SOS Social Centre “Hermann Gmeiner” is looking for one EVS volunteer
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SOS Social Centre “Hermann Gmeiner” is looking for one EVS volunteer
We have “Open Space” (OS) - a unique concept in work with children and youth, of which the main goal and task is creating and implementing quality free time for children and youth. It includes educative-creative workshops, psychological workshops, sports tournaments and social games. As all other departments of our Centre OS is visited by children aged 6-19 from the SOS Village Sarajevo, the Family Strengthening Project, children from at-risk families in the local community (at social, economic or other level) and children and youth with special needs. Work with younger beneficiaries is mainly based on social games, while work with our older youth populations is based on various workshops.
SOS Social
Centre “Hermann Gmeiner” Sarajevo,2009-SI-3,will apply for project about
spreading the idea about voluntarism since 2011 is Year of
Volunteering.
The Centre will host two
volunteers who will also have a chance to work with children on
increasing tolerance through the anti-discrimination process and
organising and actively participating in artistic workshops. European
citizenship is one of the prioritised themes.This work will all be done
under the supervision of professionals employed in our Centre. These
professionals include Social Workers, Psychologists, Pedagogues, various
teachers (Professors of English, German, Art…) and Sociologists.
As children and young people have already recognized Centre as a
collaborative creation, volunteers will have a chance to take part in
all this activities, including work (help and organisation) in various
workshops. Also, they will be our best assistance and they will help us
provide better services to all our beneficiaries.
Criteria
• Psychologists, pedagogues, social workers and other young people interested in work with children. Candidates should be creative, flexible and dedicated. • Volunteers were selected based on their CV and cover letter. • Volunteers will be our assistants in this project. We will work together throughout all activities and volunteers will work under the supervision of professionals. • Specific skills required are: creativity, teamwork, education and dedication to work with youth and children.Project environment
Outline the project environment for the suggested voluntary activities, including the local community where the project will take place (e.g. geographical, social and economical environment). If the host placement is located in a live-in community, please include the rules and conditions that apply also for the volunteer.
SOS-Social Centre is situated in Sarajevo's Kanton- Municipality Novi Grad, area Alipašino Polje. Sarajevo is capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also its administrative, economic, cultural, educational and sport centre, with the estimated population of 304.136 (UN agencies and Federal statistics, December 2006). It is believed that Sarajevo's population to date has actually increased rather than decreased due to many migrants moving from rural villages destroyed during the Bosnian war. The last official census in Bosnia and Herzegovina took place 1991 which recorded 529,021 people living in Sarajevo. The war displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of who have not returned. As of 2006 the Sarajevo Canton government estimated the city's population at 418,891 people. So, it is not really possible to say how many people are living in the city/Canton at the moment. Locations around HGSC (Novi Grad and Novo Sarajevo) are selected because of the needs, which are registered through regular investigations done by HGSC at primary and secondary schools. Municipality Novi Grad is most inhabited Municipality in Canton Sarajevo. That speaks for itself about increased needs for help to children in this area. Among the beneficiaries of the Centre, according to our official database, 38% of children/youths belong to the families with bad social/economical status. Because of it, we decided to include children / families at risk in SOS-Social Centre projects /activities what will give us the opportunity to extend our services and support current beneficiaries by supporting their parents /family members in a more structured and extensive way.
. Community is offering just a few places for educational and recreational activities, not enough for such a high number of children and young people living in this area (highest density of population in Canton Sarajevo). Observations of pedagogical team are showing that there are a lot of children who are not taken care properly - they spending too much time at the Centre without parents care about their basic needs such as meal or asking for them, they doing homework at the Centre, coming to the Centre even while parents are still sleeping… Need for psychosocial support is clearly recognised during the contacts with children, but this kind of direct counselling or support is not organised at the Centre as regular activity, except in some specific projects done in cooperation with partners.
From that reasons, we organize prevention programmes (and very popular among youths) through specific projects: Peer-education, Professional orientation, Culture of dialog (as a prevention of violence) that involves pupils from secondary schools and students from University. Since last year, new and extensive project, called Family strengthening is being conducted in three Municipalities of canton Sarajevo, due to significant number of children without proper parental care.
