MilanBona Fides Association and Associazione Joint are looking for Polish volunteers or residents in Poland to join their European Voluntary Service projects in Milan and Somma Lombardo, Italy. To apply please send your Curriculum Vitae and cover letter to the following emails: mariachiara@bonafides.pl,  k.zychowicz@bonafides.pl and candidature.sve@associazionejoint.org. Please, write in the title ”EVS in Milan, Youth Center – application” or ”EVS in Somma Lombardo , Application for GuardAvanti– application” depending on the project chosen.

  • Location:  
    1. Milan, Italy
    2. Somma Lombardo, Italy
  • Deadline: 26/08/2019
  • Duration: 12  months
  • Mobility period:  
    1. September 2019 – September 2020
    2. July/August 2019 – July/August 2020

Youth Center in Milan

IRDA Center is an educational youth center based in Milan. It was born with the aim of promoting the social integration of young people and to help them discover their abilities. All of this is made possible thanks to the work of qualified educators that organise artistic workshops, recreational and sports activities and school support.

 

Tasks

The IRDA Center is looking for 2 volunteers for 12 months. The volunteers will have the following tasks:

  • After-school activities with children and youngsters (homework, study, prepare final exams);
  • Support in creative, artistic and cultural laboratories with children and youngsters (ecology, web radio, juggling, video making, rap,  painting);
  • Help and participate in sport activities, like tournaments and training (basket, soccer, breakdance, volley, dance);
  • Support in organizing and managing of evening activities for youngsters (about two times a month);
  • Help in daily routine (eg. to shop for the activities, prepare materials, draw, tidy up…);
  • Support in organizing and managing of summer activities for children and kids (workshops, day trips, homework…);
  • Contribute to the development of new ideas in order to involve young volunteers through intercultural events, like regional and international dinners;
  • Support in organizing and managing of the group trips and holidays;
  • Promote international volunteering among young people, encouraging kids to volunteer;
  • Support in communication, designing flyers to inform and involve young people;
  • Help to produce documentation of activities, taking photographs, making videos and editing;
  • Take part in educational events against racism and religious discrimination, against bullying and cyberbullying.

 

Timetable

Volunteers will work from Monday to Friday, for maximum 35 working hours per week. In IRDA volunteers work mainly in the afternoon, from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm, and only few mornings per week (with one hour lunch break), on Tuesday (for the staff’s meeting) and one other morning.

Volunteers will work for 5 days per week, with 2 consecutive days off (normally Saturday and Sunday). Volunteers usually work on Saturday morning (from 10 to 12) minimum two times a month. In this case, they have Saturday and Monday off.

In agreement with volunteers, it’s possible to take part in trips with children and kids, working full time (one week in June, one week in July, eventually one weekend in Spring).

In Summer, due to school holidays the timetable can change. In August IRDA is closed, so volunteers work in Joint Association during that period.

Volunteers will get 2 days of holiday per month.

 

Volunteer´s Profile

To apply for this offer, the following criterias are necessary:

  • be open-minded;
  • positive attitude;
  • flexibility to adapt to possible changes;
  • initiative, creativity and respect;
  • patient with children;
  • motivated to work with youngsters;
  • motivation and determination to learn more;
  • communicative and sociable;
  • interest in Erasmus+ and its promotion.

 

Accommodation

  •  You will share a flat in Milan, with double rooms, bathrooms and an eat- in kitchen. The accommodation is provided by the coordinating organization: Associazione Joint.
  • You will live in the apartment with other Italians and EVS volunteers

 

Financial Support and transports

A Pocket money of 5 euro per day will be provided and 160 euro for month for covering the food expenses.

The volunteers will also get a monthly ticket for covering the transports for getting the working venue. The travel expenses will be reimboursed on the basis defined by the European Commission. An online italian language course will be provided.

Volunteers should bring with them towels and sheets, and most important your laptop, indispensable to work and a very good alley in learning italian!

 

Somma Lombardo, International Cooperation

 

The association GuardAvanti: per il futuro dei bambini is a non-profit organization, founded in 2011, involved in the international cooperation field, promoting the integration of cultures, a constructive coexistence in solidarity and a more equal and sustainable future.

The core for Guardavanti is the will to go beyond the categories of “rich” and “poor”: the association operates both in developing and developed countries, supporting projects around fair trade, economic self development and emancipation from poverty. A continuous exchange of knowledge and experiences between the association and partners in Italy and in the South of the world, allows that the projects, from concept to implementation and conclusion, are a fruitful result of a mutual learning process. The association, based on the encounter of believers and non-believers of different nationalities, is free from political, ethnical and religious bonds.

In Italy, GuardAvanti is active on global citizenship education in all levels of schools and:

  • supports international campaigns,
  • manages sponsorship,
  • organizes fundraising campaigns
  • does social media communication

 

Project Context

Project Context Based in Lombardy, a region in the North-West of Italy, Guardavanti has headquarter in Villanterio. Moreover, it has an operational point in Somma Lombardo, where the volunteers will be based.

