Preparation of Participants

 

The preparation of the volunteers will be managed by all the involved organizations.

The initial selection and preparation of the volunteers will be done by the sending organizations. Prior to their departure volunteers will have physical meetings with their sending organization coordinators to cover the following topics: the principles of volunteering and personal motivation, Erasmus+ and European Voluntary Service (principles, rights and responsibilities), principles of inter-cultural learning and integration, how to deal with challenges during EVS, EVS as a personal learning experience.

On-arrival volunteers will receive deeper training on the topics mentioned above with the inclusion of a more elaborate preparation on the Lithuanian culture and way of life. This will be done during the on-arrival training with the CO and later the receiving organization. The coordinating organization will additionally train volunteers on managing personal finances, give tips for organizing household chores with flat mates, specific examples of crisis situations and how to deal with them. A dedicated session will be given to Youthpass in theory and practice, plus the general flow of project activities in stages common for all the volunteers will be introduced.

Soon afterwards volunteers will be invited to the on-arrival training of the national agency. This training will be conducted following the quality guidelines of EVS training and evaluation cycle and using the expertise of the Lithuanian EVS pool of trainers.

At the receiving organizations volunteers will receive extensive preparation on the specific tasks appointed to them, the internal policies of the organization, safety regulations, as well as a course of Lithuanian language. Language courses will be held either with personal language tutors or at a language college (location dependent).

In the middle of the EVS volunteers will have two common meetings to evaluation the progress and make the second half of EVS better. One meeting will be organized by the coordinating organization, the other by the Lithuanian national agency.

 

Main Activities

 

KLAIPĖDA City Municipality Public Library. Teaching 3D modelling/printing; Air drone control, flight scenario creation, aerial photography/filming; programming augmented reality objects; teaching to use e-readers and notepad computers.

General: helping organize events, exhibitions, organize camps (children, youth), teach IT, participate in or organize workshops, seminars, discussions, movie or music evenings, exhibitions, table game tournaments, themed evenings. Volunteers could help organize foreign language clubs for clients, active participation initiatives.

ŠIAULIAI city municipality public library: Comics club activities; Home club in the library (activities for young mothers with babies); photography club for the hairing-impaired; The Seniors’ club; Workshops on the original interactive game “Virtual Quiz Labyrinth”.

General: assist library staff in daily activities, help organize events, sort out the books, take care of the fund of books, teach computer literacy, run culture clubs for kids or adults; help organize game hours, workshops, mornings of reading aloud, movie reviews. Teach library visitors crafts, paint, glue, will help staff and Internet users in issues of information technology usage.

ŠIAULIAI P.Višinskis Public Library: Activities in a mobile IRT and innovations lab (iPAD computers, 3D printer, laptop computers, robotics kits, 3D goggles and augmented reality software). The lab is mobile and moves to remote village libraries, where educational activities take place for local kids and youth, especially the ones with special educational challenges.

General: Filling the library websites with content; Assistance for preparing a library radio show; Assistance in preparing a non-traditional English language lesson in American Reading room; creating a video-clip about the library' role in the community and services; Work in Readers' Service department: book shelving, communicating with library users, checking out books; Preparing library’s events: making posters, post-cards; scenario writing.

ZARASAI Public Library. Educational activities in the media studio with 3D cinema (A1 format printer, A3 format scanner, computer software to work with audio and video material, recording equipment, graphical design software, 3D printer and modelling software, specialized computer games to make the reader more physically active.

General: work with children – creative workshops, funny readings, basic English lessons, etc.; possibility to work with teenagers – also creative workshops, cinema club, making films, clips, young photographer’s club, etc.; possibility to work with adults –, discussion’s club; possibility to work with seniors – computers courses in bigger groups or eye-to-eye. Volunteers can test himself/herself in media sphere (journalist, photographer, operator, designer) and help to make articles, photo or video reportages and advertisements to library’s website.

PLUNGĖ Public Library. Educational activities in the open creative workshop of the library (Makerspaces in the Library) which involves children, youth and the older generation in common activities (facilitating communication among different generations, sharing experiences, learning IT skills, recycling and re-purposing workshops, graphical design learning, creating computer art, filming and video editing, filmmaking, sound editing, learning to create online exhibitions).

