Obre't'ebre, Move to learn from the others

OBRE'T'EBRE
Punt d'Informació Juvenil
Avga. de l'estadi s/n
43500 Tortosa
Tel: 00 34 977 50 45 73
Fax: 00 34 977 58 05 55
sveterresebre @ hotmail.com

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Estadisticas Gratis

EVS project - Biblioteca Marcel·lí Domingo
Youth in the library - 2009-ES-67

Project themes: art and culture, social inclusion
Target groups: youth and children, local comunity
Project activities resum: organize educative activities for children, help in the maintenance of the library
Project dates: January-December 2010
Project duration: one year
Project HEI reference: waiting for aproval (it should be oficial at the end of August)
Project application deadline: 1st of September
Candidates selection: from 20th to 31st of July
Project email to send candidature: EVSBiblioMD@gmail.com
Hosting organization: Biblioteca Marcel·li Domingo (Tortosa-Spain): http://www.biblioteca.tortosa.cat
Coordinating organization: obre't'ebre (HEI 2007-ES-140): www.obretebre.org

GENERAL SELECTION CRITERIA OF THE VOLUNTEER

Volunteer profile:
The priorities of the library, regarding the profile of the volunteers are:

An active person, dinamic, with assertive and empatic comunication habilities, opened to know and meet persons from diferent origins, opened to the diversity, motivated to learn and with own initiative. It is required motivation and interest in education, cultures, social work with children and youngsters from diferent origins.
Interested in living in a rural area
A basic knowledge of Spanish would be needed in order to integrate rapidly to the community.
We will give preference to candidates who haven't had a previous experience abroad, but who have taken part in workshops or activities in centres for people in risk of social exclusion, and /or be active in the socio-art-cultural association world. We have no requirement regarding the age, gender or nationality of the volunteers. It is preferable, if he/she has a driving licence.

Recruitment process:
Please send at EVSBiblioMD@gmail.com your CV, a motivation letter (especific to the hosting project) and some information about the sending organization (contact details and Youth In Action Program experience) before the 20th of July 2009.
The selection will take place before the end of July, to apply to the 1st of September deadline.
No candidates will be taken in account after the 20th of July or if any file or information asked is missing.
Project description is published on www.YouthNetworks.eu.

SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

Region: Tortosa is the capital of "Tierras del Ebro", in the South of Catalonia. This area has a rich historical and natural heritage and two Natural parks: Parque Natural del Delta del Ebro and the Parque Natural de los Puertos. Tortosa is a city of approximately 46.000 inhabitants, 25% of whom are immigrants from Arab countries, Eastern European countries, Pakistan or South Sahara African countries, 27% of the population are young people. One of the main economic activity in the region is agriculture, together with the service and industry. Thus it is mainly a rural area where European Youth information is not readily available and the opportunity of taking part in this kind of projects is not very common. As public transport service between villages is sparse, most people use private transport.

Coordinating organisation: The coordinating organisation is obre’t’ebre, which was establish by three European volunteers after a Future Capital. At present the organisation counts on two workers, and 6 to 10 volunteers who helps obre't'ebre occasionally. obre´t´ebre is located in the Youth Information Point of Tortosa, in the sports centre of the city. Since its creation obre't'ebre has organised four international exchanges and four summer work camps, sent five EVS volunteers, hosted four EVS volunteers and is hosting a EVS volunteer from Turkey next September, supported and guided youth initiatives, .... More information on www.obretebre.org

Hosting Organisation: The Public Library Marcel·li Domingo is a municipal service, which depends on the IMACT (Municipal Institute of Cultural Activities of Tortosa), an autonomous organisme which depends on the Tortosa City Council. Actually, the library staff is composed of 6 permanent workers, one student and a security guard. Two volunteers offers their helps regularly to the library.
The public library has an important function as a public space and meeting space. This is important in communities where there are few spaces in which people can gather.
Its basic mission is to respond to the informational needs of the community and to promote a joy of reading so that citizens have the tools necessary for their personal, professional and intelectual development. In addition, it tries to foster intercultural dialogue and promote cultural diversity.
The new library, inaugurated in July 2006, has got a surface of 1647 m2. The three floors, connected by a lift, are distributed as following:

Ground floor: Interest centre, Small Readers Space, Newspapers and magazines from around the world, Arabic documents section (Novels, magazines, instructional books, children's stories), Internet, auto service of photocopy/printing/scanner, Loan and Information Counter
First floor: Adults, Novels, Poetry, Theatre, General Publications, and Local collection, Internet, Reading Room
Second floor: Multimedia Games, Music, Cinema and Documentals, Internet, Reading Room

The activities of cultural promotion organized in the library can be divided in three parts:

Adult activities: conferences, talks and workshops, Reading Club and exhibitions, ...
Children activities: short story hour, puppet shows, refreshing short stories in the square (in August), Competitions (bookmarks, Cards to the Three Wise Men, Best Young Reader, …), intercultural and social integration workshops, ...
Other activities: Books presentations, Loan of the polyvalent room, trainings courses, libraryswimmingpool, night study room, participation to the literary fair, ...

