Foyer Aubépine

Looking for one volunteer

Trip type

ESC Volunteering

City + Country

Havelange, Belgium

Dates of the next project

1 September 2022 – 31 August 2023

Deadline to apply

21 June 2022 (23:59)

Hosting organization : Foyer Aubépine

The non-profit organization “Foyer Aubépine” was created in 1965 and is located in the village of Havelange, a rural area not far from the big city of Liège and close to the towns of Ciney and Marche-en-Famenne.

The association holds the official title of S.R.G (= “Service Résidentiel Général”) given by the French Community government. In this frame, the main aims of Aubépine are: social help, education, host, support of youngsters with difficult socio-economical and familial backgrounds. The action supposes a close collaboration between the youngsters’ relatives, the youngsters themselves and the workers of the SRG and a relationship based on trust in order to empower the public in the long term. Thanks to the activities of the Aubépine, youngsters and their relatives can experience constructive experiences in order to grow towards a more stable future. The workers’ main objective is to support the youngsters in everyday life in order to help them find the educational, professional and personal path that suits them best. SRG of Aubépine works in partnerships only if mandated by SPJ (“Service de Protection de la Jeunesse), SAJ (Service d’Aide à la Jeunesse) and Youth Court (“Tribunal de la Jeunesse”). Their social aim is to offer a specialized support to youngsters depending on the official youth help services in the frame of the “Code de l’Aide à la Jeunesse de 2019”. The association can perform other actions having direct or indirect links with this aim.

The team is made of more than 15 workers in total: 7 social educators; a coordinator, a social and family worker, a project assistant, a cook, a housekeeper, a multi-skilled worker, a clerk (in charge of secretary and accountancy tasks) and a director. There are also more than 30 other people present as volunteers to help make little excursions for the children, kitchen tasks, assist with school exercises.. etc.

Aubépine’s workers show many abilities to support youngsters. They are used to dealing with very different profiles and needs. This experience is a great asset when welcoming and accompanying a young volunteer in the learning process. The volunteers are supervised by the director and the chief educator. The volunteers will be supervised by the director and the chief educator. In the association, even the workers with more technical tasks, work and support on a daily basis the residents of the SRG. They all form a cohesive team and are all well aware of the social challenges at stake. Therefore, the volunteers can count on the support of each of them. Aubépine has successfully hosted its first two ESC volunteers next year and the team has noticed that the presence of foreign volunteers did much good to the kids.

Aubépine’s team daily supports about 15 youngsters encountering all sorts of difficulties, in dangerous situations (health or security), lacking educational support due to their familial environment or to their behaviour. The organization hosts minors from 3 up to 18 years benefitting from a right of protection and deal with their relatives. The public comes from three different regions (maximum of 40 kilometres from Havelange). Their action covers 50 municipalities but of course with a special focus on the municipality of Havelange.

Website of Foyer Aubépine: http://foyer-aubepine.be/

Activities implemented in Foyer Aubépine:

Accommodate and host the youngsters: providing them with food, care, residential activities, regular support and projects during the time they would benefit from a time outside of their daily routine and usual environment;
Welcome the youngsters’ relatives: working and discussion groups to help them overcoming the challenges, reinforcing the family bonds;
Help the youngsters finding a project being beneficial for them, their relatives and the association.

Foyer Aubépine is part of a non-formal network of local associations called “Droûve tèsoûyes”(aka “DTO”). This network is described as a “short circuit network of solidarity for socio-cultural profit”. The member organizations have to be active in the municipality of Havelange and be “associations of natural persons”. They all share a number of common values and a charter. Four times a year, the member organizations meet in order to increase the mutual resources, share, develop new common projects and galvanize the social work in general. The gatherings often lead to workgroups and then to concrete local actions involving the member organizations. For that matter, a brand new yurt has been built in Foyer Aubépine’s garden where the organization “AMO LE CERCLE” welcomes youngsters for activities linked to school dropouts.