. Those who wants to contribute in conducting Family strengthening project, leaded by SOS_Social Centre and its partners in/out of the Centre ,which aim is divided in two ways-to strengthen family members, children and youth in:
-improvement of school performance in children
-appropriate professional orientation
-improvement of emotional and psychological well-being
-adequate psychosocial development according to their age
-better coping skills in different circumstances
-improvement of knowledge on children's rights
-access of children to all health - protection services;
2.parents or other family members in:
-parent-child relationships
-health protection organized for all family members
-adequate use of health services when needed
-successful participation in life-skills workshops
-increase in monthly income
-better awareness of usefulness of psychosocial support for parents
-improvement of psychological and emotional parental well-being
-less stigmatisation/better participation in a community life
There are about 120 children engaged in The Family strengthening project suggested by Social Welfare Centre Sarajevo, but also children who already coming to the SOS Centre regularly. Selection criteria for children from SOS Social Centre was: child neglect (children who spend 5-7 hours daily in the Centre without anyone asking or looking for them); children with serious emotional, behavioural problems; joining street gangs or doubt of home violence against children.
Additional information for volunteers:
As a capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo is rich in all kind of cultural, sport, festival, fair, musical and other kind of activities. That is good way for volunteers to find out more about culture and tradition of this country. There is also a lot of movies, theatres, and fan places such as bars and discotheques. Because of low distance visits to Olympic mountains, hills and picnic places are possible at the easiest way.
Volunteers will be located at Guesthouse in SOS Village, situated near by the Centre (five minutes walk). It can be a good opportunity for those interested in different family/based care approaches such as in SOS/Children village, well known for SOS families. In Guest house will be kitchen available during weekends so they can prepare smth. themselves. The other working days, volunteers will have breakfast and lunch provided in the Centre, except dinner, which they can buy or prepare in The Guest's house kitchen.
Language course will be organised and conducted by stuff of the Centre, or local high-educated volunteers.
Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:
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 for the volunteers.
The volunteers would be involved in different parts of Centre's activities, such as: The Kindergarten, Open space and department for educative/ creative activities. Peer education is very popular among youth and is designed as an interdisciplinary education in different fields such us: awareness of drugs addiction, promotion of healthy living styles through sport, hobbies, culture of non-violence dialogue, culture of cooperation, conflict-resolution etc. Also, through adventure pedagogy they are most likely to develop positive attitudes about nature, health, and human beings. In this case, we aim to offer different kind of healthy behaviours, raising awareness about addictions through education and gaining information from different sources. This education is regularly organized in of the Centre named Open space. Through this education volunteers will have a chance to learn more about peer education and also to assist in leading of this activity under the supervision of SOS professionals.
During the placement, volunteers could also take part in different activities in Family strengthening project. This year, the main point in this project will be work on establishing different kinds of direct support to families, such us :
- Providing families with food; cloths; medical support; hygiene (partners, SOS)
Helping them in accessing services: heating, electricity (partners, SOS)
-Speech therapy
- Leisure time activities (SOS, partner)
- Professional orientation (SOS)
- Training programme to prevent drug addiction (SOS, partner)
- Sexual education (SOS, partner)
- Training programme for improving knowledge on children's rights (SOS)
We are sure that volunteers will have a great opportunity to learn from SOS professionals or others from partners' organisation, by observing them at work, working with children/youth under professional support of SOS staff. It is obvious that main objective of Family strengthening project can't be achieved in quick period of time as project is intended to develop long-life positive impact, through gradually achieving economical independency of families, new, positive attitudes etc.
When it comes to some concrete activities that we expect from volunteers, on a daily basis:
-Being involved in work done by HG Social centre for with the small children at the pre school, play with them, read English books for them, introduce some new games to them. Learn from the other staff members how to care.
-Being involved in the work done by Open space, talk English and some Bosnian with them, learn about their lives, encourage them and do nice things together with them. Play some drama, music and sport. Learn from the staff members how to handle in case of conflicts etc.
-Being involved in some activities in The Family strengthening project, such us: helping art-teacher in preparing workshops with wool and silk and teach mothers engaged in the Project, painting, learning new techniques; going with pedagogues to outskirts of Sarajevo, to visit some families and help them in assessing the needs of children and their parents. Teach them English if needed, play with kids etc.
