Dates
April – for 12 months
Place
Postdam, Germany
Introduction to hosting organisation
is an independent working youth organisation in the ‘Sports Federation Brandenburg’. Its members are children and teenagers as well as their youth representatives who are organized in more than 2.500 sporting-clubs. It counts more than 137 thousand members under the age of 27. Therefore it is the largest youth association in the state of Brandenburg. The ‘Sports Youth Brandenburg’ is of public utility and recognized as an independent supporter of the ‘freie Jugendhilfe’ ( helping-service for young people). The ‘Sports Youth Brandenburg’ stands up for the co-operation and co-determination of young people in sporting-clubs and associations and acts as a representative of their interests. It contributes to their entire development whilst supporting the unity of young sport and social-youth-work.The work of the ‘Sports Youth Brandeburg’ is guided by the aim to make as many children and teenagers as possible find their way into the sporting-clubs. It is not only the aspect of fun that comes up, furthermore, the youth is supposed to have a place where they can plan and spend their spare time in a sensible way. Within a close co-operation with other supporters of the ‘Jugendhilfe’, for example the ‘Landesjugendring Brandenburg’, and with the support of politics and commerce, the organisation contributes to designing the society and provides assistance on social and youth-political problems.The ‘Sports Youth Brandenburg ‘ offers numerous projects regarding sport, youth-work and social-youth-work.
Employees:
1. Social projects: about 20 employees work in the «Mobile street sport project», in the «KICK» project, in the project «Integration through sports» and in the «Street Soccer for Tolerance» project.
2. Department of International Co-operation and Youth travel: 3 employees take care of international co-operation and youth travel (one of the employees is an ex-EVS volunteer who was offered an opportunity to work in the organisation after the end of EVS. She has been working for 4 years). The workers are supported by 1 FSJ volunteer and 1 EVS volunteer.
3. Education: 2 employees (in co-operation with our training centre Blossin)
4. Pre-school projects: The LSB-SportService has 3 employees in the main office.
motivation and evs experience
Our employee and responsible officer for international co-operation Guido Cools has gained a lot of experience in this field since 1997 whilst working for an educational centre for young people with less opportunities, as Partner of the Pilotproject for young people with less opportunities through the network «Envol», also trained by the NA to become a trainer. In addition also Vita Ozolina, an ex-European volunteer and since 3 years as a co-worker with organisation, is giving additional support in the field of international cooperation. Meanwhile, the 4 main pillars of the «Sports Youth Brandeburg» work, where the European volunteers are fully involved, are: 1. International cooperation 2010-DE-233; 2. Social projects 2011-DE-8 (integration through sport, street soccer for tolerance, mobile street sport projects); 3. Education in our educational centre Blossin 2011-DE-55 and 4. After school care center 2010-DE-278 and pre-school projects 2010-DE-279. Together the «Sports Youth Brandenburg» offers as host and coordinator 4 projects for 8 to 10 volunteers, and as sending organisation regularly sends several volunteers a year abroad. We would like to continue our experience with European volunteers. The experience with volunteers has a positive intercultural influence on our employees and on the social environment which we work in. Voluntary work in sport is an important component of our work. The «Sports Youth Brandenburg» co-ordinates and offers activities in their clubs and federations for about 100 German volunteers to absolve a free social year. Being the biggest youth organisation in Brandenburg we feel obliged to support our clubs and federations in their international work. We give advice and help them especially for actions within the «Youth in Action» Program, particularly the European Voluntary Service. We also would like to continue our work in this direction in the context of the new EU Program «ERASMUS +».
project environment
Its members are children and teenagers as well as their youth representatives who are organized in more than 2.500 sporting-clubs. It counts more than 137 thousand members under the age of 27. Therefore it is the largest youth association in the state of Brandenburg. The ‘Brandenburgische Sportjugend’ is of public utility and recognized as an independent supporter of the ‘freie Jugendhilfe’ (helping-service for young people). The main 4 pillars of the organization´s work are: 1. International cooperation 2010-DE-233; 2. Social projects 2011-DE-8 (integration through sport, street soccer for tolerance, mobile street sport projects); 3. Education in our educational centre Blossin 2011-DE-55 and 4. After school care center 2010-DE-278 and pre-school projects 2010-DE-279.1.
