ESC vacancies at Crescer a Cores, Lisbon, Portugal

Associação Spin, acting as the coordinating organization, is currently looking for 1 ESC volunteers for our partner organization, Associação Crescer a Cores.

Host Organization: Associação Crescer a Cores
Coordinating Organization: Associação Spin
Activity start date: 1st September 2019
Activity end date: 31st August 2020
Activity duration: 12 months
Vacancies: 1 (for volunteers residing in Spain or Italy exclusively)
Application deadline: 18th August 2019 (extended deadline)
Application consists of: CV, project-specific motivation letter and presentation (more info bellow)
Application sent to: evs.crescer@a-spin.pt

Crescer a Cores – Associação de Solidariedade Social – IPSS is recognized by the Portuguese law as a charity organization. It is a non-profit association with regional reach and its main aim is to accompany and support the social inclusion of vulnerable children, youngsters and families, through providing community responses and services within the fields of psychology, education and health. The ESC volunteers will work mainly with the organization’s biggest target group: children aged 4 months to 4 years old.

PROPOSED VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES:

1. Provide support to the educators in the daily activities for children aged 4-36 months old (general support, helping with meals, hygiene and cleaning, telling stories, puppet theaters, playing with the children, drawing and painting, etc.);
2. Support in the organization of cultural events with families, children and local community by preparing creative informative materials, making contacts with stakeholders, arranging decorations and preparing the spaces for hosting the beneficiaries;
3. Collaborating in local projects with the community on the frames of project “Pulsar” which promotes the dialogue, interaction and local interventions among neighbors and residents of the local council parish (Carnide);

Crescer a Cores intends to support the volunteers to create their own events or initiatives, in accordance with their principles and upon Board’s approval.

LOGISTICS & PRACTICAL INFO:

• Travel cost – The two-way travel (from place of residence to Lisbon and back) will be reimbursed up to the limit of 275€ (180€ for volunteers coming from Spanish cities close to the Portuguese border); volunteers facing serious economic obstacles will be able to request a higher limit.
• Accommodation – Coordinating & hosting organization, Associação Spin, will provide the lodging in a flat as close to the office and the city center as possible. If the apartment is located in the city center, the volunteers will spend around 45 minutes to reach the workplace by bus and subway. The volunteers will have to share the room with another volunteer/student/young person (room and connected expenses are paid by Associação Spin). They may also – if so wished by the volunteer – receive a monthly accommodation allowance and be solely responsible for finding and paying for their own accommodation.
• Food & transportation – A monthly allowance of 180€ will be provided by Associação Spin to cover food expenses and local public transportation.
• Pocket money – Every month the volunteer will receive 150€ as pocket money.
• Working hours – The volunteers are expected to spend 30-35 hours a week working. The daily timetable includes time for language learning, lunch, social activities and development of own project ideas, etc.
• Days off – Volunteers are entitled to two days off per week (usually Saturday and Sunday) as well as 2 extra days of vacation for every month of their voluntary work.

VOLUNTEERS’ PROFILE: WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Volunteers aged 18-30 years, open minded, eager to learn and motivated to work on the proposed project activities. It is not required to have any particular degree of formal education, but to have positive and proactive attitude, show tolerance, flexibility and capacity to adapt, motivation and enthusiasm. In this project, age and maturity are important due to direct work with small children and families in the neighborhood. We encourage applications especially from youngsters who already have some experience in volunteering or in working with small children and are, at this moment, available to commit to a long term experience of volunteer work abroad.  Any knowledge of Portuguese will be considered a plus, however it is not a requirement.

All candidates must be registered with the European Solidarity Corps.

SELECTION PROCESS:

In order to be considered for the vacancies, each candidate has to send (in only 1 single e-mail):

1. up-to-date CV,
2. project-specific Motivation Letter,
3. short presentation about an idea you would like to implement with the children (the format is absolutely free for you to choose, be as creative as possible).

The complete applications (CV + project-specific Motivation Letter + presentation) should be sent to evs.crescer@a-spin.pt no later than on August, 18th 2019.

FINAL REMARKS (please read carefully):

• this project is already approved by the ESC Program;
• only candidates residing in Italy or Spain may apply;
• this is an open call with no assigned sending/supporting organization (we will partner up with the sending organization of the selected volunteer);
• as this volunteer placement involves direct work with children, the selected volunteers will have to provide us with their criminal record certificates;
• we only accept complete applications that contain all the required documents;
• due to the high number of candidates, we are only able to contact the short-listed candidates (in order to invite them for a brief Skype interview);
• all the other candidates will be informed about the selection results by August, 25th through our website.

GOOD LUCK!