There are educative and creative activities, too. In this field volunteers could, together with our teachers, lead some courses-such as courses of English or German language as an educative activity. Or, they can present some new techniques in art and pottery as a part of creative activities.
Also, we are sure that youth from Centre will be very curious, as always to spend their free time with volunteers from abroad, direct contact is most valuable. So, our volunteers can focus on their part- cultural exchange and new points of view at same problem.
Not only they could learn a lot about work with children, but they would be offered to develop some of their own programs and projects in the Centre- under the SOS professional are supervision off course. It is related, at the first place, with their activities on a daily base. Namely, they could organise some games for children in our Centre, or just develop their abilities by watching and assisting in named programmes.
Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:
Plese describe the profiles of volunteers you would like to receive in your organisation. Include information on how you ensure an open and transparent recruitment process as well as the overall accessibility of EVS to all young people. Consider further information about the type of Sending Organisation you want to cooperate with. This information can help the match-making between volunteer candidates, Sending Organisations and your organisation.
We won"t put big demands on the volunteers - simply they should be aware of children and youths with different ethnical backgrounds in Bosnia. But, generally speaking, the volunteers should have some experience in similar organisations or educational background in the field of human rights, psycho-social needs etc.
When it comes to direct contact and work with our clients, it is important to act the way that each one can feel the same value as human being, It is also a way of dealing with prejudices. Every human being has prejudices - but by meeting and learning about each other, talking about each others experiences - hopefully the prejudices will decrease and the awareness increase that all human beings have the same value regardless which ethnical belonging they have..
SOS Social Centre earlier had experiences with EVS volunteer and others ( local, american students from Denver university ), cooperation with The UN association of Gothland (Sweden).
Mostly, the previous volunteers studied psychology, pedagogics, social pedagogy, leisure, recreation program, circus pedagogy and were generally interested in working with children and youth.Usually, they worked in the Centre among small children at the pre school department , with teenagers in the open space program and family strenghtening project. They had very good experiences here and were much appreciated among the children and the staff. They wanted to learn more about how to work with orphan children and children in a post war situation.
Those conditions would be also prefered in newcoming volunteers from EVS. But, it doesn't mean that sometimes we won't need somebody who can help us in repairing playground, painting fences around the Centre and Children village etc.
In case that more of two "candidates" apply for the same position in one project, we will chose the one with education or experience, mentioned above. The Comission for selection process will be established to make selection process transparent and correct.
SOS Social centre will announce vacant EVS placement for particular project. We want to encourage young people to work as volunteers and feel the value of meeting other, getting knowledge about other culture and habits / simply, to be able to fight with prejudices. This means also regular searching and correspondence with similar partner organisations found in official site of SALTO SEE.
About the selection process:
" All applications will be collected, pre-screened and sorted out according to the basic criteria set for the position we seek out in particular project, such us:
" english speaking , fluently
" ability to work with children/youth,
" sports skills,
" and some of specific demands would be desirable, such as:
" communication skills
" initiative
" pro/activity
" problem solving
" commitment
" team skills
" tolerance
" work ethic
" to adjust quickly to a change in departmental priorities
" The commission receives the pre-screening list. This list provides information on the number of qualified/unqualified volunteers for the position.
" A short-listing of qualified volunteers can be done based on predefined criteria.
" The successful volunteers should be informed as soon as possible through direct contact and by informing and checking with his/her sending organisation. After, they would be selected for the further phases by sending an Email or, preferably, by phoning and contacting
" them personally. Sending org. will be contacted prior to final decision.
Special needs (if applicable):
If your placements are open to hosting volunteers with fewer opportunities, please provide information about the competence, experience and infrastructure and (human or other) resources available in your organisation to accommodate and support them.
We accept people with fewer opportunities, as we also work with them.
There's one small, but very productive workshop in the Centre, modestly equiped for making pottery , silk painting, drowing. This small workshop is always bussy with lot of children making pottery, preparing selling exhibitions, or just enyojing their free afternoons with friends. The workshop is well leaded by graduated artist/painter.
