Building Bridges
Start date: Jul 1, 2015,
End date: Jun 30, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The German YMCA in London has a long history of international youth work. As such we see our participation in the European Voluntary Service as an expansion of the services we offer to young people.
The German YMCA objectives are to provide opportunities for personal growth, skills and abilities development
To provide for the volunteer the context for intercultural expression, creativity and innovation
Promote and develop non formal education as a method for active citizenship and civic involvement of youngsters.
Offering culture related activities to let participants actively learn to set their own culture backgrounds and experiences in relation to other participants of the programme.
We think that the European Voluntary Service aims to provide young voluntary workers with an intercultural learning experience and the opportunity to acquire many skills which will be useful for their social and professional integration.
The German YMCA offers a variety of cultural and leisure-time activities, advice, support and help. We work closely together with other organisations of the German-speaking community and the local community. By hosting a volunteer, we want to make the volunteer aware of how rich may be her contribution to this work – everyone is needed.
We are offering a free time programme for young volunteers, aupairs and students most of them are staying only for a certain period in London, a training programme about cultural diversity for young people, a programme for elderly people including a befriending programme and a cultural programme open for all ages. Further more we cooperate with the local churches and schools in several projects for children together.
The role of the volunteer was to offer his special skills connected to and co-ordinated with the program and projects of the German YMCA and the German speaking and local community. The volunteer had the possibility to be part of various projects and had the opportunity to develop own projects and activities.
Activities of the volunteer:
visiting older people, offering play activities for toddlers and young children, connect and support with parents, assisting teachers as classroom assistant, organising free-time activities for young people like going to the cinema, going to disco, theatre etc, helping to plan and run social activities for all age groups, help to plan, organise and run events like summer/Christmas parties, charity events, concerts, talks etc...
Duration of service for the volunteers was 11 months, the project took place in London, UK.
We think that the EVS has a lasting positive impact on the volunteer and the organisations involved in EVS. It changed attitudes, important orientations, new competencies, new partnerships and friendships were a direct effect of EVS. We believe the Erasmus+ Programme helped us to offer a better service to young people.