Bona Fides Association and Xeracion Valencia are looking for 3 motivated candidates (citizens or residents of Poland) for a long-term environmental project at Plàstic Preciós La Safor ♻️♻️♻️ in Gandia, Spain!

Place: Gandia, Valencia (Spain)
Mobility: February 2024 – February 2025
Duration: 12 months

About the hosting organisation

XERACION VALENCIA is a non-profit youth cultural association created in Gandia (Valencia, Spain) in 2014 by an enthusiastic group of people who decided to leave their regular jobs and try to enjoy their day by day while doing something enriching and meaningful for their local communities. It’s an active member of the Council of Youth of Gandia and our objectives are:

a) To encourage and facilitate the international mobility of youth and youth workers (especially for groups with fewer opportunities).
b) To expand social cooperation projects and volunteering (local and international).
c) To empower youth in order for them to have their own critical thinking and analysis, an active citizenship and participatory democracy.
d) To enhance values of tolerance, human dignity, interculturality, solidarity and cooperation, social justice and integration.
e) To promote healthy lifestyles and the protection of the environment through a sustainable development.

Summary of the project

Far from improving, the environmental situation nowadays is becoming worse day by day reaching a point of “no return” that would be terrible for our Nature and Planet. We believe that our best way to try changing this is taking action and raising awareness amongst the population, especially youth who will suffer the most the consequences of our current actions. That is the reason why this project focuses on action-awareness and environmental activism, and aims to show that the garbage we produce in our daily life can not only be reduced, but can also be reused, thus generating new economy and possible business especially for people with fewer opportunities and /or social problems. We also want to empower youth developing their ideas and transforming them into real projects.

Therefore with this project we will be combining:

1. Environmental issues (MAIN PROJECT)
a. Precious Plastic machines which transform plastic waste into new and valuable objects.

2. Awareness campaigns and workshops
a. Workshops for children with less opportunities and youth from the region.
b. Awareness campaigns started by volunteers about any topic that they might consider relevant in the region.
c. Erasmus+ and other European programs campaigns, info sessions and workshops.

3. Non-formal management
a. Starting and managing a non-profit organisation.
b. Writing and delivering projects based on non-formal education.

Objectives

– To empower youth of the region (especially with fewer opportunities) by giving them the necessary skills and knowledge to create and manage a non-profit association, including writing and coordinating projects;

– To boost the entrepreneurial spirit of volunteers and local youth (especially with fewer opportunities) by providing them with the tools, knowledge and skills necessary to develop their own ideas and projects;

– To encourage and facilitate national and international mobility of youth (through exchanges, courses, volunteering) including European youth cooperation and European programs;

– To raise awareness among the youth of the region about environmental conservation, active citizenship, social inclusion, healthy habits, converting them into multiplier agents of change;

– To promote values of tolerance, inclusion, interculturality, solidarity and sustainability among the volunteers and the youth of the region;

– To support the most disadvantaged sectors of the local community (social and educational centres) through workshops, events and activities;

Activities

There will be a very wide range of possible activities available for the volunteers. However, each volunteer will have to choose and be responsible for one of the 3 main topics:
1| Environmental issues (precious plastic), 2| Workshops for unprivileged children and awareness campaigns for youth, 3| Non-formal projects management. They will all collaborate in the different projects, but the responsible person will be in charge of organising the work, promote it and do weekly follow up of the results/outcomes. These are some necessary tasks but flexibility will be always present in the schedule.

Some of the projects where volunteers will get involved in Xeración València are:

1. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES (MAIN PROJECT):

PRECIOUS PLASTIC: it’s an environmental global project aiming to make people more aware of the amount of plastic waste generated nowadays, and to show how can be shredded and transformed into new useful/common objects. Back in 2017 we started building the machines in Gandia (capital city of the region “La Safor)” and we called it “Plàstic Preciós La Safor” (in Valencian language). It took us some time but finally we managed to finish the 4 machines in April 2019 and they are perfectly working:

Shredder: to shred plastic waste into plastic flakes, we have now 2 of them. Extrusion: to create new plastic wire and other objects. We also have 2 of them. Slow moulding and injection: to produce any plastic product from a mould. We got 2 injection machines and one moulding. Now we also have a press sheet to create plastic sheets up to 2 cm and a CNC machine to create any shape we want from those plastic sheets. We are doing workshops and exhibitions for schools and other educational centers, music and environmental festivals, private companies, events and whoever is interested in the project. Of course we are also creating plastic products. Volunteers could help in any of that. And there is still a lot of work to do and we need some support from very motivated people!