There's one local org. close to the Centre, "Oaza", for mentaly disordered people that coming regularly to the Centre. Once a week, they use our workshop and spend some hours with our teachers making pottery or painting. So, it can be possible that volunteer is engaged in teaching by helping our teacher or prepare some subject oh his/her own ( present some art technics, help teacher in preparation of materials etc., work individualy with workshop participants etc.)
We can accept one - two persons with fewer opportunities in the Centre.
It could be mutualy helpful if volunteer is educated or experienced in the social or artistic field to share his/her knowledge and experience with our teachers, so that he/she can take a part in the specific activities, such as disccusion on specific topics regarding social problems, take part in social games with children in Open space dep., spend some time in our library where children often come to do their homework (the volunteer can help them in doing english homework, teach them english). The volunteer can be mostly engeged in English classes where children come according to the schedule. This activity is one of most frequent in the Centre and lot of them are on waiting list to admit on English course.
All activities in the Centre are free of charge.
Another thing can be productive for us/ if volunteer is educated in work with children with special needs so that can help our teachers/parents in developing appropriate program and methods for them.
Also, musician can be very welcomed in the Centre, as we have orchestra, choir and guitar section .The only precondition for volunteer with physical disability is to be accompanied with somebody to take care of him/her out of the Centre.
There are seven (7) employees of the Centre that are educated in the field of special education through regular education on faculty ( they are graduated pedagogues and psychologists).One pedagogue is certified in NEI (neuro-emotional integration). Another two psychologists are on final stage in Gestalt therapy program. Every year our pedagogues and psychologists from the Centre are given the opportunity to attend different seminaries, trainings etc. as it is one of our basic HR standards. Last year, for example, four of them attended seminar about Art therapy (in Tuzla), organized by Amica-Educa org. and Holand experts on that field. In January and February 2009., our speech therapist was on study trip in America - Speech Patology Group:Children's services International, San Francisko, where she attended different programmes about autism, observed treatment of children and adults ( autism, paralysis, ingestion disorder, speech and hearing problems…) Now, they apply some of new tecnicques in everyday work with children in art workshop, Kindergaten, Speech therapy. Art therapy has proved to be very applicable in the work with children and adults with special needs. We are shure that those techniques, experience of our teachers, can prove additional support to the volunteers ( if needed.)
But, to be clear, it means that volunteer(s) will be offered to join the groups of other beneficiaries in need in the Centre as we can't organize individual treatment very often. Another obstacle could be language barrier- just four pedagogues speak english fluently.
Another kind of support to the volunteers or his/her mentor can be provided through regular help of pedagogues that are specialized and competent in this field (planning the working conditions for volunteer, planning working schedule, giving advices about methods used etc.)
Risk prevention, protection and safety:
Please describe:
" how you will guarantee a safe living and working environment for the EVS volunteers,
" how you will prevent risks and crises,
" How - in the case of EVS volunteers aged 16 or 17 - you ensure appropriate supervision, protection and safety.
First of all, we will provide volunteers with mentor . Having a good mentor to share feelings, fears, joy and job related questions and problems is a prevention of possibility of crisis. That´s why we are particular in having a good and experienced mentor for them for individual talks freely and regularly. The mentor will also be in regularly relation with the contact person in sending country and will report when needed. The contact person will also be there for the volunteers in talks (through SKYPE) on regularly basis and when they need. The volunteer, in case of emergency can call his/her mentor 24 hours to get needed information or help.
At visible places in the Centre, there are information tables for employees in case of emergency, including telephone numbers: police, ambulance car, alarm system agency, emergency exit. Those useful information will be presented to volunteers upon arrival.
Volunteers will be settled in Open space deparment in the Centre, provided with individual working desk, access to internet connection and flexible working hours , according to the scehedule agreed with mentor.
Having support with integration in the society and among other young people is also a good prevention of crisis as well as learning some basic Bosnian language, so they can understand and talk at least a little bit. Mentor will help volunteers with accomodation in the SOS Children's village/ Guest house , which is very close to the Centre.
At SOS Social centre we have much expreience in dealing with young people in crisis and how to manage that. as we stated earlier, our first target groups are children from CV village and other children at risk.
