Think Green, Act Green! March November 2015 Lastours, France Starting date: 1st March 2015 Ending date: 30th November 2015 Number of volunteers: 4 Venue: Lastours, France Hosting organization: Initiative et devéloppement citoyen (IDC) Sending organisations: ODI (Germany), JOINT (Italy), Ser Joven (Spain), TWIP (Poland) The project has a significant commitment to the values carried by the hosting organization, a cooperative company focused on education for sustainable development. Volunteers are very important for us, they are bringing a special atmosphere to our team thanks to their energy, diversity and contribution. Following our commitment to increase youth employability, our goal is to promote an intercultural exchange and a mutual enrichment between the volunteers and our centre, allowing volunteers to live a new experience in a foreign country that will bring them personal and professional enrichment. Ideally, each volunteer after the project will have a more environment-conscious attitude and will keep on in their search for information to become a respectful citizen of their own environment.
Context The project will take place in a rural environment in the South-West of France. The hosting organization is based in Lastours, a small village in the Aude department 18 km far from Carcassonne, the main city of the area, where the closest train station and supermarket are. It s a rural region living on agriculture, wine-producing and tourism. In fact Lastours, with its 60 inhabitants, has a long history: since the beginning of Middle Age it was a strategic hub for economic traffic from Spain to the rest of Europe. The four castles on the top of the rock are the direct testimonials of its power. Actually, thousands of tourists every year come to visit the castles and all the close villages and our little campsite offer the view on it. The hosting organization CONTACT PERSON: Gender: Ms First Name: Brigitte Family Name: Bales Position: director Email: moves@orange.fr Telephone: 0033 618944127 Initiative et Devéloppement Citoyen (IDC) is a cooperative born in April 2010 in order to promote the sustainable development, the international mobility, the active citizenship, the mutual aid, the ecological engagement, and the awareness of different people. Our eco-label structure, a small campsite in the middle of nature, is based on both tourism and nature and heritage preservation, in a linked intercultural process. Far from those outdoor hotel spaces filled with facilities, the 19-place campsite is an oasis of peace and serenity for campers, responding to sustainable tourism values. The cooperative aims to carry out different activities: event and various workshops, some about ecological building, farm, maintenance of a vegetable garden and of a greenhouse, host custumers, start to think how to create educational workshops with the volunteer s help. For this reason we prefer people who appreciate the nature and living in.
April to October.On the Reception We have a little campsite who brings to the camper an atmosphere close to the nature. Warm welcome and availability are assured to the customers in a natural space at the same time full of trees and quiet. The campsite dominates the site of the castles of Lastours which constitutes an exceptional view. We like when our reception could be a good moment to share with costumers their experience as a volunteer. It s important that our volunteers are interested to meet people with various experience and share it. Sharing experience and knowledge is also possible following proposals or ideas from the volunteers. Hosting a volunteer is first an exchange. In our region, there are not a lot of EVS volunteers, so one of our aims is to promote the Erasmus Plus Program. The cooperative manager has been working in the field of international mobility, especially European Program, for ten years. In 2014 we started hosting some European volunteers as part of Erasmus Plus Program and a Mexican one with the organization Latinomics.
Learning methodology The methodology used is based on experiential learning to let volunteers learn by observing and doing in a non-formal environment. Volunteers will be able to deepen their skills and knowledge with the expertise of the staff at the camping in their area of interest. In exchange they will offer their time and work to help the environmental and awareness center or the youth mobility developing. The project aims at empowering volunteers with skills and focuses especially on the following goals: developing independency and adaptability, learning with others, respecting deadlines, taking on responsibilities, collecting, managing and spreading information, promoting a tourist site, gaining a pure contact with the nature. The proposed activities will give to the volunteer the opportunity to learn more about how to create awareness campaigns and activities about the environment. They will be support in their activity by professionals involved in the development of the center. All the skills learned will be useful and will provide information to the volunteers. The organization will support and help volunteers in developing proposal or ideas for new project regarding the environment and the sustainable tourism. Accommodation Volunteers will be living at the campsite, sharing a mobile home with other volunteers. This structure is provided of bedrooms and bathroom. Language support During the whole duration of volunteering, volunteers will receive a language support enabling them to learn French. Early in the project, in the first quarter or more if necessary, volunteers will benefit from language learning sessions two hours a week and then, one hour per week or two hours every fortnight. Food Our organization will provide the food. We will go to the shop with 2 volunteers every week. Each volunteer will receive 50 for each month to buy what he like for the breakfast. We will cook and wash turn by turn. We will elaborate the planning together every week or every month.
Tutor During the entire EVS project volunteers will be supported by 2 tutors. They will help and support the volunteers about needs, difficulty or social life). He/she will be watching over the development of the YouthPass helping the youngsters in understanding their learning process and assessing skills and knowledge acquired. The Manager will supervise the volunteer s activities. Other information Working time will not exceed 35 hours per week spread over five days of the week. The timetable and holidays will be defined in cooperation with volunteers, except for the period between 15 June and 15 September, which is the high-peak season with a lot of activities Volunteers profiles Participants are selected based on their interest. As the project is a long term, it s interesting to give an opportunity connected with the profesional expectations Volunteers make the ambient of the season, So the solidarity, tolerance and communication in the team are important. Volunteers will have an important supporting role. They will support the team in the daily management, development and evolution of the hosting organization. Professionally, the proposed activities will focus on these different fields: environment, international mobility, tourism and communication, hospitality. During the volunteering, all the four volunteers will help in common task: Team working on party events and green buildings run by the centre Participation in daily life with the cleaning of the common showers area and cooking for everyone Share their knowledge and experience as a volunteer Sharing about how to have less impact in our life every day Some eco workshop Participate in bringing a positive atmosphere
In this project 4 volunteer will collaborate in 4 various profile: 1 st Profile: animation nature and environmental protection, Discovering of environmental awareness and preservation of green spaces For this profile, we have already selected a German applicant. Julian is 25 years old. 2 nd Profile: Discovery and promoting exchange and intercultural learning, non-formal education and Erasmus Plus program, (This activity is supported by the manager and his assistant, both in charge of EVS projects and international mobility) This profile is still opened to Italian and Polish applications because our Italian, vicenza didn t get is doctora and must continue to study.. 3 rd and 4 th Profiles The 3rd and 4th profile often work together with the support of Brigitte Bales, the manager. They work mainly on communication and facilitating a sustainable and local tourism and in terms of local economic development and environmental promotion. They work in atmosphere of respect and sharing of knowledge and expertise, the idea of sharing eliminates any competitive spirit. 3 rd Profile: Communication / sustainable tourism / animation, helping in organizing events throughout the year, especially during summer, to raise awareness about the environment and responsible actions, but at the same time to promote the campsite. He/she will become aware of all the stages of the organization of an event. This profile is still opened to Italian and Polish applications. 4th Profile: Communication / Reception / Greet customers and promote the region, Host and dealing with customers: registering them, showing them the site, answering questions, providing information about the activities of the camp and its commitment in respect of environment. For this last profile, we have selected a Spanish applicant. She is Elena and she is 29 years old. The volunteers will collaborate all the year, with other short term volunteers, Mexicans, and some Asian Evs arriving in july. Welcome to the Belvédère