Volunteering in IYNF

Working with volunteers and young people with needs of learning and getting experiences is one of the main fields of IYNF activities. Naturefriends movement is based on voluntary work of people in different age. We support the knowledge and experience exchange among our member organisations also through the exchange of volunteers, inviting young people to take part in the international teams/preparatory teams and running short term leisure and educational activities with different themes. IYNF volunteers work on different projects according to their interest. The Presidium - the statutory body - is formed by four volunteers. Several volunteers work on our magazine Variety (3 issues a year), all activities, like camps, trainings, seminars, statutory meetings are organised and partly run by volunteers. Further, IYNF works on publications in the field of outdoor sports education, attractive youth work and art education. Volunteers are also involved in the promotion of IYNF activities on the international, national, regional and local level.

The volunteers will be dealing with the following fields of Networking in IYNF:

• Coordinating of Ambassadors - volunteers connecting IYNF and its member organisations and their local groups

• Preparation and administration of communication channels - website, database, forum, magazine Tube, minutes of the office meetings and our regular newsletters Courier and Calendar

• Updating IYNF Social Media such as IYNF facebook fanpage, Twitterand the IYNF channel on YouTube.

• Organisation of partnership building activities

• Support of the e-commerce (webshop)

• Admission and communication with the participants of IYNF activities

• Project hours a week are between 30-35, besides that you will of course have enough time to travel, to learn more about Czech people and culture, sports, hobbies etc.

Local environment of the project

The Czech Republic is situated in the heart of Europe and as such, Prague is with a population of about 1 million inhabitants its real thumping spot. It is a political, economical, administrative, cultural and historical centre of the Czech Republic situated in a valley along the both sides of the river Vltava. Prague offers not only many cultural and sport opportunities indoor, but its green parks, forests and hills invite for an outdoor trip to nature. Many interesting historical sights are to be visited in the close surroundings and for those who are interested in exploring the whole republic: it takes only four-six hours to get from the west to east corner. (www.praha-mesto.cz)

Accommodation

Volunteers will be accommodated in their own room in a rented flat with a shared kitchen, so they can cook for themselves.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:

Educational offers

The volunteers hosted by IYNF will get an enriching experience in the field of international youth work.

- (Intercultural) communication skills

- Working and cooperation in international teams

- Education, facilitation and leadership skills

- Marketing and promotion skills

- Project management and organisation skills

- Fundraising skills

In the beginning of the project, we offer to our volunteers enough time for getting knowledge about our organisation, member organisations and external relations. It is very important that the volunteer gets to know to IYNF in detail so that s/he can find her/his place in the organisation. All the time the Volunteers Coordinator and the whole office staff are ready to answer all related questions. The volunteers regularly have the possibility to take part in the trainings and seminars offered by IYNF as well as trainings offered by other organisations according to their interest.

Language course

We guarantee Czech language course for our volunteers. We already cooperate with number of language teachers that provide very high quality courses for foreigners. Currently the whole international office staff takes different language lessons, so there is a lot of support to learning. It is also easier for the volunteers to speak with each other in simple Czech, the small successes are motivation for further learning.

Even though the working language is English, there is a connection to the local community through our close cooperation with our Member organisation Duha. Duha organises activities on the national and local level (in Czech language) where the volunteer will also be regularly invited.

Mentor

We will provide our EVS volunteers with experienced and trained mentors, familiar with the Youth in Action programme to help them with their rights and responsibilities, getting into the local community, solving problems with the organisations and facilitation the learning process. We will recruit the mentor from our pool of trainers and/or experienced volunteers who gained also experience as EVS volunteer before.

Selection of volunteers for the project

We define three fields where we involve EVS volunteers. At a time, we plan to have two EVS volunteers, from which one starts the service in September/October and the other in January/February. This way, the volunteers will overlap with one always being more experienced to help the other one in integration into the organisation.

