new vacancy: European volunteering in youth hostels in Germany

[Şenol Dülger]

There is a new vacancy on YouthNetworks: European volunteering in youth hostels

Description: The “Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk Landesverband Sachsen-Anhalt e.V.” (National youth hostel Association of Saxony-Anhalt) is a member of the German Youth Hostel Association. The goal of this Associati...

Check online for more details: http://www.youthnetworks.eu/ShowVacancy.aspx?Vacancy=european-volunteering-in-youth-hostels

• Vacancy for EVS Volunteer in Germany

• Contact person: Wolfgang Meyer
• Coordinating organisation: Auslandsgesellschaft SachsenAnhalt eV
• Host: youth hostel organisation saxony-anhalt: http://www.djh-sachsen-anhalt.de/
• Location: Magdeburg, Germany
• Deadline: 15/05/2011
• Start: 01/10/2011
• End: 30/09/2012
• 
  The “Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk Landesverband Sachsen-Anhalt e.V.” (National youth hostel Association of Saxony-Anhalt) is a member of the German Youth Hostel Association. The goal of this Association is to provide with their hostels a place where people from all over the world have to chance to meet others and getting to know them and thus serves the mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence of people and nations.
  The Youth Hostel Association offers it guests a shared experience of a special kind.
  Respect, responsibility and personal development - based on these values, the youth hostels have been pursuing the same goal for many years: young people should discover independently the world, to broaden their horizon and get to know what life in a community means.
  In 2009 the German Youth Hostel Association celebrated its 100th Birthday and since then it is with its nearly 550 youth hostels and its 1.9 million members a reliable, unifying community that contributes actively the intercultural understanding through exchanges and encounter programs.
  The National youth hostel Association of Saxony-Anhalt pursues as a non-profit, approved supporter of the “Jugendhilfe” (youth services/help) the ideals of the German Youth Hostel Association. The national association has 16 houses and 2 “Anschlusshäusern”, located in various regions of Saxony-Anhalt.
  So the German Youth Hostel Association in Saxony-Anhalt has objects in the big cities like Magdeburg and Halle, in the old half-timbered towns Quedlinburg and Wernigerode, in the middle of the forest and away from the hustle and bustle in Gorenzen and Thale, and also houses closed to magnificent castles like Falkenstein / Harz and Nebra, very close to the Lutheran Church in Wittenberg.
  The national association has currently about 59.000 members and was able to realize about 312 000 overnight stays in 2010.
  In addition to the traditional accommodation services, the portfolio includes also children's recreation trips and sporting, cultural and environmental education programs for school and family trips. By a uniformly socially acceptable pricing the hostels offer a good place to stay, especially for financially weaker groups of guests.
  A large number of hostels has profiled their house in a specific topic, such as culture, family, sports or the environment.
  

Tasks

The project is part of the effort of the Youth Hostel Association to promote and to strengthen the activities of the international youth exchange in Saxony-Anhalt. The volunteers will be integrated as a matter of priority into the area of the Service office in Magdeburg. Primary task of the volunteers are to promote the European youth exchange and assisting in the initiation of projects for young people encounter in Saxony-Anhalt as well as the generation of domestic and foreign contacts for potential partnerships. The commitment is oriented on the personal skills, strengths and preferences of the volunteers. The specific activities are: - assisting in the research of ideas, trends and possibilities in the field of International Youth Exchange - Participation in the generation of contact for potential partners inland and abroad - Participation in the initiation of first contacts - Participation in the planning and realization of encounter projects - Support for other projects in the field of youth work of the Youth Hostel Association - Contribute to the evaluation of project results - Assist with the documentation of the project - Create, design and review of information materials such as flyers, posters and other printed products and digital presentations, videos and similar things - taking care of media services for charitable functions of the youth services of the Youth Hostel Association - Design your own web documentation to the course of the project The consideration of the individual skills of the volunteers and the adequate to requirements of the main tasks are enjoying priority for the entire duration of the Service. In the fulfilling of tasks we will give the volunteers continuous support and free rein as much as possible. Trough those degrees of freedom, we expect to promote the personality development of the volunteers. Another aim of the project is to open possibilities for the volunteer to help actively in the longer-term creation of the content offered by the Youth Hostel Association for young people and also the chance to participate and to try out the various activities.

Criteria

We want for the project "meet the world - youth hiking in Saxony-Anhalt" volunteers with creative minds full of ideas and an unconventional mode of thinking, furthermore he or she should work independently and self-determined. To be able to contribute adequately to our team it would be good if the volunteers have some social skills or be willing to acquire them. An interest in tourism issues and the idea of youth hostels and youth hiking as well as fun and joy in dealing with young people would be also desirable. Ideally the volunteers already gain first experiences in dealing with modern media or are willing to train in this area. Even a basic sociableness as well as openness and tolerance is useful in dealing with people and other cultures. As international youth projects do not always fit into the standard categorisation of workdays and weekends, the volunteers will at times have to work for longer than five days. It is therefore advantageous if the volunteers regard this style of working positively and take their days off after the particular project concerned. It is an advantage but no condition if the volunteer have some experiences in the area of the political and intercultural educational work or modern communication and media work. The description of this project is available in the database of the programme “Youth in Action”, which is open to all interested young people. We also use the website www.youthnetworks.eu and our own website. Information about our hosting project is also provided by organisations in Magdeburg’s partner cities, with whom we hope to build up an EVS network, and by AGSA’s other partner organisations. Interested young people can contact us directly or though our partners. During the selection process we will challenge in particular the motivation for the voluntary service, the expectations with regard to our project and the applicant's own wishes and interests for his/ her learning experience. Together we will examine together whether the wishes and the interests of the young person are compatible with the objectives and possibilities of our EVS project, and will develop a mutually agreed-upon plan for tasks and position profile. Young people with previous experience in common international youth projects in our partners or partner cities will be favoured during the application process.

Procedure

Interested volunteers should send us their applications directly by May 15th. In our application must be include the curriculum vitae, a personal motivation letter and the filled application form in English or German, you can find it here or on our website www.eurocamp-agsa.eu to download. After this date we will begin to process the applications; volunteers should be prepared to take part in a telephone interview if necessary. We will finished the selection by May 20th, after we will prepare the application form and activity agreement with the sending organisation and volunteer and apply to the national agency for the June 1st dateline.

Details:

Themes: Youth information, Media and communications, European awareness

Targets: Youth and children, Local Community

Kind regards,

Wolfgang Meyer