In case of conflict they should first with the mentor´s support try to handle it with the persons involved. If they do not manage they should talk to the Head of the organisation, who in cooperation with the contact person in sending organisation and will try to sort it out together with the volunteers.
If the volunteer needs it is possible to get extern support depending on what is there required. The mentor is supportive in this.
Motivation and EVS experience
.The SOS Social Centre is popular place for children and youth from Kanton Sarajevo - the average attendance rate per month is 650-700 beneficiaries. Many neighbouring schools (Primary and Secondary) are cooperating with us, as we are organizing free time activities and youth-related projects ( peer-education for prevention of drug-addiction, Non-violence education, professional orientation etc)- free of charge. So, we are interested in widening educational and cultural knowledge of our beneficiaries , especially of those that belongs to socially deprived families, talented young people who can't afford to travel abroad, or simply to give chance to the youngsters who are attending different educational-creative activities in the Centre and already gained lot of positive experience that can be exchanged with youth from other European countries. There are many different educational-creative activities in the Centre where children and youth can learn, play or create according to their needs and interests. For example, there's a good and well-known theatre group in the Centre who won on Youth Theatre Festival of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2008. Many people from Sarajevo still remember their musical "Chicago" that was one of most successful amateur theatre plays in Sarajevo in recent years. Break-dance group that is very attractive for young boys from Sarajevo, which is also attractive for musical scene from Sarajevo ( Well-known musician, Dino M erlin called them to participate on his latest CD video-spots, musician Laka that presented BiH on Eurovision song-contest hired some of them for promo spot etc.)
We had some experience with EVS program so far as we were hosting organisation for three students from Sweden (Gymnasium Gotland, Visby)in 2006, 2007. At that time we didn't have accreditation as hosting org.- it was not obligatory.
That has given us experiences that encourage us to continue the support of young people who want to come to our Centre or go abroad and are interested in learning about cultural diversity.
Description of the organisation
SOS Social centre is a part of international SOS Kinderdorf International organisation. We care for children and youth without parental care or at risk of abandonment, and children/youth that belong to socially deprived families, age 3-25. They spend free time on an organized way through different activities, projects, education etc. But, our main task is to help children/youth from the SOS Children village to their better socialisation in society. Our mission is:" SOS-Social center "Hermann Gmeiner" (HGSC) is a modern and respectable house that is applying contemporary pedagogical and social methods on children and youth in order to insure quality and organized use of free time what contributes establishment of healthy personalities"
Our aim is to cultivate community recognition and acceptance and promote the stronger integration of SOS SC in community;
-Identify potential partners nationally and internationally;
-Develop Family strengthening projects and programmes for children at risk of abandonment;
-Join networks of child/youth care organization and Youth organisation on a (inter) national level
-Help children and youth in their social, emotional and personal growth by conducting organized and non-structured use of free time for children and youth through various activities, such: educational (foreign languages, computer course, tuition),
Creative activities: modern dance, break- dance, photography, guitar section
Open space: counselling, interactive discussions, community-based programs on psycho-social support
Our target groups are children and youth 3-25 from Sarajevo canton. They are mainly from socially deprived families regardless the religion, sex , ethnic or national polarization.
In the SOS Social Centre is currently employed 31 full-time employees, 15 external co-workers, and 4 volunteers. There are divided in four teams:
Creative-education Team, coordinated by graduate pedagogue with 2 full-time employees, 13 external co-workers, mostly teachers: of language, art, computer science, music, dance and sport.
Another great team is a Kindergarten Team that works with preschool children: 6 teachers, 2 volunteers, and one external co worker teacher. Their coordinator is also well experienced teacher.
In The "Open Space" team, there are 3 employees, as follows: social worker, psychologist and professor of sociology and philosophy.
The Play bus team * in Bosnia named as "Superbus") is mobile project wit four employees: two pedagogues, one social worker, and one teacher of art.
In the "Family strengthening project ", there are two employees: one psychologist (coordinator g the project), one social worker and 2 volunteers.
The Centre's director, three administrative workers, and technical staff: (2 cooks, 5 cleaning ladies, housekeeper, night watchman 2).
Slovenia
Long term
1st of September 2011 - 1st of March 2012
1
2011-01-24 14:00
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