We will be preparing the project applications for 1 June and 1 December deadlines. For each project we will publish a call at our website www.iynf.org about 2 months before the deadline together with the description of the field for which we will involve the volunteer.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

Both volunteers will have a very similar beginning of the project. We will introduce our volunteer to the community of EVS volunteers doing their service in Prague. Getting to know people facing the same changes in life at the moment could help the volunteer to have a smooth start into the new country.

In the beginning of the project s/he will prepare with the EVS coordinator her/his action plan. Together they will create her/his educational programme.

Most important is to get to know the environment and activities of the organisation; this will be ensured by a general introduction of the organisation and the possibility to take part in different activities organized by IYNF or its member organisation taking place in this period. During this period the volunteer will get in touch with several of IYNFs volunteers s/he will work together in the future. S/he will get to know the necessary steps when organizing an international activity and will be motivated to contribute to the follow-up projects.

International Youth Work - Amateur Art

The volunteer working in the Art field in IYNF office will be involved according to her/his interest in the preparation of Art activities. The biggest project is a 14-day amateur art exchange, taking place during the summer. The project is based on the idea that amateur art is a wonderful educational tool for value based international youth work as it can overcome many barriers, like language and cultural differences and makes people to focus on the similarities and helps them to overcome possible difficulties in communication.

The work of the volunteer will be connected with organisation and support of the activities.

Proposed activities in the art field

The start of the project will be in light of getting involved in the community of the amateur art volunteers and finding a proper role according to the activities that will be organised. This will be specified in the concrete project.

The project will continue with preparation of the activities taking place in spring and summer. This contains communicating with partners about technical things needed on spot of the activities, update the website with the necessary information about the activities and coordinate the application process. The main activities of the volunteer will be communication with the participants, update the website, collect materials needed for the training and finalise together with the local coordinator the preparation of the venue and steps necessary for a smooth hosting of the activities

The volunteer will also be working on summer youth exchange. S/he will make sure the participants are selected and get the information necessary for the camp. S/he will communicate with the facilitators of the camp and empower the communication between them.

An important task during this period is to organize the preparatory meeting of exchange. The team will divide the task (Local coordination, financial tasks, communication with participants, and preparation of needed materials) and together they will develop the programme of this meeting. The volunteer will, in case of interest also run some parts of the programme. The exchange itself takes place in the end of August. The volunteer can choose a role according to her/his interest during the camp (participant, facilitator, organiser of local workshops, events.)

International Youth Work - Outdoor Sports

The volunteer working in the Outdoor field in IYNF office will be involved according to her/his interest in organisation of several educational activities. The biggest project, the Summercamp (The "Summercamp" offers a good quality outdoor leisure time activity for volunteers with a strong educational element) takes place regularly during the summer. Apart of it, IYNF organises seminars, trainings and conferences in this field during the year that we do to raise the skills and knowledge of youth leader all over Europe working in the field and improve the quality of their activities.

Proposed activities in the outdoor field

The volunteer will work (in a team) on the early preparation of the "Summercamp". There will be the possibilities to get to know and also meet the preparatory team. Together they will look for a venue, leaders and together they will develop the concept of the camp. The volunteer will update the website and take care about the early promotion of the "Summercamp". This contains writing articles for IYNFs magazine "Variety" and get in contact with partners to publish the information also on national websites and in national magazines. With this early involvement the volunteer will have the chance to experience the whole process of an international activity and get to know all necessary steps. Traditionally there will take place the training course for outdoor leadership during the "Summercamp". As the preparation of the "Summercamp" and the Training Course is interlinked, the volunteer will also take over tasks within the preparatory team of it.

As far as the promotion of the summer activities is concerned, the volunteer will contribute to writing calls for participants, communicate with partners about promotion in their national magazines and newsletters. Further the volunteer will be involved in dealing with the application process of the activities.

Additionally the volunteer will continue working on the "Summercamp". S/he will make sure the participants are selected and get the information necessary for the camp. Sending out information about travel details and conditions on spot. S/he will communicate with the trainers/national leaders of the camp and empower the communication between them.

