Varias plazas SVE en Belgica en área rural

The Association  is a non-profit, non-political youth organisation recognised by the French Community of Belgium. The organisation proposes different kinds of activities,  mainly based on volunteering and non-formal education: local and international workcamps, medium and long term voluntary services, leisure time activities for and with disabled people…
All these activities would not be possible without a network of 420 belgian volunteers, almost 200 international volunteers during the summer and a team of 8 employees.
We are a Youth Organisation and most of our public is aged between 16 and 25 years, even if there is not upper age limit to integrate our groups of volunteers.
CBB especially promotes an inclusive approach of the public; we strongly believe in the richness of the diversity and take action to favour the heterogeneous character of our groups of volunteers. Therefore, the members of the association (+- 420 people) are from diverse origins and capacities.
CBB is member of the ALLIANCE of European Volunteer Service Organisations.

CBB, is a non-profit organisation created in 1977, which promotes solidarity, active citizenship and comon understanding between people and cultures through several activities based on non-formal education and volunteering.
We participate in the EVS Programme both as sending and Hosting Organisation since 1997. We are accreditated as coordinating organisation since 2007. We believe that this programme perfectly fits with our organisational goals and methods : non-formal education, citizen awarness, volunteering, intercurality are keywords in our daily action.
We also particulary appreciate the learning opportunities that the EVS offers to all young people, regardless to their origins, background and economical means.

CBB, presents the specificity to develop of lot of international exchanges and to be located in a small town of the south -french speaking- part of Belgium. From our office, by the church place of Marche-en-Famenne, a 17 000 inhabitants town of the province of Luxembourg, we organise projects all over the French Community of Belgium (Brussels and Wallonia) and maintain close partnerships with non-profit organisations from all over the world. This unique situation will permit the volunteer to share the semi-rural life style of the area, but also to meet young people from different places of the country as well as to be in contact with people from the other side of the earth.

During his/her EVS activity, the volunteer will integrate our team of staff members which is currently composed of 8 employees, 4 males and 4 females with an average age of 30 years old. Of course, this composition may change during the next months/years. Usualy, a second EVS volunteer also works with us, and is especialy involved in our activities dedicated to a better social inclusion of the disabled people.

As we organise activities and projects in different places of the French Community of Belgium, our public is spread in all this area. Additionaly, during the summer, we host, for short term periods (2-3 weeks), almost 200 people from +- 20 countries (mainly european) to participate in our projects. Consequently, the EVS volunteer will frequently be in touch with our local volunteers and times to times with the international volunteers. Within our members, the average age is 22 year old. Most of them are students, but we count also with us carpenters, ingeneers, unemployed people, IT specialists, housewifes, butchers, artists… Another specificity of our organisation is that, thanks to our commitment for a better inclusion of the disabled people, several active members of the organisation (75/420) are in situation of mental disability. It offers a wonderfull opportunity to meet extraordinary people. It is also an important element of our associative project, which is to promote the richness of diversity and to work for a better interinvidual solidarity.

During his/her EVS, the volunteer will live and mostly work in Marche-en-Famenne. The town offers all modern facilities (shops, supermarkets, sport center, cinema….). For the urban-life-style-lover, it is however IMPORTANT to understand that our town is located in a semi rural area. Even if it is not far away from the biggest belgian cities (57 km from Liège, 106 km from Brussels, 47 km from Namur) and well connected by train, Marche-en-Famenne can sometimes look remote and very quiet. A Tuesday, at 11 pm in November, it can be totally dead ; on friday night, the volunteer will often meet the same guys at the corner bar ; and, in the surroundings, deers and foxes are more usual than buses and traffic jams. As the population is not very big, everybody seems to know everybody. This can of course  help a lot to the socialization of the newcomer, but it is a social configuration that the gossipers shoud appreciate more than the privacy defenders…

In Marche, the volunteer will share his/her place with other EVS volunteers. Interculturality at home will ryhm with independence, and autonomy. Occasionaly, the volunteer will be involved in co-leading projects and will share a residential group life (from the duration of a week-end up to two or three weeks). Than, the accomodation can be in dormitories and the conditions of life more basical.

