Letonya 2011 - 01

Letonya'da AGH projesi gönüllüler arıyor...

Proje Son Başvuru Tarihi: 17 Mart 2011

Proje Başvuru Dönemi: 1 Haziran 2011

Contact person: Alexander Oleinikov

Coordinating organisation: JASMA

Host: Social Care Centre "Jelgava": http://www.vsaczemgale.gov.lv/par-mums/centra-filiales/67-jelgava

Location: Jelgava, Latvia

Deadline: 17/04/2011

Start: 01/06/2011

End: 01/02/2012

It's a bit specific, but full of opportunities with the right motivation:

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=50000187318

Duration: 8 months

Start: June 2011

Place: Jelgava, Latvia

Languages: latvian, russian

Target group: adults with mental disabilities

Questions welcome, san@jasma.lv or jasma@jasma.lv.

Following are excerpts from EVS accredited organisations database (see

link above)

Project environment

The project will be placed in the Social Care Centre "Jelgava". is

situated in the suburb of Jelgava - the city with 65 thousands

inhabitants (the 4th biggest in the country), which is 42 km from the

capital city of Latvia, Riga. The city itself is multicultural, with

many cultural, sport, or education opportunities. It has also the

university, making Jelgava also a student city.

The Social Care Centre works with people with mental disabilities, who

are inhabitants of the Centre, and has all the facilities needed,

including the garden with walking and play areas.

There 2 main structures of the Centre, namely, the boarding house

("pansion"), with around 250 people with mental disabilities living on

every day basis, and the "Half-way house", where people with mental

disabilities are learning and preparing for independent living and

including in the society, all together there usually are around 12

people living there. While in the boarding house its inhabitants are on

full care of the Centre social workers, in the Half-way house the role

of social workers is to help their inhabitants to learn how to take care

for themselves, also, these people are working in the city of Jelgava,

going to work and coming back every day. The boarding house and the

Half-way house are separated units, and the latter has its own rules for

inhabitants and social workers working in.

Both the boarding house and the Half-way house provide number of

workshops and activities for their inhabitants, such as music and

theatre workshop, crafts, cultural events, excursions and visits.

Tasks

Short: It involves a lot of organizational work - workshops and such, but also might be some help needed to the staff of the facility. There is infrastructure and numerous possibilities for volunteer's initiative. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers Volunteers will have a wide range of opportunities to get involved in working and supporting the life of the Centre inhabitants. - In the boarding house, volunteers will be able to support the work of theatre and music workshops. An extremely valuable addition to these workshops would be the introduction of volunteers' own cultures, with songs, dances, games, and other ways to get in touch with the boarding house inhabitants. -As in the Centre the cultural events are organised for most of the holidays, and also on the other occasions, volunteers will be able to come up with their own ideas and realise them together with the inhabitants and work staff of the the Centre. -In the Half-way House, volunteers can get involved in crafts workshops, both learning together with the inhabitants and helping them learn new things (e.g. sewing, knitting, painting on clothes and dishes, etc). -Also, in the House, volunteers will be involved in helping the inhabitants to learn practical self-sufficiency skills, as cooking, cleaning, etc. - The Centre is organising visits and excursions for the inhabitants to different places, both in the city of Jelgava, and in the country, and there volunteers together with social workers will be accompanying and supporting them. In all workshops and activities a responsible social worker is present and volunteers in this case will be able to support them, propose and realise new ideas, teaching and learning new things. At the same time, for volunteers this will be a great way to know more about Latvia, its culture, history, and nature. During the project, volunteers will be more than welcome to suggest and realise own ideas for new workshops and activities, and especially we are looking forward for active games, sport, and outdoor activities, as the Centre has all the facilities and equipment, but at the moment the social workers have lack of capacities in organising that.

Criteria

Short: we need someone motivated to work and realise ideas in a home for mentally challenged people. The activities to undertake require no special skills or knowledges, yet they need strong motivation. So we expect a volunteer to have desire to undertake such activities, devote to them and learn from his/her experience. A volunteer requires no special training, though it is a beneficial for the volunteer to have had a first encounter before leaving for the project to soften possible shock. No language skills whatsoever are required. Basically the Sending Organisation is required to evaluate a volunteer's motivation and ability to undertake the activities, and to facilitate the preparation before leaving for the project. We advise Sending Organizations to be fair and open about the recruitment, meaning to make the vacancy available to the major public, not to apply discriminative restrictions such as gender, sexuality, race, religious beliefs, educational and social background and so on. Age restriction may apply due to psychological factors. Also all candidates can contact us for details and clarifications. Also we see it as the Sending Organization's duty to facilitate the preparation of selected volunteer, e.g. finding possibilities to participate in similar activities (where people with mental disabilities are involved), in their home country, providing additional information on the Youth in Action program, our project, hosting country and so on, as well as full assistance for an advanced planning visit. We also ask the Sending Organization to keep in touch with the volunteer during the project to monitor his/her progress and provide assistance in case of need.

Procedure

No special form, a volunteer may apply by sending a cv and motivation to jasma@jasma.lv