Some of the tasks that volunteers will be doing are:

  • – Sorting and shredding plastic waste by colour and type.
  • – Supporting us coming to workshops in schools and other events.
  • – Designing promotional materials, posters, roll-up and others.
  • – Creating audio-visual materials (photo, video, timelapses). We would love to have different types of videos and material in order to promote what we do.
  • – Improving our website and being our Community Manager (instagram, facebook, youtube).
  • – Producing new plastic objects with the machines.
  • – Designing new products and moulds.
  • – Finding ways of funding for this project and others related.
  • – Finding new local and international partners for collaborations and local volunteers to collaborate.
  • – Researching companies around the region who might be interested in collaborations, giving us their plastic waste or any other type of alliance.
  • – Any other task relevant for the project that volunteers decide to implement.
  • – Writing, managing and/or facilitating Erasmus+ projects such as Youth Exchanges related to environmental topics.
  • – Creating new campaigns and projects related to environmental issues.

More info about the Global Project can be found in the official website: www.preciousplastic.com
And this 3 minutes video helps to understand the project better: youtube.com/watch?v=8J7JZcsoHyA
This is our website: www.plasticprecioslasafor.org
FB: facebook.com/plasticprecioslasafor
IG: instagram.com/plasticpreciossafor

2. AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS & WORKSHOPS:

  1. Workshops for unprivileged children (from Roma communities and migrants, mainly from Morocco) in collaboration with the social center “Ca Saforaui” (facebook.com/csaforaui/)
  2. Awareness campaigns for youth: creating and developing activities, campaigns and events for promoting sustainability, responsible consumption, healthy life style, interculturality, tolerance, participatory democracy, social justice, cooperation and solidarity, human dignity, or any other topic that the group of volunteers consider important in this region. Cleaning campaigns of natural spaces in collaboration with the local associations FemCamíNet and Bioagradables.

3. NON-FORMAL MANAGEMENT:

  • – acquiring the knowledge and experience to be able to start and manage a non-profit organisation;
  • – creating a new website and keeping it updated, as well as the Facebook page and other social networks;
  • – helping with the design of logos and promotional materials for the association;
  • – helping to write, organise and develop Erasmus+ activities (training courses, youth exchanges or others);
  • – promotion of Erasmus+ and other European programs to encourage Spanish youth participation.

Practical details (participants, food, accommodation)

The accommodation will be in private rooms in a 3 bedroom shared apartment situated in Gandia and all the expenses in the house will be paid by the organisation (electricity, internet, water, gas). Each volunteer will receive a SIM card for their telephone and a bicycle to move around locally. In addition, as Valencian Community is a highly fertile and agriculturally active region from Spain, they will have the option of getting a fertile small holding for. We will give them all the support needed to start, but they will have to compromise to take care of it. Once a month (starting by arrival date) each volunteer will receive their pocket money and food money for a total of 300€ (150€ as pocket money and 150€ for food). They will buy their own food.

Application/contact information

We are looking for 3 highly motivated volunteers coming for 12 months from Poland with a very positive attitude and initiative, adaptable to change, with problem-solving capacity and able to work both independently and as a team member. The ideal candidates should have experience, studies or a major interest in:

  • – Transformation of waste with precious plastic (and some Upcycling optional);
  • – Digital fabrication and product/graphic design [able to work with software or/and hardware (CNC, 3D printers, CAD, 3DMax)];
  • – Environmental campaigns, cleaning events, sustainability or self-sufficiency issues;
  • – Audio-visuals, digital content, web creation, CM, online marketing;
  • – Writing/delivering/managing non-formal education and volunteering projects (Erasmus+ (especially KA2);
  • – Creative Europe, ESC, Young Entrepreneurs).

Based on previous experiences at least an intermediate level of Spanish language (B1/B2) is required for this project.

If you want to join us, please send your CV and a motivation letter (in English) to: mariachiara@bonafides.pl and anna@bonafides.pl with a title “Environmental ESC in Gandia, Spain”.

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR INFOPACK HERE: https://shorturl.at/gnIR4
Muchas gracias!