PROJECT 1 – CBB Activities

The project

The volunteer will be mainly involved in the promotion, preparation, implementation and follow-up of our voluntary projects (work camps, youth exchanges….). S/he will also work sometimes in partnership with other local youth and social organisations. As part of CBB team, we will expect from him/her to attend collective activities such as staff meeting, GA,team building day…

1) Promotion of CBB activities:

– To prepare and to hold information stands and raising awareness activities in the, youth centers or in fairs in order to present our activities and increase young people awareness about volunteering, non-formal education and intercultural exchanges;

– According to his/her knowledge, to take care of the virtual promotion of the organisation activities (Facebook, Flickr, website updating, support to the communication officer in general);

2) Preparation of weekend projects, international work camps and youth exchanges:

– To visit organizations that would like to host an international camp organized by CBB;

– To maintain the contact with our partner organisations through Internet communication and to send them regular updates about our projects (mainly about workcamps);

– To receive and answer to the application requests of foreigner volunteers who’d like to participate in our projects in Belgium and to follow-up their registration process (this is an important task from April to July that permits to develop a lot of contacts, but can also be considered as very administrative);

– To give a support in the preparation of the activities: preparation of material, participants list, info sheet, food…

3) Co-facilitation of weekend and international work camps. International work camps are short-term voluntary projects gathering young people from different countries. During two or three weeks, these young people work on a voluntary basis for a non-profit organizations or a local community. The tasks to realize during an international work camp can be very varied: renovation, construction, environment protection, summer camps for children…

In collaboration with the camp leader, the EVS volunteer will help to maintain a good group dynamic and to favour the learning experiences within the participants.

IMPORTANT: CBB promotes social inclusion and openness forward all kinds of diversities.

When a person with a special profile or facing any difficulty (social, cultural, educational…) will participate in a project, the EVS volunteer will be especially in charge to help him/her to integrate the group.

4) Activities according to the personality of the volunteer and to his/her desires:

We really hope that the volunteer will bring us innovation and creativity. Depending of his/her preferences, of his/her desires and his/her capacities, s/he may make a short film or a photo report presenting the organisation, create posters or write texts about its activities, to organize raising awareness activities about intercultural learning, equal opportunities, mobility…

Our EVS volunteer will be encouraged to develop a personal project as long as it complies with the values defended by our organisation! We are ready to support him/her in its implementation!

5) Collective activities with other EVS volunteers:

The EVS activity within Compagnons Bâtisseurs is part of an EVS group project that aims to increase European awareness among youth in the town of Marche-en-Famenne and to maintain a close collaboration among the local youth services. For that reason, some activities will be run with other EVS volunteers (hosted by other local youth organizations).

Profile of the volunteer

Our project is open to anybody motivated by volunteering and who wishes to be involved in our organization and be in touch with people regardless of their nationality, religion, believes, diploma, professional experience. We expect the volunteer to be interested in international volunteering projects, be ready to build an atmosphere of confidence; ready to involve him/herself in the several activities we do; be able to work together with the staff; agree with our philosophy of equality and openness to the differences.

 PROJECT 2 – Maison des Jeunes

Theme 1: Youth leisure

Theme 2: European awareness

The volunteer will have the possibility to participate in all our activities: artistic workshops, sport activities, organization of cultural events and free time activities in the youth club. The youth club is open almost every day of the week after school ends, organizes more than 10 musical concerts (hip hop – rock – pop – metal – electro) every year as well as different trainings (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, pictures…) corresponding to holidays period at school.

The volunteer will be involved in all these activities and will be able to propose his/her own after school activities.

S/he will also work sometimes in partnership with other local youth and social organizations (with disabled people, local school, educators…).

