Project environment:

Maidla Vallavalitsus situates in Maidla parish, which is located in East-Estonia in Ida-Viru county. The county contains large deposits of oil shale - the main mineral mined in Estonia. As oil shale is used in thermal power plants, the earth in Ida-Viru literally holds the largest power capacity in Estonia. Ida-Viru county has a border with Russia and also majority of inhabitants in the area are Russians. Though Maidla parish situates in the middle of the county, it is exceptional in the area due to majority of Estonians living there. Population of the parish is 800, which makes it small local government.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:

Volunteers main tasks are related with work in the local youth centre, however as the community is very small, (s)he will be involved in many other activities related with the leisure time etc. Followingly there will be given brief overview of the activities planned for the volunteer.

Working with youth, EVS volunteers main activities are connected with assisting the youth workers: help to organize events for kids and youngsters - art, handicraft and music activities, outdoor and indoor activities, intercultural evenings etc.

While the volunteer is in the office he/she will have the option to choose which activities and task he/she wishes to participate in, this allowing for the personal interests of the volunteer to be taken into consideration. We hope this level of flexibility will provide a large variety of activities for the volunteer, while broadening the personal experiences of the volunteer.

The option for a personal project will always be available to the volunteer, together with the assistance of his/her mentor a personal project can be developed. It could be organising summer camps, youth projects, starting with new study group or something else.

The volunteer will never be given tasks that are beyond his/her abilities, and most of the time volunteer will work together with his/her Mentor. Over a period of time we hope the volunteer will request more responsible tasks, and together with the guidance of his/her mentor, more responsible tasks will be given.

A normal week for volunteer will be from Monday to Friday 34 hours per week. Normally volunteer will have free time on the weekends, but due to some activities the volunteer maybe required to participate in activities outside the normal working hours. In these cases we would trade normal working hours, for extraordinary hours, with the approval of the volunteer.

Volunteers tasks during the EVS project:

1. Assisting in youth centres everyday activities

Communicate with youngsters; helping in study groups; do activities with them and also teaching- drawing, acting, walking, make food etc; create new study-group; find new leisure time activities; teaching his/her mother tongue for study groups participants; organising new indoor and outdoor activities

2. Helping in office:

Assisting in developing new projects and participating in planning & preparing process and afterwards in activities and evaluation; communicate with cooperation partners; organising different activities for the youth centre clients; help to organize different trainings for the members, staff, youngsters etc.

Additionally to the work in the youth centre, which is volunteers main working place, she/he will be also involved in different actitivies in the school, kindegarten and cultural house. Tasks in these organisatsions depend of the activities they are currently running and volunteers interests and skills.

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:

We would like to receive volunteer, who is open minded and tolerant. (S)he has to be interested of working with children and youngsters and shouldn't be afraid to live in small community. We are ready to host both- female and male volunteers and age is not important, nevertheless we see that person who is coming to volunteer in our project is mature, since working in a small community with different target groups is not always easy. Also we wait from the volunteer some own initiative and creativity to come up with new ideas and suggestions.

We announce about free hosting placements in our organisation via different lists and web pages and among our previous partners. First selection between possible volunteers will be done according to the CV and more importantly motivation letter. Final selection will be done after phone interviews with candidates.

We are also ready to host volunteers who are facing educational, social, economical, cultural or geographical obstacles.

Number of volunteers hosted:

As it is first time for the organisation to host a volunteer, then we are planning to start with one volunteer at the time and in the future when we have gained more experience, it could be also possible to host more volunteers at the same time.

Risk prevention, protection and safety:

Volunteer will work next to hosting organization members, which helps to solve problems fast when they rise. She/he will have mentor and supervisor to support her/him during the EVS project. Additionally coordinating organization has regular contact with the volunteer.