The volunteers are going to be invited to take part in activities organized by some of partner organizations, such as Vis-à-vis ASBL.

Currently, they are hosting 2 ESC volunteers and this position will be to replace one volunteer leaving in August. The other one will be leaving in December.

For intern structural reasons, the ESC volunteers will not be on activity at the same time, they will therefore have two different “shifts” but based on the same type of activities.

CBB hosts in total 21 international volunteers around Wallonia. The ESC team of CBB try his best to connect this network of volunteers together trought different collective activities, seminar …

Support organization : CBB

In addition to this, the hosting organization is supported by the Association des Compagnons Bâtisseurs, aka CBB located in Marche-en-Famenne. CBB is a non-profit, non-political youth organisation recognized and financially supported by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. The organisation proposes different kinds of activities, based on volunteering and non-formal education: local and international workcamps, medium and long term voluntary services (including ESC), and leisure time activities for and with disabled people, campleaders trainings…CBB is active within the different European Programmes of volunteering and non-formal education since 1997 and also hosts ESC volunteers each year.

CBB’s role as a support organization is to:

Promote the project and link between local and the international networks;
Support in the selection and preparation of European volunteers before arrival;
Manage of administrative matters: budget allowances; support in the creation of the bank account and enrollment at the municipality; enrollment in insurance (if not done by sending organization); preparation of activity agreement;
Provide pedagogical support for the volunteer and the hosting organization: ensures the participation to the NA seminars; organization of auto-evaluation meetings for the volunteer and the hosting organization to reflect on learning outcomes;
Handle practical arrangements: information about health insurance system in Belgium; indications about French lesson possibilities; online language tool…
Create networking between all ESC volunteers of the hosting organizations we support.

Activity 1 : Support to the team of Aubépine and local activities

This activity involves work with kids and teenagers from 3 to 18 years. Aubépine is a children’s home, therefore, there are tasks to perform daily from 9 am to 10 pm. The daily tasks in that the ESC volunteers can be involved are mainly everyday life routine activities you could expect to do be doing with young children and teenagers

Support to the technical team: maintenance of the house; preparation of meals; cleaning of living spaces ;…
Support to the social educators:
– Spend time with kids and teenagers during meals and snacks;
– Welcome kids and teenagers after school days;
– Help them with homework;
– Prepare funny activities and games for leisure time;
– Help for preparation for bedtime;
– Participation in outside activities.
Participation in gravitating projects towards Aubépine’s daily activities, in tune with their general aims:
– Maintenance of the vegetable garden (“Pota’zen”) with the kids;
– Maintenance of the chicken coop;
– Help to develop the project of living space in the caravan;
– Help in the maintenance of the Yurt;
– Implement a personal activity in the last stage of the activity.

Collective activities with other ESC volunteers :

The ESC activities within Foyer Aubépine, together with another ESC activity organized in the town of Ciney, participate in the aims of increasing European awareness among the local community and surroundings, as well as enhancing closer networking between the local non-profit services. For this reason, some activities might be run with other ESC volunteers involved in other local organizations. The volunteers are encouraged to take any initiative that enhances such a kind of collaboration and make their presence visible in the community. Volunteer gatherings and activities will be planned in order for the European Solidarity Corps to gain visibility and encourage cooperation between local associations through cultural events.

Activity 2: Support to local partners

The « Foyer des jeunes » (Youth House) in Havelange aims at promoting the development of a critical, active and responsible citizenship, mainly among young people aged 12 to 26. They implement and encourage sociocultural and creative activities. The volunteer will support the team with the organization of one thematic “welcoming” space for youngsters after school (once a month); will accompany the youngsters during external activities (once a month, often organized on Wednesdays, Friday nights or Saturdays). Besides these regular activities, the volunteer will have the opportunity to help them out during cultural events (WEAD Festival; cabarets;…), summer camps and to join the Youth Councils.
Vis-à-Vis ASBL is a non-profit organization that develops assistance, support, training, professional integration and actions for people with fewer opportunities. The office is located in Namur but they organize group activities for adults with mental disabilities who live in Havelange. The volunteer will support the team to organize thematic workshops with them once a week.
The volunteer can also join meetings or events organized by the local network “DTO”: the volunteer will have the possibility to support projects developed in the village of Havelange by the local network.