Department of International Co-operation; 2 employees + 1 EVS volunteer. Cross-functional tasks of the international co-operation department are among others: make the social projects international, provide international seminars to the educational department, organise the work-shops and conferences for young people and for disseminators, who develop projects or who are just involved in developing projects. We impart knowledge about planning, organisation, financement and evaluation of international activities. Our advice and finding of Organisations, interested in international co-operation, as well as their ability to organise international exchange-activities, are part of our central duties.
Brandenburg is a rural area with a poor density of population, few big cities and many communities with less then 1000 inhabitants. In total there are only 4 cities with about 100.000 inhabitants. Besides that Brandenburg belongs to the states in Germany with the highest rates of unemployement. The rate is around 9%. In the regions away from Berlin and Potsdam the rate is clearly higher. Especially serious is the unemployement among young people.
Potsdam is the capital of the Federal State Brandenburg und is situated as widely ramified island in the middle of well wooded Havelsees-chain. In and around Potsdam there are over 1.265 ha surfaces of water. Potsdam – has the city flair. The culture and landscape is affected by its castles and its Parks. The Havelsees offer aquatic athlets any possibility.
Service and learning opportunities, role of the volunteer:
– Support the planning, preparation and organisation of international projects;
– Support reporting (Media, documentation);
– Co-operation with other volunteers (FSJ = free social year, BFD = National Voluntary Service), young people from clubs and federations;
– Support the implementation of international projects, look after young people from abroad and international guests;
– Get acquainted with sport structures and international youth work;
– Get acquainted with financial funding in youth work;
– A short operational activity in and getting acquainted with the social projects and the pre-school activities of the «Sports Youth Brandenburg».
The aim is that the volunteer learns to implement an international activity over the period of his/her service. Furthermore the volunteer should have the possibility to develop his/her own idea. A training to become a leader for youth vacations and/or Youth leader (international) are part of possible trainings. The volunteer works closely together with the officer for international co-operation and is involved in the steering of the young people during their planning, preperation and application of their international projects. About 75% of his/her time the volunteer works in the office.
Profile of volunteer
Profile of the volunteer:
– be interested in social youth work;
– be interested in sport oriented social youth work;
– be interested in the conception and implementation of sport oriented events and projects;
– be interested to work with children and young people;
– dedicated commitment and creativity implementing projects activity area;
– be interested to gain knowledge about the funding opportunities provided by «Youth in Action», «Life Long Learning» programme and the upcoming programme «Erasmus +».
Selection procedure: all potential volunteers are asked to fill in the same apllication form, so that every volunteer can be assessed on the same base and with equal chances. These forms are the base for an assessment/selection in close co-operation with the host organisation. Important is the motivation of the volunteer, how his/her estimated abilities fit in the project and how the project can fulfill the expectations of the volunteer. Mostly we try to contact the volunteers by phone or we invite them to have an e-mail conversation with us and/or with the volunteers we host in order to avoid misjudgements. We do encourage them to communicate with the volunteers who are in the projects and for this goal «Sports Youth Brandenburg» has created a Facebook group «EVS at BSJ in Potsdam – EFD bei der BSJ in Potsdam». At the same time we try to involve young people from different countries.
Partner organisations: we do participate regularly and organise ourselves contact making seminars in order to get acquainted with our partners personally and with their projects. Good reliable partners are a very important part for a succesfull voluntary service.
How to apply
Building Bridges members and/or long term unemployed (proved by scanned document) will have preference to this volunteer service.
We will study carefully all application and selected candidates will be invite for Skype interview. The selection of volunteers will take place in the coming weeks.
For the selection of the volunteers we will need:
– Europass CV with picture (made in the last month) with skype name included
– 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. The volunteer is chosen according to his/her motivation and interest to the project and to the activities. It will be paid special attention to cover letters. Remember to write in the motivation letter that your sending institution is “Asociación Building Bridges”.
Please send your documents to asociacionbb@gmail.com before the 23.04.2016 with the subject “EVS_Germany_Ozolina_Postdam.YOUR NAME.YOUR SURNAME”
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