General: volunteer tasks with cover communication with library visitors and guests, the librarians; cultural presentations, maintaining the library funds; visiting other departments; participating in various hobby clubs, initiating new projects with local community, assistance in the daily management of the library.

UTENA Public Library. Activities of UTENA public library where the volunteer can be involved: programs for children; educational workshops, games, creative activities; cultural events for library visitors and local community; organization of projects for youth; work in Europe Direct Information Centre; variety of activities with the elderly (arts, sports, self-expression tasks, etc.); daily library tasks: maintenance of publications fund, client service.

More detailed information can be found in the database of accredited organizations. Activities are constructed to support the project aims and fit the needs of volunteers and organizations.

 

Volunteers and organizations follow the general flow of EVS broken down into stages applicable to all project activities. Each of the stages introduces the special focus fields of volunteer engagement, time periods, as well as monitoring mechanisms accessible to all project partners. In spite of the activity foci in each stage, volunteers will still perform the activities as per contractual agreements.

STAGE 1 (from the beginning of EVS up to no more than 2 m.): introduction of the organization, observations; volunteer introduces himself/herself; volunteer's working and learning plan adjustment; specialized trainings in the organization; language support; EVS trainings (CO and NA); Youthpass presentation; meeting the local community and institutions; creation and posting on the personal web space (publicaly accessible., at least 1 post per week); introductory tasks at the organization (as per contractual agreements, also see the section above); a written report of stage 1 produced by the volunteer and presented to the hosting, sending and coordinating organization (no later than 2 m. from beginning EVS)

STAGE 2 (starts no later than 2 months from the beginning of EVS and ends no later than 1 m. before the end of EVS): activities in the organization as per contractual agreement; at least 1 free-form public activity produced or contributed to by the volunteer (possibilities to be identified during stage 1); posting on the personal web space (at least 1 post per week); development (creation) of unique and continued volunteer mission in the organization; common initiative with the other volunteers of the project (from all receiving organizations); Free-form "graduation paper" with the topic "My EVS Footprint that I leave behind".

STAGE 3 (the last month): presentation of the "graduation paper" (to the staff of the RO or/and other stakeholders); preparation of the final volunteer's report; compiling the information and producing the Youthpass (presented for evaluation signing at least two weeks before departure); assembling of project visibility materials and handing over to the CO (to be part of the final project report); activities in the organization as per contractual agreement; attending project final evaluation meeting.

Since these stages have been agreed by all the receiving organizations and will be presented to all the volunteers (prior to arrival and during the on arrival training the CO) we expect a number of challenging EVS management areas will be addressed:

 

The matching of country pairs:

 

Plungė public library: 2 volunteers (Russia, Germany)

Siauliai city municipality public library: 2 volunteers (Ukraine, Hungary)

Siauliai P.Visinskis public library: 2 volunteers (Germany, Macedonia)

Zarasai public library: 2 volunteers (Slovakia, Italy)

Klaipeda city municipality public library: 2 volunteers (Ukraine, Spain)

Utena public library: 2 volunteers (Russia, Hungary)

 

Each receiving organization is planning to host two volunteers from different countries. Although a complete separation of volunteer tasks is not possible, there are many other great benefits of this setup: each volunteer has a colleague and a friend pursuing similar challenges in his/her current life. This is especially important for volunteers staying in remote areas, in smaller towns/villages. Two volunteers can integrate the local community easier, they can also organize common events, publicity actions, help each other by simply sharing the impression of the day, exploring the country etc. The benefits and opportunities are countless in this respect and it has always been a better choice for RO than having just one volunteer at a time.

 

The dates of EVS are set to 12/03/2018 - 09/12/2018

 

The EVS activities will rely on methods of non-formal education: education tailored to individual needs, learning by doing (experiential learning), self-reflection and reflection/feedback with a mentor, active involvement of the learner in the management of his/her learning process. Each receiving organization will further apply methods of tutoring (when it comes to giving specialized information), create spaces for their volunteers to observe, to get direct experience, interact, draw conclusions and eventually learn.