Projectes relacionats amb l’educació, la permacultura i la vida en comunitat cerquen voluntàries que realitzin el seu voluntariat europeu durant gairebé un any!

Center of Unity Schweibenalp, Brienz, Switzerland
1 volunteers for 12 months starting in August

In the midst of the Bernese Oberland Alps, on a plateau at 1100m above sea level with view on the turquoise Lake Brienz, lies the Center of Unity Schweibenalp. As a living and working community we manage the seminar business and the alpine permaculture gardens (4 ha). As a part of the Global Ecovillages Network (GEN), we consider ourselves as one of the emerging models for a holistic cultural transformation. At the Center of Unity Schweibenalp we contribute since more than 30 years to the development of an integral life culture and universal spirituality.

We are offering you the opportunity to be with us and to experience community living, community building, conscious living with each other and nature, as well as running a seminar business together. We want to encourage personal and spiritual development. We are living and working together on Schweibenalp and we share the place with our many guests of the seminars and other volunteers. You will be working in the various possible areas: permaculture garden (herbery, vegetable, nursery, seed garden); housework, kitchen, maintenance, and you will also be encouraged to have your own project. While working in the various areas, we welcome clarity and openness with other people, a good ability to communicate, flexibility and please don’t forget to pack your humour, independence and self-responsibility. You are welcome to join different working groups according to your talents, and you will be taking part at the different events of the community.

Accommodation: Shared rooms (!) with shared bathrooms. The EVS volunteers live together with other volunteers (short & long term) in multiple shared rooms on the upper floor of the main building. There are common rooms that can be used by all volunteers as well (e.g. small living room, library, meditation room, etc.). The volunteers will cook and eat together with the community and seminar guests (vegetarian, vegan and partly ayurvedic kitchen).

Requirements: Participants are motivated to live and work in a remotely located ecological, spiritual and open community of all ages and cultures. You don’t mind living in a shared bedroom and you agree and want to live in accordance with our common grounds (http://www.schweibenalp.ch/en/vision-2 ).

Ecole d’Humanité, Switzerland
1 volunteer for 11 months starting in August
The Ecole d’Humanité is a progressive, international boarding school in the heart of the Swiss Alps (in the winter ski area Meringen-Hasliberg) that fosters the discovery and development of individual talents in an atmosphere that encourages self-determination, innovation, and tolerance. 120 Students and 50 teachers from over 20 different countries live together in a dynamic community overflowing with academic, artistic, practical, athletic, and social opportunities. Whether admiring the beauty of a poem, projectile motion in a calculus-based physics class, performing an original piece of guerilla theatre or summiting a 4000 meter peak, Ecole students are challenged to actively discover and pursue their passions, and share them with others.

As an EVS volunteer you’ll have the position as “Artist in Residence”. Therefore you get the chance to work as an artist at the Ecole d’Humanité and be at the same time a part of the Ecole-community and take part in the community life within the so called “Ecole Families” (consisting of 2-3 teachers and 4-10 students, who live and interact with each other under one roof).

The Ecole offers you a great infrastructure to use. By mutual agreement your work could be in the following areas:
–          work as artist (metal & wood studios, stage and practicing studios , graphics studio)
–          work pedagogically: giving afternoon classes in a certain topic depending on your talents or work in so called “intense weeks” together with small groups of students
–          networking: among the network of former students of the Ecole, there is a great amount of artists, working in different areas, who are often willing to cooperate for projects
–          communications: work in the public relation activities of the Ecole
–          manual work (garden work, caring for the pets, housework)
–          intercultural dimension: The daily interaction with community members  from over 20 countries helps to learn more about interculturality, in which we offer also professional trainings

 Accommodation: Rooms are doubles and are simply and purposefully outfitted. Living together closely can mean both welcome support and unexpected challenges. Sometimes lifelong friendships are formed, sometimes only bonds of convenience. In the small unit of the room social learning plays an important role. When conflicts arise, the teachers (who supervise the Ecole Families) are there to help resolve them.

Requirements: Participants are motivated to live and work in a rather remotely located place within an existing community consisting of teachers, international students and other volunteers. You shouldn’t mind living in a shared bedroom and you are willing to integrate within the structures of the community

LÄBENSCHUEL / SCHOOL OF LIFE, STECKBORN, SWITZERLAND
2 volunteers for 12 months starting in August

The Läbesschuel / School of life is a project within the community of Schloss Glarisegg, which hosts already two EVS since 2012 within their permaculture gardening. Läbesschuel started in August 2016 with 15 children, in 2019 we had 37 children registered. There is a Waldkindergarten for children from 4 up to 5 years old and then there is 1st to 9th class (from 6 until 16 years old). You will be able to participate in all the different classes if you wish. As you prefer, you can also choose to work more with small children or to work more profoundly with our teenagers.

Main activity within the EVS is to support accompanying the children in their learning journey. All the activities take place at Schloss Glarisegg community. We have different places within the community, we sometimes work outside (forest, beach, neighbour farm or garden), sometimes in the ‘Montessori’ room, other times in the main school building where we have a kitchen, a workshop, a library, a technic room and a main room. The smallest children are mostly spending their time in the forest. One day a week, the children go to Mammern (neighbouring village) by bicycle to do sports in the gym of the local school.

As a volunteer in this project you will meet, cook together and even live in the same flat as the other 2 volunteers from Schloss Glarisegg. You will attend the same weekly community circle and have the possibility to have a closer look at the other’s project.

As we use alternative methods of teaching, you will learn a lot about non formal education, for example also working with emotions and the body. The team of the school will help you to discover your competencies and strengths. You will be given opportunities to choose and/or propose activities that you would like to do with the children.

You will also be able to learn more about technical tools from different pedagogies (inspired by Montessori, Freinet, Waldorf, André Stern, Gerald Hüther). Within this frame, you will learn a lot about yourself and others in the frame of education but also in the field of teamwork, relationships and social and emotional topics. During the time when the children are not in school, you’ll be able to work on your own project, developing your own personal tools. The team will be present to help you to find out about the goals and means of your project. It could be a particular subject that you would like to deepen. Then you and the team will find out how, when, how long, which content, and so on it contains.

The idea of welcoming EVS in our project comes from the wish to open the project to different cultures for the children and the team to get them to know people from all over Europe. As we work with non-formal education and self-reflection we think the Läbesschuel is perfect match to the EVS program.