Topic:
Youth leisure, inclusion
Venue:
genk, Belgium
Duration:
12 months, from January 2016
Introduction
Genk is the head office of 5 youth welfare organizations located in 5 different places in Genk ( Genk Zuid, Nieuw Sledderlo, Waterschei, Winterslag and Zwartberg ).
These five youth organizations have their own indidvidual character but we try to work in a simular way without losing this. Every organization has also their own social, artistic and cultural workshop. These are different in each organization and in the future these will be merged to one social and artistic team.
The 5 organizations have an average of 1000 members.
The aims of the youth welfare organizations are:
– Offering activities in the sparetime of the children and youngsters.
– To have extra attention for welfare.
– To be a bridgefigure to other social organizations.
– To influence other social organizations so the connection between these organizations and the children and the youngsters will be more positive and better.
– To have respect for each individual.
– To think more collective.
The average staff in the different youth centres are 7 professional workers, each responsible for their group, and 1 coordinator to coordinate the youth centre.
The ‘kinderwerking’ (children):
– for children from 3 to 5 and 5 to7 and 7 to 10 years
– mixed groups, boys and girls together
– during the school term: minimum once a week
– during the holidays: every afternoon (Tuesday – Saturday)
– regular cultural excursions on Saturdays
The objectives are:
– learning to work together
– improving social skills
-stimulating the use of Dutch language
– working in a playful manner
– teaching new ways of expressing oneself in a playful manner
The ‘tienerwerking’ (teenagers):
– for youngsters age 10 to 16
– mixed groups, boys and girls together but there is also one group of girls only
– youngsters are divided in two groups: teens between 10 to 13 and teens between 13 to 16 years old
– our aim is useful leisure activities
– regularly we incorporate educational activities
– one of our major aims is teaching youngsters to function in a group
– as is learning to accept each others and having respect
but they remain teenagers so… we see to lots of action, lots of sport, music and a place to meet each other.
During the school term we provide activities for teenagers every Tuesday to Saturday after school. During the holidays daily from 2 to 5 p.m.
The ‘jongerenwerking’ (youth):
– starting from age 16
– mixed groups, boys and girls
– our major aim is to make the youth more competitive
– we want to be a guide in their efforts to integrate in the society
– we provide in a meeting place
– educational and leisure activities
– room for extra projects
– Exchanges
– every Monday, Wednesday and Friday open youth centre
The ‘vrijwilligerswerking’ (volunteers):
Youngsters who want to be more involved with the youth centre can decide to do voluntary work. They help in preparing and accomplish activities. They are guided by the professional colleagues. They have the opportunity to develop competences by attending training. To say thanks the professional colleagues do leisure activities with the volunteers.
Beside these groups we believe it is important to give extra impulses. That’s why we work on a lot of projects.
Every day we rediscover that with our approach we can reach a lot of objectives. For us this is very important. Not only because we become ‘richer’ people ourselves but mainly because we believe that all children on this world have the right to attention, affection and especially to love!
Motivation and EVS experience
In the past we already coordinated and hosted several projects. Volunteers all did voluntary service for a period of 12 months. And we are still convinced of the surplus value an EVS volunteer could give to our organisation. For our youngsters it is a chance to get in touch with someone with another social and cultural background. Also we would like to give or youth the chance to get acquainted with international exchange projects. We hope it will motivate them to take part in an international exchange themselves.
It’s always nice to have a new colleague who has new and refreshing ideas.
For the volunteers it is a once in a lifetime experience where they can enlarge their competences or develop new competences by non formal learning in the youth field.
Project environment
The head organization of the five youth welfare organizations in Genk that work with socially disadvantaged children and youngsters. Genk (now about 64 000 inhabitants) was only a small country village hundred year from now with no more than 2 000 inhabitants. Until André Dumont discovered the black gold of the 20th century: coal. This resulted in a new industry which changed this part of Belgium forever. No less than 6 coal mines were built in the middle of Limburg of which 3 in Genk (Winterslag, Waterschei en Zwartberg). it changed Genk from a rural area into an important industrial town. With a lot of problems: first the coal mines needed a lot of employees. But working in the mine was hard labor and very unhealthy. Belgian people were not fond of working ‘down under’. So the coal mines had to look for people in other parts of Belgium and even Europe. Before World War II they were found in the Eastern part of Europe: Poland, Eastern Germany, Russia,… Later the Belgian government made a deal with Italy, Spain and Greece. There were a lot of poor people without a job in these countries and they got a lot of benefits if they were willing to come to Belgium to work in the mines. From 1968 to 1975 the same was done with Turkey and Morocco. This resulted in an enormous population of ‘strangers’ in Genk. As long as the mines were open, this was no problem because under the ground everybody was ‘black’. Above the ground, this ‘fellowship’ continued. Until 1985-1987: all mines were closed at this moment and suddenly there was no future for a lot of families in Genk.