With the help of a staff member, the volunteer will be at the youth house and welcome the young people who come there to spend some free time after school. During these moments, the youth house is open to everyone. The young people come to meet each other, play some games (baby foot, ping-pong board games…), they discuss and so on.

The staff members are available to facilitate the activities but the youngsters are free to participate or not, as this space is more a space dedicated to socialization than participation to activities.

Up to his/her capacity and motivation, the volunteer could take part in some of the following activities: sport, dance, music, art creations, fashion design workshops…

Cultural Visits

The volunteer could help in organizing some visits out of the youth house (bowling, paintball, amusement park, cinema, museum, cities, expo…).

Collective activities with other EVS volunteers

The EVS activity within La Maison des Jeunes is part of an EVS group project that aims to increase European awareness among youth in the town of Marche-en-Famenne and to improve a closer collaboration between the local youth services. For this reason, some activities will be run with other EVS volunteers (hosted by three other local organizations).

The volunteers are encouraged to work together especially during specific youth events organized once a year in Marche-en-Famenne: Rock festival, youth services, open day…

The volunteers will help to prepare and follow-up these events. In some occasions, they can hold an information stand presenting EVS program and youth exchange opportunities. We would also like to organize a “European night” in the local youth house to give volunteers the possibility to present their country and traditions.

The volunteer’ language and culture training course

We always expect from the volunteer to share with us his/her culture and passions. Volunteers of La Maison de Jeunes are used to organize, in the second part of their EVS project, a course of their language or other aspects of their cultures: you are welcome to let us know more about your country cooking traditions, habits, language and so on.

If the volunteer is not interested in organizing a language course, s/he will have anyway the possibility to implement another personal project.

We will really appreciate volunteer’s initiatives and proposals!

Profile of the volunteer

Our project is open to anybody motivated by volunteering and who wishes to be involved in our organization and working with youngsters, regardless to their nationality, religion, believes, diploma, professional experience.

Because the majority of the youngsters don’t speak any other language than French, we appreciate if the volunteer has some basic skills in French before starting the service.

We expect the volunteer to build an atmosphere of confidence and complicity with the youngsters; be ready to involve him/herself in the several tasks we do with them; be able to work together with the staff; be interested in art, creativity and music and be ready to bring new ideas, new energy and enthusiasm!

We also expect to host someone very flexible and polyvalent, with strong adaptability skills as the biggest part of the Maison des Jeunes work runs during the week-ends. We do not have a fixed and determined job timetable and we organize our activities according to our young public necessities and free time (for example it’s mainly during the week-ends that we organize parties and concerts and they last sometimes all the night long! On the other hand during the week, especially in winter time, the volunteer will devote a big part of his/her time mainly to welcome the youngsters who come to the Maison des Jeunes just to meet other youngsters or play pinball…).

PROJECT 3 – RENFORTS

The project

We expect the volunteer to take an active part into the staff work. S/he will support and accompany the young adults with disabilities during their daily activities. S/he will facilitate their investments in the tasks realization.

For example:

-During the envelopes labelling at the youth center, the volunteer will be with the group, check the work done and suggest some improvement if needed, keep the good atmosphere during the work;

-During the activities in “Tiroir des saveurs”, a restaurant which serves local and biological products, the volunteer will support the youngsters in the different tasks required as preparing the food, serving food in the restaurant…

-During the activities in the Gallo-Romanian archaeological site, “Malagne”, the volunteer will help the youngsters in tasks as gardening or little reparation tasks;

-During the activities in the second hand shop “La halle aux Fringues”, founded by the French speakers Union of disabled people, the volunteer will help the youngsters to organize the clothes and put them in order in the shop.

With the support of other workers, the volunteer will play a big role in the maintenance of a good relationship with the different partners, the youngsters and the staff of Service Renforts.

S/he will:

-Create a social link with the youngsters;

-Share his/her knowledge with the youngsters in order to help them to accomplish their tasks (computer skills, cooking skills…);

-Give the youngsters the opportunity to open themselves to the world around them;

-Raise awareness about volunteering among youngsters and partners;

-Be a resource of new ideas, new points of view about the way of working…;

-Be a support, somebody who listens to the youngsters.

