CALL for ITALIAN VOLUNTEER

CALL

for

ITALIAN VOLUNTEER

to become part of the Organization’s one year voluntary project within

European Solidarity Corps

URBAN ECOLOGY

Where: Varna, BULGARIA

When: mid July 2019 – mid July 2020

What:

You are invited to become part of The Urban Ecology project, focused on attracting attention, raising awareness and offering sustainable models for environmental protection and a healthy lifestyle in the city of Varna, Bulgaria. Through the development of three different spaces – urban, rural and virtual, combined with mobile services, the project aims to reach a wider audience of people in the local community and make them aware of their own responsibility and contribution to the “green footprint” we leave on our environment. The project pays special attention to over-consumption and waste generation, separate waste collection and recycling, pollution of the urban environment with dust, over-noise and radiation and the use of artificial cosmetics and household chemistry, which additionally influence the pollution of nature. Through recycling campaigns and cleaning actions, urban workshops and environmental movie screenings, open air eco-camps, the project will try to give an alternative to citizens how to have and do what they want in a sustainable way.

In order to have a stronger impact on the youth community that is most prone to change in values, beliefs and habits, the project relies on the long-term support of foreign volunteers to bring attractiveness, different perspectives, good practices from other countries and over- regional and over-national dimension of the problems we have been addressing.

Voluntary activities in the project

Urban Ecology voluntary activities last for 12 months – from the middle of July 2019 to the middle of July 2020, and will include one volunteer from Italy. The volunteer will be a person who is willing to devote one year of his/her life to environmental and sustainable issues, including adjusting his/her lifestyle and habits to a more conscious environmental preservation.

Each week, the volunteer will be engaged in the paper- and other waste-recycling campaign that takes place in kindergartens, schools and other organizations by providing information, agitation and delivering paper recycling activities. He/she will also be engaged in the development of the urban eco-lab, which uses specialized equipment to measure the levels of airborne cloudiness, over-noise and radiation, maintains a register and statistics of these measurements, and helps in the process of informing citizens about alarming evidence.

During the winter, cool autumn and spring periods, the volunteer will support the urban initiatives in the urban space of the hosting organization “Koebrug – a place for meetings and ideas”. This includes urban workshops for bio-cosmetics, home-made household chemistry and recycled materials; conceptual meetings on environmental issues with partners and supporters of the organization; environmental movie screenings and discussions on pressing environmental and sustainable issues.

Warm periods will be dedicated to polluting areas cleaning actions, eco-camps at Ezeretz’s organization base and traveling exhibitions and demonstration campaigns with the mobile eco-center.

Permanent engagement of the volunteer throughout the project is the writing and maintenance of an English blog on the organization’s website that reflects the dynamics and progress of the project through the eyes of a volunteer.

You can find a tentative weekly timetable of the volunteer’s activities here:

More about PECSD – Public Environmental Center for Sustainable Development – Varna, Bulgaria

Public Environmental Center for Sustainable Development (PECSD) is an ecological organisation based in Varna, Bulgaria, with over 20 years of experience in both sustainable development policy making and grassroots activities for direct impact on local community encouraging eco-friendly lifestyle and “green” policies mainly at local and regional level.

The organization has several areas of activity and through each of them it seeks to achieve its objectives:

– Reduction of waste and recycling

– Civic actions and awareness-raising campaigns

– Environmental education programs in schools and kindergartens

– Practical Environmental Seminars

– Eco Camping and more.

Depending on the different projects and activities, PECSD is targeting at different groups:

– Local and national politicians and other stakeholders who make decisions or influence specific environmental issues

– Local communities affected by specific environmental problems or solutions

– Municipalities and other public authorities to adopt “greener” policies and practices

– Young people and children to be trained to live a more sustainable and environmentally friendly life

Some of the most emblematic projects of PECSD are: the Leaf by Leaf campaign for organized collection and recycling of waste paper; Eco camp Ezeretz for educating people in ecological construction, slow food and other habits of nature; urban environmental workshops and eco-academy to promote best practices for green living in urban environments; cleaning of natural beaches and planting of trees; and many, many others.

The organization relies on three different own spaces where it can achieve its goals and target groups: its headquarters in Koebrug – a place for meetings and ideas, which is a shared work environment with other organizations, with a meeting room and events where the organization makes small events, meetings, seminars, presentations and screenings to promote urban ecology. The second area is the eco-camp in the northeastern village of Ezeretz – an experimental territory for the construction of camping area with natural materials and the organization of environmentally friendly workshops.

The third space is the organization’s virtual space, which promotes policies, campaigns, good practices and environmental activism – www.ecovarna.info, backed by the social media profile www.facebook.com/pecsd.

Our partners in Italy

We have an official partner in Italy playing the role of a Sending Organisation within the project and responsible for the preparation and preliminary support of the volunteer prior his/her departure to Bulgaria. Associazione Joint was founded in December 2003 to promote social activities for youngsters between 14 and 30 y.o. The mission of the organization is to provide non-formal education opportunities for young people through international mobility. Association main office is in Milano where Joint can count on 8 full time and 3 part-time workers plus some EVS volunteer, civil servant and intern. Joint developed and currently manage some of the most known websites of international mobility opportunities in Italy and is starting to have also known websites in English and in other languages.

The main activities are:

• Hosting EVS volunteers (4 volunteers)

• Coordinating organizations (12 local NGOs, around 24 volunteers)

• Sending more than 70 EVS volunteers every year

• Sending groups to several youth exchanges, in cooperation with local NGOs (especially for under-age participants in summer),

• Hosting youth exchanges both for under-age and over 18 participants (2-3 per year)

• Sending youth workers and local volunteers to international trainings in cooperation with our local partners,

• Management of capacity building projects as applicant (5 projects) and partner (4 projects),

• Running local training courses a- for youth leaders, b- on European project writing and management and c- on social entrepreneurship,

• Sending to and coordinating international work camps and volunteering,

• Managing several websites on international mobility,

• Managing after school centre.

How to apply?

If you are an Italian youngster between 18 and 30 years old, and you:

• Are motivated to participate in dynamic, active and intensive ecological urban activities,

• Are not afraid of regular physical work and getting dirty while saving the world,

• Are ready to follow our program and schedule on a weekly basis,

• Are flexible in terms of tasks and time demonstrating readiness to embrace environmental-friendly lifestyle,

Then most probably you are best-fit for our project 

In that case, please fill in the application form on the following page and send it to our Sending Organisation partner in Italy – Associazione Joint, having in mind the contact details bellow:

Website: www.associazionejoint.org

e-mail: sve@associazionejoint.org

tel: 0039 0245472364

Project Reference and e-mail Subject: Eco-volunteering in Bulgaria 2019-2020

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