Tallinn Children's House

EI pending

Tallinn Children's House began its activity on 1 January 2001. Tallinn Children’s House in Estonia’s largest children’s house, offering various services to about 500 children in the course of a year. As of the end of 2006 there were 12 different units/centres that include Kopli Shelter House and Shelter for Mothers and Children.
We are looking for 2 volunteers, one of them to Kopli Shelter House and another to Shelter for Mothers and Children.

Kopli Shelter House
Local community:
Kopli Centre and Kopli Shelter House is a unit of Tallinn's Children's House in Harju County. Since 2002 Kopli Shelter House has been existing as a centre for children at risk. In this institution 9 specialists work in 24 h shifts. At Kopli Shelter House there are 14 places for children at risk who have no support from their parents. Normally there are children in age 5 to 17.

The main objective of the institution is to provide psychological and practical support and generally take care of children. It involves different tasks from assisting children in doing school and homeworks, teaching children practical skills they need in everyday life and to arrange free time activities. For the latter it is possible to use big hall with piano, library and table games. For organising any outdoor activities it is important to keep in mind that that children are allowed to go out only under the supervision of an adult.
Tallinn's Children's House Kopli Centre is located in the same house as Kopli Shelter House. Children of Kopli Centre attend secondary school in the town during day time. At present Tallinn's Children's House Kopli Centre caters for 40 children, aged 4 to 18. It uses a model of family style living, where children live together in the family groups under supervision and with assistance of experienced staff. Children's House Kopli Centre takes care of these children by supporting their daily needs, providing medical, psychological care, ensuring their physical and intellectual development, giving them useful skills, creating the conditions for their studies at local secondary school, thus preparing them for independent life in future when they become adults. Ideally, living in Kopli Centre should fully substitute living in the normal family for the children.
The volunteer will be based in Tallinn, Estonia's capital, which is located in the north of the country and has a population of about 400 000 inhabitants. It is one of the most developed areas in Estonia with a lot of enterprises, businesses, organizations, etc. Governmental institutions and representatives of international organizations are situated here as well.
For detailed information please visit www.tallinn.ee

Objectives:
The main objective of the EVS project is to provide additional and innovative support for children in the Shelter House and prepare them for the independent life in future. It is at the same time to give valuable field experience of the social and youth work to the EVS volunteer accepted to the project.
At the Kopli Shelter House there are 14 places for children at risk who have no support from their parents. All children of Children's House and the shelter as well attend secondary school in the town during day time.
Children's House aims to ensure stress-free, family life experience, necessary medical care, physical and intellectual development, supporting their studies at schools, preparing children for independent life in future. It is also to make their childhood brighter, interesting and meaningful. Among staff there is not a physical training leader, teacher of music, teacher of handicrafts, speech therapist, and medical nurse - the children take part in work of different activities outside the children home like the home children do. Local personnel runs leisure time activities, games, hikes, excursions, culture visits, etc. At present Tallinn's Children's House Kopli Centre caters for 40 children aged 4 to 18, who live together in the family groups under supervision and with assistance of experienced staff.

Tasks:
Participation of motivated EVS volunteer in this project is seen as an exciting innovative element refreshing the daily routine and bringing additional educational value to the pedagogical process. The main idea is to provide assistance and support local personnel in daily work, particularly in running various educational and free time activities for the children. It is also to provide some experience and practice of foreign languages and intercultural learning both for children and local personnel.
After on-arrival orientation meeting aimed at the integration of the volunteer to local realities and explanation of aims and activities of the host project, the EVS volunteer will be carrying out the following tasks:
" looking after the children and helping staff in teaching them different useful skills (20%);
" running additional educational activities in the house using its own facilities (20%);
" teaching children foreign languages through joined games, songs, sport, any other activities indoor and outdoor, which the EVS volunteer will be running (20%);
" presenting his/ her home country and its culture as a part of intercultural learning (10%);
" arranging children's outings, e.g. culture visits, excursions, hikes, picnics, etc. (10%)
" playing with children, especially those of Shelter House (10%);
" assisting local staff with all other required activities in Children's House and Shelter (10%).

