About VJF

The VJF (Association of young volunteers) was founded in March 1990 and is an officially recognised non-profit association with the aim to expand the idea of international voluntary movements. The association organises international youth meetings with short term projects (workcamps, MTV, youth exchanges), long term projects (European Voluntary Service, weltwärts – volunteering in a developing country) and takes part in the Ecological Voluntary Year for German volunteers in environmental institutions. Furthermore, the VJF owns a project and meeting place in the outskirts of Berlin that can be hired for different seminars, international meetings and private events.

About M24

M24 is a youth club, located in Berlin- Pankow. The main principle is the participation and self-organisation of the youth club by young people for young people. The M24 is working with all young people (aged between 14 and 27) despite their ethical, religious, social or political background. The main task is to offer a variety of leisure time activities mainly in cultural, musical and creative areas, but also extracurricular political education and projects/workshops in the field of vocational orientation. There are live concerts of (school) bands as well as a cinema, readings and different other events. Most of them are organised by young people. Rehearsal rooms for bands, film studios, workshops, table tennis, coffee shops and football tables are available. In the field of environmental education, M24 also offers different activities since they try to make visitors more familiar with nature in an artistic way.

At the moment 4 employees with pedagogical tasks and one volunteer work for M24, in addition to a number of temporary employees and other volunteers who work irregulary on special tasks. Since 2009 young German people can do their voluntary ecological year at the M24 youth club. Every day about 50 people visit the establishment.

Motivation and experience in EVS

M24’s projects are in the cultural, intercultural and international field, but they also offer vocational orientation. Within this context, European volunteers can act as a mediator between different lifestyles, cultures and value systems in order to promote mutual understanding and communication among people of different national and cultural backgrounds. Hosting volunteers in the framework of EVS always broadens one´s horizon within the local project work through the inclusion of different points of view. M24 hosted European volunteers for several years now and considers it as a major gain for the local projects, the employees and especially for the youngsters they are working with.

About the project

The volunteer will be involved in all activities as a full member of the team of M24. The general tasks are updating the website and the social media networks, administration, organization of  projects and events, public relations, working in the student cafe, as well as the organisation and implementation of the weekly movie theaters. In addition, the volunteer will also have enough time and support to organize an own project based on his/her personal interests. Previous project parts were for example organizing concerts, movie nights, screen printing workshops, journalism courses for school newspapers, photo and video courses and intercultural evenings for local young people.

Summary of the EVS hosting project:

Duration: The service starts in the beginning of September 2016 and will last 12 months until August 2017.

Working hours:  M24 is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 2pm to 9pm. The working hours of the volunteer mostly will be situated in this time during the week and won’t exceed a maximum of 30 hours a week. In the peak season it will be necessary to work off-time, but a compensation will be offered. Two days a week are free.

During school vacation the working hours can be shifted to the morning. Trips might be located outside of Berlin, so the working hours will be extended. The volunteer will get an appropriate number of days off after those trips.

Two days each month will be allowed as vacation.

Location: Berlin

Local Transport: The volunteer will receive a monthly ticket for public transportation in Berlin. Furthermore, he/she will be provided a bicycle if necesary.

Number of volunteers: 1

Accommodation & Food: The volunteer will live in a flat, located separately above M24 in Pankow together with 3-4 other EVS volunteers. This flat includes 4 single rooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Money for food will be provided on a monthly basis.

Pocket money: will be provided on a monthly basis. It is 110 Euro per month.

Mentors: The volunteer will have 1 mentor in the VJF office (Sebastián) and 1 from M24 (Sabine).

Volunteer profile:
Good knowledge of German (B2)
Good skills in written and spoken English
Good computer skills
Teamwork spirit and the ability to work independently

M24 welcomes motivated, flexible, friendly, curious and self-confident volunteers with good communication skills and a sense of humor. Gender, nationality, religion and political and sexual orientation are not considered in the selection process, the voluteers are chosen regarding their abilitys, experiences, interests and motivation. Finally he/she should be willing to work a lot with young people and preferably have an interest in music and environmental education.

Apply before the 8th of January 2016 at longterm@sci-cat.org by sending your cv and motivation letter