Youth Centres UP 2 - 10 new youth centres in Timisoara

FITT (Timis County Youth Foundation) is looking for Change Maker volunteers to get involved in solidarity activities for the community of Timisoara!

Youth Centres UP 2 is a European Solidarity Corps project whose main aim is to involve international and national volunteers in solidarity activities through which, together with the community, to turn 10 old industrial buildings into youth centres and to organise activities for youth there.

The project has 2 main activities:

a long term volunteering activity of 12 months for 14 international volunteers;
a short-term volunteering activity of 30 days for 200 international and national volunteers.

The main objectives of the project are:

Developing and strengthening the communities of the young people from the neighbourhoods of Timișoara, around the urban youth centres, which contribute to the development of the city, actively participating in the democratic and civic life;
Setting up 10 urban youth centres in which to develop activities for young people with fewer opportunities in order to make their social inclusion process more efficient.
Improving access, participation of disadvantaged groups (young people at risk or in special need, from disadvantaged areas);
The implementation within the 10 youth centres of the Quality Standards for the youth centres;
Creating an example of good practice within the ESC program for both Romania and at the European level by creating an ecosystem for young people in Timisoara;
The development of transversal competencies for more than 200 young people from Europe and Romania for 30 days per team, focusing on teamwork skills, sense of initiative, event organization, and communication in a foreign language.

The learning outcomes of the project for the volunteers will be:

teamwork skills;
communication skills in a foreign language;
events planning skills;
sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
awareness of cultural differences and/or civic and social competencies;
knowledge about Youth Goals (the project focuses on Youth Goal no.9 – Safe Spaces and Participation for All);
knowledge of how projects are implemented through community participation;
knowledge about the European Solidarity Corps.

The volunteers we are looking for:

Are between 18 and 30 years old;
Are fluent in English;
Are happy to work with youth;
Are excited to develop new skills in organizing, implementing, and coordinating activities;
Have a residence in one of the eligible countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Republic of Czech, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Georgia, Israel, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, UK;
Are brave enough to move to Dracula’s country. 😀

The main activities of the project will be:

For the short term volunteering activity of 30 days:

Accommodation and training (accommodation with the city and the new environment; workshops, whose role is to prepare you and the team on specific activities, necessary within the implementation of the solidarity activity; empowerment and community involvement activities);
Setting up the youth centres – in which the buildings are entering in the process of arrangement and preparation for hosting the activities for young people;
Preparation and inauguration – You will receive a budget to organize by yourselves an opening event for the youth centres;
Evaluation of the activity, which will be done at the end of the activity.

The short-term volunteering activity will involve teams of volunteers – 10 teams in a row, for 30 days, each of them.

For the long term volunteering activity of 12 months:

Getting to know each other and getting to know the community – accommodation with the team, with FITT, with the city and the community through introduction activities;
Community engagement – activities, workshops, events open for the community in order to create a relationship with them and to prepare them to set up the youth centres;
Setting up the youth centre – together with the teams of volunteers involved in the short term volunteering activities, you will be directly involved in setting up the 10 youth centres in the neighbourhoods of Timisoara;
Administrating and creating activities and events for young people in the neighbourhoods, in the new set up youth centres. The activities will be focused on solidarity, active citizenship, social inclusion, human rights, gender equality, etc.
Evaluation of the project at the end of it.

This is a short glimpse of the first edition of the project:

Now, we invite you to get more information about the short term volunteering activity or the long term volunteering activity, depending on what you are interested in, by accessing the info packs:

If we convinced you, we invite you to fill in the registration forms that you can find at the end of each info pack, then accept the challenge and be a Change Maker!

Youth Centres UP 2 – 10 new youth centres in Timisoara