Bona Fides and Xeracion Valencia are looking for volunteers (citizens or residents of Poland, age: 18-30) to participate in ESC project “Supporting Learning Communities” – volunteering with children and youth in a Learning Community School in Valencia, Spain.
Duration: 12 months
Dates: February 2024 – March 2025
Place: Gandia (Valencia) Spain
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 promote 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
In order to achieve these objectives Xeración Valencia develops and implements projects for local and international volunteers and youth workers. It encourages volunteering amongst the population of the region of Valencia, especially amongst youth. It organises meetings between associations for the exchange of good practices in order to improve the quality of the projects.
As coordinator Xeración Valencia is in charge of all logistic and financial aspects of the project as well as welcoming volunteers and taking care of their accommodation, food, local transport and pocket money. Xeración Valencia will be also providing a mentor for each volunteer and ensuring the safety and quality of the project during the whole time.
Hosting organisation is the school “Santiago Apóstol together with the non-profit association “Brúfol” from Valencia in the neighbourhood of “El Cabañal”. It’s a public school at the service of the local community (Roma community on the sea side of Valencia city) trying to respond to the educational option that the family members demand, guaranteeing gratuity and avoiding any type of discrimination for economic, social or cultural reasons. The right to education and the freedom of teaching which are recognized in Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution are reflected in our Center.
Our Center is at the service of the local community trying, to the best of our ability, to respond to the educational demand of the parents ensuring that it is free of charge and avoiding any kind of discrimination based on economic, social or cultural factors; trying at all times to prepare the students to participate actively in the transformation and the improvement of the society.
The school is located in the maritime zone of Valencia. It’s is small and has limited economic resources and limited space. We have 176 students in total. At the present time we are developing a project of CAES (Center for Singular Education Action) in view of the fact that most of the students are in situation of social disadvantage and most of them belong to a minority culture within the society as it is the Gipsy culture. Our student body is concentrated in two neighbourhoods where the marginalization and the segregation of the Roma community are extreme (Malvarrosa y Cabanyal). For this reason, 98% of the students in our Center comes from the Roma community.
Since the school year 2008-2009 it has been launched a process of transformation towards inclusive and intercultural approaches with the participation of the whole community. Today, we move forward in the analysis and the reflection on the most important organizational, cultural and curricular aspects for building a quality school for everyonewith respect for the diversity. By using these reflection tools, we also want to achieve, step by step, our dreams. We are currently engaged in a process of transformation into a Learning Community. At the school, we are implementing all the successful practices of the learning communities, based on the INCLUDE-ED project, presented in December 2011 at the European Parliament. More info can be found here. Since October 2012, we are part of the network of the learning communities and day after day we continue working to make this transformation process a prelude to the labour market for our students.
You can read more about our projects in our website:
http://www.santiagoapostolcabanyal.es/
Description of the activities
There will be a very wide range of possible activities available for the volunteers. Every week volunteers will volunteer for 30 hours (5 days a week/6 hours a day) but each volunteer will be able to create part of her/his program together with the responsible person from the school. Some of the tasks are:
– Supporting teachers in primary and secondary schools in their daily tasks
– Creating extra-school activities for the project “Patis Inclusius” and delivering them on the afternoons and weekends (https://www.santiagoapostolcabanyal.es/patis-inclusius/)
– Supporting Interactive groups and mixed commissions (http://www.santiagoapostolcabanyal.es/grupos-interactivos)
– Library and computing lessons and musical activities (https://www.santiagoapostolcabanyal.es/radio-escalante-329/)
– Supporting any of the activities taking place on the school which you can find on our FB page:
fb.com/santiagoapostolcabanyal or website: santiagoapostolcabanyal.es
– Assisting teachers and educators managing learning process
– Helping students to do homework and tasks they were given
– Serving the food for students during the lunchtime in dining room
– Creating audio-visual materials (photo, video) in order to disseminate the activities of the school
– Writing Erasmus+ projects to deliver within the school or outside about relevant topics
Volunteers will spend most of their time working at the school, but they can also collaborate with another non-profit association of their chose for a total of 10% of their time. Like this, volunteers can benefit not only from the educational project but also from the non-profit environmental sector within the community.
Objectives of the project
1) To offer the opportunity to work and support unprivileged sectors of society which will increase their empathy, tolerance and solidarity
2) To improve their social, cultural and educational abilities through activities that will be developed in the school as well as in the association
3) To cooperate with other local associations working to improve the quality of life of unprivileged people
4) To create awareness events, activities, workshops and campaigns
5) To create audio-visual material such as photography, video edition to promote the work done in the school as well as the Erasmus+ program
6) To promote Erasmus+ program amongst Valencian youth (especially amongst Roma community) in order to encourage them to participate in some youth exchange
Practical details (participants, food, accommodation)
This project is designed for 3 volunteers from any of the program countries. Each volunteer will have the option of getting a Spanish SIM card for their telephone (they will have to take care of their phone expenses) and a public bicycle for local transportation. The first week of each month each volunteer will receive their pocket money (150€) and their food budget (150€) and they will buy and cook their own food.
The accommodation will be in private rooms in a 3 bedroom shared apartment (it’s a 3rd floor without elevator) situated in the neighbourhood of “Cabanyal”, next to the seaside in Valencia.
Application/contact information
We are looking for 3 highly motivated volunteers with a very positive attitude, adaptable to change and able to work independently. The right candidates should have a big interest in working with children/youth from marginalised areas and non-formal education.
At least an intermediate level of Spanish language (B1/B2) is required.
If you are interested in joining one of the projects send your CV and a motivation letter (in English) to: mariachiara@bonafides.pl and anna@bonafides.pl with a title “ESC in Valencia, Spain”.