Accommodation in Havelange

The “Foyer Aubépine” is located in Havelange, a small village close to the city of Ciney (15 km), not far from Marche-en-Famenne (25 km) and Liège (45 km) in the Belgian province of Namur.

The volunteers are accommodated in Ciney, a town of 16 000 inhabitants in the Belgian province of Namur. The town has its own cultural centre, a library, a youth centre, a swimming pool, a quite wide range of options in sports, arts (there is an academy proposing drawing and painting initiation as well as a music conservatory) and culture. Supermarkets and several shops are available in the town centre. Ciney has a well-connected train station with direct and regular connections to Namur, Brussels or even Luxemburg. Other cities such as Liège are also easily reachable. During the week, the town is full of students from different primary and secondary schools, however, is rather calm during the weekend.

The volunteer receives a bus abonnement to reach the Foyer Aubépine (+-30 minutes by bus) and will have the possibility to use a bike as well. Sometimes, workers organize lifts from and to Ciney.

The country - BELGIUM

Squeezed between the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, Belgium is one of Europe’s tiddlers.
The north is flat, the south dominated by the picturesque Ardennes and the 65km North Sea coastline monopolized by resorts, except for a few patches of windswept dunes. The 4 seasons are well divided, cold and white winter and warm and sunny summer… But be ready to grey sky at least a half part of the year.

But the Belgian population are usually warm. A lot of cultural and free EVENT in the street happen during the year, which brings your journey in this little country fun and resourceful.

This project will be taking part in the south of the country which is french speaking. Be therefore ready to learn and speak french! Especially in this project involving kids.

Specialties : FRIES, BEERS and FESTIVALS
AREA: 30,518 sq km
POPULATION: 11.420.163 million
CAPITAL: Brussels (pop: 1.191.604)
REGIONS: Flanders (North), Wallonia (South), Brussels – Capital
COMMUNITIES: Flemish, French and German speaking communities
LANGUAGE: Dutch (±59%), French (±37%) and German (±1%)
CURRENCY: Euro

Practical arrangements

Working Hours

Working hours will be FLEXIBLE from Monday until Sunday and can also involve occasional participation in evening and weekend events. Once a week, when helping the educators with the late shift, the volunteer will be asked to sleep over at the Foyer. On average, 5 days per week will be worked and days off will compensate for the extra shift hours if necessary to keep an average of 38 hours maximum a week (French lesson included). The volunteer will generally have two consecutive free days per week except for special events and has the right to two days of holiday per month.

Insurance

All participants in cross-border activities have to be covered, throughout the activity period, by the obligatory European Solidarity Corps insurance plan set up by the European Commission. This coverage is only complementary to the mandatory coverage of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which must be obtained prior to departure.

In certain cases, when national rules deprive participants of coverage under EHIC for the duration of the placement, CIGNA will provide full coverage. However, participants must provide proof that obtaining the EHIC in their case was not possible and they should contact their National Agency in order to seek tailored advice, for their specific circumstance.

The participant must read carefully the insurance-related information found online here: https://www.cignahealthbenefits.com/en/plan-members.

Accommodation

The volunteers will have a private room in a fully-equipped shared 3-bedrooms-apartment in Ciney. The transport costs from the house to the location of activities will be foreseen and covered.

Language course

OLS + French lesson: an online language course is provided as part of the project support from the Commission allocated on the basis of a level test to complete before the activity starts. The volunteer is also encouraged to join free French lessons given in the municipality or around.

Food

The volunteer will receive a budget and will take care of the meals by her/himself.

