Ready and able

The EVS project will take place from 1. August 2016 to 30. May 2017. It will host 4 youngsters, ages 18 to 29 (max 2 from one country). The central theme will be community building and helping the disabled.
The project will go in two main directions: first one will be help in the youth centre in day-to-day activities (help with workshops, tending the bar, help with venue preparation) as well as help on the five festivals that we produce. Here they will also be able to attend different workshops, which include, but are not limited to: video production, music production, stage lights and stage sound, theatre classes, improvisational theatre, design, crafts, painting. As members of our team they will gradually, as they become accustomed to the environment, be able to influence our programme through suggestions and also with their own events/projects. Other affiliated organisations (cultural, youth council, student club, ...) will also give them an opportunity for them to expand their horizons and to include themselves in the local community. This part may also include some work on the industrial heritage of our town.
In the second part they will be helping in a newly formed daily centre for disabled youth. Our town is the location of the biggest primary and high school for disabled youth, but there is a problem as when they finish their studies they are often less engaged in the community. A group of parents with disabled children is in the process of opening a daily centre for them so they have a place to go and to socialise. To this end the volunteers will spend one or two days ao the week there, helping the centre in any way possible: help with renovations, organize workshops, help with administrative chores or with PR and advertising or simply spend time with the youth in the centre. This help will be much needed and appreciated, but it will not be the sole aim of this part of the project. The volunteers will also be there on a "scouting" mission - they will gather not only their own experience, but also the experiences of the disabled youth and share this knowledge with our youth centre, where together we will try to make it friendlier for disabled people, both in accessibility and content. The project will culminate in a grand finale, an activity which is not yet determined, as we want it to grow with the volunteers. This can include anything (as long as it centres on disabled youth) from making a film or documentary, making a crowd-funding campaign, making a new event/festival (or make the existing ones more disability-friendly, making a booklet, starting an initiative regarding a problem in the local community, ...
The volunteers will, through their work get to know the going-ons of at least three NGOs working on different field of youth work. Apart from their help they will gain competences, such as teamwork, interaction with others, community building, ... They will also get to know how to build a website, produce videos, attain basic design techniques and if they want also the techniques of stage lights, sound and music production.