Somma Lombardo is a small town in the Varese province of just over 17,800 inhabitants, located 50 km from Milan, 20 km from Varese and next to other cities, at an altitude of about 300 meters above sea level.

Somma Lombardo is well served by public transport (airport at 10 minutes) that connect it, several times a day, with Milan and Varese.The proximity to these cities allows to combine the possibility of living in a country town, and to experience life in the city of medium (Varese) and large size (Milan). By train you can also reach the beautiful Lago Maggiore in 20 minutes.

Somma Lombardo is a nice, easy to live town, with a city life rhythm characterized by different intercultural events (international event, Christmas market…) and weekly events (market, concerts…). This city is a good environment to help the volunteers to develop their curiosity about Italian cooking (restaurants, local food…), Italian language (Italian course in town) and Italian culture (castle of Somma Lombardo, conferences, projection of movies, library…).

The territory offers various sports and recreational facilities, in particular a municipal soccer field with a little field for training; a municipal gym for schools or sport groups and a swimming pool; a municipal library; a musical academy. The area near Somma Lombardo is also part of Parco del Ticino (with diga del Panperduto), where it’s possible to take naturalistic walks among the varied local flora and fauna.

 

Tasks

The ESC volunteers could be involved, depending on the wishes, attitudes and needs of everyone, in the following activities:

  1. Intercultural activities in Italy;
    1. Interactive workshops in schools in the provinces of Varese, Milan and Pavia. Volunteers will support the educators in the conduction of laboratories in schools of all levels on the theme of interculturality and integration of students of foreign origin; interactive training sessions on the stereotypes commonly attributed to migrants from the mass media and other topics of education for global citizenship
    2. Activities in town – collaboration with locals to organize activities for the integration of different ethnical communities living in the area
  2. Organization of activities designed by volunteers. One day a month could be dedicated to activities conceived by EVS volunteers. Meetings of interethnic cuisine, sporting activities, parties, inter-ethnic parades or other activities created by volunteers can be organized, with the aim of improving mutual knowledge and to overcome the fear of the different.
  3. Organization of events to promote the activities of the association. The EVS volunteers will participate in organizing the events that the association commonly carries out to promote its activities, including participation in local fairs with recreational spaces dedicated to children (creative makeup, animation, balloons, installation of a banquet with sugar yarn). The volunteers can then devise new promotional activities, contributing in first person to make known the association in the territory.
  4. Organization of the Xmas Campaign. The EVS volunteers will participate in organizing, implementing and monitoring all phases of the fundraising Xmas Campaign: for example, agreements with the commercial partners, selection of people involved in the fundraising activities, logistic support for the promotional materials, training courses before and after the campaign for unemployed people participating in the Campaign.
  5. Management of the GuardAvanti website and social networks:
    1. Translation of the association’s new website: volunteers can translate together with high school students and volunteers the new website of the association in several languages, including their mother tongue
    2. Publication of the articles on the social networks of the association: volunteers could publish articles on the social networks of the association in Italian and in the language they prefer. In particular about sustainability, global citizenship, international cooperation, human rights, active citizenship, fair trade and critical consumption, world news, songs and proverbs from the world.
  6. Management of projects in developing countries. Volunteers could support the project manager in the phases of needs analysis, planning, monitoring and reporting. The activity may also be carried out in a language other than Italian, depending on the institutional donor and the project partners. The volunteers will have the opportunity to work in an international and multicultural context. Furthermore, volunteers will be able to play an active role in the activities planned in Italy around projects abroad (for example awareness, communication, organization of events).

The volunteers will be working for a total of 30-35 hours per week, 5 days a week generally Monday to Friday. Occasionally they will be asked to take part in events organized on Saturdays and/or Sundays and in this case they will be guaranteed, however, additional free days per week. They will work along with the staff in Somma Lombardo and they will be supervised by and in contact with the other staff members of the association who live abroad. In this way the volunteers will experience remote working that is now becoming mainstream.

 

Accommodation & Financial Support

The EVS volunteers will be hosted in a flat in Somma Lombardo (province of Varese). GuardAvanti will rent for the volunteers a flat composed by two bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen and a bathroom.

When EVS volunteers will participate in institutional activities of Guardavanti located out of Somma Lombardo, the association will cover any related expense, previously authorized by their supervisor.

Volunteers will be given monthly financial support, along with pocket money, which will allow them to do their shopping and prepare meals for themselves in the kitchen of the apartment. Every volunteer will be given monthly a pocket money of 5 euros a day.

The travel costs will be reimbursed up to a certain amount allocated by the European Commission.

 

Volunteer´s Profile

We are looking for 2 volunteers from EU Countries (no visa budget), who are:

– aged between 18 and 30

– motivated to work with children

– creative, proactive and flexible

– able to work in a team

– willing to learn new language and new cultures