Bona Fides Association is looking for volunteers from European countries (18-30 yo) to join our international team working on ESC project in Katowice! Main activities include community building and organizing, ecological tasks, working with children and people with disabilities and ESC project promotion.
Location: Katowice, Poland
Start: January / February 2025
Duration: 12 months
MAIN ACTIVITIES:
Katowice Community Building and Organizing
- – building a network of foreigners in Katowice, involve them in volunteers actions, such as participating in events organized by Bona Fides, but also, for example, local clean-ups.
- – Organization of meetings with local groups to discuss issues, improvements that may be done in their neighbourhoods, ideas of events and others, set clear short-term and long-term goals with the group.
- – Identification of relevant issues concerning vulnerable groups (seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, etc).
- – Research on local, regional, national NGOs working for local people, including foreigners, to build new partnership and cooperation and explore further possibilities of intervention.
- – Organization of local campaigns to take collective actions involving locals to encourage active engagement and local sensitization (cleaning actions, workshops for competencies exchange, etc).
- – Organization of the “Cultural Year” of Katowice: the volunteers will launch the idea of the dedicating one week a month or every two months to a different culture, and organize the cultural week (with national food, games, dances, events hold in Bona Fides and/or in the market square, if possible) to raise awareness on the variety of cultures in the city and create room for each of them to express their beauty and peculiarities.
- – Organization of language exchanges in the city, to give the possibility to those willing to learn to meet and dedicate their time to learn a new language (organization of groups to meet and talk and\or tandem).
- – Organization of language lessons at the office, for local communities for the inclusion of foreign minorities
Healthification and Beautification of Katowice
Speaking of healthy, clean and eco-friendly cities in Europe, Katowice is trying to improve. However, topics related to the protection and preservation haven’t developed sufficient responsible behavior nor environmental friendly approaches. In this negative scenario, we hope to start bringing up change to sensitize people on the need for personal and community action.
The tasks in which our volunteers will be involved are:
- – Cleaning initiatives in public spaces and building up groups of local people that may be active for the environmental benefit of the community. Among these initiatives, we aim to implement trash and litter collection, beautification initiatives (cleaning up of parks, streets, squares), and forest cleanups. Our participants will recruit local volunteers, promote the initiative, lead the teams of interested local people, divide the tasks, collect ideas, set up the calendar of the activities, take pictures and post on social networks.
- – Organization of workshops in local schools and libraries for kids, students, seniors and in general local people about different topics such as healthy diets and foods, home planting and gardening, consequences of pollution, recycling, climate change and affection, environmental practices, harmless tourism, alternative energy resources and energy saving, etc.
- – Research places offering healthy food, vegetarian and vegan products, and healthy options on the menus.
- – Organize sport and game events at local level (such as marathons, treasure hunts, city game…) to spread good sport practices and as a visibility tool to attract people’s attention on environmental issues and healthier lifestyles.
- – Organize “healthy excursions” with and for local people to explore the green places of the Silesian region and contribute integrating people of all ages and provenience. This is a combined activity with the running of our Abillity Route website.
Sensorial Inclusive City Campaign
The idea of this activity derives from our inclusive approach to fight all barriers that are still present in Katowice and in Silesia. The base of this idea was born from the need for intervention identified during a long process of research and action that, in 2017-2019, led us to monitor the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 54 public administration units in our region and to the implementation of the “Silesian Voivodeship friendly to people with sensory disabilities” in 2019-2021, consisting in a series of training courses for local authorities and officers together with the monitoring of buildings and public spaces in 36 provinces and cities.
The tasks in which our volunteers will be involved are:
- – Organize inclusive events involving people with fewer opportunities and local people not facing barriers, to foster inclusion and mutual understanding (chess tournament, theater improvisation, music concerts, karaoke, etc.).
- – Assistance to the informal group of people with sensorial disabilities in their participation in social events: the group of people with which Bona Fides cooperates wants to be active in trips, excursions, events, parties. Unfortunately some of them are not fully independent, even with all tools they have at their disposal. They need someone assisting them, therefore Bona Fides’ members accompany them in their initiatives and we would like our volunteers to join us and the group and learn how to assist them in their needs and enjoy their company and time spent together.
- – Organize “talent shows” and workshops to gather people of any social condition and facing different kinds of barriers to share the talents they have. This task is based on the belief that every person, no matter which barrier s\he may face, has skills, talents, passions that s\he may want to share with other people. The message we want to share is an encouraging message for all those people facing daily barriers in their life. We want them not to give up, stay positive and focus on the things they can do, not on the ones they can’t. We work to enable them to “be able to be able”.
- – Organize a photo exhibition about the concept of “barriers”, “obstacles”, “accessibility” and “inaccessibility” to sensitize people commonly not facing any problem in the city about all the difficulties we generally don’t see, but that are huge obstacles for our people with fewer opportunities. The concept of barrier is different for every person: a place that is accessible to a person with motor disability isn’t necessarily accessible to a person with motor or mental disability. We need people to understand that every disability implies a certain kind of barrier and a specific need for accessibility.
- – Organize one simulation of sensory and motor barriers to sensitize people about the kind of obstacles people with disabilities face daily in the city (mobility, sound, visual obstacles).
- – Cooperation and support to local institutions dealing with children and adolescents with mental and physical disabilities and coming from difficult social and economic backgrounds. Our volunteers will support these children in some of their activities and English homework and organize little parties/national days for them as well as presentations and workshops at schools.
- – Provide English and other language lessons for people with fewer opportunities (seniors, people with physical disabilities).
- – Further developing our interactive digital map concept for people with sensory and motor disabilities.
Accommodation and finances
The cost of travel is reimbursed according to ESC guidelines.
The Bona Fides office is located in the center of Katowice. Volunteers live in 2 four-bedroom apartments close to the city center. Each volunteer has their own bedroom and shares kitchen, bathrooms and common areas. The costs of accommodation, rent, bills, internet are covered by the organisation. Volunteers open Polish bank accounts and receive monthly transfers of food allowance and pocket money. Volunteers have a free Polish language course, travel card and insurance.
Volunteer’s profile
Citizens or residents of European countries, between 18 and 30 years old.
Open, motivated, solution oriented, team player, sharing European values.
Application
To apply for this opportunity please send your CV (in English) to: a.siembab@bonafides.pl and anna@bonafides.pl and fill in the Application Form below!
