DZMP has
copious experience with the YOUTH in Action program.
By the end of the year 2014 we hosted 15 international
youth exchanges, took part in 6 exchanges abroad,
carried
out 5 projects of youth initiatives. Since September
2003 we have carried out 33 EVS hosting projects
and 2 projects sending EVS volunteers abroad. We
believe all of these projects were rather successful
and several were even presented in some publications
as examples of good practice and nominated for
some European rewards.
According
to our previous experience the presence of EVS volunteers
makes a real difference in
the group of young people, who are making the
Youth
TV magazine. The EVS volunteers are from different
cultural
surroundings therefore they bring different views
of (to us) everyday things, new problems and
questions are being addressed to and the dynamics
of the
group changes. All of them gain experience of
working in
international environment. The young acquire
and develop capability of recognizing and consider
tiny differences, which is very important.
We are certain EVS volunteers contribute
to variety of group work. All of the participants
have the
possibility to meet new people and new cultures,
which enlarges
the tolerance and prevents the prejudice.
Description of the organisation
DZMP (Society of allies for soft landing)
was founded in 1995 by a group of young people, who
were tired of the apathy of cultural events for youngsters
and general insensitivity for distress of other people.
In the last period
we have been giving special attention to projects
in
the field of media education,
film, video and multimedia. We are performing different
activities on local, national, and international
level with the aim to stimulate active participation
of young people through different forms of media.
One of our main activities is our
regular Youth TV Magazine, in which youngsters shoot
and publish their
own different documentaries and TV reportages.
These feature different youth projects, cultural
events,
some young artists and activists. In this way we
want to inform other youngsters and the wider population,
because themes like these are mostly ignored in
“mainstream” media. That's why it is very important
that articles,
beside public projections in youth clubs and centres,
are shown on local TV stations. We support young
authors to use different approaches, which differs
us from “mainstream” television.
All through the year
we organise different courses for youngsters to work
in media.
These are different
weekend workshops and summer camps. Every year
we organise a film festival, with the purpose
of promoting
films of young authors. We encourage the development
of activities of this kind with the projections
of films by young authors and performing workshops
in
a network of youth centres and clubs all over
Slovenia. We also participate in projects with different
organisations from abroad.
In Krško
we set up a video studio. Every day we open the
doors for young creators from different
parts of Slovenia (and abroad). We are pioneers
in
this field of work in Slovenia, through which
we assured
ourselves recognition and reputation in the past.
At the moment DZMP has three employees
and more than 20 volunteers who, throughout the
year,
actively participate in our projects. More
information on
our web page.
Project environment: profile of the
organisation and local community
Krško has 12.000 inhabitants. It is
located in southeast Slovenia, close to the Croatian
border. It is 100 km away from Ljubljana and 35 km
from Zagreb. It has very good traffic connections
with both, trains to Ljubljana run almost every hour
throughout the day. Geographically Krško is in the
Sava river valley, which widens into the Krško plane,
stretching to the Krka river in the south. It has
enabled developement of agriculture and tourism.
The area features some castles, Karstic caves, waterfalls
and forests. We are also "famous" for a nuclear power
plant.
The economic situation in Krško is slowly improving,
after the brake down of some giant factories in
the beginning of precedent decade. One of the
big problems
is still the migration of educated youngsters into
bigger towns.
There
are not so many possibilities for spending free time
for youngsters in Krško, as there are
in Zagreb or Ljubljana. Besides DZMP, there
are some
other organisations, which are active in the
areas of youth work, like music school, different
sport
clubs and youth centre…
However, youngsters are
still deserted and left to their own inventiveness
and
offer of the local bars when it comes to spending
their free. Most of the young people are studying
in Ljubljana or Maribor during the week. There
are also a Secondary technical school and Public
University
in Krško, which sometimes offer some education
on higher levels. Volunteers live in a rented
appartments. There are four single rooms and a
bathroom with a toilet.
Kitchen is fully fitted. Neighbours are
in close proximity, so noise levels after 10
PM
have to be
taken into consideration. House is equipped
with a central
heating.
Volunteers agree between themselves about
cleaning
of the house.