Activities the volunteer could participate in or create:

-To think up and develop a project with the youngsters (try cooking recipes, cultivate chicories in caves…);

-To actively participate in the educational staff meetings;

-To suggest some changes in order to improve Renforts, willing to evolve constantly;

-To take initiative.

The volunteer’s activities can be adapted according to his/her skills and wills.

During the first weeks, s/he will meet the different partners we work for and will be introduced to the several tasks dealt by the youngsters. Then, according with the agenda of the staff and his/her preferences and skills, s/he will have the opportunity to choose the activities s/he’s more interested in.

No matter which activities the volunteer will prefer, her/his EVS will always foresee very varied tasks!

Proposed activities to EVS volunteers

Example of what could be a typical week:

Monday:

Between 08:30 and 09:00  meeting at Service Renfort office

09:15  cooking at the local school of St. Julie school (partner)

12:00-13:00  Lunch time at the office

13:20-15:40  wrapping cutlery at the local hospital

16:00 end of the day

Tuesday:

Between 08:30 and 09:00  meeting at the office

09:15-12:00  cleaning stables in the local horses stables place

12:00-13:00  Lunchtime at the office

13:20-15:40  several tasks at the youth local center (labeling, painting, cleaning, tidying up…)

16:00  end of the day

Wednesday:

Between 08:30 and 09:00  meeting at the office

09:15-12:00  Cooking workshop

12:00-13:00  Lunchtime at the office

14:30 end of the day

Thursday:

Between 08:30 and 09:00  meeting at the office

09:15-12:00  gardening at Renforts

12:00-13:00  Lunchtime at the office

13:20-15:45  Cooking and washing-up dishes at the restaurant “Le Tiroir des Saveurs”

Friday:

Between 08:30 and 09:00  meeting at the office

09:15-12:00  Tidying up lunch tables and helping in the kitchen of the school of On

12:00-13:00  Lunchtime at the school

12:00-13:00  Lunchtime at the office

13:20-15:45  Gardening at the eco-village “La Gatte d’Or”

This timetable will be changed in order to integrate the French lessons and the volunteer’s wills.

The volunteer will also have the opportunity to participate in other activities out of the Service Renforts but linked with the same target group such as board games evenings, movie nights organized by the Association  or in various activities organized by the local youth center, both situated very close from volunteer’s accommodation and Service Renforts office.

Collective activities with other EVS volunteers

The EVS activity within Service Renforts is part of an EVS group project that aims to increase European awareness among youth in the town of Marche-en-Famenne and to improve a closer collaboration between the local social services. For this reason, some activities will be run with other EVS volunteers (hosted by three other local organizations).

The volunteers are encouraged to work together especially during specific youth events organized once a year in Marche-en-Famenne: Rock festival, youth services open day… The volunteers will help to prepare and follow-up these events. In some occasions, they can hold an information stand presenting EVS program and youth exchange opportunities. Volunteers can also organize a “European night” in the local youth house to have the possibility to present their country and traditions.

Profile of the volunteer

Our project is open to anybody motivated by volunteering and who wishes to be involved in our organisation and working with people, regardless to their nationality, religion, believing, diploma, professional experience.

Because our public doesn’t speak any other language than French, the volunteer is asked to be already able to communicate a bit in our language at the beginning of the service.

We expect the volunteer to have social and communication skills and be open to the difference, ready to build an atmosphere of confidence and security with the youngsters; we expect the volunteer to be ready to involve him/herself in the several tasks we do with them; be able to work together with the staff; be interested in the topic of disabled people inclusion; agree with our philosophy of equality and openness to the difference; willing to listen, communicate and care of young adults with disabilities.

The volunteer will have to provide a certificate of good conduct (CGC) related with the work with disabled people.

Selection process

How to apply

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