ESC project in Finland!
Location: Pori, Finland
Name of project: International Youth Houses
Project coordinating Organization – The Department of Youth Affairs of Pori city
Purpose of project: The project “International Youth Houses” aims to find and maintain a positive international atmosphere in all the activities provided by youth affairs in the city of Pori.
Number of volunteers: 1 volunteer at the age of 18-29
Duration of project: 01.09.2019 – 31.08.2020
Deadline: 24 March 2019
How to apply? – Please fill the APPLICATION FORM
Sending Organization: Common Sense Youth Organization | evs@csyo-az.org
All costs cover by European Solidarity Corps
No participation fee!
Language: English
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The project lasts 12 months, starting from the end of August/beginning of September 2019 to, hosting organization receives two volunteers for this project. Our project aims to find and maintain a positive international atmosphere in all the activities provided by the hosting organization. We want our youngsters and workers to have an open mind and positive attitude towards other cultures and new international people coming to Pori. We wish our international volunteers to lead the way and help us achieve our aims. In result, both Finnish and immigrant youngsters and our workers feel more comfortable and can learn a lot from each other during our everyday activities. We hope that our youngsters would also get encouraged to travel and experience other countries and cultures. We want to offer the young adults from other parts of Europe/world a possibility to get valuable work experience here in Finland. Volunteers can get to know the profession of Finnish youth work and our versatile working methods. From experience, we know that the volunteers also give us new perspectives and ideas to our work. We give our volunteers the possibility to plan and execute activities of their own, according to their strengths and interests.
TRANSPORTATION
Hosting organization and the volunteer will discuss together what is the best way to get the flight tickets and keep track of the traveling budget of the project. The easiest way to get from the Helsinki airport to Pori is by train and hosting organization will buy the tickets and will give further instructions.
MONTHLY ALLOWANCE
Volunteer will receive 125€ pocket money plus 180€ per month for food. With the 305€/month the volunteer will get by. The money is just enough for food and necessities with the price rates in Finland, it won’t cover extensive travelling, shopping or partying.
ACCOMMODATION & OTHER PRACTICALITIES
The host organization has rented an apartment for the two volunteers that do their EVS period at the same time. Volunteers have separate bedrooms but will share the kitchen, living room and bathroom together. Volunteers will take care of the apartments cleaning and keeping it in a good shape.
The apartment is in a story building which means there are a lot of neighbors. In Finland, it is a regular rule in every story building that after 22:00 there should not be any extensive noise in the apartments, like music or loud voices. Volunteers get a Finnish mobile phone number with internet connection paid by the hosting organization. Phones are not included. The flat also has a wifi connection. The apartment of volunteers is close to the city center. It’s an about 2,8km walk or rides on a bike. Host organization will provide bicycles for volunteers. Volunteers will get an access card for the local public bus transportation when needed to get to workplace. Some of the youth houses were volunteers will be working at are quite far and during winter the weather conditions are difficult.
PROFILE OF THE VOLUNTEER
We want to be sure that the people who we select really want to come exactly to our project and know what they are applying for. It is important to us to try to select the people we think are most suitable for; working with teenagers, to be living with another volunteer, to be able to work both in small and larger group of youth workers and to survive and enjoy the environment and nature we have in southwest part of Finland.
Volunteers selected must be comfortable and motivated working with passive youth. Working with youngsters requires the ability to take responsibility and initiative making contact with the youth. Many times the job is just to be there for the youth and try to make conversation. It is not an easy job with the language and culture barrier.
We hope to find volunteers who show interest towards some of the activity types we provide and have some experience or skills of at least one of them; social media marketing, graphic design, social work, event planning and outdoor or indoor sports.
The volunteers must be at least 18 year old because they will be working with youth between 13-29 -year olds.
Our main target group is 13-18 -year olds and in most cases, it is better when there are more years between the volunteers and our target group, since the volunteers are meant to be more of an authority than peers for the youngsters.
TASKS OF VOLUNTEER
Volunteer will work with host organizations youth workers as an assistant youth leader. Volunteer will take part in planning and executing all the activities our organization provides for youngsters in Pori. We arrange open youth house* activities, small group activities, various youth events, summer camps, trips, projects, web youth work, specialized youth work and of course international youth work.
(* this working method is quite unique to the nordic countries and can be quite challenging. Our youth houses are mainly places where the youth come after school [16:00-21:00] to hang out. Most of the time there are no organised activities, just the space and equipment for youth to spend time with each other. The role of our youth leaders, and also volunteers, in the youth houses is to secure that the space is safe for everyone physically and mentally, youth leaders are there for the youth to support, talk and help them if something troubles them.)
The volunteer is expected to act as a responsible and respectable adult both on and off duty. Volunteer will plan their working hours together with their colleagues and stick to them.
The volunteer will work in our youth houses and smaller youth groups together with our youth workers. Youth houses are open for all 13-18 year-olds in Pori. Smaller youth groups are directed to certain youth and ages vary between 13-29 years.
The role of the volunteer is to be a reliable adult who supervises, listens and supports youngsters, arranges different activities with and for the youngsters. Volunteer will take part planning and executing events, camps and group activities. The youth houses are mainly open between 14:00-22:00. The small groups gather on different weekdays, each small group lasts for about 1,5 hours between 12:00 – 21:00. The small groups are about sports, cooking, crafting, internationality, online games, unemployment and youth council work.
Volunteers with graphic design skills can also design and create posters, flyers and social media adds. We encourage volunteers to participate in updating and creating campaigns for the social media channels of our organisation like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube.
DAILY SCHEDULE
Volunteer will work mainly 5 days a week, 35 hours per week (with compliance) with 2 days off per week and 2 vacation days per month. Work is mostly evenings, either Monday to Friday or Tuesday to Saturday, but the schedule varies a lot and will be adjusted with the volunteers based also on their personal skills.
SUPPORT AND TRAININGS
The On-Arrival Training for volunteers is in Youth Centre Villa Elba in Kokkola in October. Mentor in HO will help getting the enrollment and travel tickets done.
The contact person of hosting organisation will be the mentor for volunteers to help with learning goals and how to reach them as well as “monitoring” how things are going overall and help with any problems that might occur. During first months they will have weekly meetings with volunteers to set up everything comfortably. After the mentor meetings will be once in two or three weeks and whenever needed. Hosting organisation will also try to find mentors outside the organisation for the volunteers, in case something comes up and the organisation mentor is not reachable or if difficulties appear with the hosting organisation.