Pocket Money

Participation in the European Solidarity Corps is free of charge for the participant, except for exceptional contribution to travel costs. The volunteer will receive free board and lodging during the whole activity. In addition, she/he will receive a small allowance (pocket money) for personal expenses throughout the duration of the activity, including holidays.

Profile of the volunteer

The age requirement to take part in the ESC programme: 18-30 years old.
Prior to departure, the volunteer should be in contact with a support (sending) organization in order to receive information and preparation. Look up for a support organization in your region via this link: https://europa.eu/youth/volunteering/organisations_en
Our project is open to anybody motivated by volunteering and who wishes to be involved in our local organization and working in the field of education, regardless of their nationality, religion, beliefs, diploma, professional experience.
We expect the volunteer to be very motivated in joining the activity; interested in local initiatives; active citizenship and intercultural openness. The volunteer who likes cooking, doing DIY and gardening will find plenty of opportunities.
As the activities at Aubépine involve most of the time working with kids having a difficult background the volunteer should be a stable point of reference for them and adopt a benevolent attitude. The volunteer should not be afraid of spending time outside and appreciate the contact with nature.
Because young people and people with a mental disability rarely speak English or other languages, the volunteer is advised to be motivated to learn French.
The volunteer has to provide the support and hosting organization with a copy certificate of good conduct related to the work with minors before starting the activity.

How to apply ?

Deadline: 21/06/2022 at 23:59 (Brussels time)

1. To join the European Solidarity Corps programme, create a profile on the European Youth Portal (click on “register” at the bottom)

2. Find our project here and click on “apply”

3. Answer the questionnaire below (you will be asked to attach a CV at the end of the form)

4. If you’re feeling creative, feel free to send us any additional material related to your application to esc@compagnonsbatisseurs.be (optional)

IMPORTANT: You have to apply through both the ESC portal and the form in order for us to take your application into consideration. In the days following the 21st of June at 23:59, we will contact the pre-selected volunteers for a Skype interview.

ESC Foyer L'Aubépine / Apply form and motivation letter

Step 1 of 4 - Personal Data

Personnal data
By filling the information below, you provide us with personal information. You are aware of the fact and agree that the pieces of information will be used in the frame of the call for candidates for the Erasmus+ volunteering project. Your personal data will be used by the persons in charge of the selection of volunteers in the sending and coordinating/hosting organizations. Each part mentioned takes the responsibility of erasing the documents containing your personal data once the selection procedure is over.
Name*
Surname Name
PNR (if you already have it: it’s a super long number you receive when you get registered into the PASS)*
E-mail*
Birthdate*
Phone number*
Current address*
Street Address City ZIP / Postal Code Country
Languages spoken*
Please specify which level you have
Availability period for the project (preference will be given to the volunteers able to join the project for the whole period)*
Have you ever taken part in a volunteering project under ERASMUS+?*
- YES
- NO
If yes, what was it and for how long?*
Sending organization (Name, Accreditation or PIC number, post address, phone number, contact person’s name and email address)*
What are your (long term) travel experiences?*

Here you get more into the AMO Micados project
What are your general motivations to join a volunteering activity under the ESC programme abroad?*
What do you like about this project?*
How do you see your role, as a volunteer, within these activities?*
Which of your qualities could be useful for the work at Foyer Aubépine, Vis-à-Vis ASBL and the Youth House?*
What would be difficult for you in this project?*

How would you interact with kids/teenagers with a difficult familial background and people with light mental disabilities?*
What would you like to implement as personal project during the activity?*
What kind of support would you need during your project?*
How would you keep yourself busy/entertained in a semi-rural environment?*
Regarding recent events with the COVID-19 crisis, how do you see yourself adapting to possible measures that may come in the future (regarding social contact, work & traveling) considering you will be living in a foreign country?*
How do you feel about collective international life?*

And now, write down in (1500-3000 caracter) +- 20 lines, your motivation letter*
Please add your CV*
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