Portugal

1247

Begin: 01-10-2012

End: 24-09-2013

Vacancies: 2

Length: 12 mes(es)

application deadline: 01-07-2012

Funding: Candidatura

Monthly Subsidy (Pocket money): 95 €

Application: To be possible to apply you must do your login. If you are not registered please fill in the registration form first.

Short description: The CED of Santa Clara is dedicated to the education and development of children and young people who in risk of social exclusion. The mail goals of this CED are:
1. To provide a home for children and young people;
2. To satisfy alll childrens’ basic needs satisfaction and an environment as similar as possible to a familiar one;
3. To ensure the necessary means to the childrens’ personal development and to their education and future inclusion in the society;
4. To promote, when possible, the inclusion of the children and young people in their own family or home comunity.

This CED has 6 Foster Homes for children and young people:

1. Residência de Acolhimento Alfredo Soares
2. Residência de Acolhimento João Inácio Ferreira Lapa
3. Residência de Acolhimento Santa Rita;
4. Residência de Acolhimento António do Couto
5. Residência de Acolhimento Francisco Soares Franco
6. Residência de Acolhimento Martins Correia

Each Foster Home can host volunteers.

Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara is situated in Ajuda in the capital Lisbon.

The construction of the first building is connected to the history of Santa Engrácia Church, actually the National Pantheon that in 1630 was robbed. As a consequence, D. Maria Ana, daughter of King D. José I promised to build a convent named Conventinho Novo and that became ready in 1766 after the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

In 1942 the convent became Casa Pia patrimony and started to be used as basic school, under administration of salesian nuns. Later on 2006 after some changes in the courses and in the management of the College, a new step began focusing the social answer in sheltering children and young people in danger.

The aims of Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara are: promote the full development of children and young people in danger situations, through their shelter in different units (Children’s Homes, Psychosocial Unit, Emergency Unit), according to their needs and potentialities; building projects of personal development that aims to decrease the time that children and young people have to live in the Homes, with the support of the community and families;

The efforts and work of a team of workers assure the success of this College, by promoting specific projects like Insertion Team and Prevention of Sexual Abuses.

In the first semester of 2007, Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara established three shelter units of children and young people and one emergency unit, with capacity for 6 children coming from the Emergency System of sheltering of Lisbon district, that Casa Pia is a partner. Nowadays, Casa Pia has 4 shelter units.

To put in practice all the objectives, there are several principles that are defended by Casa Pia de Lisboa: transitory nature of the shelter measures; pro-active articulation with partner services and entities of local and national scope; close relationship with the families of children and young people, in order to improve the family competences; definition of personal development projects suitable to the needs and abilities of each child, by taking actions that promote their autonomy and full social and familiar reinsertion.

Lisboa is the capital of Portugal and lies on the north bank of the Tagus Estuary, on the European Atlantic coast. It is the westernmost city in continental Europe. Greater Lisboa has an area of approximately 1,000 km2. The city lies more or less in the centre of the country, approximately 300 km from the Algarve in the south and 400 km from the northern border with Spain.

Portugal has more than 10 million people and half a million are resident in Lisbon council. Everyday, about 2 million people from the Metropolitan region of Lisbon move to Lisbon city to work and make the city very multicultural. Lisbon community is the largest urban centre located in the centre coast of Portugal.

Lisboa offers a wide variety of options to the visitor, including beaches, countryside, mountains and areas of historical interest only a few kilometres away from the city centre.

The capital city is very dynamic and it offers a wide range of places to visit, offering information about history, culture and art, such as: Castle of São Jorge, National Museum of Old Art, Art-tile Museum, National Coach Museum, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon Casino, Oceanarium, Zoo, Basílica da Estrela, Jerónimos Monastery, Belém Tower, etc.

Around Lisbon there are several highlights in Cascais, Sintra, Oeiras and Mafra that can easily be reached by transport connections.

Lisbon has a very dynamic nightlife with discos, pubs and bars around the city and little restaurants where Fado is sang in typical places like Alfama.

In the daily life it is possible to visit many museums, theatres, shopping centres, typical old places like Alfama and Baixa-Chiado.

Lisbon is one of the mildest European capitals. Spring is cool to warm (between 6 °C and 27 °C) with plenty of sunshine and also some showers. Summer months are mostly sunny, dry and hot with temperatures between 16 °C to 38 °C. Autumn is mild and unsettled with temperatures between 8 °C and 23 °C and winters are typically rainy, windy and cool with some sunny days (temperatures between 4 °C and 18 °C), usually staying at an average of 11 °C. Snowfall is a very rare occurrence. On average, there are 3300 sunny hours per year and 100 days with rain per year.

Portugal is well known for good organisation of international events like Expo 98, Euro 2004 and Lisbon-Dakar in 2006 and 2007. This fact brought a lot of tourists to Portugal, mainly to Lisbon city.

The cost of life is considered to be middle-low when compared to other E.U. countries being the services the main sector of production. Its economy is based on the tertiary sector (Services). The access to public transports is quite good, including an underground network, trains, trams and buses either to the urban crown or to the surroundings.

