Kidscafé), Creativity and Culture
- Hosting Organisation: Offene Jugendarbeit Hohenems, Hohenems, Austria
- Supporting/Coordination organisation: aha – Jugendinformationszentrum Vorarlberg Dornbirn, Austria
Open opportunities
Open opportunities (vacancies) and information about the application can be found on the European Youth Portal: All opportunities | European Youth Portal
Project description
“Offene Jugendarbeit Hohenems (OJAH)” – Open youth work Hohenems – can now look back on decades of history and has been accompanying young people on their way to adulthood ever since. It is based on the guiding ethical principles of social work and is a non-profit, non-denominational and non-partisan association which works in the interest of young people. It focuses a humanistic educational mission as well as on imparting social and cultural skills.
Young people are not only accompanied for many years by open youth work in a decisive phase of life in which educational and life skills are formed but also empowered and supported in their individuality. The essential goals are the relationship work with young people as well as participation activities and there is always space to get involved.
Open youth work in Hohenems is part of an existing network that is constantly growing. In addition, open youth work accompanies and mediates the cooperation between young people and system partners on behalf of the young ones. The Hohenems open youth work team supports and accompanies the young people in all matters, professionally and competently.
There are specific counselling aspects of social work, for example work in residential complexes, free of charge coaching for job applications as well as free learning support, digital youth work, KidsCafé, social work projects, workshops for large and small projects such as holiday programmes, school workshops, prevention of bullying and cyberbullying, cooperation projects as well as cooperation events, intergenerational events and much more.
Front office: Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.to 6 p.m. as well as Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The backoffice can be reached from Tuesday to Friday.
There is always a big team meeting at the end of the month. In between, we do stand-up meetings that usually last half an hour. In general, we attach great importance to working together as a team. Regular team building activities underline this.
Services for youngsters aged 12 or younger
Free of charge youth centre, one-on-one meetings and advice, street work/mobile youth work, job application coaching, learning support, gender sensitive girls* and boys* work, projects, workshops, events, recording studio and rehearsal room, workshops and other activities with schools, media literacy, prevention of violence, bullying and cyberbullying as well as self-defence for schools, healthy snacks in the schools once a month etc.
Services for youngsters aged 6 to 16
KidsCafé: Work in residential complexes
Tasks of the volunteer
The volunteer will work five days a week, 34 hours a week including German course. S*he will have two days holiday per month.
S*he will primarily support us in our work in the youth centres. S*he can also get to know all of our areas (including working with children). Another part of his*her work are the various projects with a focus on sport, education, creativity and culture. At the same time, the volunteer can also organise his*her own projects and contribute his*her own talents.
The main tasks will be working in the youth centre/youth café, leisure work with the young people, helping with our events, in- and outdoor activities, cooperation events, excursions, holiday programmes and workshops.
We show and explain our work and our principles to the volunteer. We would like him*her to show interest in our organisation and ask for more details to get a deeper insight into our work and the motivation behind the various activities. We teach her*him how to interact with youngsters and children.
Volunteer profile
We would be happy to have an open-minded and interested person who would like to get to know our (really) diverse and important work and our organisation and who loves to work with young people and different cultures.
As we try to reach young people in their leisure time, our opening hours are mostly in the afternoon and evening. This applies to the volunteer’s time in the organisation as well.
As the target group in our youth centres is between 10 and 20 years of age, we would prefer a person who is at least 20 years old.
Practical arrangements
The volunteer will live in a student accommodation, where also other volunteers, students and residents of different backgrounds live. The accommodation is organised by the hosting organisation. The volunteer will have a room with an own bathroom ensuite and share a kitchen and common rooms with the other residents.
The infrastructure with trains and buses is very accessible and frequent. Additionally, s*he will also have a bicycle at her*his disposal. The volunteer will receive a ticket for free use of any public transport in the whole region of Vorarlberg during the complete duration of the ESC project.
Support during the voluntary project
S*He will have regular meetings with her*his tutor in our organisation to talk about the development of the project, task assignments, general wellbeing, problems, wishes etc.
The Project Coordinator will hold a monthly evaluation meeting with all volunteers in Vorarlberg. At the end of the project, we will evaluate the project together with the volunteer: to see what s*he has learned and which competences s*he has gained and as a result fill out the Youthpass. Furthermore, there will be a final personal evaluation meeting with the Project Coordinator.
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