Interview with Henk Persyn, a youth worker from Belgium living in Slovenia from the organisation Zavod Manipura.
We established a youth centre over there, a youth organisation and focus really really on working with young people with fewer opportunities, all different kinds of, all different kind of reasons.
We've noticed that sending these young people on an international project can really make a difference it really helps them develop their own confidence, their own capacities they really work on their competences and that's not the only thing it is also the context in which they are living, the parents, the school, the Youth Centre, centres for social work .
Everybody who is involved with these young people believe in that and support it and really make like a really strong efforts of the young person to show, hey, you've done something, you see you can do something good which really has a big big big impact on them.
So we started like a couple years ago between Belgium of course because of the relation and Slovenia and this has been growing growing and I must say at the moment we have quite a big network of organizations who focus more on your focus mainly on sending and hosting young people with fewer opportunities and this is very important, very important to have this network because if if you really want to send or host receive you need to be sure that you have the right partner, because this is not like a daily event, this is not just like a holiday this is really something its hard day working for the organization and please do not underestimate the effort that the young person has to do because it's real a life changing activity which means that for a lot of young people they are getting confronted with their own limitations these young people when you send them first of all you need to know them, you have to be sure that you know that they're willing to go if they're not motivated it's very hard.
You need to prepare them, as I said it's not a holiday it's not a school trip it is really something which has a very very influence on different images of their own life on also as I said before on their direct context and so on so prepare them very well on then during the event itself do not think they going to be for a long time away and they are going to change, no! it's just a small seed which has to grow because every EVS is just a method it's never never an aim on itself, there has to be something following as a long-term pathway and yeah, why should you do it?
If you want to host it's different do not expect to have like an extra extra pair of hands in your organization because the service is less important than the learning, the development on what should you do it? Because it's a choice it's a mission and you help people and in many cases it's also the opportunity to be able to send your young people to this organization yeah, we have very good results young people are very happy lot of them went back to school for example. A lot of the found a job afterwards or just finally had a positive experience which they hadn't seen in a long time I can also give an example, we had two young people who are quite disabled group and they went only for 2 weeks to a festival in Slovakia which was an enormous impact what happened to them and when they came back they were able to move out from the living group, the living unit and they went to like a more a home replacing situation a more independent way of living and so on.
Small steps are important small goals are important but it is important that you're
realistic what you're really realistic that you do not say hey, we are going to change the world. No, step-by-step and don't forget to involve the young person ask them what they want to, do look together with them look together what is the goal they want to achieve.
Yeah, so why should you do it well you have to be a bit of a masochist because it is hard working but at the end you have such a reward, such a good feeling and then you see the results so I can definitely definitely recommend it and the good thing is that compared with the regular EVS is that there are also a lot of possibilities financially so you can apply for exceptional costs you can apply for special costs related to special needs, and this can be very diverse for example you can apply for extra funding to give them a better deeper longer preparation, you could ask for reinforcement mentorship so that they are always have a monitoring on the young person is always somebody available to give them a hand, to give them the push when needed. it is important that these young people do have a mentor somebody who is really stand next to them, not above or under them.
A mentor is more than just a friend a mentor is also a big shoulder, somebody to be to rely on a somebody who helps in daily life The mentor that doesn't have to be available 24 hours a day but should be aware that he has to be a bit more more flexible For some people being a mentor is as a personal choice a and some organization it's a job depends how you look at I can really only say be aware that when you decide to do with you cannot do it alone to be in a team everybody from the organization has to be behind it everybody has to supported it and I think that this will be something which you have to prepare for the well in advance everything starts the with preparation and being aware that's not a regular EVS it is really really a different way but with a very good impact.
A couple of a good things with short term EVS is that a when you apply you can apply longer in advance and you can be more flexible because if you really say oh we have the volunteers then you have to apply, then you have to wait for approval, then you have to wait for the preparation, then there is the starting date it can take six months and believe me these young people with fewer opportunities they are not always motivated that long so when they're motivated you to catch them and have to be able to send them, I can't say as soon as possible but within a normal framework you have to put them on the plane this means that your partner organization has to be ready to be flexible also means that you need to be aware that the preparation of these young people should be really scheduled and structured individual.
What do we do especially in preparation? We inform the context, we work with the context we go together to the parents because they need to support it. We try to do several things together with the young person for example he doesn't have an identity card or a passport we go together. What else do we do give of course a training but everything is on an individual base as much as possible we work on self-confidence, sometimes we even have to go to back together so that the young person definitely has everything with him what he needs otherwise they end up with two two pairs of underwear for a whole week for example or other problems or they have their summer clothes going to cold country so it is, they really need to be held by hand but at the same time you need to give them the possibility to discover themselves. It is empowering all the time and important very important but often is forgotten what is the same as regular EVS needs to be follow-up you need to validate what's going on with them so and mostly when you can do it is with this together again with this context you have been working in, with the parents, the organizations and so on because alone to do a follow-up alone with these young people needs to be enforced everyday again and be very clear in your goal that's where you want to go to.
Otherwise what I would say just go for it just do it don't be scared of its really it's just very very it's more easy than you would think. Start with the network start with finding organizations who want to work with you be sure you can trust them and if it's a failure well you should learn out of it and and do it again and make clear to the young person that the failure, everybody is allowed to have a failure but you should stand up and go again. Once you get the tricks you go and you'll see it's really worth doing it.
Zavod Manipura, 051 412 567, info@zavod-manipura.org, http://www.zavod-manipura.orgHello I am Henk I have been asked to inform you a bit about short term EVS, maybe to say at the moment I am Belgian myself but due to the mobility programs in the past I moved to Slovenia.