Living together suddenly seemed more difficult than before because everything till then was organized by the mine company: shops, cafés, cinema, theater, fanfare, school,… it was all controlled by the coal mines. But now this was all history. And because of the unemployment which was a result of this, problems accumulated. But more, it became clear that no one had ever done any effort to integrate people from the other countries because in the mines there was no need to. Now however the differences between the cultures became very clear. Even children in these families, born in Belgium didn’t speak Dutch and had a lot of problems at school…
But the most recent problem Genk has to face is the future closure of the Ford factory (2014) what will have a big impact on the economy of limburg and Genk. There will be more then 10000 people without a job and a future prospective.
Information Genk :
» 64.000 inhabitants
» 89 nationalities, multicultural environment
» Close by the Netherlands (Maastricht), Germany (Aachen)
» Train station and very good public transport connecting it to the main city’s in Belgium
» Shopping Centres, cinema, cultural activities like museums and …
» Grand National Limburgs Nature park
» Close to university Hasselt
Volunteers will all stay together ( 4 volunteers ) in a apartment in Genk ( Waterschei ). Downstairs is the head office of Genk located.
Please explain:
• what you can offer to volunteers in terms of Service and learning opportunities,
• what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the Host Organisation,
• the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Please give examples of typical activities/tasks for the volunteers.
We offer voluntary work for 4 volunteers, devided individual in the 5 different youth centers. The choice of youth center will be in communication between the volunteer and the responsible of evs.
The EVS volunteer will work with children,teens and youngsters.The choice of group will be in consulation between the volunteer and the evs responsible. Activities can be handycraft, indoor or outdoor games, educational activities, …
He/she will help in preparing, implementing and evaluate activities with the chosen groups.
So he/she can get to know the group and the staff. Beside these “basic” activities the volunteer will be involved with the projects running and volunteers can decide to create an own project.
We also offer social, artistic and cultural workshops, for example: photography, video editing, streettheater, dance, creative processes, … In the past they were a part of the different youth centers but from last year on they are a individual team and working more closely together. And we are still working on making it more concretely.
We believe that working with children,teens and youngsters is an ideal way of learning more about the way of living of the local people and the difficulites they have to face getting accepted by the society.
While a lot of our work with the children and the youngsters has ‘learning Dutch’ as an objective, it will be an extra support for the volunteer to learn our language to. Volunteers will be provided with Dutch lessons 5 days a week 2 hours a day. Dutch lessons will only be the first months of the project. We are convinced that the volunteer after these course has the basic knowledge of the Dutch language.
The working schedule will contain max. 35 hours a week including the language lessons. The workingdays will be between Tuesday and Saturday. On Sunday and Monday they will have two days off.
A week schedule can be:
Monday morning: Dutch lessons
Opportunity to meet your mentor
Tuesday morning: Dutch lessons
Afternoon: Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Wednesday morning: Dutch lessons
Afternoon: Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Thursday morning: Dutch lessons
Afternoon: Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Friday morning: Dutch lessons
Afternoon: Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Saturday afternoon: Working with the children, teens, youngsters
When Dutch lessons are finished it will be:
Monday: Opportunity to meet your mentor
Tuesday(morning-afternoon): Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Wednesday(morning-afternoon): Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Thursday(morning-afternoon): Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Friday(morning-afternoon): Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Saturday(afternoon): Working with the children, teens, youngsters
Profile
To do all these tasks, no special skills are required. The most important things we expect from the volunteer is that she/he is flexible, social, responsible, open minded to all other cultures (also non-European) and likes to work and play with children, youngsters or youth. Experience in working with children or youngsters can be a surplus but is not required. Of course it is an advantage when he/she learns another languages easy, but this is not a necessary condition because we will let him/her participate in Dutch lessons. Beside these trainings, the volunteer will have the possibility to participate in other training courses, depending on her/his interests and of course in the EVS-trainings organized by our National Agency (Jint).
Volunteers who like to aplly for working in our organization can send us their cv and motivation letter. If the responsible of evs likes to know more after reading these documents the volunteer will get a questionnaire.
She will discuss together with the coordinator and colleagues of the youth center who is the most suitable candidate for the youth center.
Then the volunteer will be contacted by phone by the responsible for evs.
How to apply
Building Bridges Association members will have preference, please enroll to the association here.
For the selection of the volunteers we will need:
– Europass CV with picture (made in the last month)
– Motivational letter, writing that your sending organisation will be “Building Bridges”. We ask all candidates to send a specific letter of motivation – why they want to volunteer with us rather than just a general EVS one.
Remember to write in the motivation letter that your sending institution is “Asociación Building Bridges”.
All documents written in english you can attach below with subject “EVS Belgium Wendy Genk. YOUR NAME. YOUR SURNAME» and sent to asociacionbbARROBAgmail.com
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