📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
WIKI - Wir Kinder, Bildung und Betreuung is an innovative an family-friendly company providing care, assistance and training services for children, youth, and communities.
As a large enterprise, with around 1,650 employees, numerous offers for children, young people and adults, WIKI has a great responsibility.
Our Main activities are:
- children care service (nursery, kindergarten, Day care and leisure time care)
- Youth work and leisure facilities;
- Community work
- Training for child care workers
- counselling service for families
- project works and cooperation with partners.
Our needs-oriented offers focus on appreciation, individuality and awareness of a heterogeneous society. We are happy to face this challenge every day and we are happy to be able to accompany so many people. Our cooperation is friendly, attentive and at eye level. Needs are heard and taken seriously. We take responsibility - for our own actions, our colleagues and our teams as well as for our entrusted children, young people, senior citizens, visitors, clients and partner organizations. We stand up for others. We prove our strengths every day and follow our structured, systemic approaches. We form a network that bundles and potentiates all of our abilities.
Our values are:
- We are female & strong & proud (Of course we are also male & strong - to be precise 5.5% of our colleagues!). We prove our strengths, our technical expertise every day and follow our structured, systemic approaches. We perform small miracles every day, give our clients the warmth of our hearts and stand with confidence. We form a network that bundles and expands all of our special, valuable skills.
- We take responsibility - for our own actions, our colleagues and our teams as well as for our entrusted children, young people, senior citizens, visitors, clients and partner organizations. Our actions are thoughtful and careful, and with a lot of feeling and empathy. We allow ourselves to fail and learn in the process. We stand up for others.
- Our togetherness is friendly, attentive and at eye level. Our needs are heard and taken seriously - regardless of whether they are two or 99 years old. We live and enjoy an open communication culture - and grow from it. Our strength as a team lies in the individuality and freedom of design of the individual. We're big and far away, but still a family.
As can be seen above, WIKI covers a wide area in the social field. Volunteers are going to gain experience in community work.
The ways in which people live together have changed dramatically over the past few years and decades. We take on these changed life situations of young and old and are committed to a better coexistence in districts, neighborhoods and communities. Community work supports people in implementing their personal interests and in shaping the living environment. With strong citizen participation, we are working on improving specific life situations. Together with our partners from municipalities, districts, housing developers, etc. we advocate a harmonious coexistence of citizens, residents and neighbors.
The work and involvement of a volunteer is diverse and in constant contact with the local community. This takes place within the framework of the public offers of the two community work institutions WIKI is running. The volunteers will support at events and activities in the institutional context as well as participate and create their own projects.
💼 What the programme involves
Live an interesting experience about sustainability of a community and strengthening of neighborhoods in two community centers! They provide district inhabitants with information about various services, and serve them as meeting places, spaces for participation and networking to everyone reaching them. Regural events such as cooking sessions or game nights are organized. All activities are aimed at increasing the quality of life in local community, developing social networks and fostering civic engagement. So, you'll run a Free-of-Charge shop, promote cycling, organise game events and other activities, promote food-sharing and zero-waste initiatives and open book shelves. Generally speaking, you'll assist teams in both centres in the organization of community events as an integral part of the staff. In this way, you'll get in touch with people from different backgrounds and of different generations. You'll be in charge of documenting the activities, and you can also propose your own.
🏠 Accommodation on site
The hosting organization will provide a room in a student’s dormitory for you. To reach the working place, you can either use a bycicle that will be given to you, or the public transport that the hosting organization will pay. You will receive a food allowance for your self-supply, and, as usual in the E.S.C., also the pocket money established by the European Union for Austria, that is 6 euros per day. The travel from Italy to Austria and back will be completely reimbursed. You’ll be also covered by the insurance agreed with the European Solidarity Corps, protecting you from any risk.
🎒 Leisure activities
You will attend a pre-departure training before leaving Italy, a so-called “on arrival training” a few weeks after your advent in Austria, and a mid-term training after six months of volunteering. You will be provided with a German Language Course. Through experienced colleagues acting as tutor, the community centres will give you ongoing all the necessary coaching, learning and technical support to well perform your tasks during the volunteering experience.
⚠️ Requirements
The Participant profile: We expect you to be an open-minded, mature, responsible, active, initiative-taking and enthusiastic volunteer, with a specific interest in sustainability, community building and promotion of an active lifestyle, and able to work with people from different backgrounds and generations, supporting sustainability projects and organising events. Intercultural openness is really a must, and a basic knowledge of German and of any other language is an advantage. We also appreciate if you're passionate with photography, social media management and event management.
Deadline: Application deadline: 14/03/2024
ℹ️ Additional information
The project is implemented under the European Solidarity Corps Programme, financed by the European Commission.
The participating organisations have to be mindful of these needs as they are responsible for providing a respectful and trusting hosting environment. At the same time, the organisations participating in the initiative devote a great deal of time, energy and resources to set up a high-quality activity; they should therefore expect that European Solidarity Corps participants show a similar level of respect for the local communities and the people that are directly concerned by the activities (
https://youth.europa.eu/solidarity/mission_en).
What do we provide ?
- Training before and after the project
- Health insurance during your project
- round-trip travel reimbursement
- accommodation and food
- pocket money
- language course
- Return Week-end
- Youth Pass and SVI international Volunteer passport
Before applying for this volunteering project, you need to enroll yourself at European Solidarity Corps Platform (
https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity_en) and specify your European Solidarity Corps Participant Number (PRN).
This organisation holds a European Solidarity Corps Quality Label.
Contact the ESC coordinator at +32 2 888 67 13 to get more informations.