ESC: Volunteering with the aha youth information centre in Vorarlberg

The main target group are young people between 12 and 30 years of age. Information is provided on education and training, employment, travel, active citizenship, leisure time activities, legal questions, health, politics etc.

In different activities and workshops with young people we cover aspects such as active citizenship, democratic values, transnational interest and solidarity, equality, diversity and inclusion, youth empowerment, enabling informed decision-making, peer-to-peer education in non-formal and informal settings.

The International Department of our organisation also coordinates the regional activities of the programmes “Erasmus+" and "European Solidarity Corps”; coordinating all local volunteering projects as well as sending volunteers and informing youth organisations on a variety of funding opportunities.

(In this case, the aha youth information centre is at the same time hosting organisation as well as coordinating organisation. Keep in mind, though, that your main tutor and the overall project coordinator are different persons, working in different areas of the organisation.)

Tasks of the volunteer : 

The volunteer will work five days a week, 34 hours a week including German course and trainings. They will usually have the weekends off and will have two days holiday per month.

At our organisation, volunteers will have a diverse volunteering experience, where they can meet many people and try out working in different areas. After having been introduced to the different areas, the volunteers can deepen the experience in their fields of interest. Our main areas which have proved quality experiences for volunteers are:

Digital, technical and social media department
Photography, video, social media content creation, digital tools, blogging, posting, digital storytelling, design

Youth Events & Workshops
Assist in organising events. The possibility of co-hosting events/activities/workshops is given, if the volunteer wishes to do this or try this.

Assist youth with developing their knowledge and skills, support them if they have questions.

Information department and help organising events
Help in the information area of the centre, acquire and present information on a variety of youth related topics (working abroad, travelling, training, employment, youth movements and local youth initiatives) and help with the adequate presentation and distribution of information

Help preparing and organising special information events (e. g. on “going abroad”) at information fairs (Dornbirn fair, University fair etc.).

Youth engagement programme aha plus
Travel through the province to meet with programme partners to check out their venues and validate their partnership offers and discounts.

Own project
Volunteers have the opportunity to pursue own projects according to their interests, desires and skills – with the support of the staff and the infrastructure of the centre.

Most of the activities can be done without or with only little knowledge of German. Some of the activities will only start when the volunteer’s German has reached a certain level.

Support during the voluntary project :
S*He will have regular meetings with her*his tutor in our organisation to talk about the development of the project, task assignments, general wellbeing, problems, wishes etc.

The Project Coordinator will hold a monthly evaluation meeting with all volunteers in Vorarlberg. At the end of the project, we will evaluate the project together with the volunteer: to see what s*he has learned and which competences s*he has gained and as a result fill out the Youthpass. Furthermore, there will be a final personal evaluation meeting with the Project Coordinator.