Portuguese is Latin in origin and the third most widely spoken European language in the world. It is the mother tongue of about 200 million people. Portuguese is the official language in several countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe in Africa, and Brazil in South America. In Portugal itself a considerable number of people can understand and communicate in foreign languages.

After the Revolution in 1974 that installed the democracy in Portugal, a lot of people that lived in the African ex-colonies came to Portugal, searching for better life conditions that caused an enormous immigration during the 70’s. Nowadays, many people from Africa, China and Brazil live in Portugal but a large number of them face difficult economic situation due to lack of qualifications and difficulty in finding a job.

For these reasons a part of these immigrants live in self-made homes or in Council houses where some social problems are more evident like criminality, economic difficulties, unemployment, school abandon, etc.

Profile: The profile of the volunteer will have general requirements: self-motivated, dynamic, versatile, good mood, flexible, with self initiative, creative, willing to take on new challenges, openned to work with people of all backgrounds and cultures; enthusiastic to participate in the project; mature to work and to relate to a group of young people; willing to develop new activities and with sense of responsibility.

We will look for volunteers who are interested in working with a commitment to volunteering, with interest in social field and had chosen our project because of the experience and development they will gain not only because it's in Portugal.

Tasks: The volunteers will take part in many different tasks, according to their interests, abilities and skills that will be planned together with the staff and the mentor. The target group of the project will be children and young people between 8 and 15 years old.
So, the specific tasks that volunteers can be involved in Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara are:

- Supporting the children and youngsters during their study moments: this task includes the supervision of the youngsters, the support in their doubts and most of all motivate youngsters in their studying tasks. The volunteers tasks can be: monitoring and helping the children and youngsters in their homework and study hours, helping in areas where he/she feels more comfortable (for instance: English language tutoring, Maths, Geography…), but also motivating them to study and to complete their objectives.

- Leisure time: this activity aims to animate and implement leisure time activities for the children and youngsters, with an entertaining but also educational purpose. Therefore, the idea is to have a variety of activities where the children and youngsters can learn, have fun and occupy their free time in a healthy way. These activities include cooking workshops, fashion shows, photos exhibitions, thematic conversations, etc.

- Art Workshops: develop techniques with the group such as painting, drawing, building or modelling, cuttings, music, theatre, sports, gastronomy, etc, according to the plan and to the volunteer's skills. They will be stimulated to organise special theme weeks and participate in education activities.

- Meals Time: this is the moment for meals and the "family feeling" shall be in the air. The tasks of the volunteer can include helping in giving the meals to the children and youngsters, but most important, helping in creating a friendly, funny and home environment during the meal time. This can include establishing healthy conversations with the children and youngsters, inquiring about their activities during the day, their problems, their needs, etc.

- Supporting children and youngsters in health routines: help the staff to assure that the children and youngsters take care of their health routines (shower, washing teeth, etc), setting the rules and teaching them hygiene habits.

- Preparation of parties and special events: as in all family houses, in Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara there are moments and occasions to celebrate or to have a relaxed, fun and happy moments. The volunteers will help in plan and creation of these events.
-
- Preparation and monitoring of outdoor activities: having activities out of the space of Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara is also foreseen in the activities plan. It is important for the youngsters to diversify their horizons and to develop their knowledge of the surroundings. The volunteers can plan different activities for these "going outs", visits, define places to go, etc. During the activity, they can also be responsible for monitoring the group and leading the activities.

- Promote European Voluntary Service and other youth activities: the EVS volunteers should give visibility to their own EVS activity, in order to motivate other young people to participate on EVS and in other youth activities as youth exchanges. With this purpose they can organise exhibitions and presentations in schools and in youth clubs, etc.

- Personal project: according to the spirit of volunteering, learning and sharing that sets the philosophy of hosting an EVS project, the EVS volunteers involved in Casa Pia – CED de Santa Clara will have the freedom and will be challenged to promote a personal project, like an original idea or whatever they desire that comes in accordance with the regular philosophy of the institution, either in the formerly mentioned areas, or in different ones, for which they can count with support and monitoring from the staff of the hosting organisation and from the technical team ProAtlântico’s team.

- Participation in the planning of the work: the volunteers will attend to the planning meeting where the specific objectives and activities are defined on a regular basis. In these meetings they can propose ideas to implement, propose solutions for specific problems, become aware of the working methodologies of the organisation, place their doubts or questions about the work, evaluate, etc.

The tasks weren’t designed to achieve profit, because the organization is non-profitable and doesn’t intend to make financial gain from its activities.

Schedule:
The schedule of the volunteer will be 35 hours a week, 5 days a week with 2 days off. The volunteer will participate 6 hours each day in total of 30 hours a week. 3 to 5 hours will be used for personal support with the mentor and Language Course given by a school or by a private teacher.

Conditions: Concerning the stay of the EVS volunteer, the coordinating organisation ProAtlântico – Associação Juvenil will provide the lodging in a flat or in a hosting family. The volunteer might have to share the room with another volunteer.

A monthly allowance is provided by the coordinating organisation to cover food expenses out of the working time. During the working time the hosting organisation will provide meals or an allowance to cover food expenses of the volunteers. The volunteers may find a variety of eating choices in Lisbon (commercial centres, small local restaurants, supermarkets, local food markets, etc.).

Documentation: CV andMotivation Letter