Another task of the volunteer can be to establish contacts with similar institutions in his/ her home country in order to have mutually beneficial co-operation/ exchanges between institutions in future.
Volunteer will be encouraged to propose his/her personal projects/ initiatives related to the theme of this EVS project which can be supported by the host and coordinating organisation.
Volunteer can take part in local as well as in international training activities related to his/her service. According to volunteer's skills and project's needs priority tasks and detailed working schedule (including holidays, breaks, etc.) will be worked our together with the head of project and office staff.
The working hours will be around 7 hours a day from 15:00, when children are back from the school till the evening. The total working time will be around 35 hours a week. The volunteer will have 2 days off per week either during the week or at weekend.
Volunteers will be working under supervision and with support of local pedagogical staff.
Typical week day in Shelter House looks like follows:
06:45 - children wake up
07:15 - breakfast
07:30 - children go to school
15:00 - children return from the school - time for games, sport, etc.
17:00 - classes, homework, preparation for the next day at school
18:30 - dinner
19:30 - different activities or free time
22:00 - children go to bed


The Shelter for Mothers and Children
Local community:
The Shelter for Mothers and Children began its activity on 1 July 2003. The Shelter provides assistance and protection for mothers with their children whose permanent residence is in Tallinn and whose life or health is at risk in their place of residence. The Shelter can offer temporary shelter for people from outside of Tallinn as well, with approval from the municipal government of the person’s place of residence.
Since the service was first provided, assistance has been sought on 72 occasions by 62 different persons. The average time spent in the shelter was 3.5 months, and the longest period was 11 months. Reasons for seeking assistance is mainly due to problems with housing, family relations and domestic violence. The main objective for the Shelter is to protect mothers and children but also to help mothers to get back their faith and independency.

The Shelter of Mother and Children hopes to find an energetic young volunteer who would wish to help these mothers and their children. The volunteer will be a good example to the mothers living in their problem-situation, helping them to get back optimism and self confidence; she/he could be a bridge between mother and her child motivating them to spend more valuable time together to appreciate their mother-child relationship. Volunteer is expected to organise activities for them to spend more time together (playing, organising events, visiting places outside the shelter etc).

The most important objective of the EVS project in Shelter for Mothers and Children is to restore a good and healthy relationship between a mother and her child or children who have arrived to the Shelter to seek support. The Shelter works as a safe place for the families and also gives them interest concerning the world outside the Shelter.

Tasks:
• running different workshops for the mothers and children in the Shelter (e.g. drawing, handicraft, singing, sewing) 25%;
• helping to organise and search different possibilities to expose the works or the achievements made by the mothers and their children in the Shelter (e.g. exhibitions) 10%;
• introducing her/his culture and running cultural evenings as a part of intercultural learning 10%;
• organising events in the Shelter: (e.g. film watching/reading books/teaching his/her mother tongue/cooking with the mothers and their children etc) 20%;
• helping to organise Estonian National holidays and birthdays of mothers and their children’s 15%;
• organising outdoor activities (using recourses of beautiful nature of Nõmme - a perfect place for skiing in winter, picnics or cycling in summer) 20%.

Volunteer will be encouraged to propose his/her personal projects/ initiatives related to the theme of this EVS project which can be supported by the host and coordinating organisation.
Volunteer can take part in local as well as in international training activities related to his/her service. According to volunteer’s skills and project’s needs priority tasks and detailed working schedule (including holidays, breaks, etc.) will be worked our together with the head of project and office staff.
The working hours will be around 7 hours a day from 15:00, when children are back from the school till the evening. The total working time will be around 35 hours a week. The volunteer will have 2 days off per week either during the week or at weekend.
Volunteers will be working under supervision and with support of local pedagogical staff.


Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:
The first priority is that the volunteer is motivated and interested in meeting and working with young people with difficult background. Previous experience of any kind of work with young people is prefered but not necessary. The volunteer should be active, energetic, creative, taking initiatives, adaptable, open-minded, sociable, positive, responsible and reliable.

Risk prevention, protection and safety:
The host organisation will ensure:
1) that the volunteer work is safe and been assessed for risk
2) that every effort is made that project meets high health and safety standards
3) that the volunteer is trained and familiar with the volunteering work and have access to adequate safety equipment if needed
4) that the volunteer will get all the practical and psychological support from the staff