Proposed activities for EVS volunteers
A group of young people is active
in the Youth TV Magazine project. They want to improve
the quality of informing young people and contribute
to development of youth culture by providing different
journalistic reports.
We introduce different youth projects, programs,
cultural events, organisations, individual young
creators, activists to broader public and other young
people and keep them informed. This is how we want
to present different views and opinions of the young
people, especially about the things that matter to
them.
EVS volunteers will participate actively in media
projects with youngsters, who are producing Youth
TV magazine for the local TV. They will also plan
and carry out video production and participate
in different media projects with other young
people.
In the
beginning of the project EVS volunteers will be trained
for the work in media and video
and film
production. They will gain knowledge about equipment
and computer tools, which are used. Their mentor
and other colleagues will offer support and help
with
all their tasks. EVS volunteers are included
in courses and seminars, organised by DZMP throughout
the year.
If these seminars are not in English, DZMP ensures
suitable translation.
Besides
working on Youth TV Magazine, EVS volunteers will
carry out video workshops
with the children and the young, help them
develop different
ideas and introduce them into different media
projects. They will carry out tasks from different
technical
fields of media work, organise and arrange
films from young authors into archives. Volunteers
are fullfilling applications and sending films
made by young authors in Luksuz produkcija to
different film festivals around
the
globe.
We expect that EVS volunteers, in
cooperation with other young people from the area,
create
two TV
reports a month (report, short film, documentary
film…).
These films will be broadcasted regularly
in montly Youth TV Magazine. It is very important,
that opinions,
ideas and views between the EVS volunteers
and the young, who are also participating,
are exchanged
in this process. Whether they make short
films
together
or the young from the local environment are
the theme – report about local theatre group,
individual
young
athlete, band and so on… This is the way
for EVS volunteers to actively cooperate with
the
young
and they all interact with each other, which
has positive
consequences for all involved. This mutual
cooperation also ensures quicker integration
of EVS volunteers,
in process of which a volunteer obtains adequate
support from the mentor, other members of
production group and the Society.
Local public environment is also influenced
by the reports we broadcast. When watching
television
and
public projections, the viewers find out
about EVS volunteers’ projects, their views and
opinions.
In
this way they, along with other young people,
actively participate in the society. These
reports introduce
themes, which are often overlooked by the
mainstream media or are in the media shadow respectively.
EVS volunteers in DZMP are encouraged to
reveal
their
critical views about society and supported
in their ways of expressing in public.
With these
TV reports we try to propagate the European values
like respecting cultural
differences,
honouring
the diversity, intercultural dialogue,
fighting xenophobia and racism, ensuring equal
opportunities
for all
and similar. We inform the young about
their possibilities in united Europe, about opportunities,
offered
by different European programs and projects
and about
the development of European citizenship.
This is a multidisciplinary project,
based on learning by doing and active participation
of
the EVS volunteers
in group work. By debating with others
and working on different projects, the
EVS volunteers
will
develop positive relations towards active
participation and
a sense for responsible citizenship.
Participating
in variety of activities they will also
improve and perfect some of the key skills,
which
are a foundation
for our further work and learning.
Progress
and cooperation with other DZMP youth projects are
wished – for and
welcome. Therefore
EVS volunteers
will take part in projects like: different
workshops, concerts, performances,
film festival, setting
up web pages, summer camps…
Volunteers will actively participate
in different groups, which will work
on various
tasks
in several projects. Their role will
also depend
on their
own interests. They will cooperate
with different partners
in other projects.
Volunteers
have a lot of leisure time and opportunities to make
their own
media project.
Along with
highly skilled co-workers they can
always use shooting
and editing equipment and
studio.
We expect
that EVS volunteers are active in DZMP projects
35 hours a week,
5 to
8 hours a day (depending on the
project). We usually
have
a meeting with all co-workers every
Tuesday.
Schedules can
be adjusted,
depending
on the
time available
by all the participants and
are coordinated accordingly. The
working schedule
also depends
on the projects
themselves (for example filming
certain show, concert or performance).
