Location: Graz, Austria

Duration: 11 months

Mobility Period: 01.02.2020 – 31.12.2020

Deadline: 30.12.2019

Bona Fides Association and Gesellschaft f. Steir. Kinderdörfer GmbH are looking for Polish volunteers or residents in Poland, to join our ESC project in a youth center helping in the activities with kids and youngsters, in the south of Austria. In order to apply, please send us your CV and motivation letter to the following emails: k.zychowicz@bonafides.pl, mariachiara@bonafides.pl and Klaus.Buchner@logo.at

Project details

The role of the volunteer mostly consists on introducing the intercultural aspect in the daily life of the children and young people. The volunteer will be integrated in the daily routine (living in a group, studying, free time), especially in planning free time activities for children and young people. The volunteer will support the employees during free time activities (creative activities, sports etc.), since one of our goals is to foster each child according to his/ her own needs and to offer group activities, which are planned together with the children and young people. That means we also want to make the volunteer participate in the planning of these group activities for the free time. We would also very much like to get to know as much as possible about the volunteer’s home country.

There will be two other ESC volunteers in the project. They will work separated from each other and everybody will get his/her own working field. At the moment around 40 employees work in the association. They have a wide range of training background, e.g. there are psychologists, teachers, social education workers, and youth workers. Volunteers will never be alone with the kids or teenagers. 

Profile and tasks of the volunteer

We are looking for volunteers between 18 and 30 years old. They will work in the “Kinderwohngruppe” with kids in the age of 8-16 years. Each volunteer will work in a different house with a different group of children, with their own working fields and tasks. Still every field is settled in the Kinderdorf Steinberg, a place a bit outside of the city. They will help the children to spend an interesting free time. A typical day in the Kinderwohngruppe can be like this: 14h – Children come back from school, the volunteers talk to them about the news in the school, their homework and about what to learn. They can help them to set working plans. The volunteers can help them to get more organised. After the children have finished their tasks for the school, at about 17h, the volunteers can help them to plan their free time. For example they can go jogging or biking with some kids. The volunteers will be like an assistance of the staff, the volunteers will never be alone with the children. 

Working hours and days off

Total working hours of the volunteer per week: 30, two consecutive days off per week ; these two days can vary and will not always be Saturday and Sunday. The volunteer will have 2 days holiday per month for the duration of the project which he/she can take at a stretch as agreed upon with the host organisation. 

Food, accommodation, transport

The volunteers will live in a student flat in Graz with single bedrooms, but shared cooking, washing, laundry, bathroom and social facilities. The volunteer will receive 230,00 € for food/month for self supply. Additionally, the volunteer has the possibility to have lunch & dinner for free at the host organization on all his/her working days. The host organisation will provide a monthly ticket for the public transport. The volunteer will take the bus to go to work.

Organization

The goal of the organization is to make concepts for youth welfare institutions and administrate them, administrate child care institutions and plan and provide educational offers in issues which range from pedagogical, psychological, school-, health- and job market-related matters to socio-political ones.

What we do

  • Care for children and young people within the “Vollen Erziehung” (housing in a non-family environment according to the Styrian Youth Welfare Law) – Children’s Village
  • Administration of a childcare institution (Kindergarten)
  • Placing offers for education

Target group of the Children’s Village

Children and young people in a state of social need, who cannot live in their original family and are therefore sheltered elsewhere by the youth welfare. These children and young people have made all kinds of negative experiences: use of force as an “educational tool” in the family, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse by their parents, lack of support in school issues, difficulties to learn, behavioural problems etc.

Due to the socialization conditions which are unfavourable to the development of the personality they are disadvantaged in many fields, such as personal development, integration in the school, ability to take part in group activities etc.

Official website:

https://www.kinderdorf-steinberg.at/

The European Solidarity Corps (ESC) is a part of the European Program called Erasmus+.

Erasmus+ is open to all young people, and it is a program created by the  European Union for mobility inside and outside EU borders, to promote non-formal education and intercultural dialogue, and to support all kind of youngsters regardless of their level of education, of their origins and their cultural background.