An important task is to organize the preparatory meeting. The team will divide the task (Local coordination, equipment needed for the daily programme, financial tasks, communication with participants) and together they will develop the programme of this meeting. The "Summercamp" itself takes place during August.

The volunteer will, within the preparatory team collect all the necessary material for the report of the "Summercamp". Together they will collect also the tips for improvement for an activity like this.

The volunteer will be asked to contribute to IYNFs magazine "Variety" and write about the "Summercamp".

International Youth Work - Networking and communication

The volunteer working in the Networking and communication in IYNF office will be involved in on one hand in a number of continuous programmes and also in the activities IYNF organises throughout the year.

The networking long-term programme

There are three continuous projects that the volunteer will be involved in, together with other volunteers and staff

Newsletters for member organisations and volunteers

The volunteer will be preparing a weekly Courier about the most current development going on in the network. This includes offers like announcements of open activities, calls for team member, search for project partners and also news from IYNF, its volunteers and member organisations. The purpose of Courier is to keep the international community of volunteers and member organisations informed and updated.

Besides Courier, the volunteer will be involved in publishing quarterly electronic magazine with texts and pictures from the activities, sharing opinions on the developments in IYNF, providing hints and tricks for trainers and others. The magazine/newsletter is produced in cooperation of a team of volunteers with many contributors and serves as a glue that holds the volunteers of IYNF together.

Forum for volunteers

The volunteer will keep a lively contact with the volunteers at the interactive forum and further develop its structure, functions and design in cooperation with the web programming staff.

Ambassadors and direct networking

The volunteer will be involved in Ambassadors - the international group of volunteers that work to keep IYNF connected with its member organisations and also their local groups. This group meets at number of occasions (planning weekend, volunteers meeting, statutory meetings) but works permanently. The volunteer will help with organising meetings for the group, recruiting new ambassadors and supporting them in their work - by preparing promotional materials, news, updating website and keeping constant communication with them.

Apart of these regular programmes, the volunteer will take part in the activities organised by IYNF in the networking field or in the other content field. Organisation of them will involve similar tasks and responsibilities as described above for the amateur art and outdoor field. In case of interest, the volunteer will also have an opportunity to run some parts of the programme. The volunteer can choose a role according to her/his interest during the camp (participant, facilitator, organiser of local workshops, events.)

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:

We invite people who wish to gain working experience in the office of an international youth organisation, of which the working language is English, meet many new friends from different European countries, and feel like doing something reasonable.

We especially look for volunteers from the Naturefriends' movement to use the opportunity of gaining experience in our Member Organisations. We want to give the people from the local or national level the possibility to get a good experience in the international work of the umbrella organisation, promote the EVS within the movement and empower our Member Organisation to use the great opportunity of EVS too. Still we are open to work with everybody who is interested in working with us.

We are not restricted to cooperate with any particular sending organisation. Usually the volunteers find the sending organisation in their country by themselves.

Special needs (if applicable):

As an international organisation, IYNF runs projects and activities in a multicultural environment. We are sensitive towards cultural differences and difficulties. IYNF has a lot international experience has been involved in project on the topics of inclusion and intercultural learning through amateur art.

We are ready to host volunteers with fewer opportunities arising from cultural differences and geographical obstacles, for whom life in a capital city can be a challenge. We will be able to deal with complications coming from that ourselves and a also our experienced mentors can support the volunteer in such difficulties.

Risk prevention, protection and safety:

In the very beginning of the volunteers stay we will inform her/him about the emergency numbers of Czech Republic. The mentor and the office staff is always ready to answer questions concerning safety, rules and behaviour in dangerous situations.

We accept only volunteers over 18 years.

We will use multiple approaches to minimise risks and potential crises. The most important ones are careful selection of the volunteer, providing appropriate time and care for the volunteer to integrate into IYNF working environment, building up competencies as well as mutual trust, continuous evaluation and feedback and potential adjustments of the project accordingly. An important aspect will be also a support to building a social network of friends in Prague.