Some new projects in which the library is working are:

the Loan Project and the Home Reading Project, with the collaboration of the volunteers, in order to give response to the needs of the users with visual and mobility problems
the Reading Club, the Short Story Reading in English or French
activities in collaboration with the Education department, the Cultural Diversity department of the city council and the Atzavara-Arrels organization

Project environment: The library Marcel·li Domingo is situated in the oldest area of Tortosa, called Rastre, where is concentrated the major part of the immigrant inhabitants. The recent increase of the newcomers users has confirmed the necessity to work on the intercultural integration in the library. For this reason, the library has offered a space in the library for the workshops of the Work and Intercultural Traveling Project of the city council in which participated youngsters and children between 4 and 12 years old, every year during six months. During the rest of the year, the library receives daily children from many origins when they come out from the school, in order to play, read or pass the time. The library adapted the Small Reader Space, in order to avoid noises and troubles to the library users, but what is missing are daily activities to attend the children without generating too much noise.

The library has got the following opening timetable:

Winter hours (October-Juny): Mornings: Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am to 1:30 pm; Saturday from 10:30 am to 1:30pm- Afternoons: Monday to Friday from 4:30pm to 8:30pm
Summer hours (July-September): Mornings: Tuesday to Friday from 9am to 3pm – Afternoons: Mondays from 3pm to 9pm. The LibrarySquare is opened from 6pm to 8:30 pm Monday to Friday in July and August
There's also a night study room, opened from 8:30pm to 1am Monday to Friday, from 4:30pm to 8:30pm Saturday and Sunday and from 10:30am to 1:30pm on Sunday

Board and lodging: The volunteer will be hosted in Tortosa or the nearest city Roquetes, in a shared flat with local youngsters or other EVS volunteers. The volunteer has got to buy and cook its proper food.

Local transport: The distances between the lodging and the work place are shorts, so the volunteer can move by bike or by foot. In any case, if the volunteer needs to use public transport for the project activities, the transport costs will be refunded.

GENERAL TASKS OF THE VOLUNTEER

Trainings and suport: The volunteer will receive the necessary information to carry out his/her activities, as well as about the structure of the hosting organisation.
The library can offer to the volunteer training in documentation, in information research, in digital resources, in design and creation of interactive and educational material, …
The volunteer will assist to Spanish classes every week, between one and three hours a week, depending on the availability of trainings and on the needs of the volunteer. After the adaptation period, the volunteer will be able to assist to catalan classes. He/she will be put in contact with youngsters in order to realize language exchange once a week.
The volunteer can assist to all the activities, talks and workshops organized in the library, where he can learn pedagogy, technical knowledge, social and personal competencies.
Through the relations with the library's users and staff, the volunteer can learn about the diferent cultures represented, about the reality of newcomers population and about the laws, rules, costums and day-life of Spanish society.
One person from the staff of the library will be the volunteer's work supervisor, with whom he/she will meet regularly to evaluate and plan its work.
The tutor of the EVS volunteer is a volunteer of obre't'ebre, who followed a special training from our National Agency. They will have regular meetings with the aim of evaluating the project and its conditions and to sole any conflict.

Tasks: The main purpose of the volunteers participation will be to facilitate meetings of youngsters from diferent origins in order to foster the intercultural dialogue through his support in the actions orientated to the education in values of tolerance, coexistence and solidarity.
The volunteer will mainly help in the diferent projects and activities that are organized in the library, but also in the daily work of the library :

A. Small Readers Space (65%)

A1. Support to the staff to lead and liven up the Small Readers Space
A2. Help to organize, create and prepare educative and silent activities to foster reading or other important themes for children, like habits, hygiene, health, interculturality, ...
A2. Help to orden and the space at the end of the activities

B. Projects and activities of the library (15%)

B1. Help in the gestion of the booking of the polyvalent room (answer emails, actualize calendar, ...)
B2. Help in the gestion and organization of the exhibitions (contacts by email and phone, actualize calendar of exhibitions, setting up and removal of exhibitions)
B3. Help in the preparation and realization of the Short Story Hour and Refreshing Short Stories in the square (selection of short stories, preparation of the material and decoration, reading of the short story)
B4. Help to organize the Competitions (organization, preparation and diffusion of the competitions)
B2. Assist to the talks, conferences and workshops organized

C. Attention, formation y information to the users (10%)

C1. Help to the Loan and Information Counter.
C2. Help to organize the trainings calendar.
C3. Suport to the staff during the guided visits of the library.
C4. Participate to the design and edition of the “Fato” magazine and the monthly reports of the library

D. Help to organize and orden the shelfs and materials of the library (10%)

Example of a weekly timetable

WINTER	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
10am – 11am		D		C
11am – 1:30pm		B		B
3pm – 5pm	A		A		A
5pm – 7pm	A	A	A	A	A
7pm – 8:30pm	C	B	C	B	D

SUMMER	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9am – 10am		B	B	B	B
10am – 1pm		A	A	A	A
1pm – 2pm		C	D	C	D
2pm – 3pm		C	D	C	D
3pm – 5pm	A
5pm – 7pm	A
7pm – 9pm	B

WEEK: about 30h/week of work + 1-4 h/week of language training and language exchange
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY: holiday. Exceptionally, the volunteer can be asked to work during a weekend. In these cases, he will get 2 free days during the past or the following week Depending on the week there will be trips with young people to get to know the “Tierras del Ebro” region.
HOLIDAYS: Local and national holidays, and 2 free days a month with previous concertation agreement with the supervisor.

The volunteer can take part during his/her free time in any activities he/she is interested in: seminars, courses, local dances and music lessons, local activities...