We established a youth centre over there, a youth organisation and focus really really on working with young people with fewer opportunities, all different kinds of, all different kind of reasons.
We've noticed that sending these young people on an international project can really make a difference it really helps them develop their own confidence, their own capacities they really work on their competences and that's not the only thing it is also the context in which they are living, the parents, the school, the Youth Centre, centres for social work .
Everybody who is involved with these young people believe in that and support it and really make like a really strong efforts of the young person to show, hey, you've done something, you see you can do something good which really has a big big big impact on them.
So we started like a couple years ago between Belgium of course because of the relation and Slovenia and this has been growing growing and I must say at the moment we have quite a big network of organizations who focus more on your focus mainly on sending and hosting young people with fewer opportunities and this is very important, very important to have this network because if if you really want to send or host receive you need to be sure that you have the right partner, because this is not like a daily event, this is not just like a holiday this is really something its hard day working for the organization and please do not underestimate the effort that the young person has to do because it's real a life changing activity which means that for a lot of young people they are getting confronted with their own limitations these young people when you send them first of all you need to know them, you have to be sure that you know that they're willing to go if they're not motivated it's very hard.
You need to prepare them, as I said it's not a holiday it's not a school trip it is really something which has a very very influence on different images of their own life on also as I said before on their direct context and so on so prepare them very well on then during the event itself do not think they going to be for a long time away and they are going to change, no! it's just a small seed which has to grow because every EVS is just a method it's never never an aim on itself, there has to be something following as a long-term pathway and yeah, why should you do it?
If you want to host it's different do not expect to have like an extra extra pair of hands in your organization because the service is less important than the learning, the development on what should you do it? Because it's a choice it's a mission and you help people and in many cases it's also the opportunity to be able to send your young people to this organization yeah, we have very good results young people are very happy lot of them went back to school for example. A lot of the found a job afterwards or just finally had a positive experience which they hadn't seen in a long time I can also give an example, we had two young people who are quite disabled group and they went only for 2 weeks to a festival in Slovakia which was an enormous impact what happened to them and when they came back they were able to move out from the living group, the living unit and they went to like a more a home replacing situation a more independent way of living and so on.
Small steps are important small goals are important but it is important that you're
realistic what you're really realistic that you do not say hey, we are going to change the world. No, step-by-step and don't forget to involve the young person ask them what they want to, do look together with them look together what is the goal they want to achieve.
Yeah, so why should you do it well you have to be a bit of a masochist because it is hard working but at the end you have such a reward, such a good feeling and then you see the results so I can definitely definitely recommend it and the good thing is that compared with the regular EVS is that there are also a lot of possibilities financially so you can apply for exceptional costs you can apply for special costs related to special needs, and this can be very diverse for example you can apply for extra funding to give them a better deeper longer preparation, you could ask for reinforcement mentorship so that they are always have a monitoring on the young person is always somebody available to give them a hand, to give them the push when needed. it is important that these young people do have a mentor somebody who is really stand next to them, not above or under them.
A mentor is more than just a friend a mentor is also a big shoulder, somebody to be to rely on a somebody who helps in daily life The mentor that doesn't have to be available 24 hours a day but should be aware that he has to be a bit more more flexible For some people being a mentor is as a personal choice a and some organization it's a job depends how you look at I can really only say be aware that when you decide to do with you cannot do it alone to be in a team everybody from the organization has to be behind it everybody has to supported it and I think that this will be something which you have to prepare for the well in advance everything starts the with preparation and being aware that's not a regular EVS it is really really a different way but with a very good impact.
A couple of a good things with short term EVS is that a when you apply you can apply longer in advance and you can be more flexible because if you really say oh we have the volunteers then you have to apply, then you have to wait for approval, then you have to wait for the preparation, then there is the starting date it can take six months and believe me these young people with fewer opportunities they are not always motivated that long so when they're motivated you to catch them and have to be able to send them, I can't say as soon as possible but within a normal framework you have to put them on the plane this means that your partner organization has to be ready to be flexible also means that you need to be aware that the preparation of these young people should be really scheduled and structured individual.
What do we do especially in preparation? We inform the context, we work with the context we go together to the parents because they need to support it. We try to do several things together with the young person for example he doesn't have an identity card or a passport we go together. What else do we do give of course a training but everything is on an individual base as much as possible we work on self-confidence, sometimes we even have to go to back together so that the young person definitely has everything with him what he needs otherwise they end up with two two pairs of underwear for a whole week for example or other problems or they have their summer clothes going to cold country so it is, they really need to be held by hand but at the same time you need to give them the possibility to discover themselves. It is empowering all the time and important very important but often is forgotten what is the same as regular EVS needs to be follow-up you need to validate what's going on with them so and mostly when you can do it is with this together again with this context you have been working in, with the parents, the organizations and so on because alone to do a follow-up alone with these young people needs to be enforced everyday again and be very clear in your goal that's where you want to go to.
Otherwise what I would say just go for it just do it don't be scared of its really it's just very very it's more easy than you would think. Start with the network start with finding organizations who want to work with you be sure you can trust them and if it's a failure well you should learn out of it and and do it again and make clear to the young person that the failure, everybody is allowed to have a failure but you should stand up and go again. Once you get the tricks you go and you'll see it's really worth doing it.
Go for Short term European Voluntary Service - Erasmus+
Reviewed by sdfdr
on
March 23, 2018
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Reviewed by sdfdr
on
March 23, 2018
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