ESC: Long-term volunteering at Shelter for Mothers and Children in Tallinn

Tallinn Children’s Home's main objective is to ensure a safe and secure growing environment for children and young people without parental care and to support families with disabled children. The institution provides several different social services, with the biggest and most substantial of the provided services being the substitute home service. Tallinn Children’s Home is divided into 13 units: one of them is Shelter for Children and another is Shelter for Mothers and Children, both of which have hosted volunteers already since 2005. The main objective for Shelter for Mothers and Children is to protect mothers and children, but also to help mothers to get back their self-confidence and independence.The shelter helps mothers to manage and organize their lives, find a job, register at a food bank etc. It is also important just to listen to their problems and to give them advice. More information and how to apply: https://estyes.ee/en/projects/hoolekandeteenused-nova-unit/

Work tasks
The volunteers’ main tasks are spending time with kids in the shelter, helping with organazing birthdays, holidays, special events, making crafts and decorations with the kids and mothers, helping shelter with different everyday tasks. The volunteer has the opportunity to visit various cultural institutions with families. The exact tasks will be agreed on together with the tutor. Some examples of the proposed tasks are:

- Running different workshops for the mothers and children in the Shelter (e.g. drawing, handcrafting, singing, sewing)
- Helping to organize and search different possibilities to expose the works or the achievements made by the mothers and their children in the Shelter (e.g. exhibitions)
- Introducing one’s culture and running cultural evenings as a part of intercultural learning
- Organizing events in the Shelter: (e.g. movie evenings, reading books, teaching one’s mother tongue, cooking with the mothers and their children etc.)
- Helping to organize Estonian National holidays and the birthdays of the mothers and their children
- Organizing outdoor activities (using recourses of beautiful Nõmme nature – a perfect place for skiing in winter, picnics or cycling in summer)
- The volunteer will be encouraged to propose one’s personal projects/initiatives related to the theme of this ESC project which can be supported by the host organization.

The volunteer can take part in local as well as in international training activities related to one’s service.

The working hours will be around 7 hours a day from 10:00 or 11:00 (depends on the agreement between the volunteer and the tutor). The total working time will be around 30-35 hours a week. The volunteer will have 2 sequence days off per week. Volunteers will be working under the supervision and with support of local pedagogical staff 

Benefits of volunteering
- The volunteer can acquire practical and social skills while interacting with mothers and children.
- Volunteer gets social work experience.
- The volunteer can work in a great team.
- The volunteer can practice Russian and Estonian languages.