Work of EVS volunteers
is approximately composed of:
30% of the work will be done
on projects for preparation
of Youth
TV Magazine
(planning, preparation,
research, being mentor to younger co-workers,
shooting, editing…)
- 30% on independent media
projects (we welcome documentary
work
reflecting the environment
in Krško and around,
specially life
of young people,
we are very
open for ideas and volunteers’ iniciatives)
20% in multimedia studio (help the others with the
computer, making web pages, editing…)
Involving in other DZMP projects like teaching foreign
language, youth work…
Participation in activities can also be different.
It mostly depends on the volunteer, their knowledge
and
wishes. Above
all the participation
in some
individual projects
can be higher if he/she shows will and interest.
Throughout
the year there are 50 – 100 young people involved
in creating Youth TV Magazine. Volunteers’
mentors are liable for their integration in local
environment, but we do try to introduce and bond
the volunteers
with local young people,
especially
those
with similar interests, as they can all then do something
together in
their leisure. We realize that EVS volunteers have
tougher time in smaller towns,
because there
is no big and diverse offer of leisure activities
for the young, we believe integration in local
environment
is therefore
even
more important
than
in bigger cities.
One important area of integration and insight into
culture is the language. We provide the EVS volunteers
with Slovenian
lessons,
which we organise
ourselves, considering there are no such educational
programs in
Krško. In adition the
EVS
volunteers will participate in all obligatory trainings,
which are organised by National agency respectively.
Volunteer profiles and recruitment
process
Our program is available for young
people between 18 and 30 years of age, we strive
after self iniciative people, motivated for carrying
out their individual projects, people who are responsible
and straightforward.
We are prepared to cooperate with all
sending organizations.
We expect a high level of communication skills,
creativity, personal initiative and adaptation
from the volunteer,
but most importantly an open-minded relation to
other people and different cultures. The volunteer
should
have at least basic knowledge of English language.
Main selection
criteria are interest in work with young people,
media, film and video work and
enthusiasm for different everyday life. Previous
knowledge
of video, photography, media or computers is
not essential,
but we do focus on candidates, who are truly
interested in these kinds of proficiency and
skills, because
if they are not, serious problems can be encountered.
Unfortunatelly, if situations like these would
happen, we can not offer many alternatives to
the EVS volunteers
in regular activities of DZMP. We daily come
across these spheres of work in majority of our
activities.
We choose EVS volunteers according to their application
forms, which include motivation cover letter
and a CV. We also ask them additional questions
and
carry out the interviews. Final selection is
made by close
team of DZMP workers. We mainly take into consideration
the criteria, described in the first paragraph.
Risk prevention, safety and protection
In this project we foresee the participation
of adults, older than 18 years. However, we will
focus on some measures for preventing dangerous situations,
emphasizing health and safety at work. EVS volunteers
do not come into close contact with dangerous goods
and objects, nevertheless we will acquaint them with
basic dangers in working with electrical devices
and specifical safety measures concerning sensitive
electronical devices – this is also to prevent damaging
this equipment.
Krško is a relatively safe town; however basic
safety measures concerning personal safety and
safety of
the property are always welcome.
EVS volunteers meet and work with minors, therefore
basic legal requirements and regulations are
explained to them. Regarding work in the media,
minors will
need to acquire parents’ consent for being filmed.
When coming to Krško, EVS volunteers receive
Slovenian SIM card with some important telephone
numbers
and colleagues’ contact numbers. They can use
these contact
details in different situations.
We will
try to monitor the situation, work climate and mutual
relations between the EVS volunteers
and the other colleagues to prevent crises
and major
conflicts. We will achieve this with meetings
of working groups, individual interviews and
conversations
with volunteers and intermediate evaluations.
We will try to get as much feed back as possible
from
the volunteers themselves. Taking their wishes
and needs into consideration we will do our
best to adapt
according to our capabilities. But above all
we will try to communicate openly and straightforwardly
about
any possible problems, trying to prevent them
from
happening.
EVS volunteer
has a mentor, who is liable for their personal support
and integration into
local environment.
Beside them there are many young people with
different experience, who take part in supporting
EVS volunteers
– being spontaneously or intentionally. We
do realize some people bond easily with certain
individuals
and with the others they just do not. That
is
why we try to make their volunteer life easier
with
organising their work with people they get
along with.
